They had it and “made it”, everyone else must be ok.
That was why it took me so long to discover I have ADHD (which I got diagnosed with in my 20s, after I had already graduated university).
I recognized challenges I was having, but I both had the issue from the meme and also the issue from your comment. I was a pretty good student despite the ADHD and just developed habits for powering through or “just dealing” with the symptoms. It’s a shame, cause now that I’m medicated, it’s like night and day. All those periods where I struggled to meet deadlines because I couldn’t concentrate… Many of those could have gone away if I had discovered this sooner.
I’m in the same boat, except my parents were illiterate shepherds/farmers who didn’t know any better. Also, I haven’t been officially diagnosed (I don’t have health insurance). Like you, I’ve learned to live through it, and I tell ya, it has been very fucking rough. 42 now and my daughter has autism and ADHD. Doing everything for her that I didn’t get from parents. Good luck to you
dad?
Yes, my child.
This is my life every time I try to talk about the ADHD I’ve struggled with since childhood. “Oh everyone has that issue!” Well then maybe “everyone” has ADHD to some degree? I don’t have a fuckin monopoly on it.
I think the thing is that “everyone” is wired to gather berries and run from predators and “mental illness” is our brain saying “I hate this, where did all the berries go?”
Like if you tried to make the family cat push buttons for 8 hours and it refused to do so you wouldn’t say it had a mental disorder, you would say it has a brain evolved to fit a cat’s needs. Why are people with brains evolved to fit a human’s needs any different?
I agree that the complicated and abstract lifestyle most of us lead factor into our well-being and mental state, but I think it is extremely reductionist to say all mental illness stems from this issue.
Heartily agree, I was needlessly hyperbolic there.
Right? It’s like yeah maybe they’ve experienced these symptoms to a degree at times. But is it demonstrably affecting their ability to function in life? Maybe ADHD.
I think everyone has experienced the symptoms of ADHD to some degree. The difference is the severity of the symptoms and how much they interfere with your ability to get tasks done.
I experienced the symptoms all my life but didn’t get formally diagnosed until I was in graduate school and (among other things) couldn’t just sit still and read an article start to finish in one go like everyone else.
When I started taking medicine for it, I couldn’t believe how…easy my daily life became. It fixed symptoms I didn’t even know I had. I didn’t realize until that point how much I couldn’t focus while driving to and from school/work, how often I interrupted others while they were speaking, all kinds of stuff.
A very helpful video I recently found.
The modern workplace absolutely sucks for neurodivergent people. One size fits all and you’re expected to just deal with the fact that your brain is constantly begging for you to stop.
One day I’m going to find that off switch.
Me suffering from anxiety and depression since 93, under meds, especially SSRIs: I feel bad. A friend of mine: get yourself a girlfriend.
it must be hard getting yourself a gf at 93…
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