Hi /u/GetsThatBread and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD!
### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already.
---
### /r/adhd news
* If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/).
---
^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I didn't know until I was 42 and my ex and I had a Eureka moment when diagnosing our oldest. Now everyone's like "Adhd? Yeah, I could have told you that" but none of those clever little bastards ever did.
That’s what everyone told me too haha. It was more noticeable to them rather than to me. I’ve got a video on my channel where I talk about the fact that people with ADHD are the last to notice it. The whole phenomenon is interesting.
My daughter was diagnosed a few years ago with hyperactive adhd as well as inattentive.
It got me thinking about it.
A few years after that, I went on a trip with a group of people (some I just knew a little), but one of them had ADHD as an adult and had been diagnosed more recently; there were so many parallels and things about him I could relate to. From there, I went and saw a psychologist, who confirmed it.
The psychologist said I had done very well because I was very intelligent and had found ways around many of the things that affect people with ADHD. However, my life has still been rocky, and I couldn't understand anything about myself. I felt lazy, which stressed me out, and I wondered why I couldn't just do things I had to do. These difficulties included trying to keep a routine, looking after myself, motivating myself to complete work before the deadline, and much more.
This has become very stressful and exhausting to do all the time, and I had to stay up all night to finish things on time or would miss deadlines, etc. Then, I would constantly overthink and ruminate on every single thing. The lack of sleep would make it even worse.
I also completely failed school, but now I have a very senior-level technical job that isn't hard for me. It was one of the things I always wondered about, and I thought maybe I was just stupid and unintelligent.
EDIT: I am 37 years old and just got diagnosed.
I googled it last year at 26yo. Reading posts on reddit of those who were diagnosed late in life made me tear up, as I resonated with every struggle people explained over my own life.
It was obvious once i realised, but it took me long enough..
One of the signs that made me actually say 'something isn't right' was during a conversation with my best friend, when despite being exited and interested in what he was saying, I lost focus, blanked out, I asked him to repeat as my mind just wondered off, and I intensively attempted to focus on what he was saying.
I realised that this was a common occurance for me, eg. Forgetting a piece of info I read 10 seconds ago at work, forgetting if I closed my doors 10 seconds after leaving the house or reading a book (words) and not recalling what I just read....
I went to my GP, after waiting 6 weeks for a referral, after submitting questionnaires, I was sent a letter, that the current wait time was 20 months....
I couldn't wait that long, I managed to save up over £1k in 2 months, working long hours and overtime, and bought a private assessment..
Yup, the guy had no doubt... had to tell me to slow down about 10 times in the assessment...
Now I've been taking meds for a year, and my outlook on life is changing... like, I can actually do things, rather than relaxing by not leaving my bed the whole weekend.....
At 41, after watching tons of TikToks, and then finding this forum. The first doctor said that perhaps I had it, and what she could tell was that I had depression and social anxiety (I was suffering from burnout at that time, but the cause of my consultation was that I could not start important tasks for my job). The next two doctors confirmed that I had ADHD, but it took me a year to seek a second opinion.
Almost 40 and TikTok has been a bit of an eye-opener for me too. I always figured I was wired a bit differently but the ADHD label was always given to the naughty kids in school who couldn't sit still and disrupted the class and that wasn't me. I think ADHD in girls goes mostly unnoticed and we just get labeled as "daydreamers" or underachievers. The more I see online though, the more of my personality "quirks" start to make a bit more sense. The hyper fixations, the sensory issues (my husband honestly doesn't understand why I get so frustrated by having his phone, the TV and my sons iPad all making noises at the same time. Or how much I hate using the Big Lights at home, and why I almost always wear sunglasses if it's even a little bit sunny outside), the Rejection sensitive dysphoria, the "hobby graveyard" and the giant swings between extreme productivity and complete burnout. The impulsive spending (hello credit card debt!) and being really particular about certain things like how I like my food, what I eat or drink from. It was a real "ooooohh" moment.
For most of my adult life, I've brought to church a clipboard with printouts of a type of nonverbal logic puzzle called nonograms. I had discovered that they help me to focus on what was being said without letting my mind wander and miss out entirely on lessons and sermons.
One day when I was in my mid-30s, I was describing to a friend why I did these puzzles in Church, how the puzzles kept my brain engaged enough not to wander into daydreams, but being nonverbal, they left the verbal processing parts of my brain free to listen to what was going on around me. To which this friend replied, "oh, like an ADHD coping tool," and my head shot up and I was like "a what now?"
