What prompted my diagnosis of adhd: struggling within a rigid education system for my entire lifetime, almost not being able to finish college, and finally advocating for myself after years of misdiagnosis of anxiety and depression. When you’re an Asian woman, people will sooner diagnose you with just about anything else before a learning disability.
Two years post diagnosis and treatment, I’ve gotten a job working as an evolutionary genomics research assistant and finally feel like I have control of my life. I have an offer for a biology DPhil (PhD) programme and finally feel empowered in a system which once chained me down.
Exactly the same for me. But being Latina, people attributed my inattentiveness and excessive talking as just... being Latina. It took YEARS before I could find a psychiatrist willing to give me a screening test.
Yeah honestly the bias around certain groups that psychs seem to have really affects their diagnosis. Me and many fellow male ADHDers had our psychs rush to diagnose us with ADHD but when I would mention stuff like anxiety I always just heard a lot more judgement and psych and therapists all sounding judgy when I’d mention what made me anxious and how I felt. It really felt like a “why are you scared of this? Just man up” type of situation.
My prompting for diagnosis was my husband. He's a teacher and had learned about how ADHD presents in overachieving girls. He told me basically every story I have and myself in general checked almost every box. That if he was my teacher he would contact the school counselor to talk to my parents about assessment. Went to a psychiatrist and discussed my question. It provided so much context for my life and has been so helpful. My parents still don't believe it. Even after I explained it doesn't mean they were bad parents. Only that we have updated diagnostics since the 80s and 90s.
Your description of undiagnosed ADHD in girls and women reflects my story very well! I went 29 years without a diagnosis, during which i always felt different and inexplicably anxious. It was actually through TH-cam videos about adhd that i realized it was so much more complex than just hyperactivity and that inattentive type described me perfectly 😅 so thanks for making videos like these!
I was similar. I actually asked about getting evaluated when I was about 13 because I realized I had a lot of similarities to my younger cousin (who was a boy) and was actually told that “girls can’t get ADD”. After that, I didn’t go to get myself actually evaluated and diagnosed until I was 29.
im a girl and i was diagnosed with adhd in middle school. i was frequently zoning out, forgetting things, and had a really difficult time doing homework i wasnt interested in. i'm glad i got diagnosed, it really helped me!
First diagnosed as a child, but as a young adult I thought it was wrong cuz I was doing well in those areas. Then the military happened, I struggled with some tasks, got depressed, and my therapist there basically said "no, you clearly have ADHD," confirming the diagnosis.
When I was around 4-5, my parents brought me to our family doctor because they suspected that I may be on the autism spectrum. The doctor told them it was a phase and I would grow out of it. It wasn't until I was 19 that I finally got a diagnosis, not just for autism, but also ADHD, OCD, and depression. I do often wonder how my life may have turned out if I had gotten an earlier diagnosis. I also kinda wonder if being my being female had contributed to the doctor's dismissal of my parent's concerns.
What prompted my diagnosis: moving out on my own when I started uni. School and college before I coasted through with high grades without studying or even learning to do homework because I could show up to a test and be fine - once I had to actually start writing papers on my own, keep track of my own class schedule, take care of my own meals and nutrition and household, it was all too much at once. I struggled with depression, anxiety and started missing class etc. One day I did attend and we were given an assignment to talk to a classmate as an "active listener" and the person I spoke to was telling me about her recent ADHD diagnosis - everything she told me fell in place. One of the hardest conversations I ever had because the entire assignment was to NOT interject with your own experiences but the whole time I was bursting to say "I have that" and "that's how I feel". I never did, but did go straight to the dean who referred me to the uni psychologist. I was diagnosed three months later.
the documentary Three Identical Strangers is about a "let's split up these triplets and place them with different families in different socio-economic classes to see what happens" study.
After spending my whole 20s being unemployed, or stressed out in hospitality jobs, I got into university at the age of 30, during the pandemic. I lasted 4 months at university as I could not get the work done, and then I got myself diagnosed with ADHD and ASD.
I was diagnosed with ADHD in January, at 44 years of age. It was a long road, many years of depression, CPTSD, Fibromyalgia, Anxiety, and Narcolepsy all being diagnosed before, not meaning those are real diagnoses, just that all of that took more attention until things were just getting harder, even with all else being treated, I still struggled with jobs, with motivation, I would get stuck unable to do the simplest things like getting breakfast, would forget to do basic things like going to the bathroom if I was focused on something... then I started seeing that many of the content creators I resonated with had ADHD, and when they shared their personal struggles I started seeing things in common, things that I always thought were just "broken" in me, and then my therapist suggested for me to get assessed, I did and here I am, still adjusting, trying to find ways to unmask and to be kinder to myself.
What prompted my diagnosis of adhd: severe anxiety. Over decades, I strugled with always being late, no matter what; fired from jobs multiple times; impulsivity; and hiperfocus on anything other than what I need to do.
My original diagnosis of ADHD wasn't very exciting. My mom was an elementary school guidance counselor, so when I showed distractability, forgetfulness, and difficulty being organized around age 6, she pretty promptly took me to get evaluated, and the psychologist diagnosed me with ADD (this was the mid-90s). I was too young to remember a lot more details than that. Around age 10, I went off ADHD meds because I wanted to. I think I wanted to prove I could succeed without the meds, and it makes me sad realizing I had already internalized the stigma around mental illness. As a young adult I learned that my ADHD came as part of a BOGO deal with anxiety and got treated for a bit with low-dose antidepressants, but it wasn't until I was preparing for doctoral comprehensive exams that I decided to reconsider ADHD meds. The difference it made was incredible. It became so much easier to get things done, and I felt much less like garbage when I had to start working on something. I also got assessed again for adult ADHD, which confirmed that I still do have it. One thing I only recently began to realize is the extent of ADHD's knock-on effects on my emotional health and relationships. To this day I'm really insecure about my ability to function and can get really discouraged by something as simple as forgetting to lock the apartment. I also have a lot of social anxiety, which has often led to social isolation, which, it turns out, is bad for you. The good news is I'm finally starting to address these things in therapy.
