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The multidimensional nature of assertiveness and its vital role in fostering psychological well-being and healthy relationships. A theoretical framework proposes four distinct pathways—social, behavioral, emotional, and mental—to move beyond mere communication and achieve a proactive, fulfilling life. Practical applications of these concepts include using "I" statements, practicing behavioral activation, and employing mindfulness to navigate challenges like addiction or trauma. Awareness regarding assertive agency versus maladaptive patterns such as passive-aggression, people-pleasing, and emotional repression, which often stem from childhood experiences. By choosing direct communication and self-compassion, individuals can replace resentment with authentic connections and emotional regulation. Ultimately, assertiveness is a learnable skill that empowers people to respect both their own rights and the needs of others.

Taken for the Community of Practice Class (CoP) 19 5 2026

Giraffes, Snakes, and What ADHD Conversations Can Actually Sound Like People massively underestimate what ADHD conversations actually are. Not because the people having them aren’t intelligent. Because the intelligence does not always arrive looking respectable. It does not always sound polished. Or measured. Or particularly sensible. Sometimes it arrives disguised as complete nonsense. This actually started because I saw a picture of a giraffe and immediately found myself wondering whether giraffe vomit would be properly projectile or whether it would just sort of… dribble. And because my brain apparently refuses to suffer alone, I text one of my longest-standing friends — we’ve been friends for about 33 years — because I knew she would not only understand the thought, but fully commit to investigating it with me. Now, to most people, that probably sounds like two women talking absolute shite. And to be fair… it IS absolute shite. But underneath the nonsense, something else is happening entirely. Pattern recognition. Associative thinking. Creative linking. Rapid-fire conceptual building. One stupid thought lands. Then another attaches itself. Then another. Then suddenly the conversation is moving at a speed that makes complete sense to the people inside it while looking utterly ridiculous to anybody outside it. That’s the bit people miss. Because ADHD conversations often sound disorganised externally while something incredibly fast is happening underneath them. The brain is: testing, connecting, building, pivoting, cross-referencing, challenging, expanding. Not neatly. Not linearly. But intelligently. That matters, because a lot of neurodivergent people grow up being told they are distracted, off-topic, too much, dramatic, not focused enough, or somehow less capable than they actually are. When really, some of them are thinking so quickly that conventional conversation cannot always hold the shape of it. And that is not the same thing as being unintelligent.

Risk Aversion, ADHD and The Weight of Possibility After the marshmallow test rabbit hole, I ended up coming across more around risk aversion theory and that then led me into reading a bit around gambling addiction and reward processing. And honestly it gave me the exact same feeling all over again. That same: “hang on… why does this feel like it connects back to ADHD too?” Not because I know enough about gambling addiction to speak confidently on it in any kind of expert sense. I absolutely do not. It was more the underlying themes that immediately caught my attention again: anticipation, uncertainty, intermittent reinforcement, dopamine fluctuation, risk/reward processing, and the neurological intensity of possibility itself. Because the more I read, the less it seemed purely about: winning money or simply “seeking reward” in the simplistic way people often reduce it down to. And my brain instantly went back to the same thought again: what if immediate reward is not always experienced simply as pleasure? What if sometimes it feels like: relief? Because relief changes things. Particularly if somebody already lives with: understimulation, restlessness, emotional overwhelm, anticipatory anxiety, internal discomfort, burnout, shame, or the exhausting cognitive load of constant self-regulation. And suddenly I found myself circling the same broader question again around ADHD, regulation and behavioural adaptation over time. Because maybe some behaviours are not always simply about: thrill seeking, recklessness, poor decisions, or lack of discipline. Maybe sometimes they are attempts to: interrupt overload, quiet internal discomfort, feel regulated briefly, escape saturation, or temporarily change the nervous-system state itself. And honestly I do not know how much evidence exists around any of this in the specific way I am thinking about it. But the overlap felt interesting enough that I could not stop circling it. Especially because ADHD already appears so heavily connected to: