Dorsey McFadden

Hi, I am Dorsey, and I was diagnosed around age 5 with ADHD in 1985. At the time, very little was known about the disorder and to me, it was only the reason I couldn’t pay attention—nothing else. In spite of my diagnosis, I achieved academic success. I have a double BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Political Science & Communications and International Security Studies & Rhetoric. Before discovering coaching, I built a substantial career in the digital marketing field. To the outside world, I looked successful. In truth, I was constantly struggled to keep up and appear “normal”.

In my 20s I was plagued by mysterious medical symptoms that confounded doctors. After seeking answers for over 10 years, I was at my wit’s end and wanted to give up on western medicine. In my 30s I found a functional medicine doctor who actually partnered with me on my health. This approach empowered me to take control of my own health. I also started to see a psychiatrist who specialized in ADHD.

Together, all of these experiences led me to understand just how much I’d accomplished despite the limitations ADHD had put on me. They also helped me to see the damage I was doing to my body by not paying attention nor respecting the differences inherent to an ADHD brain and body. By constantly masking my ADHD symptoms to fit into the world around me without showing my differences, I was putting my body under constant stress. These additional health issues were the physical manifestation of inflammation from years of trauma/anxiety (the effect of the sympathetic nervous system being constantly activated on the body) I forced myself to endure.