Wonderfully explained science in your videos! I truly enjoy listening to your warm tone of voice and the way you explain concepts like 'adenosine'. Also, omg, Denali shout-out and Plasma mention! Omg I totally agree... I will miss Plasma like crazy in the show! Best of luck to you in everything!
Admittedly this is in response to a tiny part of your video regarding twin studies. Way back in the 1970s, one of my Profs, who was the head of the Psychology Department, talked about "twin studies". He had gone at the subject from a different angle and analyzed 3 children who had been adopted by the same couple to see how much commonality there was in personality, mental health, etc., the factors looked for in "twin studies". He said he found a lot of commonalities. He lamented the fact that no one tried to do another study like this because he thought it was a valuable way to look at the nature vs nurture issues and because it was easier, at the time, to find families that had adopted multiple children, who had no known genetic ties, as infants.
@@DoctorElliottCarthy I was too young to know I had adhd but mom and the doctors already knew but then when I was 8 or so they thought I might have autism too, when I was 13 I finally got diagnosed with autism, adhd, a possibly tic disorder, at risk for a serious mental illness like psychosis, I think there was one more thing but I can’t remember, since then my mental and physical health has only deteriorated cause no one ever believed me and also cause I didn’t know my problems weren’t normal, so on top of all that I have depression, anxiety, ptsd, symptoms of an eating disorder, breathing issues, partial paralysis on the left side, walking problems, chronic pain, and more, unfortunately no one believes me not even doctors so I can’t get help and it feels like getting help is a hopeless dream that’s never going to come true
my father has ADHD and is pretty open about it. as soon as he told me about it in 2nd grade, i said "i have that, can we get tested?" however i was a "gifted kid" with good grades so they never took it seriously. at my first hospitalization at 13 i mentioned this to my therapist there and she diagnosed me with ADHD (hyperactive-impulsive type) and when they were explaining it to my mother, she realized she had ADHD too. she got diagnosed soon after i did, which i found funny. anyway, it actually was pretty relieving, because my family understands that i cant just "try harder" to make it go away
I asked about testing for autism (which I also got diagnosed with) and they said it's an autism and ADHD service, did I want testing for that as well. I figured "sure, why not", but didn't think I had it because I'm so exhausted all the time. Then I did research on it and realised "Oh my god, that's one of the reasons WHY I'm so exhausted!" On Atomoxetine now and it really helps with my emotional lability.
During my second year of uni in 2020-2021, when I was 19, I had a massive burnout (I had already had one when I was almost 17, mere weeks before what would be the equivalent of the GCSEs in France) and had to drop out. I had been struggling a lot with uni and life in general for a while but because of past mental health issues and ongoing depression and anxiety, we'd always thought it was just that. I had begun questioning whether I had ADHD for a bit but I was in a really bad state mentally and basically had more urgent matters to solve. After a year and a half of talking to my psychiatrist about ADHD and them completely invalidating my feelings, I'd dropped the subject and stuck to my ongoing really bad depression, clinical anxiety disorder and the long-term effects and difficulties that come with two burnouts in the span of less than 3 years. One day, my psychiatrist casually asked me if I'd ever given a thought to ADHD. I was fuming internally but didn't say anything cause I was so relieved someone was finally seeing what I was seeing. I went to get diagnosed (twice because my mom didn't believe the diagnosis, we're still working on that) and both doctors I saw were baffled because of how blatantly obvious my ADHD apparently was. So it took 4 years on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, an ED, two burnouts and a lot of unaliving ideation (plus 21 years of a LOT of symptoms and traits -and feeling alone and misunderstood, being told to calm down, that i'm too obsessive, that my head's always in the clouds etc- that, in hindsight, were so obviously indicative of ADHD it still makes me really mad) before I got diagnosed... When I got on ADHD medication, I went off my antidepressants, and I felt completely okay... I obviously did suffer from very bad depression for some of my life, but a lot of it was most likely depressive episodes that were a consequence of my ADHD... So yeah... I was honeslty unfortunately "lucky" to get diagnosed at "only" 21 years old, being a woman with a family history of poor mental health, but it still stings... It really took a toll on my studies... I had to drop out of an incredible uni program that I'd gotten into and that I didn't have the money to start over again after that. I'm now 22, turning 23 in a few months, and I went back to uni this past September and now I see just how unfit the system is (France really isn't great with disabilities), but now I truly see how and why I struggle way more than most of my fellow undergrads, and I don't blame myself and put myself down half as much anymore. The meds aren't helping as much as I'd hoped they would, but they definitely do to some extent.
What prompted my diagnosis: going to therapy for perfectionism and talking about things I thought was normal, and then people telling me that's not normal. Essentially, I had a built in fear of my distractability and had be scolded by it for so long, I'd hyper fixate on a task until every aspect was done before I could finish. It was more obvious when I was alone, I'd forget to do basic things like eat or take medication or end up with a trail of unfinished tasks. I was talking about it the other day was someone saying "I don't think I'm that bad...omg I forgot to clean up the child's pee on the floor." How did I forget? I went to boil the jug. There was rubbish that needed to go outside, I took it outside, I saw a spider, decided to photograph a spider for the rest of the afternoon.
My mom saw a 20/20 episode in the 90’s on adults with ADHD (can’t remember if it was specifically about women) and called and said,”this is you”. When I was a kid, my parents were taking their psych degrees and my mom took me in for testing one day with her child psychologist instructor (to the best of my recall) I remember it being a fun experience. What I remember the most was repeating back long strings of numbers and apparently doing really well at it. Years later my mom told me that the doctor suggested letting me have a little coffee mixed with milk on days where it seemed I was being particularly challenging. She stopped taking me shopping because the changing room was a nightmare for her. I was fidgety and talked out of turn in the lower grades and occasionally spent time sitting in then hall (this was the 70’s-pretty sure they aren’t allowed to do this anymore). I was accelerated until fourth grade (actually skipped 2nd grade but asked to be put back) and then school started being difficult for me. I got diagnosed around the age of 28. I’m 56 now. My grandson was recently diagnosed with autism and ADHD and my daughter (also ADHD) and I have both started to consider whether we might also be on the spectrum. It’s hard to get evaluated as an adult in Rhode Island though.
