NZ comedian Guy Williams gets ADHD diagnosis alongside his sister Maria in TVNZ documentary

In a new documentary siblings and comedians Maria and Guy Williams share how ADHD affects them.

• In a new documentary, ADHD: Not Just Hyper, Guy Williams publically undergoes a diagnosis for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Alongside his sister, Maria Williams, the comedian meets experts in the disorder and learns about the spectrum of ways it can present.
• The documentary airs on Monday, December 16 on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+

It’s sort of like the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, that frequency illusion where you notice things more often just after learning about them. You buy a new car and suddenly the same make and model is everywhere.

But for Guy Williams, it’s not Mitsubishi Outlanders − it’s people he suspects are neurodivergent.

“I work with a lot of people that probably have a bit of undiagnosed ADHD in the comedy, television and entertainment industry,” Williams says, admitting that his own diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has changed his outlook. “I could probably name six or seven colleagues off the top of my head who I think probably should get tested.”

On December 16, the comedian releases the documentary ADHD: Not Just Hyper, in which he and his sibling Maria Williams undergo testing to confirm they have the hereditary condition. In doing so he finds himself in something of a role reversal.

“I first started comedy when I was 19, and there were definitely other comedians who would say there was something weird about me or say I was on some sort of spectrum. I never listened to them because they were such strange people themselves,” he says, with a laugh.

In Not Just Hyper we watch the funny man incrementally soften from his steadfast denial he has the neurodevelopmental disorder. Why was he so reticent?

“The whole thing felt so very unscientific to me that I wasn’t actually convinced. I was also probably in denial a little bit as well,” he admits.

“I think what has probably kept it hidden for a very long time, is that I’ve never had to face the professional and personal responsibilities that someone in a proper job has had to face.

“I’m very blessed that I get rewarded for my eccentricities. The fact that I am, maybe a bit out of the gate is a huge strength in this job.”

Guy Williams says getting an ADHD diagnosis has helped him be kinder to himself.

But after meetings with experts, testimonials on the life experiences of others with ADHD, and scientific scans that showed both Guy and Maria’s brains reacted atypically in test conditions, Williams was forced to rethink, and found he couldn’t laugh it off.

“I realised quickly I knew nothing about ADHD. I knew my sister has it, I knew some of the badly behaved boys at primary school had it ... It wasn’t until I could see my brain on a scan thinking differently to what you expect from a normal brain function. I don’t know if that is concrete evidence, but in my mind, that was evidence that now I have ADHD, I’ve got to, like, embrace it.”

Much like the spectrum of the disorder itself, that process of acceptance after a diagnosis looks different for everyone. For 37-year-old Williams, it’s been incremental.

“I’ve been slowly coming to terms with it, and noticing more and more things about myself that are probably ADHD: driving crazy, talking too much, talking too loudly.

“I bought a book [to learn more]. I’m slowly working through that. I’ve done a few basic Google searches.”

One thing he didn’t delay was getting medicated. “I did take medication as soon as it was offered. I’ve been experimenting with medication and just learning more about myself. It’s really nice because it means you can be kind to yourself − I’m really, really bad at things like emails and administration and [medication] allows me not to beat myself up so much.”

That’s a work in progress though too. Williams is concerned his instinctive reach towards the comedic paints him in a negative light, given the documentary’s subject matter.

“I do worry I come across as a bit of a knob, which is fine because I am,” he says with a laugh, doing it again. “I enjoyed being a comic relief but everyone else in the doco is incredibly sincere and speaking heartbreakingly about how much they suffered with ADHD, whereas I’m there kind of taking the piss, joking about it.

“I don’t want to belittle or mock their experience ... I hope over time the doco gets across that everyone experiences it differently. My life has been relatively unaffected.”

But is this experience not just as valid? After all, these conditions aren’t binary. Or perhaps Williams sees his life as less affected than those with more intrusive versions of the disorder because subconsciously he began embracing his neurodiversity well before his diagnosis.

“In my career, I’ve been rewarded for being out there, for what some perceive as rude or ridiculous behaviour. It’s been quite incentivised at my job. Leaning into the ridiculousness of it all.”

Comedian siblings Maria and Guy Williams, appear in a new TVNZ documentary together, "ADHD: Not Just Hyper".

He’s not just doing it because it gets a reaction though. Embracing the idiosyncratic is something of a guiding principle for Williams.

“Embracing what makes us different is really fun and enjoyable. I think it’s really nice to go ‘Hey, there’s things about me that are a bit weird and quirky, there’s nothing wrong with me’. There are things about me that are not normal, and that’s a good thing,”

“There’s no point being too serious most of the time because, you know, besides cancer and Palestine, there aren’t too many things in this world that are worth getting your knickers in a twist about ... especially when you live in fricking Nelson, New Zealand.”

He may be at peace with the time it’s taken to accept his ADHD, but Williams signals a desire that younger sister Maria’s path to diagnosis should have been more linear.

“I feel bad for my sister, she’s always kind of been like ‘something is wrong’ and my family always had that Kiwi mentality of like ‘you’ll be right, mate, suck it up and get over it’. It’s embarrassing now and regretful. Maria and I are quite close. In a lot of ways, we’re almost the female-male equivalent of each other. I just kind of assumed what would work for me would work for her,” he says.

“I’m really proud of her that she’s managed to shake off the classic Kiwi mental health stigma. She has been the one who got self-diagnosed and opened the Pandora’s box, and now I’m diagnosed too.”

ADHD: Not Just Hyper airs on TVNZ 1, on Monday, December 16.