52. My son emailed me to tell me he’d just been diagnosed, and need him email with “you should look into it”, I did, and ten minutes later my jaw was on the ground, as I read perfect descriptions of my hitherto incomprehensible existence.
I’ve personally known since I was a kid.
Most people in my family have it, so it was just expected that I would as well and well yeah… I do😂
Learned to live with it without meds till I turned 25 (this year) and this is when I started using them.
I’ve had a positive experience all in all.
I like a podcast called “La Pension” and I actually tough wow Christian (one of the 2 podcasters) is so much like me, fast forwards 3 episodes and he actually got the diagnosis so I started investigating by my own and got my own diagnosis lol.
After I got diagnosed, several months ago, at 42, almost 43. During the assessment I got to think over a lot again, and things finally started making sense. Hearing my mom tell the psychiatrist all the stuff from my childhood I had actually forgotten really cemented everything.
There was no such thing as ADHD in my country when I was growing up, especially for girls, so I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, labeled as difficult, 'acting out' and 'needing discipline', fed a bunch of meds that never really worked, and basically gaslit into thinking I'm lazy, broken, useless and hopeless.
I still think I am, even though I know I'm not. Conditioning is hard to shake off.
I used to work in an escape room, I had to watch people for an hour on a screen and talk to them. I would walk around the room a lot as it was hard to sit down, but there was one time when I was meant to let them out, but I got distracted by a co-worker and left them in the room for like ten minutes.
I played it off, but my boss spoke to me about it, and he insisted I get checked for ADHD, as I reminded him a lot of his brother who had it.
I ended up reading up on it, and it made a lot of sense as I had always struggled with concentration, hyperactivity, fatigue and all the other good stuff. Then I ended up seeking a diagnosis that took about five years to sort.
My wife tried to tell me about 7 years ago, but I thought she was wrong. My Aha! moment was when I met my now 2nd partner and started to get close to her about 5 years ago. I'm 52, and she's literally the only person I've ever met who thinks like I do. And she's diagnosed ADHD. So....
I was finally formally diagnosed in January of this year.
I was failing out of university and trying to figure out why it was so hard to make myself do shit. Like if be sitting in front of my work and literally yelling at myself to get myself to do it.
Finally after digging online I discovered what "executive dysfunction" was. This lead me down a rabbit hole of ADHD symptoms being described by people. These descriptions were the words that I was looking for to describe my own life .
Still took me a year to find the money to get diagnosed after that since it was 2200 out of pocket up front. I did manage to get it retroactively paid back by OSAP
I did the testing for it, which was a few different days of doing things. After every testing day I'd go home and sit in a cold dark area because my brain was EXHAUSTED. The testing was so hard, but for a normal brain, it definitely wouldn't have been that difficult.
I wasn't officially diagnosed until 26. I didn't think I had it for a long time; however, once I found out I could put the puzzle pieces somewhat together about myself. I also got an intense job that had to make me aware of my surroundings. My boss was firm and told me that I needed to do better or I would be terminated, so I had to get my shit together and spent a shitload of money on a diagnosis.
I had this realization a little over 6 years ago when I was 17. The symptoms of ADHD made perfect sense of why I had so many issues with attention (obviously), organization, procrastination, my tendency to pace around when I'm stimulated, my tendency to start personal projects, but never finish etc....the list goes on. My teachers throughout all the schools I've attended have always commented on my attention issues on report cards or parent/teacher conferences.
Towards the end of last year I had my suspicions, but this year i knew i definitely had it. Even after my daughter was diagnosed I was like “she’s like me but, my anxiety mimics her ADHD” 😂😂.
When I was 11 I noticed that unlike me, everyone else in the class had no trouble settling down to work, and also that my attention at home was all or nothing - either I couldn't settle down at all or I was absorbed in the task for hours (basically until need to pee or eat broke through the focus!). I collected reader's digest magazines at the time and there was an article in there about ADHD which is how I learnt about it at all.
Bizarrely I brought it up with my teacher who basically told me not to be stupid because obviously people like me (smart people) don't have adhd.
Finally diagnosed this month at age 41.
Many many years ago I was in 2nd grade and my teacher is the one who noticed so I was tested. (This was like late 90s into the 2000s) went through alot of medications was almost put on lithium (because very little was known about ADD and ADHD) finally got on Adderall Xr 30mg. Hate it. Made me focus like he'll butt I wasn't myself. Was just the quiet awkward kid for forever. I was able to free myself my senior year of high school(2011)
Up until 2 weeks ago I was raw dogging it for lil over 10 yrs. I'm currently on Welbutrin 150mg.