What prompted my diagnosis of adhd as a woman in my 30s was going through decades of trauma therapy for complex ptsd due to severe childhood sexual abuse, and having improvement with symptoms like nightmares and flashbacks, as well as improved emotional regulation overall, but experiencing zero improvement in my ability to start things when I wanted to start them, keep projects or activities going if they weren’t new or particularly interesting to me, or finish anything really at all. Plus relational issues like being distracted easily in conversations, having problems with not interrupting folks, and not finishing their sentences.
In my sophomore year of college, I was struggling - not because I didn't understand the subjects (I was tutoring people will better grades than me). My mom called me and told me she read an article and it sounded like me. It took a few tries, but I got myself scheduled, tested (super crazy hours long test), and diagnosed. Then continued on my long road to a BS degree. When I "came out" and told a few friends, the major consensus was "no shit, sherlock"
What prompted my diagnosis was the birth of my first child. I woke up several times per night to feed the baby, and since I had troubles getting to sleep again, I was seriously sleep deprived, which made adhd symptoms much worse. When our child doctor heard what was going on with our lives she prompted me to get tested. They first tested for autism but none of those seemed to stick. The doctor did an adhd test as a part of those tests, and a lot of those really fit into my life. After the diagnosis I told my friends that I had adhd, they were baffeled and said "No shit sherlock, you didn't figure that out yourself?" So they had all known that for years before. They just didn't talked me about it since they assumed I also knew. After the diagnosis I have also find out that there is a lot of neurodiversity in my family, although a lot of it is undiagnosed. Those older generations didn't have the same knowledge as we do now. At least I now know to keep my eye on my kids about it.
What prompted my diagnosis of ADHD: I was concerned about one of my students who was distractible and hyperactive. I did some googling, looking at ADHD and then ADHD in girls. I got suspicious and then looked into ADHD in adults and in women. It was all a bit too familiar
The prompting of me getting diagnosed with ADHD was slow, and slowly growing. Most of it was during the pandemic, probably because it forced me to actually spend time with my brain, not escape it constantly. My D&D character played a part in it too, funnily enough, to spice up having to play a cleric I gave her the backstory of being a true polymorphed dog - and I roleplayed her as such, loyal, fearless, but also very easily distractable and hyper. At first her being ADHD was a group in-joke, but the more I thought about it (and the more I came across ADHD memes on social media, especially the one saying "Either ADHD people need to stop being so relatable or I need to go to the doctor", which happened around the same time), the more I recognized myself. Which makes sense, roleplaying still uses parts of your personality, and longterm roleplaying is bound to accidentally unearth some psychological stuff. The last push was uni. Given enough information about ADHD I think sooner or later uni would have led me to the same realization. Im not dumb but somehow I waited to study until last second every time, had issues starting a task. Because I realized outside of exam pressure I would start to doubt, I wrote a long e-mail I added to in such high pressure times, then forbade me to edit it and sent it hail-mary to the unis psych councellor one day when I was fed up enough. She recommended my doc to me, I spoke to him 10 mins and he called me an obvious case lol. I think Im pretty standagrd for a "smart" girl with ADHD: Daydreaming/Doodling instead of rambunctiousness, good (enough) grades through a deep interest in science and weaponizing my fear of failure to cram, in adult life slowly getting worn down because uni is harder than school and adulthood means you also have to somehow juggle household stuff and grocery shopping. Invisible, because Im not a young, loud boy and because I didnt fail classes
My pet theory btw is that the different ways ADHD shows in boys and girls is trained, not neccessarily inherent. Switch Kindergarten Mes gender and you have the most clichee ADHD kid ever, I was loud, wild, had issues with interrupting people and was generally pretty active - and then I turned sedentary and day-dreaming in elementary school. I suspect I would have stayed this tomboy wildfang of a kid without outside pressure wanting me to sit and be quiet (and without other kids bullying the hell out of me so my head got safer than interacting with people). I still talk loud and fast if I feel safe, but most times I hold myself in check strongly because Im afraid to be rejected/attacked by/disappoint people by being "weird"
Ok now I reached the part where you spoke about difference in diagnosis in boys and girls and dead right, I was definitely the suffer in silence type. I was 24 when I got diagnosed. My doctor said me being "smart" (I have issues saying this without quotations about myself) hid it even more, beause I managed to finish school and one degree in uni on stress-induced cramming and interest in the topic alone (Not that it was easy - my mental health was definitely way worse during that time, up to things I wont traumadump here)
What prompted my ADHD diagnosis - I had always struggled without structure and deadlines, plus anxiety. First anxiety diagnosis at 6! I read an article about late diagnosis of ADHD in AFAB people. I read it, didn't clock it was about me, because of course I was different and it was all my fault. It sat with me for a while and then I realised. Asked for an assessment and was on the waiting list. I realised just how bad it was during COVID when I didn't have the structure of the office. Diagonosed formally one week before my 41st birthday
My prompting of diagnosis was that I was a sophomore in high school and failing all my honors classes. I had a 32 in my lit class. I loved that class but had a really hard time staying focused and had panic attacks while doing tests because it was so quiet. One time I got so overwhelmed I scribbled squiggles on my paper, gave it to my teacher and called it a day because I was so anxious and couldn’t focus enough. I have adhd and bipolar among other things but that was what started the journey for me. My mom gave me a concerta pill for a test to see if I would do better and I did amazing for the first time in a while but also had a panic attack because I wasn’t used to being that calm which lead to me being diagnosed
I startet to think about this possible dignosis only a couple of years ago. so in my forties. it was a thousand little occasions were I found out chatting to friends how different their brain works, that it doesn't sound like an arcade in "silent mode". the admiration from collegues for the million little things I can do seemingly at the same time while I worried that I just cannot focus on one task for long. finding out that other people are not drained after work from pretending to be "normal". and lastly finding out, that all the little tricks my husband (working in daycare for children up to 10 yo) uses on his diagnosed adhd-kids also work on me.
