What support is available for ADHD awareness in the UAE?
SureSpace app founder, Anish Suri, sat down with Shahad El Sarraf to talk about what it’s like living in the UAE with ADHD and the awareness of ADHD in Dubai.
Anish: To go back to the definition of ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder that affects a person’s behaviour, characterized by persistent symptoms of inattention hyperactivity and impulsivity that can interfere with daily life. What does ADHD mean to you?
Shahad: Well, we we’ve been hearing this word and definition and abbreviation a lot lately. Everyone is saying whenever they see you’re clumsy or impulsive, you’re not really paying attention to a certain task, people immediately say “oh you’ve got ADHD” and we laugh about it but it’s certainly affecting our days, affecting our attention, and finishing off some tasks. You find it difficult because you pile up so many things, you have a lot on your agenda and you want to do so many things, but there’s a very limited time. So this is my understanding of ADHD, but obviously speaking to a lot of people I know there are levels of ADHD and there are medicines for it. To a certain extent I think every single person has it in one way or another – it’s just the world we’re living. By force, you’re just everywhere.
Anish: Exactly, when you do a test you usually get a percentage score for how ADHD you are on a scale of 100 – so I scored around 93 to 97%. So with these conditions, generally it’s a spectrum that you’re working with. I feel like there’s so much to it and how it can vary. It’s up to a variety of different factors in your day-to-day life as well which can trigger you. That goes back to my first app that I built, which was all about the the triggers that affect symptoms of bipolar disorder. I imagine it must be a similar thing for ADHD when you’re overwhelmed, over stressed, and these things build up and get worse.
Shahad: I love that actually. I actually face some of those symptoms. For instance, if you asked me in a group, say we were playing Truth or Dare and I chose truth and someone asked me what was the most embarrassing situation I’ve had. I’ve had many, but then I can’t pick any story because my brain just has so much information and I can’t just pick it up from my memory. Apparently, this is one of the symptoms of ADHD, and the solution for that is to put it on your notes or like have almost a catalog of your life, what you’ve been through, what are like your top celebrities or top movies that you like. Note it down in order to help your brain fetch it quickly.
Anish: People [with ADHD] also start tasks or start big missions, and tend to drop off and give up on them pretty easily, although SureSpace is my third startup so maybe that’s a testament to that.
Shahad: Amazing. So tell me about the SureSpace app – how does it help us to understand the percentage of people with ADHD? Does it help us organise? What is it all about?
Anish: So it’s a media and entertainment app specifically for people with ADHD. So anyone with ADHD, especially people who are thriving, I really enjoy meeting those people, I have a great time with. So the whole point of having something like this, is to bring those people together so they can embrace creativity through media and content. They can end up meeting other people through that and ultimately attend our live events where we’re hosting musicians, creators, actors and actresses – all kinds of people with ADHD, as well as people who might not have ADHD but are big about embracing it and embracing creativity.
Shahad: I love that. It’s all about community nowadays right? People love to feel they are similar and they have similarities in one way or another, even if it’s… shall I call it a disease – ADHD?
Anish: I try not to, even though I feel people in Dubai tend to refer to it as more of a disease than in the UK. I personally refer to it as a superpower, whereas ADHD, bipolar are all things that differentiate me at make me special. So I prefer to call it a condition.
Shahad: Yeah, a condition – if you don’t really acknowledge it and have a solution to it or tone it in a way that you make it a superpower then it’s the other way. So, if you acknowledge, you can make it an advantage.
Anish: Yes to learn self-control self control in the areas they’re lacking and the areas they might feel short in, and they can do that through a community as well as through learning from others. How do you feel about wellness culturally in the UAE? You’re from Iraq, so how do you feel about awareness of ADHD here in the UAE? Is it thriving here or is it slightly under the carpet?
Shahad: It’s thriving in a way that people just know what the abbreviation is and know what it’s all about. They refer to when people have that hyperfocus, or they can’t complete a task at a time. I have so many tasks and so many things to do so I end up doing nothing and being lazy. But you shouldn’t be overwhelmed, you should take things slowly but at the same time face the pace we’re living in. I think people know about it and have heard about it but the more information you give them, the better.
Anish: I completely agree with you. One of the things somebody helped me out – the other day I was lying around, not really doing anything – I wasn’t in the mood for anything. It was just a big slump in my week. And the person I was talking to started to kind of reconstruct my life a little bit, and I began planning out what was happening in the next 5 ,10, 20 minutes and then it became the next few days, and suddenly I bounced back and I was out of the house within 20 minutes. I had a big evening ahead of me, so sometimes you just need someone to support you in that sense to help you think laterally as opposed to vertically.
Shahad: Absolutely, so there are some applications out there like Asana – I’m sure you heard of it and some other applications. Let’s say when it comes to applications in AI, and when it comes to the well-being, there are also solutions where you can do yoga for example – all of these things can help you clear your mind and start off all over again, but no one has tapped into the ADHD side where you really tap into your brain and see what’s going on there and find a solution in a different angle and a different perspective. So, I think tapping into that would be helpful – this is the year of well-being and know work life balance will come into that very smoothly. I think it’s really important for our culture and people and society to know about it and acknowledge it, and know that there is a solution. There’s a way that you can organize your time so you’re not lazy and you’re not overwhelmed and you just have few symptoms of ADHD which can be resolved and as you mentioned could be a superpower.
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