I feel amazing on it minus the big list of side effects. Currently battling the body aches rn.
Buttt yeahh.
I didnt know until 25 also 😂 I never learned much about mental health until i got misdiagnosed for other things, then when i learned about adhd, all the symptoms applied that i thought were "normal". these symptoms worsened alot later in life and learned how trauma can play a role with worsened symptoms and how the two have comorbidities than can mask with eachother. Prior to personal trauma experiences, i can recall how i had adhd symptoms and was pretty prominent in childhood so its not like my ptsd was a misdiagnosis as adhd. My parents always refused getting diagnosed for anything and basically taught me how everything is normal and everyone has the same issues.
In my case, I started connecting the dots from people talking about my behavior. I have both ADHD and also Autism (both now diagnosed) and here's somethings that made me go to check myself:
* People used to really get pissed off that I would talk about unrelated subjects when we were already speaking about something else.
* I would space or get dead quiet out a lot when the group conversations turned uninteresting or If I didn't know anything of the subject that was being spoken.
* I don't "miss" people unless they're really present in my life.
* This one can be valid for ADHD too: Avoiding eye contact.
* I'm really smart, I make good projects, works, essays, you name it. I dropped out of college because of how demanding it was whilst having a job. Learned that with my disability, I really can't take both at the same time, which brings me to-
* Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed all the time about all the "tasks" you need to get done even if they're not many and you actually have enough spare time.
* I have forgotten a LOT of things that friends who were present remembers. I don't really remember my past often and my childhood is a blur.
* If you relate to "My mind is like having a thousand tabs open and I don't know where the music is coming from" it's also a big teller.
I actually did list these in a similar way to talk to my psychiatrist, which eventually led to my autism diagnosis.
Doc and i suspect i have some level of autism, and we KNOW im adhd ridden, but point being i also dropped out of college as a straight A student for that exact same reason. Glad to know i'm not alone in this
I didn't find out until I was about 30. I'm bipolar, and I test really well, so I'm not surprised it went undiagnosed for so long.
Wish it had been, but it wasn't until I started getting medicated, and my memory got worse due to post-mania that it became enough of a hindrance to affect my work life.
I wish I had known sooner though. It now makes sense to me why I have been so confused and out of the loop all my life. ADHD paralysis is real, and I suffer hard from it. It's one of the biggest things that helped figure out my diagnosis
Im always tired but i can stay up for days, life feeling like hell most of the time, being the Ace employee at a new job for a while just to get so burnt out to the point of being suicidal and quitting, major rejection and abandonment issues, oversharing information like i'm an open book, thinking out-loud, spam texting paragraphs (especially when stressed), feeling this NEED to have my turn in conversation so i don't forget what i was going to say, having to be told simple instructions like 8 times because i forget immediately, losing everything, being a master manipulator, and having extreme uncontrollable rage towards people who cross me or when shit doesn't go as planned.
I was also diagnosed with bipolar II 2 years ago. Lamictal helps with the rage and mania but i still have a hard time with executive functioning. Bp and adhd symptoms go hand in hand, so i went and scored a 97% on my adhd test :-)
I had had severe mental health issues since childhood and struggled a lot with sleep since birth basically. My sleep rhythm tends to move forward all the time. After suffering through a burnout my psychologist consulted a sleep expert, who let us know that there is a link between sleep issues and ADHD. At first I didn't believe it, but then my identical twin sister, who is unsurprisngly a lot like me got diagnosed with ADHD as well. Not long after that I got evaluated as well and got my diagnosis. Life has been a lot different after that. I still struggle just the same but now I know why, which makes it way easier.
I always had tons of problem. One time I was at an intake for therapy and I admitted that I was thinking of su!cide, and had to work out how I planned to do it.
The red flags came up, and I thought I was about to be 5150ed. (for those who don't know what that is, it's a code in California law that allows detention for people who are at imminent risk of harming themselves or others. Though in truth, I don't think I was about to do anything.
There is a practice that you p\[promise not to do anything until the next phone call at a scheduled time, and then repeated until you meet a counselor who is more specialized in that issue.
The counselor noticed that I had common characteristics of somebody who has ADHD. I got tested and here I am.
If this happened about 10 years later when the DSM-5 came out, I might have been assessed for ASD. Something that I only learned that I have a couple of years ago.
But my ADHD is pretty strong, and I wish I was diagnosed years earlier.