What prompted my diagnosis was a 2nd grade teacher noticing I was consistently the last one to got to recess because I was slow in putting on my shoes. Also always the last person to leave the classroom at the end of the day.
My doctor actually brought in a behavioral expert of some sort because of my binge eating. She was the first person to pose I might have adhd ( I was 22). She said a lot of the symptoms look different in women. I was referred to a psychologist and he said he was looking forward to the tests but my insurance blocked any more treatment saying it was medically unnecessary. I almost dropped out of my masters program. Looking back I’m thankful for my primary. Not only did he spend hours trying to write back and forth with my insurance but he switched my antidepressant to bupropion, which I later learned was an off label treatment for adhd. A few months went by and I got better; but I still wish sometimes I knew for myself. I’m a teacher so I just started making adjustments and accommodations for myself assuming I needed them (driving with naps on, visual timers, earplugs for overstimulation).
My ADHD diagnosis was prompted by hearing a bunch of ADHD diagnosed folks describe their school experiences and realizing that not everyone relied on a last-minute panic to complete every assignment during school. Then when I read a profile for someone with ADHD (inattentive type) and OCD, it was like reading my own biography.
Girl here: Got my diagnosis at 20 years old, almost 21. The process for me started during teenage years when I made a friend who’s been diagnosed with adhd very early in her childhood. There were constant instances of her saying something about herself and me going “oooh, I do that too” and she’d tell me “you know, that’s an adhd thing”. I started also learning a little about it and I’d relate to basically everything. Problem was 1- I thought I was being “disrespectful to people with actual adhd” to even consider that was my case and 2- lack of information, when I tried talking about this suspicion with my parents they’d always go “oh, no, you normally get good grades so that’s not your case”. Middle school and high school were hell (not due to bullying but school itself) but I pushed through it. I even once, when I went to see this doctor from another city for my Tourette’s, was diagnosed with adhd as well as Tourette’s, this still during high school, but she didn’t go through any tests nor anything, then an old psychologist I used to do therapy with said I did not have it, it was just my anxiety and depression, so I kinda ignored it. But then I got to college and realized hell could get a whole lot worse. So, I decided that the way I was heading I was sure to drop out in soon enough and I was tired of being misunderstood in many other aspects too. That when I decided to allow myself to actually think about this possibility as real and went after more professional opinion. So, my psychologist I had started doing therapy with for some time at that point agreed it was likely, then I did a bunch of tests with a neuropsychologist she gave me the number of, got diagnosed, then did a smaller version of the tests with my neurologist just to be sure, got diagnosed again, my psychiatrist who for some reason didn’t want to tell me before called it “obvious” (that I do have it) and now I’m here, still wanting to drop off college but way better than before
In my early 20's I seriously started googling brain damage because I was desperately searching for answers to why I had certain impairments in my day to day life, that I was deeply ashamed of. It was during that phase that I stumbled across ADHD several times, which I first had excluded as a possibility because most descriptions spoke of hyperactive and impulsive symtoms, which I had not (to the contrary). At some point I finally read more into it and decided to get a screening. So - here I am, years later, still disorganized, zoning out on the regular and barely getting through uni life, but with an ADHD diagnosis - so at least having a name for it, being better able to step by step build strategies and being more selfcompassionate towards things that in the past I would have hidden away and be ashamed about.
What prompted my diagnosis: I started having trouble in school. My case feels odd because my family and I didn't really notice anything wrong until I was halfway through 5th grade (~10-11 years old). I started feeling really apathetic about school and I had no idea why. My grades started diving, but not too terribly. The next year (my first year of middle school) was quite possibly the WORST academic year I ever had (barring a semester or two in college where I had to drop 3 out of my 4 classes). I was completely apathetic, never did homework, and acted like a complete ass to my peers and parents. I have no clue how I managed to pass the 6th grade. During this year, my mom had me go to family counseling. It was there that the psychologist helped me get a diagnosis of ADHD-PI (then ADD). I got started on medication the next year. And then everything was great for a little while. But that's a whole other story and I've rambled on enough here. :P
What prompted my diagnosis of adhd: people kept asking me so there was always a possibility that i had it but I performed while in school but then I was perform ACCA exam and was going down the self study route (which Iv'e never done before) and realize I was having an hard time concentrating and sitting still and fearing I might fail I decided to look into it.
I investigated if I could be adhd due to my depression and anxiety worsening during covid. My anxiety was causing depression which was screwing with my executive function. Anxiety also gave me insomnia, and the sleep deprivation made me fidgety and made it hard to focus. Anxiety also just made me a perfectionist, which could look like hyperfocus. I heard it could be linked to some of my past struggles, like how difficult it was to read textbooks and inability to multitask. Also vaguely wondered about autism since I can be quite literal and struggle to read facial and body ques. Ultimately, though, my therapist and I decided to focus on my anxiety instead, and once I started managing that, the other symptoms went away. So theory is there is some mild something there but still within neurotypical range.
AFAB diagnosed at 32 after anxiety meds didn't help my anxiety and constant job-hopping, but it took an already diagnosed partner to get me to really consider it - i had a family who valued academics, private school which was more individually structured, and felt enough pressure to succeed/positive distraction with achievement from other things like my sexuality that i was an excellent student for many years. all fell apart as soon as i entered the workplace though!
