342
I didn't get diagnosed until my late 20s....this is why.
(beaware.social)
Why the hell does this keep happening? I still hear horror stories of how people struggle for half of their lives and nobody stops to think "this isn't normal, we should see a doctor" and it just infuriates me.
Please, if it is negatively effecting your life or you get into arguments about it and it's effecting your social or home life, see a doctor.
My pediatrician told my parents that I definitely had ADHD, needed to be properly tested to confirm, and to get some medication to straighten things out.
I vaguely remember my mother saying that she didn't think it was right to medicate away childhood exuberance, and that I just wasn't challenged at school.
Fast forward 30 some years, and I get diagnosed and some medicine. My passionate love for a million different things hasn't been diminished, but now I can actually make progress on hobbies, and sometimes finish projects.
I feel as creative as I've always felt, just able to direct it more coherently so that it's actually productive.
I built shelves and put all the tools away afterwards. In the tool bag even, which is now back in the garage, and not just tucked away in a room I wasn't using.
When i was in 4th grade in the 90's i had a teacher that assumed something is was wrong with me. He watched me when we were skiing and i was always a bit overwhelmed when i had to use the ticket thing when there were a bunch of people waiting. He assumed i had some motorically problems.
I also knew back then that something was up but it wasn't that. I went to the doctor with my mom and he just testet my hand eye coordination. I was so worried that i was disabled or had to switch schools or something.
Oh man do i wish i got properly diagnosed back then. People sometimes don't believe me that i didn't do any homework for like 8 years in school. I never learned for a test, i never did a book report, i just winged my whole life.
Pretty sure my life would be really different if I had had the ability to actually study instead of "read some of the chapter, skip the boring bits and exercises, and then call it good".
Per the doc, a better than average memory can do a good job masking that it's not encoding stuff right or that you're not getting half of what's being given.
Good thing I have severe short term memory loss.