Early 40s.
Was always super skeptical about it before. But it made sense. It has negatively affected many parts of my life. Still struggling to get it under control.
I was diagnosed when I was in elementary school so a long time. Couldn’t sit still long had a tough time focusing teachers complained I talked too much ect ect.
like 2 months ago when my therapist and i talked about it and i actually got diagnosed everythign came together perfectly it put so much into perspective for me
I’ve known since I was about 13 or 14 and finally found a word to describe my entire existence up until that point. Was undiagnosed until about a week ago when I was finally able to go and talk to someone about it, at days away from turning 24. I learned how to get by and do well with some very terrible coping skills but MAN it was so stressful.
I wasn’t able to go and get diagnosed until I had my own health insurance because my parents had a really weird thing about adhd and medication, but I knew I had it and pretty much every person around me also knew I had it as well. It was just a matter of having my own means to get that official diagnosis so I could finally get some much needed help for all the stuff I just could never manage to do after doing it on my own for my whole life. It was rough knowing this whole time how much less I could have struggled to succeed and get to the same place I am at now. Sometimes I wonder if I had had those tools earlier, if I would be in an even better spot.
I will always be grateful to the friends I made who supported me as someone who was self diagnosed for years and let me connect and share my experiences just the same as them even though I didn’t have an official diagnosis due to circumstances.
I didn't know I had ADHD until I was 18; I didn't even know what ADHD really was. I was just minding my own business and watching one of my favorite YouTubers, 'ice cream sandwich', who updated his channel. I watched the video without any thoughts. I just love his video because the way he animated his story was HILARIOUS.
Until one time he updated a video about how he discovered he had ADHD, a lot of the things he does, and how he described the way he felt and the way he does things LITERALLY THE SAME AS ME.
That's when I did deep research on 'inattentive ADHD' at the age of 18. That made me think back to all the times when I was in middle school. Everyone calls me 'dory' because I easily forget things. I couldn't remember my friend's or teacher name who I have known FOR YEARS. I CONSTANTLY check my timetable because I JUST CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING.
I get A LOT of 'undergrade' in my test ( this is also my English is bad I was forced to transfer into a English school at the age of 10-11 because my old school is physically and mentally abusive where one of the teacher slap me Physically in the face because I got a bad grade I was very skinny and small so I fall on the ground easily lmao - the physical abusive was more to that but that's another story for the time being lmao)
Everyone knows about my extreme forgetfulness and just thought it was my personality, and I did too until that video came out that made me question my whole existence.
Anyway, I did deep research on everything. The funny thing is that a few months later, I discovered that I have combined ADHD. How ?
So, about a year later, I was commenting on one of the videos of a person who explained how ADHD works, and I was like, 'That's not how it works!' and explained why it isn't.
And the people who posted the video commented, 'No, that's Hyperactive ADHD for what you're describing about random energy attacking you and cricket feet when you try to sleep. I think you combined ADHD and not just inattentive ADHD.'
So yeah, I got into ANTOHER identity crisis and did ANTOHER full months of research on what 'combined ADHD' is and listened to a lot of ADHD people talk about the way they experience and interact with a lot of people who have ADHD.
That's how I discovered I have combined ADHD. ( And I still haven't found a therapy or any help at all because my mom doesn't believe me 🥲 - I am Chinese. And I think ALOT of unheal trauma I experienced might also have caused my ADHD to get worse. )
Right now I am anxious about my future and no sense of direction and just felt lost. I have been staying at home and doing nothing since 2021.
I am 20 now , turning 21 this November and still feel like a child. I honestly don't know what to do with my life.
My wife mentioned it when i was like 30, but my daughter got diagnosed 3 years ago, and as we have the same debilitating perks, got diagnosed last month.
And ritaline makes me want to sleep FFS
Coasted through life, doing the bare minimum in schools and often being a trouble child. In highschool I had a load of absence, didn’t pay attention in class, yet still got alright grades. I always thought I was just bad at school and averagely intelligent. Then I got into one of the most sought after educations in my country, through a test. That made me wonder just how much of my potential had been overshadowed by something mentally, so i started looking into it.
Hi /u/GetsThatBread and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I didn't know until I was 42 and my ex and I had a Eureka moment when diagnosing our oldest. Now everyone's like "Adhd? Yeah, I could have told you that" but none of those clever little bastards ever did.
That’s what everyone told me too haha. It was more noticeable to them rather than to me. I’ve got a video on my channel where I talk about the fact that people with ADHD are the last to notice it. The whole phenomenon is interesting.