There were a few false starts in high school/college where I repeatedly couldn't finish assignments on time and probably would have been diagnosed with ADHD if my parents had suggested the possibility. I finally went to a psychiatrist and got diagnosed last year. What prompted it in particular? Having to write and edit an academic paper! I'm getting a PhD in math and having to edit a 30+ page math paper is probably the hardest thing I can imagine doing with ADHD. It's a really slow process with a lot of small details and requiring a lot of focus. It's still hard but so much more manageable now with meds.
I did not say a word until after my third birthday. My parents were concerned and took me to a doctor who quickly figured out that I got everything I needed through gestures and facial expressions. He prescribed that they stop responding until I spoke and when I did it was in full complete sentences. They were acting out of guilt for my close call with death at 18 months due to intestinal blockage and my having to spend 6 weeks in isolation on IV. But since research had recently been published by that genius hack Skinner that said mothers only were milk delivery systems, the hospital did not let her near me. That was not a healthy experience for me.
What prompted my diagnosis: I wasn't diagnosed until a couple of weeks before my 28th birthday. I'd been seeing a campus psychologist for a few years because I'd really been struggling with my studies and we both assumed this was because of anxiety and ptsd. Funny thing that happened was that around age 25/26 when both of these things started to improve, it became really obvious that they weren't the only cause, and my ADHD symptoms started to become obvious when it wasn't being masked by anxiety any more. I was also reflecting on a friend's diagnosis at the time, because we'd often lament about having similar struggles with our studies, and so it was one of the first times I had a bit of a mirror to my stuff. My psych and I went through one of the adult questionnaires and he got me to get a referral from my GP for a pyschiatrist, and I made sure to find one who was familiar with co-morbidities in case it WAS just the anxiety and ptsd. Literally at the end of that appointment, the guy was like 'oh yeah, you definitely have ADHD.' Hilarious things: - I studied psych in undergrad AND spent some time in my early 20s researching mental health issues to figure out what was 'wrong' with me, and came to conclusion that it was actually nothing and I just needed to work harder (yes, I missed the anxiety and ptsd too - was not very self aware at 20 lmao). - During my evaluation, the question about fidgeting came up, and we both stopped and looked down at my hand, which was mid-fidget poking my shoelaces into the eyelets of my shoes - In retrospect, my ADHD was all very obvious, it's just no one was looking for it when I was a kid. I hyperfocused on reading, if I didn't enjoy a class I would surreptitiously write stories instead of paying attention, I would constantly miss deadlines and not understand why I struggled with sitting down to do the work. The head-shaking thing in this video made me laugh because it reminded me of when my mum used to be late picking me up from Brownie meetings and I would pass the time by spinning in circles across the room We've been learning about 2e kids in my diverse education class, and I cant deny the fact that I identify with a lot of the characteristics, but it's easier for me to continue thinking of myself as someone who was an average student who got to masters by sheer stubbornness, than to think I was gifted and that it was missed because everyone thought I was lazy. But my awareness of my ADHD has also meant that I'm very interested in including the teaching of metacognitive skills in my pedagogy, so hopefully the kids I end up teaching are given the tools that I didn't have when I was their age. Being diagnosed and medicated for my ADHD also made me notice for the first time how bad my health issues were getting, so I can safely say that if my ADHD hadn't been diagnosed, I never would have gotten my sh*t together enough to actually start taking my health seriously, rather than just thinking I was lazy (my definition of lazy before all this being if you failed something regardless of effort). So even though it took until my late 20s, I'm really grateful it happened when it did. (soz for the long comment, I am very tired today :P)
two of my family members have adhd, so when i started having some trouble in school and socially they tested me for it but the results were inconclusive and they said since i didn't have adhd so they couldn't help us more. fast forward to me being 17 and finally diagnosed with nvld, non verbal learning disorder, a processing disorder that explained the things i'd thought were just me being a bad student or a bad friend. an earlier diagnosis and actual help and attention could have really changed things for me as a kid, as it was i was pretty miserable thinking it was all just Me Being Bad
So for prompting my adhd diagnosis: terrible time and energy level management: midnight lasagna. As a teenager I wouldn’t be able to sleep and I’d get these rushes of energy in the evening so I would do some really elaborate acticivity at night like make lasagna it became like an inside joke in my family. And also impulsivity and hyperactivity/ doing too much and then being exhausted/ then extremely bored. Like first year of high school I decided that on top of having a part time job I should also be in an outside of school play that was really far that ended up taking up every evening weekend when I wasn’t in school or working, burnt myself out like crazy
What prompted my diagnosis of ADHD: I was already diagnosed with many other mental illnesses. I was never assessed for ADHD because I had/have severe GAD. So the attention deficit was masked by my severe anxiety. I started to get a bit of anxiety under control and suddenly I noticed all these ADHD symptoms I’d seen online on mental health reels etc. so I asked for the paperwork and boom. Only put on reboxetine for it though and he worries about stimulants due to my recovering addictions x
Regarding ADHD, I can only speak as someone on the ever lengthening waiting list for ADHD assessment in the UK, but I can still talk about some of the reasons I went to my GP and ended up with a referral! Growing up, I did really well in school, I was often top of the class, I didn't have to try very hard and looking back I think I was in my own little world a lot of the time because sometimes I didn't even NEED to concentrate because I didn't struggle to understand what was going on. Fast forward to my A-levels (which all gets a bit clouded with the pandemic and me moving countries and stuff), I was REALLY struggling to concentrate, to get down all the notes, I didn't understand how to summarise, I could barely do my homework, I missed all my deadlines and thought it was just you know, the transition back to school after learning another language intensively in another country. But no! My struggles continued all the way through my A levels, only seeming to get worse, and started causing me genuine anxiety (and I'm not a very naturally anxious person, I'm quite go with the flow), and I would start missing lessons and sometimes whole days of school, until I basically stopped going for a few weeks, determined to drop out. Me and my new friend-she's diagnosed with ADHD-bonded over our school struggles at the beginning of our A levels and she would say sometimes "are you sure you don't have ADHD?" and I'd just laugh it off. Some months later, I watched a video online by this video essayist I liked explaining how she had been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and after I watched it I felt a bit strange-like how obviously it was about her, but some of the things she said felt so on the nose for me too. So then I went through a MAJOR rabbit hole of ADHD information, thought "there's no way I don't have this", then promptly spent about two months researching it because I was literally obsessed. Like even if I don't have ADHD it was super fun to learn about it. It was eight months before I went to the GP though, because I just never got round to it, even though I desperately wanted to talk to someone about it. Right now, I'm 19, and I'm holding off on going to university until I get assessed for ADHD. The truth is, I hated my A levels, and as much as I want to study psychology I know that at this point I would not be able to get through a degree without support, and I know that I probably have ADHD and need a diagnosis to access that support. I've been on a waiting list for about a year and four months, after initially being told the waiting list was just one year :/ (which is still considered pretty good for the UK anyway!) Also a quick note! when I went to my GP, she asked me if it could be anxiety that could be causing some of the issues I was having. And I just said, "no, I don't think so. even when I feel mentally well-not anxious at all-and there's no big stresses in my life, I still struggle with all the same things." so if you ever need a referral or something yourself, then maybe this kind of thing can help you - obviously this is specific to me, since you can absolutely have an anxiety disorder and ADHD or whatever, I just really don't think I do personally. Any anxiety I experienced was coming from the stress of not being adequately supported at school, and that's it.
