🎧 Episode 3: ADHD – The Problem or the Spark?

Strange Life Podcast

What happens when your brain doesn’t follow the standard IF-THEN rules that society is built on?

When the reflexes you learned in early childhood aren’t the “normal” ones… and the world notices?

In this expansive and electric episode of Strange Life, host Daisy Onubogu unpacks the true shape of ADHD—not as a list of symptoms, but as a unique way of experiencing the world that can either make you society’s darling or its scapegoat.

From time-blindness and nonlinear thinking to the euphoric joy of pattern-matching, Daisy offers a compelling reframe of ADHD not as dysfunction, but as difference—one whose value depends almost entirely on social context and privilege.

This is for anyone who has ever wondered:

Why am I always late even though I care?

Why do I take in so much of the world?

Why do I see connections no one else does?

Let’s talk about it.

🧠 Topics Covered:

How reflexes are formed in early childhood—and how ADHD rewrites them

What happens when you don't respond to stimuli the “normal” way

ADHD + privilege = genius. ADHD + marginalization = “problem”

How society reacts differently to the same traits based on context

Time-blindness, novelty-seeking, and dopamine-chasing as encoded survival

Pattern-matching as a compulsion, defense mechanism, and creative gift

The ADHD–autism overlap (AuDHD) and how they can beautifully balance

Understanding brain chemistry as motion, not just imbalance

Why medicating isn’t selling out—but conformity shouldn’t be the goal

💬 Quotable Moments:

“When you’re ADHD without the privilege that makes you lovable, you become punishable.”

“Time-blindness isn’t laziness—it’s just that my brain is responding to X74 instead of X.”

“ADHD people fall in love with linking things because those connections used to save us.”

“You’re not wrong. You’re just different. And different isn’t broken.”

🔎 SEO Keywords:

ADHD podcast, neurodivergent podcast, ADHD symptoms, ADHD pattern-matching, ADHD time blindness, ADHD vs autism, AuDHD experience, executive dysfunction, dopamine ADHD, ADHD brain chemistry, ADHD reframing, Strange Life Podcast

🧩 Referenced Concepts & Frames:

IF-THEN reflex development in early childhood

Pattern-matching as both trauma response and gift

Time-blindness and alternative cognitive processing

ADHD as context-sensitive (star vs problem)

ADHD & brain chemistry explained through physics analogies

AuDHD dynamics and overlap: routines, novelty, masking, burnout

A reframing of dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline as motion states, not static chemicals

📬 Stay Connected

Follow Daisy / the podcast and get updates:

Instagram: [@daisyverao] / https://instagram.com/daisyverao

TikTok: [@daisyverao]

Substack: [⁠strangelifepod⁠] / https://strangelifepod.substack.com/

Website: [⁠https://msha.ke/daisyveraonubogu/#about]