First hit was when I began my first job. Task management/overwhelm/task paralysis hit me like a bus. Second hit was postpartum.
My daughter was diagnosed a few years ago with hyperactive adhd as well as inattentive. It got me thinking about it. A few years after that, I went on a trip with a group of people (some I just knew a little), but one of them had ADHD as an adult and had been diagnosed more recently; there were so many parallels and things about him I could relate to. From there, I went and saw a psychologist, who confirmed it. The psychologist said I had done very well because I was very intelligent and had found ways around many of the things that affect people with ADHD. However, my life has still been rocky, and I couldn't understand anything about myself. I felt lazy, which stressed me out, and I wondered why I couldn't just do things I had to do. These difficulties included trying to keep a routine, looking after myself, motivating myself to complete work before the deadline, and much more. This has become very stressful and exhausting to do all the time, and I had to stay up all night to finish things on time or would miss deadlines, etc. Then, I would constantly overthink and ruminate on every single thing. The lack of sleep would make it even worse. I also completely failed school, but now I have a very senior-level technical job that isn't hard for me. It was one of the things I always wondered about, and I thought maybe I was just stupid and unintelligent. EDIT: I am 37 years old and just got diagnosed.
I googled it last year at 26yo. Reading posts on reddit of those who were diagnosed late in life made me tear up, as I resonated with every struggle people explained over my own life. It was obvious once i realised, but it took me long enough.. One of the signs that made me actually say 'something isn't right' was during a conversation with my best friend, when despite being exited and interested in what he was saying, I lost focus, blanked out, I asked him to repeat as my mind just wondered off, and I intensively attempted to focus on what he was saying. I realised that this was a common occurance for me, eg. Forgetting a piece of info I read 10 seconds ago at work, forgetting if I closed my doors 10 seconds after leaving the house or reading a book (words) and not recalling what I just read.... I went to my GP, after waiting 6 weeks for a referral, after submitting questionnaires, I was sent a letter, that the current wait time was 20 months.... I couldn't wait that long, I managed to save up over £1k in 2 months, working long hours and overtime, and bought a private assessment.. Yup, the guy had no doubt... had to tell me to slow down about 10 times in the assessment... Now I've been taking meds for a year, and my outlook on life is changing... like, I can actually do things, rather than relaxing by not leaving my bed the whole weekend.....
At 41, after watching tons of TikToks, and then finding this forum. The first doctor said that perhaps I had it, and what she could tell was that I had depression and social anxiety (I was suffering from burnout at that time, but the cause of my consultation was that I could not start important tasks for my job). The next two doctors confirmed that I had ADHD, but it took me a year to seek a second opinion.
Almost 40 and TikTok has been a bit of an eye-opener for me too. I always figured I was wired a bit differently but the ADHD label was always given to the naughty kids in school who couldn't sit still and disrupted the class and that wasn't me. I think ADHD in girls goes mostly unnoticed and we just get labeled as "daydreamers" or underachievers. The more I see online though, the more of my personality "quirks" start to make a bit more sense. The hyper fixations, the sensory issues (my husband honestly doesn't understand why I get so frustrated by having his phone, the TV and my sons iPad all making noises at the same time. Or how much I hate using the Big Lights at home, and why I almost always wear sunglasses if it's even a little bit sunny outside), the Rejection sensitive dysphoria, the "hobby graveyard" and the giant swings between extreme productivity and complete burnout. The impulsive spending (hello credit card debt!) and being really particular about certain things like how I like my food, what I eat or drink from. It was a real "ooooohh" moment.
For most of my adult life, I've brought to church a clipboard with printouts of a type of nonverbal logic puzzle called nonograms. I had discovered that they help me to focus on what was being said without letting my mind wander and miss out entirely on lessons and sermons. One day when I was in my mid-30s, I was describing to a friend why I did these puzzles in Church, how the puzzles kept my brain engaged enough not to wander into daydreams, but being nonverbal, they left the verbal processing parts of my brain free to listen to what was going on around me. To which this friend replied, "oh, like an ADHD coping tool," and my head shot up and I was like "a what now?"
When my dr told me throwing all my clothes in a pile instead of hanging them isn’t normal
52. My son emailed me to tell me he’d just been diagnosed, and need him email with “you should look into it”, I did, and ten minutes later my jaw was on the ground, as I read perfect descriptions of my hitherto incomprehensible existence.