I'm nearing 30 and I'm only now getting somewhere re: ADHD assessment, despite trying to get it since 2019 when I first became aware that I might have it. Hopefully will get the DIVA questionnaire by next autumn. My biggest problems are basically executive dysfunction, getting stuck doing something other than what I should be doing, no consistency in my hobbies (especially sucky for art hobbies, hard to see improvement), impulsive spending of money, leaving everything until the last minute, etc..... I mean basically I've been unable to study or work for the last couple of years while we've been trying to figure out ways to help me survive. But basically until now the answer was "you did well in school + you have depression and anxiety so you can't get assessed for ADHD" for years, despite the fact that most of my depressive / anxious symptoms are caused by my ADHD traits (e.g. not getting things done). Oh and being an AFAB person definitely didn't help. 😅
I was too young to know I had adhd but mom and the doctors already knew but then when I was 8 or so they thought I might have autism too, when I was 13 I finally got diagnosed with autism, adhd, a possibly tic disorder, at risk for a serious mental illness like psychosis, I think there was one more thing but I can’t remember, since then my mental and physical health has only deteriorated cause no one ever believed me and also cause I didn’t know my problems weren’t normal, so on top of all that I have depression, anxiety, ptsd, symptoms of an eating disorder, breathing issues, partial paralysis on the left side, walking problems, chronic pain, and more, unfortunately no one believes me not even doctors so I can’t get help and it feels like getting help is a hopeless dream that’s never going to come true
I was 35 before I even suspected that I could have ADHD and as I write this now I’m still waiting on a formal assessment but working in mental health means I regularly refer to the DSM and (more regularly) the ICD. One day I completed the ADHD assessment tool from the ICD and the questions were eye opening. That’s what promoted me to referral. Since then it’s really opened my eyes to just how frequently it impacts on my life.
what prompted my adhd diagnosis was actually surprisingly when I was 7! It's surprising because I am a trans guy and girls are still incredibly under diagnosed so I count myself VERY lucky. But yeah, they noticed I was struggling in school at a degree that was starting to be a little concerning, so they had me tested for a bunch of learning-related neurodivergencies(dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and others I think) some came up positive but mainly those that are also just symptoms of ADHD (actually ADD because at 7 I was already mostly internalizing the hyperactivity because I was already learning masking due to my undiagnosed autism) so they tested me for ADD, it came back positive. I've been diagnosed ever since. It took until 12 years old to get my ASD diagnosis though. And until 18, last year, for a depression diagnosis, after my second episode ever. But finally I'm on duloxetine and I'm doing better so🥳🥳
My twin and i were 11 or 12 when diagnosed with ADHD (just ADD at the time). We had trouble forgetting homework and hyper focused on reading and drawing when we had less stimulating tasks to accomplish. The executive dysfunction came in more in high school. I wish more attention was paid to executive function back then. It would have prevented so many fights and misunderstandings with my parents.
I was diagnosed with adhd at 18. My brother had been diagnosed at 8, given a medication that caused a lot of negative side effects (and is no longer on the market- but this was the mid 90s). And so my parents never allowed him to try a different medication, and refused to let me talk to my doctor about my own inattention and school problems. I was “gifted”, & was able to get through high school without regular class attendance or studying. Wasn’t until I was making my 3rd attempt at freshman year college that I finally went to a doctor to get diagnosed
As someone with ADHD, the split screen question at 3:14 just had me laughing outloud. (But to be practical, it doesn't work for me. Maybe because you already have a split screen with the show and you both on screen) What prompted my diagnoses was a close relative getting diagnosed, an ex saying I had symptoms that matched his ADHD, and the building frustration of not doing at well in uni as I could,
I'm 43 and was only recently had my ADHD diagnosis confirmed. I think because I wasn't a physically active child and did quite well at school it wasn't something that occurred to anyone, but it was maybe ten years ago I realised that I had attention issues. "Just concentrate" were words that might as well have been "Just start flying". Thankfully I'm now starting medication.
(NOTE: dx means diagnosis) I have an adhd and autism dx. I did well in school so I didn't get assessed at all until I went out and did it after struggling at uni so much that I didn't finish it. I had read through the dsm-V cover to cover multiple times so I knew the symptoms but was so used to being told I was being lazy and needed to apply myself more that I assumed I could not have ADHD. I wasn't epecting the ASD dx, despite the fact I had issues with language in prep/pre-school and my brother got an ASD dxwhen he was 5 and I was 7. My mum is an anti-vaxxer, she believes my brother got ASD from a vaccine. I also just presented really differently from the stereotypes of autism and adhd. I have combined type ADHD and was fidgeting and flapping my legs about all the time but nobody noticed. So my experience definately follows the pattern we have been seeing with late dx in girls. Post dx I talked to an autistic friend of mine and he said my sensory issues were too much to be caused by the autism (He's wrong according to psychiatrist and clinical psychologist).
