Ben Woodcock

“I have ADHD,” Ben says. “I am fidgety. I have difficulty paying attention for lengthy amounts of time. It’s gotten better as I’ve gotten older though. The best way to explain ADHD is that it’s like having a full bucket of tennis balls thrown at you at the same time. You don’t know which one to hit first.”

The seventeen-year-old has wide-ranging interests—snowboarding, skateboarding, fishing, weightlifting, science—and calls himself “an original thinker.” “ADHD is there whether you like it or not,” he says. “It’s good and it’s bad. It just is, really. You have good times and bad times and deal with it as you can on a day-to-day basis.”

Ben doesn’t think he has been as stigmatized for his ADHD as perhaps other kids who have mental health and learning disabilities. “When you’re in elementary school where most of the stigma starts, ADHD is fun,” he says. “Kids are like ‘Oh, yeah, this kid’s going to be funny in class.’ I do make people laugh, but it doesn’t mean I’m not adding to the conversation.”

Of his work with PACER, he says, “I advocate for people who don’t have a voice. That’s my big thing. When I was a kid, I learned how to self-advocate and I know there are people who are still scared of it. Or their parents don’t want to acknowledge [their mental health or learning disability] or they don’t have the time or the money. That’s where PACER helps.”