1. ADHD & Shame

Page 1

[Panel 1] NARRATOR: “I spend so much time trying to fit in, hiding how forgetful and chaotic I am,”

[Panel 1] NARRATOR: “but also pretending my struggles are like everyone else’s.”

[Panel 2] NARRATOR: “I’ve faced so much rejection and trouble for things I didn’t even know were wrong, just for being myself,”

[Panel 2] NARRATOR: “that it feels like I have to hide who I am.”

[Panel 3] NARRATOR: “But what I’m hiding by functioning is not that I’m an alien,”

[Panel 4] NARRATOR: “what I’m hiding is all the shame I carry.”

Page 2

[Panel 1] NARRATOR: “Shame that I couldn’t fit a shower into my daily tasks.”

[Panel 2] NARRATOR: “Shame when I can’t let people inside because it’s never clean.”

[Panel 3] NARRATOR: “Shame when I cry being overwhelmed by paperwork again.”

[Panel 4] NARRATOR: “Shame when I’m the only one late again”

[Panel 4] SIGN: “宇宙の部屋”

[Panel 5] NARRATOR: “Shame when my accountant asks if I paid net or gross and I google it for the 20th time because I keep forgetting what these words mean.”

[Panel 5] ACCOUNTANT: ”?☆$”

[Panel 6] NARRATOR: “Shame for every white lie I tell because I can’t take one more rejection despite being so burnt out.”

[Panel 6] ALIEN: “Of course I change my bedsheets once a week!”

Page 3

[Panel 1] NARRATOR: “I’ve used shame as a weapon against myself as a punishment to force myself to learn.”

[Panel 1] ALIEN: “Can’t you do anything right?”

[Panel 1] ALIEN: “No one is ever going to like you like this!”

[Panel 2] INNER VOICE: “And how well has that been working for you?”

[Panel 2] INNER VOICE: “Are you on time now? More organized?”

[Panel 2] NARRATOR: “All I’m doing is rejecting myself again and again, just like everyone did when I was a child.”

[Panel 3] CHILD SELF: “Why am I never good enough?”

[Panel 3] CHILD SELF: “If I just stopped being like this, people would like me.”

[Panel 4] ALIEN: “You have been brave long enough.”

[Panel 4] ALIEN: “You’ve been scolded enough, what you- I would have needed was to be seen.”

[Panel 4] ALIEN: “You’re not alone anymore, we will find a way. Together.”

Page 4

[Panel 1] NARRATOR: “Don’t punish emotions, pay attention to them.”

[Panel 1] NARRATOR: “Missing a shower isn’t failure, it’s a sign, a clue.”

[Panel 1] NARRATOR: “Ask what’s missing, not what’s wrong with you.”

[Panel 1] CHILD: “I hate it when I get out of the shower and I’m all cold!”

[Panel 1] MOM: “I see, let’s get us a bathrobe then!”

[Panel 1] NARRATOR: “It’s not fair that I never got to feel like I am okay the way I am,”

[Panel 2] NARRATOR: “that no one saw how much I struggled and took all the pain away.”

[Panel 2] ALIEN: “Look at everything you’ve been through!”

[Panel 2] ALIEN: “It makes total sense that you’re the way you are.”

[Panel 2] ALIEN: “Let’s try our best. Not to get it right for others,”

[Panel 2] ALIEN: “but to finally get to know how WE do things.”

[Panel 2] NARRATOR: “But the least I can do is have my own back.”

Part of ADHD Alien comics.