“I thought I was broken. Now I know I’m just wired differently.” Steve talks about his experiences

Content Warning: This post contains references to suicide, self-harm, mental health struggles, and trauma.

Mental Health Awareness Week: Why I’m Finally Ready to Tell My Story

It’s been a few days since I decided to share this story — not knowing where to start, how it would be received, or if it would even make a difference. But today, during Mental Health Awareness Week, I’m choosing to speak up. Because even if this only reaches one person who needs to hear it, then it’s worth it.

This is a story I’ve never told — not in full. I’m a late-diagnosed AuDHDer: I was diagnosed with ADHD in August 2023 and Autism in January 2025. But my struggles began long before I had the words to describe them.

I was 14 when I took my first overdose. I just wanted the pain to stop. Back in the mid-80s, there was no internet, no awareness, no conversations about mental health. I thought I was broken. Now I know I was just wired differently.

At 17, I was admitted to a mental health hospital. I turned 18 on a ward. For years, I was in and out — more in than out. Self-harming. Attempting suicide. Each time methodical and logical. Each time a cry to escape a world I didn’t feel part of.

I was labelled: odd, weird, stupid, a loner. I couldn’t communicate, not with others, not even with myself. The world felt wrong — or maybe I just felt wrong in it.

My last suicide attempt was in the early 2000s. It was meant to be final. I took over 100 painkillers in a parked car. I thought I’d planned it perfectly — but I hadn’t accounted for a mouse, a dog, or a friend offering me tea. I woke up in hospital, furious to be alive, then walked out less than a day later. I didn’t know I’d gone into cardiac arrest until months later, reading it on a GP’s screen.

From that point, I wasn’t trying to die anymore — but I didn’t know how to live either. That slow, aching existence carried on for years. Until 2022, when a TV presenter spoke about their ADHD diagnosis. It felt like something clicked.

One assessment led to another. In August 2023, I heard, “You have ADHD.” Then came autism. No support. No guide. Just a confirmation that I had spent my life fighting an invisible battle, misunderstood and alone.

But then I found The Autism Wellbeing Project. And everything changed.

AWP didn’t wait for a piece of paper. They accepted me as I was. For the first time, I belonged. I was seen.

But even with support, the darkness didn’t disappear overnight. In early 2024, I spiralled again. I wrote twelve pages of goodbye. I'd never done that before. But something in me must have known I wasn’t done.

Today, I’m reading those pages, and I’m still here. I didn’t throw them away. They’re part of my story — a story I can now tell with hope.

Because I’ve finally found therapy that works for me. I’ve become a Tier 1 and Tier 2 co-trainer for the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, and I’m proud to be called an Expert by Experience.

To Jon Simons: thank you — your reputation is more than deserved.

And to anyone reading this who feels lost or broken: you are not broken. You are wired differently — and you belong.

This Mental Health Awareness Week, I’m not just surviving. I’m beginning to thrive. And this is only the beginning.