From ADHD Burnout To Finding Himself Again, Nick’s Story

Where he started

Nick came to me in total burnout. Decades as a high performing senior leader had taught him to give every scrap of energy to the job, with nothing left over for his family or himself. Perfectionism, overworking and people pleasing had done their quiet, cumulative damage, and underneath all of it sat undiagnosed ADHD, which had driven him at a relentless velocity into a whirlwind of anxiety.

By the time he arrived he was constantly anxious and wired, physically shaking as he walked in with his wife, his nervous system stuck in a permanent state of red alert. He had no trust left in anyone and had built walls to protect himself. The first couple of sessions were, in his own later words, a challenge for me. Asking me, “Do you do this just for the money?”

He laughs apologetically about that question now. He is happy for me to share it, because it wasn’t really him talking. It was his fight or flight response stuck in overdrive, nothing personal, just fear finding the nearest exit. I had to meet him with a straightforward, no nonsense approach, which is exactly what he needed and what he said he respected. With encouragement from his wife and from previous clients who had recommended me to him, he decided to commit to the work properly, as trusted I wouldn’t ‘faff around’.

The transformation

What followed has been one of the most complete visual transformations I have been part of. He reported a 500% increase in his energy levels after just five sessions, and it has kept climbing since. He has lost three and a half stone, rebuilt his fitness, and stopped leaning on alcohol as an emotional crutch to fill a gap that was never really about alcohol at all. This is something many of us do when under pressure over time.

He recently sent me the kind of message that stops you in your tracks. He and his wife still cannot quite believe how unwell he was when he arrived, and what he has built since. It makes them both emotional, and they are, in his words, forever grateful as he stated, “you saved me”. That is the message that lifts me beyond anything else in this work. It is exactly why I do it, which happened to be the very thing he accused me of not really meaning, in that first defensive question he threw at me.

Out of the ADHD burnout, and with new wiring, tools and strategies in place, Nick has found himself again… a better version of him. Underneath the exhaustion and the walls was a caring, kind and highly capable man, husband, father and leader. He is someone I will always remember as a genuine privilege to work with. A total transformation, start to finish. Thank you for Trusting in me Nick.