Queer ADHD: A Photo Series by Neuroqueer Artist Nora Nord

“ADHD shows up a lot in the way that I work. If I care about something. . . it doesn't necessarily mean that I find it easy to focus on it, but when I do, it's intense, it's mad, it's like everything all at once and I have the capacity to work for, like, three days straight.” —Campbell

There is a clear gender bias in recognizing ADHD, and those of us who don’t fit the stereotype of a young cis boy bouncing off the walls often slip under the radar.

This project centers LGBTQ+ artists with ADHD: people like me whose experiences I couldn’t readily find about anywhere else when I started making this work in 2021. I photographed everyone in their rooms and interviewed them about their experiences. This project was a way for me to meet like-minded people who are also struggling – and thriving – with their neurodivergent brains, and to create a space where we could connect and learn from each other.

I realized I had ADHD during my senior year in college. I was procrastinating studying by watching a documentary about college students using Adderall. As I was listening to the students talk, I was thinking, ‘I’ll be damned if these aren’t all the things I’ve struggled with, the things that have made me consider myself a failure.’

In school, I found it very difficult to get things in on time; I was always pulling all-nighters. When I went to the dean of my university to tell her I thought I had ADHD and needed help sorting it all out, she looked at my transcript and saw that every single assignment I’d done in college had been late. I’d managed somehow to charm my professors into giving me 24 more hours every time.

After that, the university set me up with an OT to help me schedule my time, and improve other executive functioning skills. I was like, “Are you kidding me? I could have had this the whole time?” It was the last three months of my college career.

[Read: The College Survival Guide for Students with ADHD]

“I remember getting the diagnosis; I was about 8 or 7. I felt like I had this problem part of me, and it took a long time to realize it’s not a problem. I’m just different and that’s okay. I don’t need to conform to every rule or situation or environment.” —Monique

Learning I had ADHD was such a huge epiphany, and a paradigm shift. It made me question beliefs I’d always had about myself. I saw how much I’d been suffering from trying to fit into a neurotypical mold. I’d burnt myself out so badly.

It also made me really question what my life was going to look like. At the time, I was studying history and economics, and taking classes on photo journalism for fun. After my diagnosis, I realized that I didn’t want to work in an office, and that I needed to do something a little more creative with my life.

Being an artist really suits my ADHD mind; it’s a field that encourages going into rabbit holes, taking detours, trying new things. It’s not always easy, but it does make sense for me.

[Read: Rising from ADHD Burnout - A Recovery Kit for Women]

“My ADHD superpower is hyper focusing and always having loads of energy so I can stay out for days. My autism superpower is that I have amazing associative and lateral thinking abilities — I can draw connections between seemingly unrelated information and find a relationship that others might not have noticed or thought to be important.” —Dextra

Realizing I had ADHD came within six months of realizing I’m also queer. It was a time of a lot of big shifts.

When I found out I had ADHD, I thought: ‘Wow this is a huge part of myself that has always been here, yet I’ve never considered it. It’s such an elemental truth about who I am and how I move through the world.’ Realizing I’m gay felt like the same thing. I finally had the language and self-awareness to get to know myself better, and to be curious about myself in a completely new way.

At a certain point in my journey, I looked around and realized all my closest friends were neurodivergent. I think we’re subconsciously drawn to other people like us, and there’s a special intimacy that happens when you don’t have to explain yourself to someone, they just get it. I think that explains why most of the people in my life are queer and neurodivergent. I don’t have to explain myself, I can just exist, unmask and be me.

I want to be careful not to generalize too much because I can’t speak on behalf of a whole community. But, for me, learning I had ADHD made me realize I was a little bit different from the 'norm,' that I move through the world in a different way, and I felt such a love and acceptance of that.

“I think my favorite thing about having ADHD is I’m constantly reminded of how expansive the mind is! It taught me to think non linearly, to step out of the box and pay attention to things in my life that spark joy.” —Loy

I started this project because I was looking for support. I had just finished my masters in Fashion Photography and I’d hit a wall. So, with the pandemic in full swing and expectations to work from home sky-high, ADHD became my special interest. I wanted to know: How are other people coping? How are they functioning, doing freelance work, creating structure, regulating their emotions? It felt like a self-help project.

It started with a series of photographs and conversations with friends, trying to work out what it meant to have ADHD and work freelance. I genuinely needed answers because I wasn’t coping very well. It was 2021 and I don’t think any of us were doing okay.  After the first few session though, I realized that a lot of people would benefit from listening to these conversations and seeing these photos. It was time to change the stigma around what ADHD looked like, literally and figuratively.

The series became queer by chance because I was photographing my friends. But it was also important for me to speak with underrepresented people with ADHD — people who aren’t male, white, or in positions of privilege, people who have had different experiences than those we tend to hear about.

I applied for funding to continue these conversations as a podcast, to make it more accessible and, in 2020, I released the first season of You and Me: Let’s Talk About ADHD. The second season launches this summer

 “I wouldn’t be doing art without ADHD, and I think my humor comes from it too. The only reason ADHD is debilitating (apart from rejection sensitivity, etc.) is because the world isn’t built for us. If it were, we would be ahead of others because we move at a faster pace. The anxieties of having ADHD are often built into us by others who don’t understand it.” —Ro

The decision to shoot in people’s homes was very deliberate. These conversations were vulnerable, and a home is an intimate, vulnerable space. For me, those go hand-in-hand quite naturally.

I think it’s very hard to tell the truth about someone in a photo, because there's a lens, there’s the photographer and their vision, and there's how the subject wants to be perceived. I do think that someone’s bedroom - where many of these portraits were taken - reveals parts of that person that they might not even be aware of. I always tell people, “Do not clean before I come. I want to see your natural habitat.” It goes back to showing: What does ADHD look like?

We build our own worlds. Whether that's a bedroom, a corner of a room, or even possessions you keep in a box, there’s this innate desire we have to build something. I’m really curious what other people’s worlds look like and I feel very lucky that I get to see glimpses. Part of what drives my work is the desire to show a little bit of someone else's world so maybe others will feel less lonely and more seen, so they can accept and love themselves a little more.

“I think part of my anxiety about medication, as a writer, is that it would change the way I think. I don’t believe it’s true because I know lots of poets and writers who are on ADHD medication, but that was a concern. And this is sort of where the trans intersection happens because I was also concerned with testosterone, about it affecting the way I think.” —Marlo

When I’m talking to someone who is neurodivergent, I can feel it immediately because I let my guard down, and I unmask. I let myself be more silly and playful. I let out my inner child. The biggest gift of ADHD is having such a strong connection with play, including verbal play.

When I photograph people, I have beautiful conversations with them. Making conversation, for me, is making art. It creates a very strong bond. When we have a conversation with someone who sees us, we build a little world together.

In these conversations, there’s this sense of being able to feel understood without having to explain yourself and the sense of being seen — especially those things that I always thought, ‘I do this and no one else does. I’m really weird.’

Part of it is being heard but part of it is listening. We also all need to listen.

Neuroqueer Voices: Next Steps

• Read: Birds of a Feather - The Joy of Neurodivergent Friendships
• Read: When Children with ADHD Explore Gender Identity - A Guide for Parents
• Learn: The Clinicians’ Guide to Serving and Protecting LGBTQIA+ Youth
• Read: "I Didn’t Need to Understand My Teen’s Gender Journey to Support It.”

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