I have been mulling a lot about my faith and what it looks like through an AuDHD lens (along with most of my life pre-diagnosis). I have been reading some articles online and quite unimpressed by what I’ve read so far. Many are based on stereotypes and don’t reflect my experience at all, after all, I’ve always been AuDHD, even if I didn’t know it at the time…

I have realised I’m in a privileged position growing up. My family didn’t align strictly to any denomination, and I was brought up to read the Bible and question the teaching from ministers. My dad and other members of the family actively encouraged discussion and exploration around faith issues, so I wasn’t brought up blindly following any particular teaching.

When I was a kid, my parents pretty much took over the family service at church and put in a lot of work. There was a focus on simply telling the stories rather than adding a message or reading more into the stories than was on the page… there wasn’t much moralising in the teaching I was brought up with.

My faith is fairly simple, it’s also based on teaching and exploration.

Right now, I don’t belong to a particular church, for a variety of reasons, that doesn’t mean I don’t still have a faith.

I really want to explore aspects of my faith, and I haven’t found anywhere to do that… yet anyway. Until I find somewhere, I’m going to share reflections here from time to time, as with anything else I post here.

If there’s anything you’re particularly interested in hearing about, feel free to offer some suggestions.

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I grew up Christian. My parents were missionaries. I’ve been a member of churches of various denominations my whole life, apart from the last few year.

Here’s my take on being AuDHD and a Christian. It’s simple.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made!

God made me, just as he made everyone else. One message I got growing up is that God has a plan, even if we don’t understand it, and we are all wonderfully made.

I was also brought up to question the Bible and interpretations of it. To look at the Bible critically and look at things like the context it was written and who it was speaking to.

So many of the articles above come across as judgemental and not helpful (other than the fact that there is no date and the use of ADD is out dated). They look at the usual things that we already beat ourselves up about, instead of looking at the fact that God made us and made us special and perfect just the way we are.

I know that I struggle to believe this myself at times, decades of messages telling me that I’ve fallen short is hard to shake, but it still comes down to the fact that my brain is wired to to be AuDHD, and it has been since before I was born, and that is simply part of who I am, who I was made to be.

There are so many verses about how we are wonderfully made, how God made us who we are while we were in our mothers’ womb, about how we are created in the image of God. Those are the verses I hold on to.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made. While I was still in the womb, God knew me and made me precious. AuDHD and all.

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