Happy New Year - Cancer diagnosis and thoughts on stepping back

Gratitude and excitement for what is coming next for ADHD Designer

As we pass into 2025, I wanted to reach out after a period of stepping back from creating ADHD content online, and update you on all things ADHD Designer and what is coming up in the new year. I’m so grateful for those who signed up to receive these emails, and I’m excited to start making them more regular this year.

Health update (why I stepped back in 2024)

If you hadn’t heard, I was diagnosed with cancer in 2024. I had two surgeries to remove a cancerous lesion from my tongue, followed by lengthy recovery processes for both that left me feeling physically and mentally exhausted.

I stepped back from my design work, my ADHD coaching practice, social media, and… life in general, during this time. I’m not going to lie, it’s been rough. You don’t expect to get diagnosed with oral cancer as a healthy, 34 year old with non of the major lifestyle risk factors, but I guess I’m just lucky! (about 90% of oral cancer is caused by lifestyle factors like smoking and drinking, and only around 5% of cases are people under age 40).

I am so happy to be able to announce, because it was caught extremely early, after my last surgery in October, I’ve been declared cancer free, and all my treatment is complete, and I’m feeling much more like myself again. There is still more healing to do to get back to 100%, but I feel ready and able start easing back into my normal level of activity in 2025.

ADHD coaching

For those of you that don’t know, in 2023 I started training to become a certified ADHD coach through ADDCA. I was inspired to do this because I had so much success working with an ADHD coach (she is also ADDCA-trained) when I was first diagnosed. It honestly changed my life, and helped me achieve some successes I would have never been able to without coaching, so I wanted to learn how to use coaching to help other ADHDers do the same.

In September 2024, I applied for and passed my certification, which was the culmination of around 400 hours of classes and practice/homework sessions, and 100+ hours of client coaching sessions with my first real clients. I’ve received a lot of great feedback from those clients, and in fact I’m still coaching some of them today!

I have chosen not to take on any new clients since the initial intake, due to so many clients choosing to stay on for regular sessions, as well as the above health issues, so I do apologise to anyone who signed up to try and get one of the initial spaces, and were unable to.

I plan to launch more slots at some point in the first part of this year, so watch this space, but if you are interested in finding out more about the sessions and ensuring you don’t miss a chance to get your slot, please get in touch at shannon@adhddesigner.com.

Social media & co-working streams

Most of you know me from social media, either from my Twitter posts, or Twitch streams, and I’ve also stepped back from these platforms due to health, both physical and mental.

Twitter

Many of you have moved away from Twitter due to political reasons and just how dire the platform has become lately in terms of user experience and the content that is being recommended, and I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a major contributor.

I used to love going on Twitter and being able to see all my favourite ADHD accounts’ updates. I learned sooo much from ADHD Twitter when I was first diagnosed, and I still value it as a platform, so I’m going to for now choose to remain on Twitter, as I really do value so many of the people I’ve met through this platform, and perhaps explore other platforms such as Bluesky and Instagram as I ease back into the social media world.

Twitch co-working streams

I started using Twitch during the pandemic like so many others, as a way to socialise while working from home on my design clients without any colleagues, and was inspired to start my own stream where I would get my work done on mute, while chatting with a wonderful community that grew to almost 5000 followers! I was really proud of this, and Twitch became my favourite social media platform for connecting with all sorts of wonderful people from around the world.

In 2023, when I started pursuing my ADHD coaching training and certification, I found I just didn’t have enough time or energy to keep the streams up, alongside my coaching courses and clients, and my design business. The ball, essentially, had to drop somewhere, and so I stopped streaming.

Watch this space, as I’m planning to bring back co-working streams as well as ADHD community/Q&A streams in 2025, on a smaller scale than I was doing before.

So… any new year’s resolutions?

As ADHDers, we often have the tendency to want to do everything all at once, I’ve learned the hard way through burnout several times in my life that it just isn’t possible to do everything I would like to do.

2024 taught me that lesson all over again, but on another level completely. I’d spent 2020-2023 ramping up my activities to the point I was doing a LOT. During those same years, there were huge life changes and events like the pandemic, quitting my full time job to start a business, losing my mom, getting certified as an ADHD coach and moving from London to Brighton. It’s been… a lot.

The thing is, I like doing a lot. I thrive when I’m busy, and tend to get depressed when I don’t have multiple projects on the go (hello, ADHDers who also live this way). Because of my previous experience with burnout, I have systems to check in with myself to assess whether I’m doing TOO much, and am pretty okay with the amount I’m able to do (even though I still can’t do everything I want to).

When I was diagnosed with cancer, it was different. My body wouldn’t allow me to do everything I wanted, or even needed to do. I had to ask other people for help for things that would normally be easy. It felt like burnout without the burnout, and although these days I’m usually okay when I realise I need to cut back on something, this felt completely out of my control, and I was so frustrated that things I desperately didn’t want to stop doing, I had to.

But now, in 2025, having come through the other side of it, I am looking back and recognising that the experience taught me that what I do and achieve isn’t in my control. All we can do is what we can do at that time, and if that’s just laying in bed in pain for weeks struggling to eat soup, then so be it.

So, if 2025 is your year to lay in bed and struggle to eat soup, that’s totally okay, and doesn’t say anything about you as a person. Your goals, plans and achievements for 2025 can be as big or as small as you want, and if they’re not as big as you wish they were, for reasons that aren’t really in your control, whether it cancer, or struggling with your ADHD symptoms, you’re still worthy and wonderful.

Wishing you all a fantastic 2025,

Shannon (aka ADHD Designer)