You're in good company
Here are 15 people who have spoken publicly about living with both sides of what the ARK is for: a brain that learns differently, and an addiction they had to come back from. Between them they invented heavy metal, won Olympic gold, built airlines and collected Oscars.
Everything below comes from what these people have said about themselves in public — interviews, memoirs, documentaries and their own advocacy work.
The "Prince of Darkness" and frontman of Black Sabbath helped invent heavy metal. He was candid about his undiagnosed childhood ADHD and dyslexia, which badly damaged his confidence at school, and he spoke openly about his decades-long battle with drugs and alcohol and the work it took to find stability in sobriety.
One of the highest-selling musical artists of all time. He has frequently referenced his childhood ADHD and his struggles with reading and writing at school. After a near-fatal prescription drug overdose in 2007 he got sober, and credits structured exercise and writing routines with keeping him grounded.
The multi-Grammy-winning Black Eyed Peas rapper, producer and tech entrepreneur has spoken openly about his ADHD. He has described growing up surrounded by substance abuse, and using music production as the thing he could pour that focus into instead of self-medicating.
The Maroon 5 frontman and philanthropist has been vocal about how the ADHD he was diagnosed with as a teenager followed him into adult life. He has spoken publicly about the temptations of the touring lifestyle, and about managing his ADHD as the thing that keeps his health on track.
The Oscar-winning actress and best-selling children’s book author struggled badly at school with dyslexia and other learning differences. She came through a severe, hidden addiction to painkillers and alcohol in the 1980s and 1990s, and says her decades of sobriety are the single greatest achievement of her life — above the acting career.
A major box-office draw and producer. Tatum has explicitly linked his ADHD and dyslexia at school to his adult struggle with high-functioning alcoholism, describing substances as something he first reached for to quiet a restless, overactive brain.
The two-time Academy Award-winning actor was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome late in life. He has been strikingly open about drinking heavily early in his career to numb the isolation that came with it, and he has been sober since 1975.
A comedian, actor and author who has spoken about being diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder. Brand turned a harrowing heroin and alcohol addiction into advocacy, writing at length about the 12-step program and funding grassroots recovery projects.
The Ghostbusters co-creator, comic actor and Oscar nominee has said he has mild Asperger’s. He has talked about the intense focus it gives him, about coming up inside the substance-heavy comedy scene of the 1970s, and about the long, productive career he built anyway.
The multi-Oscar-nominated actor and environmental activist grew up with ADHD and dyslexia. He has spoken frequently about how much he once leaned on substances to manage his own hyperactive energy, and about the turn he has since made toward health and mindfulness.
The most decorated Olympic athlete in history, with 28 medals. Diagnosed with ADHD at nine, Phelps has described using alcohol to self-medicate the crash that followed each competitive peak. After going to treatment in 2014 he became one of the world’s most visible advocates for mental health and honesty about addiction.
The founder of the Virgin Group has reshaped aviation, music and philanthropy. He has spoken about his severe dyslexia — he left school at sixteen — and about an "addictive personality" he had to deliberately point at building businesses rather than at anything more dangerous.
The Emmy-winning host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition helped build homes for thousands of American families. He has been candid about drinking heavily in his youth to mute severe, undiagnosed ADHD, about finally getting treated for it, and about warning others off self-medicating.
An Olympic gold medalist and Stanley Cup-winning NHL player. Fleury coped with undiagnosed ADHD and severe childhood trauma through drugs and alcohol. Since his recovery he has become a motivational speaker and best-selling author whose work is dedicated to helping other people heal.
The media entrepreneur, radio host and author has spoken openly about his ADHD, and just as openly about the alcoholism and drug use that nearly ended his career. He has described his recovery in the 1990s, and the way his own brain works, as the things that shaped everything he built afterwards.
Every person on this page had help — a program, a doctor, a room full of people who understood. That is what the ARK is: free meetings, free reading materials, and people who get it.