Re ADHD diagnosis, I'm a doctor who hit burnout hard during F3/F4 during the pandemic. My mental health really deteriorated, I started therapy, started looking into things, (treated for/assumed to have anxiety/depression/OCD for many years while still being '""""high functioning""") diagnosed as autistic and then was prompted by my assessor to look into ADHD as I present very much like one of those high achieving women who're AuDHD but go unrecognised until later in life when they hit burnout (: all of the coping strategies I had developed over my life are starting to fail me because they relied on me being super anxious all the time and masking a lot. my anxiety had improved and i'm getting really tired of masking which is good overall but it means that my performance is being affected since I don't have the driver of anxiety/trying to seem normal to keep me going. due to start vyvanse later this week and am really hoping to see some positive effects.
I was diagnosed after my second grade teacher told my mom I was incapable of formal education and that I would never get anywhere in life. After that I was transferred to catholic school and was kicked out for "an inability to sit still".
Cis woman here, I was first diagnosed autistic at age 22 after a misdiagnosis of bpd/eupd because I was also diagnosed with cptsd at the same time as autistic. It was my partner who was diagnosed as an early teenage with adhd who first picked up on my adhdness. I didn't really understand what was autism and what was adhd so wasn't until having someone close in my everyday life who had adhd but not autism that it actually started to make sense
Me and one of my partners are both AuDHD and our other partner is ADHD all of us diagnosed as adults (well I found out that I *had* a diagnosis from childhood that my parents never disclosed, but that's a different thing altogether) it's always super fascinating (and frequently infuriating) seeing neurodiversity in media.
Well my prompting for a diagnosis:- as a kid I was taken to a counselor but I had already learnt how to mask my symptoms and was sent back as just the "smart but weird" kid fast forward to age 17, had a messed up life and a few attempts to end everything and thinking I'm going crazy. It was still real hard to get a diagnosis and studying medicine in such a non supportive system doesn't help. I just have gotten used to people being disappointed by me, saying that I could have done so much more. But yeah, at least I'm trying to learn to accept things.
I was diagnosed with ADHD around age 7. For additional context I'm currently 28 and female. What led to getting me diagnosed: 1) Teachers suggested it to my parents 2) when my parents were trying to teach me to read I kept sliding off of the chair because I was bored or restless and I'd learn a new word and then the same word could be on the next page and it was completely wiped from my mind. 3) Once my grandparents came to visit our family for a few weeks and they arrived during the time that their eldest grandchild (me) was in Kindergarten and my parents and grandparents decided that they wanted to say hi to me during my recess... they couldn't find me from the fence for the longest time until they eventually spotted me....what was I doing???.... I was all alone, standing with my head between my legs for the entire recess. Hilariously I actually remember doing this. I was looking at the world upside down. This was when they realized I was a little different lol
I was diagnosed with ADD (the predecessor to “ADHD predominantly inattentive presentation”) when I was in the third grade. I don’t remember much of that time, except for the fact that the Ritalin had a negative impact on my appetite and I started drinking nasty Pediasures. Less then 6 months later, they diagnosed me with OCD and decided that the ADD was a misdiagnosis. I’m not sure why they did that when OCD and ADHD can be common comorbidities. But it wasn’t until I was maybe 16 that I started to suspect that the initial diagnosis had been correct. I didn’t do anything about it though. Then when I was 22ish, I went to a neuropsychologist to be evaluated for autism. I came out with a diagnosis of ADHD (the autism result was “undetermined”).
I was diagnosed with adhd in the 2nd grade. I was falling behind in school and was a distraction to my class mates lol. My school social worker observed me for months and formally tested me over time in her office. I got diagnosed so young because both of my parents have adhd and 3 of my 5 older sisters. It runs in the family lol
I was diagnosed in childhood because I was more hyper than other girls... My partner was diagnosed in childhood as well. I expect a diagnosis for our children to be in their future as well. It's ok, we'll have better tools then our parents did to support them!
I am 32. I live in the Unites States. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 1995 when I was 3. I was in the foster care system at the time. My adoptive mom (then my foster mom) was a school psychologist and had noticed that I was struggling with sleeping. I would tell her that my brain wouldn't turn off at night. She thought I might have ADHD. She was right. I found out years later that my biological mother had ADHD, one of my maternal half sisters has ADHD as well, and so does her son. I also have ASD which tends to overlap as well. My nephew that has ADHD like me also has ASD like me.
I'm still warring with myself about getting tested for ADHD. I've got a major depresison and social anxiety diagnosis, but am not convinced that my problems with executive function and focus and my inability to work as many hours as other people can (even now with medication and therapy) is due to the depression alone. When I talked to my therapist she gave me a number to call about getting an ADHD assessment but I never ended up calling (because you know, depression and social anxiety and executive dysfunction...) I know I can still do it and really I have nothing to lose by just finding out, but since I didn't present with many of the classic symptoms in my youth and don't know of any family history I'm just... kind of worried about being told that no, I don't have ADHD and the way I am struggling to function right now is just the best I can do.
My diagnosis was prompted in part due to my autism diagnosis and me knowing that some of the traits (the word symptoms is a bad one I won’t get into) were better explained by ADHD and because autism and ADHD are sometimes so similar while also being incredibly contradictory at the same time it makes things even harder to live with when you have both. ADHD definitely seems like it impacts me the most of the time when compared to autism with struggling to keep myself following routines, struggling to finish tasks as a result of being distracted by other things and big issues with task initiation. I would also be interested to see a video from you Dr Carthy, about bipolar as a comorbidity alongside autism and ADHD. As I am currently in the stages of questioning if that’s another component of how my brain works and struggling with people not taking me seriously or just jumping to the conclusion that it’s autism or adhd related without letting me figure out how it all fits together and making communication more difficult as a result of them being unable to communicate properly and not me being unable to. More so me being overwhelmed by information overload and noting being able to figure it all out myself with their help. (Also self diagnosis is valid no matter what but I have both Autism and ADHD formally diagnosed so no one better come at me with some bullshit.)
