Hi. I’m Emily Peterson.
Catholic ADHD
In 2014, I was let go from my job. I was the Confirmation coordinator and youth minister at a local parish. I also led the contemporary worship band. Everyone at the parish knew me and I was hyper sensitive to how I was perceived. I wanted them to know that I was indeed the holy, faithful woman they thought I was. So I tried to be quiet, docile, poised, eloquent, and put together. But I am almost the antithesis of those things. I’m loud, erratic, clumsy, and in a million different directions at once. (I have tried for most of my life to not let people see that.)
We ended up going through a priest change and the new pastor was far more traditional than the last. The contemporary band was first to go. Actually… the drum set was the first thing to go, but the whole band quickly followed. Then the youth group wasn’t well enough attended (read: I wasn’t doing a good enough job). And eventually the entire religious ed program was changed over to a family program and I no longer had a job.
It was the first (and only) time that has ever happened. I called my husband and told him through racked sobs, “I’m in the car. I just got fired.” “The car is on fire?!” “No! I just got FIRED.”
Hysterically, instead of being upset, he was relieved that I wasn’t in a burning vehicle!
The logical next step was to look for a new job. Instead, I decided to try my hand at online business, entrepreneurship, and being my own boss. It felt like a dream: the freedom of making my own hours, working on whatever I wanted to, and answering to no one! I started with a blog. Then a vlog. Then another blog. I bought a course to teach me how to sell courses. Then I started a production company. A YouTube channel. A couple of online communities.
I was surprised to see how quickly I became disenchanted with being in charge. It was much harder than I thought it would be. I thought I’d love not having anyone telling me what to do. But now I had no one to tell me what to do! I no longer had structure. I no longer had deadlines. All of the things that allowed me to feel successful in the past were gone. I felt totally lost.
And yet I was looking at all these successful online business owners teaching me how to do what they did. And it never occurred to me that there might be something wrong with the advice they were giving. Instead I just assumed there was something wrong with me.
Meanwhile, we had a kid, we moved, we had another kid and moved again. I opened an etsy shop, started producing my own music, learned to crochet, moved my etsy shop to my own website, produced a lofi album, and, at this point, not only was I not seeing the business success I thought I should be by now… I was raising three kids! And I was starting to wonder why it all felt so impossible. I had no one I felt safe to ask. I didn’t have a community and it felt like my family would just think this was so typical of me.
So, I went looking for new answers, and I was eventually diagnosed… with ADHD.
This diagnosis was far from a “solution”, and it came with a mixed bag of emotions. I was angry that it took so long for me to realize it. I was resentful that no one along the way was paying enough attention to realize it. But I was also relieved to find that I wasn’t just lazy or stupid or incapable. I was operating inside a framework built for… not me.
Catholic ADHD Community
And it cleared up something else: I have always had a heart for teenagers. The quirky, misunderstood kids trying to figure out who they are. But it turns out it’s not teens. Teenagers and those of us with ADHD have strong similarities: They are the people who are told that they’re wrong, but for no understandable reason. They try so hard to fit in that they lose their sense of self. They’re the people who enthusiastically share 75 pages of research on tardigrades and are dumbfounded when no one seems to share their passion for the subject! They’re the people with rose-colored glasses convinced they can change the world. They are the people who don’t quite fit in and don’t really know why.
My passion is for people with ADHD. Women with ADHD. Catholic women with ADHD.
Here, you can fit in. Here, you can belong. We are your people.
Welcome to the ADHD Catholic Collective.
Sooooo… what exactly IS the ADHD Catholic Collective?
I’m so glad you asked. CLICK HERE.