Overview

After being diagnosed with ADHD in 2023, I began a personal project to explore and better understand this complex condition.

Given the current surge of interest in neurodiversity, this side project has moved and morphed much faster than I could have anticipated.

That’s why I decided to build a dedicated space to accomodate all the new ideas, networks and research I’ve been uncovering along the way.

Learn more at Heumans.com

Slowing down to speed up.

The project is definitely taking longer than I’d hoped.

I spent a few months being really torn about whether or not to build something specifically about my frustration with the whole ‘ADHD’ thing.

Branding
Marketing
Outdated diagnostic criteria
Lack of education filtering down to educators and general practitioners who are clearly in the best position to help more families identify and get help early
…etc

Eventually, despite believing there‘s a special place in hell for anyone mansplaining about things they have no lived experience with, I decided something was better than nothing.

Heumans was born from the idea that building an ‘umbrella brand’ would not only be more inclusive, but allow me to more effectively advocate for everyone who feels a bit different or just wants to learn more about how their brain works.

It’s far from perfect, and I’m happy to change direction if it’s not fit for purpose, but I clearly need ‘a thing’ in order to begin some of the broader research and discovery I’m dying to get stuck into.

Where it might lead

A selected list of the sub-projects, experiments and lines of enquiry I’d love to dive into

The ADHDecelerator: For those of us with too many ideas
Beta program created, expressions of interest for Cohort 1 here
AiDHD: Crowd-sourced and crowd-owned diagnostic tool & dataset
The Neue Normal: Newsletter and podcast
Heumans: Safe, mask-free community
Profiles, information, AMA’s and self assessment tools

How it started

Some context about my personal experience

How it felt being diagnosed with ADHD at age 40

Early Research Notes

A very rough timeline of ADHD symptoms, diagnosis and perception in society

ADHD's history can be traced back to the 19th century when physicians began to recognize symptoms resembling those of the disorder. However, it was not formally categorized as a medical condition until much later.
In the early 20th Century, descriptions of symptoms resembling ADHD started to appear in medical literature. However, these were often under different names and conceptualisations.
For example, in 1902, British paediatrician Sir George Still described a group of children as having a deficit in controlling their impulses, which he termed “defect of moral control”
The formal recognition of ADHD began to take shape in the 1960s and 1970s with the introduction of diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
The DSM-II, published in 1968, included a diagnosis known as "Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood," which laid some groundwork for what would later become ADHD.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (DSM-III), published in 1980, introduced the term "Attention Deficit Disorder" (ADD) with or without hyperactivity.
This marked a significant shift towards recognising the inattentive symptoms of the disorder as distinct from hyperactivity.
The DSM-IV, published in 1994, merged the diagnoses of ADD and ADHD into a single disorder: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
This reflected the understanding that attention deficits and hyperactivity often coexist in individuals with the condition.
Throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries, awareness of ADHD increased significantly. This led to more accurate diagnosis and treatment, including behavioral interventions, medication, and educational accommodations.
Subsequent revisions of the DSM, including DSM-IV-TR (Text Revision) and DSM-5, have further refined the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, distinguishing between predominantly inattentive presentation, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive presentation, and combined presentation.
Research into the underlying causes, neurobiology, and treatment of ADHD continues to advance. This includes studies on genetic factors, brain imaging, and the development of new therapeutic approaches.

Connecting the dots

After going deep into the weeds, I was keen to connect what I’d learned to the experience of others going through something similar.

I spun up this survey as a first attempt to understand how my friends / family / network felt about their own journey but decided to pull it down until I could figure out the right questions to ask.