Now It All Makes Sense by Alex Partridge is an insightful and relatable read for anyone navigating life with ADHD. Partridge’s personal journey, diagnosed later in life (typical for many of us), makes the content feel genuine and validating. His ability to highlight the challenges while also emphasizing self-compassion and understanding is what makes this book stand out. It’s not about “fixing” ADHD but rather learning how to work with your brain and letting go of guilt that often comes with diagnosis. I think this book is perfect for anyone seeking to understand themselves or support a loved one with ADHD, this book strikes the right balance between honesty and encouragement. I really appreciated the humor weaved throughout the book.

I love Alex’s podcast and social media and was excited to read this! As a late diagnosed ADHD-er I really enjoy books on this subject as they are validating and supportive in equal measure. This was no different - a great read and one I will pass on to my husband to read to help him support me in my ADHD journey.

Alex Partridge was diagnosed with ADHD at 34, which for a man is pretty late in life (more common for women), it made him look back at his life and have a few ohhhh moments. When you finally know how your brain works, you realise that maybe some of the things you went through all your life were not entirely your own fault.
As a women aged 39 who has been diagnosed with GAD (like the author) and been told that I was most likely neurodivergent but that since I compensated for way too long, I would never get a diagnosis at my age (that was fun), that book spoke to me way too much.
Sometimes the best advice you’ll get about a condition if from the people actually suffering from it. Not that therapist and psychiatrist are not good at their job, but they do tend to give a lot of advice that may sound like good advice but don’t actually work if your brain works a little differently.
I may have wanted to cry reading that part

"Women have become so good at hiding their ADHD traits because society teaches them that’s not how women should behave.Women are so good at masking they have even convinced their doctors that they’re ‘normal’ and then they get misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression or PMS. Too many women and girls are living in a constant state of overwhelm, have crippling low self-esteem, struggle to maintain relationships, are ultra-sensitive to rejection and they don’t know why. They feel misunderstood – and this can have disastrous outcomes."

Because yeah, so incredibly true. And this is why books like that are important. The author doesn’t say that everything will be perfect if you follow his advice, but what I took from it is that life doesn’t have to be that hard and that there are ways to make it easier. And the most important one is that we should forgive ourselves and give ourself grace.

Partridge is wonderfully relatable, helpful and honest in his telling of his experience with ADHD.
It is clear that he has intended for this book to be insightful. The highlight for me was how he manages to remove the self-guilt from ADHD and makes this the main message of this book.

I enjoyed reading this book. The epub is horrible though. I don't know what the publisher did but the formating is completely messed up.

Downloaded this on Netgalley bc I've been wondering if I have ADHD lately, and this seemed like a great way to get some insight.
A large part of it was relatable, like being forgetful and needing reminders for everything, fear of rejection, catastrophising, hyperfocusing on things, putting off tasks for ages and then completing them within minutes.
I like how the author wrote this book. By giving clear examples, he illustrated situations well, and also kept the focus on the much-needed positive aspects of ADHD, while not trivialising its negative aspects.
Still unclear to me if I have ADHD, I think that's how it will be for me until I get an official diagnosis (let me procrastinate). But yeah, much of it IS relatable.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.