Catching Hope, Shifting Identity: An Adhder Study of The Bottom End Fishing Community And The Impact of Brexit

This study is an account of destabilising identity during a time of Brexit, the severing of the UK from the European Union and its regulations, having global and personal ramifications. For me and for the fishermen of my study, the essence of the past few years has been a delicate balance of information gathering and relationships. Balancing a discussion of national politics, the reality of economic hardship and the onset of destabilised identity, this PhD merges and twists through personal narrative and quantitative analysis. The subjects demand for several distinct processes of approaching the topic both objectively and subjectively, obliged me to combine methodologies. I had to fuse focused thinking with fact-based results and the qualitative narrative of my informants, individuals operating through the crisis of adversity whilst attempting to manage a newly shifting identity. I had to recognise and manage the awareness that I was collaborating with real people in challenging times. I want this work to stand as dedication to those with ADHD or Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and a celebratory memorial to the observable resilience of the fishers and their community of the Bottom End. I present this study to raise awareness of the consequential connections between complex external events and individuals in their community, and the impact that has on all of us. I hope to have achieved a small part of that aim.