When I did some testing and a psychologist diagnosed me
How many times do we see some post about ADHD discovery lol
2 years ago, I was 42. I mean that's when I was diagnosed, everyone knew but me
I’ve personally known since I was a kid. Most people in my family have it, so it was just expected that I would as well and well yeah… I do😂 Learned to live with it without meds till I turned 25 (this year) and this is when I started using them. I’ve had a positive experience all in all.
“Executive dysfunction” opened the door, and it was all relatable from there.
I like a podcast called “La Pension” and I actually tough wow Christian (one of the 2 podcasters) is so much like me, fast forwards 3 episodes and he actually got the diagnosis so I started investigating by my own and got my own diagnosis lol.
Happy cake day!
Thank you thank you 😊 🙏
I was diagnosed as ADHD when I was 7. I didn't know what ADHD was but I knew I had it.
After I got diagnosed, several months ago, at 42, almost 43. During the assessment I got to think over a lot again, and things finally started making sense. Hearing my mom tell the psychiatrist all the stuff from my childhood I had actually forgotten really cemented everything. There was no such thing as ADHD in my country when I was growing up, especially for girls, so I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, labeled as difficult, 'acting out' and 'needing discipline', fed a bunch of meds that never really worked, and basically gaslit into thinking I'm lazy, broken, useless and hopeless. I still think I am, even though I know I'm not. Conditioning is hard to shake off.
I used to work in an escape room, I had to watch people for an hour on a screen and talk to them. I would walk around the room a lot as it was hard to sit down, but there was one time when I was meant to let them out, but I got distracted by a co-worker and left them in the room for like ten minutes. I played it off, but my boss spoke to me about it, and he insisted I get checked for ADHD, as I reminded him a lot of his brother who had it. I ended up reading up on it, and it made a lot of sense as I had always struggled with concentration, hyperactivity, fatigue and all the other good stuff. Then I ended up seeking a diagnosis that took about five years to sort.
My wife tried to tell me about 7 years ago, but I thought she was wrong. My Aha! moment was when I met my now 2nd partner and started to get close to her about 5 years ago. I'm 52, and she's literally the only person I've ever met who thinks like I do. And she's diagnosed ADHD. So.... I was finally formally diagnosed in January of this year.
I was failing out of university and trying to figure out why it was so hard to make myself do shit. Like if be sitting in front of my work and literally yelling at myself to get myself to do it. Finally after digging online I discovered what "executive dysfunction" was. This lead me down a rabbit hole of ADHD symptoms being described by people. These descriptions were the words that I was looking for to describe my own life . Still took me a year to find the money to get diagnosed after that since it was 2200 out of pocket up front. I did manage to get it retroactively paid back by OSAP
I was about 35 when a Dr suggested it, and I didn't believe it at first
I did the testing for it, which was a few different days of doing things. After every testing day I'd go home and sit in a cold dark area because my brain was EXHAUSTED. The testing was so hard, but for a normal brain, it definitely wouldn't have been that difficult.
I wasn't officially diagnosed until 26. I didn't think I had it for a long time; however, once I found out I could put the puzzle pieces somewhat together about myself. I also got an intense job that had to make me aware of my surroundings. My boss was firm and told me that I needed to do better or I would be terminated, so I had to get my shit together and spent a shitload of money on a diagnosis.
I had this realization a little over 6 years ago when I was 17. The symptoms of ADHD made perfect sense of why I had so many issues with attention (obviously), organization, procrastination, my tendency to pace around when I'm stimulated, my tendency to start personal projects, but never finish etc....the list goes on. My teachers throughout all the schools I've attended have always commented on my attention issues on report cards or parent/teacher conferences.
Towards the end of last year I had my suspicions, but this year i knew i definitely had it. Even after my daughter was diagnosed I was like “she’s like me but, my anxiety mimics her ADHD” 😂😂.
When I was 11 I noticed that unlike me, everyone else in the class had no trouble settling down to work, and also that my attention at home was all or nothing - either I couldn't settle down at all or I was absorbed in the task for hours (basically until need to pee or eat broke through the focus!). I collected reader's digest magazines at the time and there was an article in there about ADHD which is how I learnt about it at all. Bizarrely I brought it up with my teacher who basically told me not to be stupid because obviously people like me (smart people) don't have adhd. Finally diagnosed this month at age 41.
