Meet Duncan: Finding Understanding, Strength and a Fresh Start with ADHD💚
- Celine Dyer
- 4 days ago
- 10 min read
For Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2026, we’re honoured to share Duncan’s story. Duncan is a personal trainer, dog lover and all-round outdoors person.
He’s also a young man who grew up without knowing he had ADHD - and who now uses that understanding to support others walking a similar path.
This is his journey, told with honesty, humour and hope.
Growing Up Without Answers 🤔
Looking back, Duncan can see the signs of ADHD throughout his childhood.
Homework was a daily battle. His mum would ask him to sit at the table, and within seconds he’d be up again without even realising he’d moved. His brain was fast, creative and full of potential - but focusing on one thing at a time felt almost impossible.
At secondary school, the challenges grew. Duncan enjoyed making people laugh and often became the “class clown”. He tapped his pen, shifted in his seat and found it hard to stay still. These weren’t choices. They were signs of a brain that worked differently.
As schoolwork became more demanding, the gap widened. Friends were studying and passing exams while Duncan felt stuck, frustrated and confused. He knew he was smart, but he couldn’t understand why his brain wouldn’t cooperate.
Feeling Lost After School 😔
When his friends went off to university, Duncan was genuinely happy for them. He enjoyed visiting and joining in the social side of student life. But inside, he carried a heavy feeling of letting himself down.
He didn’t understand why staying organised, being on time or staying focused felt so hard. That confusion made everyday life exhausting.
Without support or strategies, Duncan turned to alcohol and drugs to cope. These moments offered temporary relief, but they didn’t solve anything. Instead, they left him feeling worse, stuck and unsure where to turn.
A Turning Point: Understanding ADHD 🔁
Everything changed when Duncan’s mum started researching ADHD and noticed similarities. She supported him to seek an assessment. After long waits, she helped him access a private evaluation.
The assessment confirmed ADHD and depression.
For Duncan, hearing this wasn’t scary - it was freeing. He describes it as
a weight lifted off my shoulders.
He finally understood himself.
Before medication, before any other support, simply having an explanation made a huge difference.
Finding Stability and Confidence 💪
Medication helped Duncan switch from feeling scattered to feeling steady. At his dad’s garage, he suddenly found he could follow tasks from start to finish. His dad noticed, saying “you’re switched on now”.
Those words meant everything.
Bit by bit, Duncan rebuilt his confidence.
He returned to something he had dreamt about for years: training as a personal trainer. Tasks that once felt impossible became achievable.
Last October, he launched his own business - something he’s incredibly proud of.
He now speaks openly with his clients about ADHD and celebrates the creativity and fresh perspective it brings.
Seeing ADHD as a Strength 🏆
Duncan recognises that ADHD comes with challenges, but it also comes with gifts.
He describes himself as creative and able to see things from angles others might miss.
When he cares about something, he can focus deeply and passionately. That hyperfocus helps him excel in areas he loves, like fitness, sport and supporting people.
His message is simple:
When you find something you love, lean into it. ADHD can help you pour your whole self into the things that matter.
Strategies That Help 🆘
Duncan has learned what supports his wellbeing:
Understanding how his brain works
Routine
Coping strategies that help him reset
Time outdoors with his dogs
Strength‑based thinking
Medication, alongside other supports
He sees the biggest difference coming from learning about ADHD and what it means for him personally.
Hope for Anyone Who’s Struggling 🤞
Duncan wants young people who feel lost, confused or misunderstood to know this:
There is nothing wrong with you. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Understanding yourself can change everything.
ADHD doesn’t limit your future. You have so much to offer - strengths, creativity and a way of seeing the world that is valuable and needed.
🎥 Watch the Video
Hear Duncan's story in his own words.
📢 A Note on Personal Stories
This story is shared in Duncan's own words, reflecting his personal experiences as a neurodivergent individual. It has not been written or shaped by NEST or NHS Ayrshire & Arran. We’re simply supporting her to share her voice as part of Neurodiversity Celebration Week.
📝 Full Video Transcript
To read the full video transcript you can either download it below or read it below.
Meet Duncan – Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2026 – Full Video Transcript
I'm Duncan, and I suffer with ADHD.
I'm a personal trainer, and I'm also working at my dad's garage.
Basically, I really enjoy things like sports. I enjoy, you know, I played rugby my full life growing up. I now moved in towards the gym. I enjoy that. I find that a very positive thing for me. It's something that I've really engaged in, something that I really love to do. I love going out big wee walks. I go walks with my dogs and I really enjoy just being out in nature. I find a lot of peace being out in nature. just in general, just enjoy seeing the nice things of the world really.
Yeah, so I had a good think about this and really it all kind of stemmed down to throughout my life growing up, it's pretty much been a really difficult one for me. Growing up I didn't know I had ADHD.
Being 21, I only got diagnosed two years ago now. So I went right through my whole childhood pretty much not knowing that something was wrong with me. So the reason I wanted to do it today was pretty much to try and help out anybody who's younger, that's maybe struggling and going through it, not understanding what's going on. I know how difficult it can be, so I'd like to be a helping hand for them.
When I started out, when I was a wee boy, it used to just be the little things that would just be difficult. It would be coming home and doing homework and I'd be sitting down and my mum would be like, Duncan, come down and come do your homework, and I'd come down and I'd sit at the table and she would turn back around to the pot and when she'd flip back around I was gone from the bench and I was away again and, you know, frustrated as a mother she was, but, you know, it was hard to see at that young stage I had a lot of intelligence and a lot of potential but I just could not focus on anything.
