What exactly is ADHD? SureSpace founder, Anish Suri, sat down to discuss the two main types of ADHD and what it means to face these on a daily basis.
So Anish, I know you had a journey with ADHD – can you tell us more about that?
Anish: Absolutely. The way I discovered that I had ADHD actually started initially with bipolar disorder in February 2019 when I was hospitalized in New York City. Then I came back to London and I wasn’t fully recovered. I wasn’t on sustainable medication and didn’t have a solution to better my my wellbeing. I ended up in hospital again and then I ended up taking about a year off about 6 months off before returning to University. In that time, I had a big recovery process where I grew in terms of my mental stability.
Ultimately it was only a few years later when I graduated from University about two or three years later and even after that three more years later after that after I finished my first startup,. After I stopped working on my first startup, going into my second startup which was for teens with ADHD and autism to improve verbal communication – that’s when we started to focus on people with ADHD. We did an MVP with one individual which allowed us to understand ADHD. It allowed me to understand what the challenges were in more depth relating to ADHD and that’s when I realized that I might have this condition.
I did an ADHD test and scored 93% to 97% on it, and that’s when I started to take more direct action in terms of incorporating the wellness benefits of ADHD into my life.
Not a lot of people know what are the symptoms of ADHD, what happens or how you feel. Can you tell us more about that?
Anish: It directly relates to attention and concentration and difficulties in those two things. However, there’s also a sense of impulsive behaviour and hyperactive behaviour – all things that have been a part of my life for the last 27 years of my life for the past 27 years. But that that’s essentially it.
There are different types of ADHD as well which you can find more information about on our Instagram page, but generally there’s attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder – so the two the two different pathways that you have within ADHD are both difficult to handle, and the wellness measures that you can take to improve that situation is something that we’ll talk about soon.
What’s one tip you’d give to help people with ADHD overcome their symptoms?
Anish: Recently I’ve adopted a fitness program where I’m doing tennis three times a week, I’m working out about four times a week at home. I’m also doing boxing as well, so a lot of these high-intensity workouts and intense kind of activities allow me to redirect my focus, improve my speed and adopt a more concentrated mindset when I’m working in these different high stress environments. That’s the main thing that’s been a big difference for me – and it’s not just that – it’s also outside of the gym outside of those sessions, I have an increase in my concentration and I’m able to be more relaxed. I’ve spoken to a few people including my boxing trainer who explained that when he compared to before he started boxing compared to after, he was much more relaxed and he’s not even ADHD.
So you are trying to overcome it by doing sports, by doing martial arts and by just having a stronger body and stronger mind in general?
Anish: Exactly. Creativity comes with that hand in hand as well. It’s all about how you express yourself, how you relax and also staying away from any kind of excess. I’m not going to tell you never to drink alcohol, but it is indulgence, and alcohol for people with ADHD can be problematic.
So Anish, tell us what made you start your fitness journey?
Anish: Interestingly enough, I went through a period of time after my first startup when I was going through a bit of a challenging phase in my life – probably the lowest point in my life to be honest, but it was a period of time where I was running every single day, sometimes even twice a day. I was working out every day as well as just by myself, so I wasn’t with a routine structure with a personal trainer, but it was just an everyday kind of thing.
I was even ready to apply to the army. I’m ADHD bipolar so I wouldn’t be allowed in, but I was making these impulsive decisions in my head that I was going to do all of these things and change the career pathway of my life, based on the fact that my grandfather was in the Army. I was determined to do something amazing and it was really just stuck in my head space.
Ultimately, when I got out of my headspace in London, where every day I was doing the same thing – not really progressing – trying but not ultimately not progressing as much as I could, that’s when I started to develop these these friendships with people who were trainers or Champions themselves. So when I just brought that regimen into my own routine, that’s ultimately when I took the leap. I just said I’m going to do this and keep going. I just added one thing, then I added another thing and then I added another thing, and I just got into a routine. I do it every week, but it was a long-term desire just to improve my life.