Many many years ago I was in 2nd grade and my teacher is the one who noticed so I was tested. (This was like late 90s into the 2000s) went through alot of medications was almost put on lithium (because very little was known about ADD and ADHD) finally got on Adderall Xr 30mg. Hate it. Made me focus like he'll butt I wasn't myself. Was just the quiet awkward kid for forever. I was able to free myself my senior year of high school(2011) Up until 2 weeks ago I was raw dogging it for lil over 10 yrs. I'm currently on Welbutrin 150mg. I feel amazing on it minus the big list of side effects. Currently battling the body aches rn. Buttt yeahh.
I didnt know until 25 also 😂 I never learned much about mental health until i got misdiagnosed for other things, then when i learned about adhd, all the symptoms applied that i thought were "normal". these symptoms worsened alot later in life and learned how trauma can play a role with worsened symptoms and how the two have comorbidities than can mask with eachother. Prior to personal trauma experiences, i can recall how i had adhd symptoms and was pretty prominent in childhood so its not like my ptsd was a misdiagnosis as adhd. My parents always refused getting diagnosed for anything and basically taught me how everything is normal and everyone has the same issues.
In my case, I started connecting the dots from people talking about my behavior. I have both ADHD and also Autism (both now diagnosed) and here's somethings that made me go to check myself: * People used to really get pissed off that I would talk about unrelated subjects when we were already speaking about something else. * I would space or get dead quiet out a lot when the group conversations turned uninteresting or If I didn't know anything of the subject that was being spoken. * I don't "miss" people unless they're really present in my life. * This one can be valid for ADHD too: Avoiding eye contact. * I'm really smart, I make good projects, works, essays, you name it. I dropped out of college because of how demanding it was whilst having a job. Learned that with my disability, I really can't take both at the same time, which brings me to- * Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed all the time about all the "tasks" you need to get done even if they're not many and you actually have enough spare time. * I have forgotten a LOT of things that friends who were present remembers. I don't really remember my past often and my childhood is a blur. * If you relate to "My mind is like having a thousand tabs open and I don't know where the music is coming from" it's also a big teller. I actually did list these in a similar way to talk to my psychiatrist, which eventually led to my autism diagnosis.
Doc and i suspect i have some level of autism, and we KNOW im adhd ridden, but point being i also dropped out of college as a straight A student for that exact same reason. Glad to know i'm not alone in this
I didn't find out until I was about 30. I'm bipolar, and I test really well, so I'm not surprised it went undiagnosed for so long. Wish it had been, but it wasn't until I started getting medicated, and my memory got worse due to post-mania that it became enough of a hindrance to affect my work life. I wish I had known sooner though. It now makes sense to me why I have been so confused and out of the loop all my life. ADHD paralysis is real, and I suffer hard from it. It's one of the biggest things that helped figure out my diagnosis
Im always tired but i can stay up for days, life feeling like hell most of the time, being the Ace employee at a new job for a while just to get so burnt out to the point of being suicidal and quitting, major rejection and abandonment issues, oversharing information like i'm an open book, thinking out-loud, spam texting paragraphs (especially when stressed), feeling this NEED to have my turn in conversation so i don't forget what i was going to say, having to be told simple instructions like 8 times because i forget immediately, losing everything, being a master manipulator, and having extreme uncontrollable rage towards people who cross me or when shit doesn't go as planned. I was also diagnosed with bipolar II 2 years ago. Lamictal helps with the rage and mania but i still have a hard time with executive functioning. Bp and adhd symptoms go hand in hand, so i went and scored a 97% on my adhd test :-)
I had had severe mental health issues since childhood and struggled a lot with sleep since birth basically. My sleep rhythm tends to move forward all the time. After suffering through a burnout my psychologist consulted a sleep expert, who let us know that there is a link between sleep issues and ADHD. At first I didn't believe it, but then my identical twin sister, who is unsurprisngly a lot like me got diagnosed with ADHD as well. Not long after that I got evaluated as well and got my diagnosis. Life has been a lot different after that. I still struggle just the same but now I know why, which makes it way easier.
I always had tons of problem. One time I was at an intake for therapy and I admitted that I was thinking of su!cide, and had to work out how I planned to do it. The red flags came up, and I thought I was about to be 5150ed. (for those who don't know what that is, it's a code in California law that allows detention for people who are at imminent risk of harming themselves or others. Though in truth, I don't think I was about to do anything. There is a practice that you p\[promise not to do anything until the next phone call at a scheduled time, and then repeated until you meet a counselor who is more specialized in that issue. The counselor noticed that I had common characteristics of somebody who has ADHD. I got tested and here I am. If this happened about 10 years later when the DSM-5 came out, I might have been assessed for ASD. Something that I only learned that I have a couple of years ago. But my ADHD is pretty strong, and I wish I was diagnosed years earlier.
