Jun 7
Today Tracy welcomes Tiffany Jackson to the podcast. Tiffany shares her indefatigable childhood story of being abandoned by her mother, bouncing from one relatives home to another, and spending one perfect year at an elite boarding high school only to end up at a homeless shelter as a minor. Throughout all of this, Tiffany had a dream to make something out of her life. Since then she’s graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication from the Dan Rather School of Communications at Sam Houston State University, attended a year of law school which is where she received her ADHD diagnosis and in 2018 she graduated from Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences with a Master of Biomedical Science.
Tiffany plans to attend medical school and work as a physician epidemiologist. She loves photography and car racing.
Tiffany shares her thoughts on how grit, drive and determination allowed her to keep going despite so many setbacks and challenges, how she sees her drivenness as hyperactivity, the circumstances surrounding her ADHD diagnosis, her childhood symptoms of ADHD, what happened once she was finally diagnosed, what she’s learned she needs to be successful and happy, what she thinks the key to living successfully with ADHD is, her workarounds and how she discovered what she’s always meant to do with her life.
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"I always felt like I was intelligent, but it was hard to believe it when everyone around me kept saying I was lazy and unmotivated."
- Tiffany Jackson
"When I was teased by other kids, it felt like a stab in the heart. I couldn't control my reactions, and it just made me feel even more frustrated with myself."
- Tiffany Jackson
"Being diagnosed with ADHD in law school was both a relief and a burden. It explained so much, but it didn't magically make everything better. I still had to figure out how to navigate my challenges."
- Tiffany Jackson
- Tiffany discusses her experience with ADHD, mentioning that she was never formally diagnosed but has learned to accept it as a part of her identity.
- Tiffany's struggles with school began in fourth grade, after she left her grandmother's home, and she remembers getting good grades in earlier years.
- Tiffany experienced homelessness twice in her life, once in high school after being kicked out of boarding school and again later on, which she believes was due to her ADHD being undiagnosed and untreated.
[25:15 - 32:01] ADHD, Trauma, and Mental Health
- Tiffany shares experiences of rejection sensitivity and dysphoria as a teenager, leading to destructive behavior and estrangement from her aunt.
- Tiffany shares her experience of struggling to find a job after law school due to her ADHD diagnosis.
- Tiffany shares her experiences with trauma, diagnosis, and self-discovery.
- Tiffany shares her experience with ADHD, from struggling in school to finding success in corporate America and later pursuing a career in epidemiology during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Tiffany shares her experience with ADHD, from struggling in school to finding success in corporate America and later pursuing a career in epidemiology during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Tiffany acknowledges special people in her life, including family, friends, and mentors.