Tell us how you keep yourself motivated day in and day out.
Anish: I think the main thing for me is that when I set a commitment to somebody, I will always pull through with it. I might be a bit late but I do show up if I’ve set an appointment with somebody to do something – no matter what.
I stay motivated by involving other people in my routine, and that’s the main thing.
So what you’re telling me is that you have to be committed to someone or something to do stay motivated?
Anish: Not necessarily. Often I will also stay motivated by myself, but it takes a little bit more energy and it takes a little bit more mentally to get me out of the door and to do that. I can be focused, it’s just a lot more serious when I’m by myself. I sometimes when I’m by myself and I’m ruminating – ruminating a part of ADHD is like a a very common thing and it’s very problematic it’s like it’s you know get stuck in your head um and it becomes very difficult to not do anything without the intensity that you come with sometimes so when you’re able to relax with somebody have a laugh have a joke try out some new stuff incorporate you know when you learn something new uh even a new exercise just one new exercise per session or something it really changes your perspective of the entire session.
What’s your advice for people who have ADHD to be more focused in life?
Anish: I think there’s quite a few answers to that question. There’s a lot of things you can do – you can take notes; you can create an agenda; you can have a simple structure for your day that you follow. Really, these are all step-by-step processes, but you have to start somewhere. It took years for me to actually get to the point where I was ready to fully embrace an active lifestyle. Having an active lifestyle is super important, as well as being creative – music, art, painting – anything that you want to spend your free time doing to just relax and take it easy. Those are the kinds of things that’ll allow you to open up your world, open up your mindset and explore new avenues in life.
Also meeting new people – and that’s what SureSpace intends to do for people as well.
Tell us more about SureSpace.
Anish: SureSpace is really a place to be creative with a connection to wellness. So we have connections to individuals who are UFC trainers, boxing champions, tennis coaches and also a number of creatives, and all these people that we’re building on every single week, as well as the likes of world class musicians – all of these people that we’re amalgamating into an ecosystem are all there for for you to watch and learn from, as well as be a part of their classes and events. It has all the resources that you need to fast track yourself to success in terms of succeeding as an individual.
Beyond where you are right now today with ADHD – maybe facing some challenges – it doesn’t mean you’re going to eradicate all problems from your life. But it does mean that you have the systematic structure to succeed.
And where can we find SureSpace? Is it an app that I can download? Tell us more about it.
Anish: We’re going live this week on the App Store and the Google Play store, so you can find it. It’s called Sure-Space. We also have the website sure-space.com – that’s where you can find you can sign up and also very soon you can find all the creatives that we’re working with there as well. But really, the app is what you need to make sure you can attend our events. We’re starting off in London – we have three events in the roster in January, February and March including comedians with ADHD and autism, as well as a DJ night at the globe which is going to be fantastic with someone with ADHD, then in March we have somebody a very powerful voice. Honestly, his music is is amazing, he’s a great guy and his name is Josh Barry. So we have a lineup of some amazing events and you need the app in order to attend those events.
Everybody in the world has dreams – what’s your one big dream that you want to tell us?
Anish: The one thing that I’ve always wanted to do in my life is to create a social impact to improve people’s lives, and I feel like neurodiversity is an area that’s super undervalued and it needs more support. So ideally I would want to be successful as an entrepreneur or someone who’s created a venture which brings a positive benefit to people’s lives – that’s my first thing.
The second thing is, I’ve always wanted to be really active. I’ve wanted to master a sport like boxing or Jiu-Jitsu. I went through a phase where I really wanted to be a professional boxer. I never did anything to make that happen until now. where I’m actually doing boxing lessons, but I’m far from being a professional boxer. I think that’s the wildest dream and I think it’s the same for a lot of people with ADHD. It’s just about living a very happy life and being in control of all the challenges that you’re facing with neurodiversity.