Coming into secondary school it definitely became more apparent that something wasn't quite right there. I quite enjoyed being the class clown, I quite liked to get a wee laugh out of the class and I'd do wee things, not necessarily really bad things but just wee things that would maybe annoy the teacher or wind the teacher up or if I was bored I'd sit and tap my pen in the class and I just never really understood why but I just, you know, it seems like not being able to sit still in class and I'd just, yeah, it would be a bit of a weird one.
As time progressed and I was getting into my older years at school, I was watching all my friends study and I was watching everybody do really well on pass papers and everything and I was sitting down trying to do a pass paper and I'd immediately want to just get up and walk off. I could not focus on it and I was so frustrated at myself and then I'd be arriving late into school, I'd be all over the place and the teachers would be mad at me. I would feel really mad at myself, I would feel so frustrated with myself and with no way of coping I really, really struggled and at that point I then just looked to try and self-medicate myself.I then at that point started kind of indulging in different things, you know, alcohol and drugs and trying to find a way to just cope with this annoying thing and it would be like I couldn't just sit still, but you know, if I, you know, I dabbled, you know, and I'd take some drugs and then suddenly I'd be like, Oh, I feel a wee bit better now, but I mean, ultimately wasn't a good root for me to go down it would really tear me down as a person. It would make me feel really negative about myself as a person. And every time, every time you'd wake up hungover or anything, you'd immediately just feel back at square one, you wouldn't know what was wrong.I don't know why I can't concentrate, I don't know why I can't pay attention. I'm constantly getting into trouble at school and it just became like so, difficult for me.
Anyway, so I left school, I didn't go to uni, I had to watch all my friends leave and go off and it all looks amazing, they're all enjoying their uni life while I was happy for them, and don't get me wrong, I loved going up to the unis and going to see them and going out and doing the party side of things, I couldn't help but feel I really let myself down, and not understanding what was wrong with me, however, knowing that I am smart and I am intelligent, but I just can't put it to use, it became like just something that would really beat me up, And then at that point I really started to look into things and trying to work out what was going on, what was wrong, and so did my mum.
My mum was a huge helper for me. She was looking into things and she goes I think you might have ADHD. At that point, we then had a look at it. I went to go and try and get a diagnosis with the, obviously, the wait times being a very difficult thing .And through no fault of them, I basically didn't succeed in actually getting diagnosed with ADHD at that point. However, my determined mum pushed on for me, and she ended up getting me booked in to get privately checked for it. At that point, came up that had severe depression and severe ADHD. And it was like, wow, the pennies dropped and I now understand what's going wrong .And even that in itself, before medication, before anything else, understanding that I didn't need to blame myself and that there was something wrong, that was a huge help for me.
It was a weight lifted off my shoulders. From that point on I then got medicated and then after being medicated it was like a switch in my brain. When I was working at that point and at my dad's I was then suddenly just a very active worker. He could tell me to do something and I would just do it as opposed to before when he would give me five things to do and I'd come back with three and a half of them done. So it was a difficult time but to be diagnosed and then medicated.
My dad's looking at me going, He's suddenly just doing everything, like he's suddenly just is focused, he's locked in, he's doing all the tasks, and you know, to hear my dad say to me you're switched on now, it's a great feeling for you. You know, it makes you really, really feel like you're not just useless and that you can actually do things, but it just needed to be addressed, it needed to be found out.
From that point I then obviously went on and started doing personal training. Something that I looked at doing four years prior to that point, you know, but I couldn't do it.Honestly, when I was sitting down trying to fill out all of my paperwork, fill out different things, different aspects of it, I basically just sit down for 5, 10 minutes, get frustrated, and then go. And then it became so hard.
Anyway, I managed to complete it in the end up, and I'm now at a point where I've just, as of last October, started my new business. I'm now just loving that, loving chatting to my clients, and I talk to my clients about ADHD, as I'm sure a lot of other people with ADHD.
see do but you know it's just been just so amazing for me to be diagnosed, medicated and now I can finally feel like I can start my life. I think for me it's something that I've always tried to make people laugh and I've always tried to be that person you know that and obviously that came with a wee bit of that need to be that need to feel like but honestly like I would say it's a really strong point for me it's my creativity and I'll think of things that are just different than everybody else's viewpoint you know and not necessarily in a bad or good way but I mean I'll take a new angle to it I'll find something else I mean I'll work around things and I'll look for like a different strategy and I find that a very positive thing.
say that pretty much when you do find something that you like, you will focus in on it. You will be amazing at it and you will research it. You will be so in love with it.And when you find that thing that you love, just pursue it and go for it. It's going to be a huge strength. ADHD will make you hyper-focused on the things that you want to be focused on. So use it as an advantage. You know, it can be an absolute gift.I think understanding is the main one. You will kick yourself and think that everything's wrong with you and that immediately from finding out I had ADHD that was the support, that was a big one, but understanding it. Knowing what sets you off, what's going to put you in a bad way, what's going to make you feel better, some coping strategies, it's just about education, it's about learning about it. And along with that, medication was great, but I mean, I think more than anything, it's having routine, it's having these wee strategies and understanding what is actually up with your brain, and that's what helps.
I think for anybody that is struggling and they don't know what's going on, but they think it might be ADHD, that is light at the end of the tunnel. You know, it's not just, it's not all doom and gloom. You've got plenty of, plenty of things that you can contribute to the world. And it's just, you know, there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
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