I didn't get diagnosed until my late 20s....this is why.
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.
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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.
You could be sharing my experience. I'm still working at it and need to adjust meds some but getting treatment was life changing.
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.
That last fucking paragraph
Yeah, people think they'll lose something of themselves, but no one is successful due to ADHD, they are successful in spite of it.
