Holy hell I absolutely identify with this.
34I was diagnosed at a very young age but I didn't knew what it really is for a long time. As a teen I forgot for a few years that I even have ADHD and was doing what's described in the post. I couldn't figure out WTF is wrong with me until I watched barkley's presentation on neuroanatomy of ADHD which enlightened me on that.
13
I’ve not been formally diagnosed, but I’m 100% sure I have had ADHD. I talked with my parents about it a few weeks ago and they basically just said “yeah you probably have always had it, but we never argued your doctor about it”. The idea that I’m in my thirties and only recently really identified why I struggle with things is so infuriating. Worse yet is the fact that there were things that could have helped me succeed and be more comfortable in school is just the worst. I manage fine at this point with various strategies to be successful so it’s not really worth it to me to talk to my doctor and argue that I’ve always been like this, but man is it just hard sometimes.
27I was diagnosed at 40. I have meds for when my coping mechanisms fail me. It's awesome
8Hmm interesting...
2
See a different doctor and get a diagnosis. It can really help for stuglff like getting accomodations or meds, and meds can really be helpful for a lot of people. I got diagnosed as an adult because my parents never believed me when I suggested I had it as a kid, and it made a world of difference. Even just knowing for sure helps me mentally.
4Yep, I'm not diagnosed but I'm pretty sure I have it. The one doctor I had long enough to even bring it up immediately discounted the possibility because I'd graduated high school (which he didn't even bother checking if that was true before saying that). So many people dismiss it out of hand simply because I'm "not a complete idiot". Yet many people with diagnosed ADHD have just assumed I'm diagnosed and are shocked when I say I'm not. One person actually laughed at me because they thought I was joking because "There's no way you don't have ADHD, stop messing with me". Like I probably do, but I'm not diagnosed. Unfortunately ADHD diagnosis is far from the top of the list of shit I need to work on so it won't happen soon.
2
I mean, I've been diagnosed for like 25 years now and I still have to do this.
22Same! I was diagnosed as a kid in the mid 90s. Took meds back then that didn’t work for me, and went unmedicated for about 30 something years. I at least have a grasp on some of the “why” behind my thought processes and behaviors, but none of it makes me feel any better.
2Yeah, it actually really depends on your level of understanding ADHD.
2
I'm officially ADHD-PI (formerly ADD) and medicated, so I guess I don't have this particular tendency, but my wife is diagnosed ADHD-C, unmedicated, and also struggles with identifying her emotions in the moment due to an unconventional upbringing. She does this literally any time she's experiencing a negative emotion (embarrassment, anger, feeling hurt, etc.) and can't identify it.
We've gotten better as a team at dealing with it, but it's always on me to recognize when it's happening and initiate the mediation, so it's really exhausting, sometimes.
16I have this weird quirk where I don't notice my current emotions but because I daydream a lot I realise my current emotions through my attitude/situation in the daydream. This happens when I'm slightly sad/frustrated/angry etc. I can recognise stronger emotions but not always though because sometimes they happen to be too complex for me to understand.
6I have medicated adhd pi and I’m better than I used to be, but I don’t think I’ll ever have a boss whom I don’t lie to at least a few times. I think that’s pretty normal, but I don’t want to do it, and it’s mostly to catch up to where I “should” be.
1
There's a fun world past this where you have accepted your value to others and internalized your own value to the point where your ADHD is like the sting on a bee. People have to deal with it too get that honey. In fact the only reason they can get that honey is because you are a bee.
You get to shrug your shoulders and say deal with it. It never stops being a struggle in your own life, and you constantly need to engage in things that are just extra exhausting on top of normal life. But you are both valuable in spite of and because of your ADHD.
I know not every person with this can experience a scaffolded life, full of love and support, but plenty of you can.
Beware the self hatred, beware the internalized uselessness that you've built over a life of just not being able to make yourself do anything despite wanting nothing more.
12It's funny because the ADHD subreddit is memes and upvotes and people talking about how ADHD hurts their performance at work.
The bipolar subreddit is people who want to kill themselves. People who are homeless. People who are broken, have lost their spouses, jobs, lives.
And ADHD gets so much sympathy. It's a mental illness that's so socially acceptable that people talk about it at work. Compare and contrast that to bipolar where you carry a stigma wherever you go. It's nuts.
7Having Bipolar disorder often leads to drug and alcohol addiction trying to cope with it, and also creates much more problems in dealing with other people on its own even without adding chemical dependency into the mix. It's a horrible condition to have, and even though I empathize with people who have it, in my experience they can also be incredibly difficult to be around because of their illness. Which is one of the reasons it's such a fucked up thing. It's self-perpetuating isolation.
7I can't speak about work but when it comes to upvotes it's most probably because people can relate to most of the stuff because it's stuff that other people also do but ADHD makes them much much more frequent and uncontrollable.
4
I am 99.9% sure my wife has ADHD. She’s getting several assessments done for free by our doctor’s office (because in the fall new doctors show up and need practice). She forgot to go to her 3rd assessment this past week. Now I’m 100% sure.
6Funny
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