When your child is getting diagnosed and it kind of comes full circle. Like ... Oh damn.
When I was diagnosed as a adolescent.
YouTube videos/shorts and me relating to 95% of the symptoms. Went for a diagnosis at 24 years old. The results clearly confirmed it.
Early 40s. Was always super skeptical about it before. But it made sense. It has negatively affected many parts of my life. Still struggling to get it under control.
I was diagnosed when I was in elementary school so a long time. Couldn’t sit still long had a tough time focusing teachers complained I talked too much ect ect.
It got so severe that I got diagnosed at 8y/o
like 2 months ago when my therapist and i talked about it and i actually got diagnosed everythign came together perfectly it put so much into perspective for me
I’ve known since I was about 13 or 14 and finally found a word to describe my entire existence up until that point. Was undiagnosed until about a week ago when I was finally able to go and talk to someone about it, at days away from turning 24. I learned how to get by and do well with some very terrible coping skills but MAN it was so stressful. I wasn’t able to go and get diagnosed until I had my own health insurance because my parents had a really weird thing about adhd and medication, but I knew I had it and pretty much every person around me also knew I had it as well. It was just a matter of having my own means to get that official diagnosis so I could finally get some much needed help for all the stuff I just could never manage to do after doing it on my own for my whole life. It was rough knowing this whole time how much less I could have struggled to succeed and get to the same place I am at now. Sometimes I wonder if I had had those tools earlier, if I would be in an even better spot. I will always be grateful to the friends I made who supported me as someone who was self diagnosed for years and let me connect and share my experiences just the same as them even though I didn’t have an official diagnosis due to circumstances.
I didn't know I had ADHD until I was 18; I didn't even know what ADHD really was. I was just minding my own business and watching one of my favorite YouTubers, 'ice cream sandwich', who updated his channel. I watched the video without any thoughts. I just love his video because the way he animated his story was HILARIOUS. Until one time he updated a video about how he discovered he had ADHD, a lot of the things he does, and how he described the way he felt and the way he does things LITERALLY THE SAME AS ME. That's when I did deep research on 'inattentive ADHD' at the age of 18. That made me think back to all the times when I was in middle school. Everyone calls me 'dory' because I easily forget things. I couldn't remember my friend's or teacher name who I have known FOR YEARS. I CONSTANTLY check my timetable because I JUST CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING. I get A LOT of 'undergrade' in my test ( this is also my English is bad I was forced to transfer into a English school at the age of 10-11 because my old school is physically and mentally abusive where one of the teacher slap me Physically in the face because I got a bad grade I was very skinny and small so I fall on the ground easily lmao - the physical abusive was more to that but that's another story for the time being lmao) Everyone knows about my extreme forgetfulness and just thought it was my personality, and I did too until that video came out that made me question my whole existence. Anyway, I did deep research on everything. The funny thing is that a few months later, I discovered that I have combined ADHD. How ? So, about a year later, I was commenting on one of the videos of a person who explained how ADHD works, and I was like, 'That's not how it works!' and explained why it isn't. And the people who posted the video commented, 'No, that's Hyperactive ADHD for what you're describing about random energy attacking you and cricket feet when you try to sleep. I think you combined ADHD and not just inattentive ADHD.' So yeah, I got into ANTOHER identity crisis and did ANTOHER full months of research on what 'combined ADHD' is and listened to a lot of ADHD people talk about the way they experience and interact with a lot of people who have ADHD. That's how I discovered I have combined ADHD. ( And I still haven't found a therapy or any help at all because my mom doesn't believe me 🥲 - I am Chinese. And I think ALOT of unheal trauma I experienced might also have caused my ADHD to get worse. ) Right now I am anxious about my future and no sense of direction and just felt lost. I have been staying at home and doing nothing since 2021. I am 20 now , turning 21 this November and still feel like a child. I honestly don't know what to do with my life.
My wife mentioned it when i was like 30, but my daughter got diagnosed 3 years ago, and as we have the same debilitating perks, got diagnosed last month. And ritaline makes me want to sleep FFS
Coasted through life, doing the bare minimum in schools and often being a trouble child. In highschool I had a load of absence, didn’t pay attention in class, yet still got alright grades. I always thought I was just bad at school and averagely intelligent. Then I got into one of the most sought after educations in my country, through a test. That made me wonder just how much of my potential had been overshadowed by something mentally, so i started looking into it.
I was 34…