Danielle RalstonFounder, How Capacity Works · Founder of ND Hive | Building the productivity hub where work actually gets done | Execution spaces, body doubling & community accountability

Returning to School After 20 Years: My ADHD Journey #adhdjourney #backtoschool #overcomingfear

23 Sept 2024 · 1 min

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Danielle Ralston went back to school after 20 years to finish her degree, facing panic, fear of failure, and ADHD challenges. She completed two self-directed classes, adapted to new academic formats, and battled imposter syndrome and pressure to be a high achiever.

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I think for me right now, like going back to finish a degree I started 20-something years ago was like, what was I thinking? Do I remember any of the things I did before? And I did the placement, like they made sure I did before I just jumped back in. So that was there, but it still was like this inner panic of, oh my God, do I remember any of this? Can I do this? Can I finish this? I only had 2 classes to take and I finished them both. They were both self-directed. It was fine. And I did great. But there was still so much panic in thinking about, oh my gosh, I've got to write these papers. Do I remember how to write a paper? And then I had to write a paper in a different format than existed 20 years ago. Poor Vita. And it just— there's so much, I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna fail at this. Yeah. I paid for this thing and I'm gonna fail at this. And I'm an adult, I'm not supposed to fail at this. And I'm ADHD and I'm hyper and I'm high achieving. And like, there's that. And it's not people pleasing, it's that internal fear factor.