ADHD is Awesome: A Guilde to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD

For the past few years, Penn and Kim Holderness have popped up on my TikTok and Instagram feeds with their funny videos showing family life chaos. In ADHD is Awesome, the couple brings personal insight from the point of view of Penn, who has ADHD and Kim, his wife who loves him.

I picked up this audiobook because, while I've never been diagnosed, ADHD runs in my family and I'm 90% sure I have been living with it (and often masking my symptoms) all my life. It was reassuring and a relief, to be honest, to see my symptoms acknowledged and normalized as part of the ADHD experience. That said, Penn and I are on different ends of the ADHD spectrum so while I related to much of what Penn described, it was to a lesser extent.

With banter and a light-hearted feel, they each show their different experiences and give suggestions for those living with ADHD and their family members who love and support them. About a decade ago, as a parent of an ADHD child, I would have appreciated the section that is included for parents of ADHD kids which provides helpful tips.

Filled with anecdotes (some of which could have been whittled down substantially since they felt like filler more than helpful tips), I appreciated the casual, down-to-earth vibe which worked really well in audio format.

This is not a scholarly exploration of ADHD, but a personal one filled with personal experiences and hearty helpings of humour and heart that describes the struggles and benefits of being on the ADHD spectrum and some helpful tips and tricks for neurodivergent people with ADHD and their partners/families.

My Rating: 4 stars

Authors: Penn and Kim Holderness

Genre: Self-Help, Nonfiction

Type and Source: eAudio from public library

Narrators: Penn and Kim Holderness

Run Time: 8 hours, 50 minutes

Publisher: Harper Horizon

First Published: April 30, 2024

Read: October 15 - 25, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: Hi, friend! Welcome to the ADHD club.

You're here because, like me, you've been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder—which, by the way, just might be the worst name for a condition ever—and you're trying to figure out how to make your life a little more manageable. Or because, like my wife, Kim, you love, teach, or work with someone who has ADHD, and you're trying to figure out how to best support them.

The world isn't built for ADHDers, and navigating it can wear us down. But we'll let you in on a little secret: having ADHD doesn't have to be a burden. It can actually be a superpower that propels you to creative heights and allows you to achieve more than you ever thought possible.

We want to give you a new perspective on ADHD, whether it's your own brain or a friend or family member's that you're trying to understand. We hope you come away with strategies you can employ to make things a little easier. (We also hope you laugh out loud, at least once or twice.)

Most of all, we want you to silence that voice that whispers that you're broken or a mess or a failure. None of that is true. You have ADHD—and that makes you awesome.