Let’s share literary and movie characters who have ADHD. I’ll start with Helen, a friend of Jane Eyre’s.

I was just rereading Jane Eyre and noticed even more now that I’ve been diagnosed how much I’m like Helen. And I thought we could all get a little comfort from our old storybook character friends- we’re not alone! Anyone have any good Anne of Green Gables quotes?

A little background in case you haven’t read Jane Eyre: she’s gone to a boarding school and made friends with Helen. Miss Satcherd is very strict, and Miss Temple, kind and forgiving.

Helen explained to Jane in Chapter 6, “I am, as Miss Scatcherd said, slatternly; I seldom put, and never keep, things, in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should learn my lessons; I have no method; and sometimes I say, like you, I cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements. This is all very provoking to Miss Scatcherd, who is naturally neat, punctual, and particular."

Later Helen continues: “One strong proof of my wretchedly defective nature is that even her [Miss Temple’s] expostulations, so mild, so rational, have not influence to cure me of my faults; and even her praise, though I value it most highly, cannot stimulate me to continued care and foresight."

"That is curious," said I [Jane], "it is so easy to be careful."

"For you I have no doubt it is. I observed you in your class this morning, and saw you were closely attentive: your thoughts never seemed to wander while Miss Miller explained the lesson and questioned you. Now, mine continually rove away; when I should be listening to Miss Scatcherd, and collecting all she says with assiduity, often I lose the very sound of her voice; I fall into a sort of dream. Sometimes I think I am in Northumberland, and that the noises I hear round me are the bubbling of a little brook which runs through Deepden, near our house; — then, when it comes to my turn to reply, I have to be awakened; and having heard nothing of what was read for listening to the visionary brook, I have no answer ready."

"Yet how well you replied this afternoon."

"It was mere chance; the subject on which we had been reading had interested me.”

And then Helen keeps on talking too much, just to herself, babbling on. Oy!