These past few seasons of my life have helped me grow, mature and learn a lot about who I am and things that I can and cannot control. Like "After Hours Chell".
After Hours Chell can be elusive at times and not everyone has met her. She tends to visit when all the coffee wears off and I'm a bit tired.
I've been told she's akin to a person who has consumed to many adult beverages. A bit wild and hyper, After Hours Chell is your party girl. Wanna have a good time? Invite her, not me. She's always up for dares and can has been labeled "a bit scary" at times, but a hard pinch seems to bring her back to reality. Sometimes, when she's been extended a bit beyond her limits, she tends to experience some "mood swings" and may end up a messy puddle of tears - but don't worry, because after a good 20 minutes or so, she'll be back to her bouncy, wild self!
Growing up, my younger brother experienced some behavior differences that my family was not fond of, so (according to my personal memories) a diagnosis was pushed for - in hopes of "a cure" or at least, a medication that would quell some of his differences that were deemed "annoying". (To be clear, he was not the type of child who seemingly bounced off walls. In my memory, our family's chief complaint was that he "talked too much".) Eventually, he received the diagnosis of ADHD and some unwelcomed treatment for it.
During this same time frame, little Michelle "just gets hyper sometimes when she's really tired" and it wasn't until as adult (at the age of 30 and explaining to my doctor that a medication she had given me "made the insides of my brain spin around") her doctor nonchalantly mentioned that she had ADHD. Life started to make more sense at this point. Pieces of the puzzle that I was unable to place now had a home. My penchant for multi-tasking? Viewed as "normal" to me now. The unpredictable hyper-self that turned on when I grew tired (or became exhausted) remained unexplained for a majority of my formative years and now had a label.
After Hours Chell gets her name from the root cause of her appearance- "after hours". It seems that, for the most part, (and with the help of coffee) I am able to keep all of my filters on for a majority of the day. I have a large amount of self control. However, when I am short on sleep (and some days, "just because"), the coffee stops working, all of my filters fall off, and I tend to do things that seem a bit out of my typical character.
Typically, I'm a good friend and am loosely aware of this phenomenon happening- I try to warn my nearest and dearest that "anything I do or say beyond this point does not count" because things can get real ugly, real quick. After Hours Chell had no regard for manners and lacks some (or all) of the social graces required to maintain adult relationships. But, she is fun, and here to stay.
What's even more fun is that my teenage daughter has an "After Hours" and she gets along great with my "After Hours". Normalizing neurodiverseness is becoming an important part of our culture, and I'm here for it. Feel free to share your neurodiverse stories in the comments below!
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