I didn’t realize how much ADHD impacted education until I went back to school (unmedicated). Procrastination and working memory are definitely deficits while trying to study. I mean, how many times do I have to read something before it sticks? Why can’t I just use normal study habits like a normal person? It just brings me back to my middle school years, before I got on the right meds.
My 4th grade Teacher (I was 9) pointed out to my mother she should could consider getting a diagnosis because "this is the most severe ADHD Ive ever seen in a kid." I never had behavior issues and actually was always a well behaved kid but I'd be picking at my jeans, playing with my crayons like dolls or just zone out completely everything but paying attention in class. Honestly my only favorite part of class was when she read Percy Jackson series to us because she voiced the characters so well and there lied my introduction to my obsession with mythology . Its still pretty bad because at the time there wasn't any management and tools provided with how to live with my ADHD until I reached adulthood. I always thought it was just a "learning disability" that only affected me in school, little did I know its been the reason Ive struggled with every facet of my life until now.
I was diagnosed 2 years ago, I was in treatment but there was a medication shortage in 2023 (at least in mexico). It was really bad those firsts weeks without meds, I promised myself never use them again. Right now I feel as always, miserable, useless, insecure, lost, fat... When I was in med I felt confident, never knew what that was, I really missed that
What prompted my diagnosis was putting myself in danger when I was in second and third grade because I would like walk into the street and stuff without paying attention. I was diagnosed at a super young age and my parents wanted to keep me off of heavy stimulants, but I really couldn’t function without medication. Was in special ed growing up and needed serious intervention but now while I still take meds, I’ve had enough like therapy to navigate life successfully - im an accountant and I have my shit together. But if my ADHD symptoms were seen as me being disruptive and a bad kid instead of disordered thinking and behavior, I bet my story would be a lot different.
Also, it really pisses me off that so many people abuse my medication that I need because it makes it a lot harder for me to access my meds because it’s way stricter. The window to pick up my meds. Every month is like two days and if I’m traveling, and I have to get a partial prescription filled then it throws off how many you can get filled every 30 days and it gets super weird and convoluted. I don’t know it’s just like way more complicated than people think. Sometimes it bugs me because I feel like I’ve been taking my meds since third grade and it gets harder and harder every year to deal with the pharmacies.
I was diagnosed at 20 in the mid 2000's. Saying I struggled in school would be understating by quite a lot. At 19, I left to serve a Mormon mission in Finland. I came home after 9 months after completely losing my faith and making an attempt on my life. I spent the next year bouncing from diagnosis to diagnosis. I somehow ended up seeing a psychiatrist who was still in his residency, who referred me to an ADHD specialist. It finally fit. So much of life finally came into focus. Unfortunately, I stopped medicating my ADHD in the correct way and fell into opiate addiction. I went into treatment at 27, and would you believe that same psych resident I saw 7 years earlier was the one who also got me clean? He inspired me to pursue a career in psychology and I now work alongside him in substance misuse treatment. (Now I have to restart the video after typing all that and letting the video play...)
I was 60 years old, and my friend told me that when I got really upset I lost the ability to speak coherently, my inability to do certain tasks, the questions I had about keeping my house organized all made her wonder about ADHD. Her husband and son have it, and she's a nurse, so she knew. I knew nothing, I thought it was about normal little boys annoying their teachers. So I started reading and it fit. I paid for a neuropsych exam because my doctor said I had anxiety and I wasn't in school so even if it was true, I still had to pay for it.
I can't remember what prompted my ADHD diagnosis... I was a senior in college, 24(10 years ago) seeing a college appointed psychiatrist for an ED and bipolar(though at the time it was just suspected). I'm very distractable and impulsive, but my grades were perfect. I've had a lot of ECT since then and my memory has been trashed because of it... I can't for the life of me remember how I was actually diagnosed. How frustrating. I remember being on medication that year for it, and it helped, but also I think may have made my manias worse. Hmm
An assessment is difficult as there are limited opportunities for one where I live, wish I could was always the talkative student then went to the distracted /day dreaming /sleeping through class student.
I personally like to use the term neurodivergent when talking about myself but that's because I am clinically diagnosed with ADHD (at age 11, and it was my teachers in school that prompted my mother to seek my DX, because I was struggling so much in school. Sadly a DX didn't do anything for me because of the stigma around meds I didn't take any until adulthood, nor did I understand what ADHD even was really until I was well out of school) but I purposefully don't seek a formal DX for ASD even though I believe I am autistic - because I there is nothing that the US healthcare system can offer me at 33 that is going to help me with that, and having a formal DX could have potential negative consequences or restrict my medical autonomy. So in non-healthcare related setting, neurodiverse is a good term for me!
I have ADHD that was exacerbated my a ruptured aneurysm in my left frontal lobe with adjacent subarachnood hemmhorage, tbi and stroke. I was recently fired from my psychiatrist for something really minor where i believe i was in the right. I wasnt even given the opportunity to find out what happened and possibly work things out. I got a voicemail saying that I was not allowed to return. I got a letter 2 weeks later that is worded in a way that seems like i had a pattern of behavioe. My doctor went from someone who I was so happy to be able to trust and confide into someone who acted very callously and cold towards me and i still feel betrayed. Now i cant find a new doctor and im not doing too well without the stimulant. I tried to find a doctor most of whom were unavailable and the one doctor who cqlled me back said she wouldn't take a patient who took controlled substances! I'm in Vermont, US, and I'm wondering if anything has had this type of experience?
My mom got me assessed in high school after I was going to school everyday and still failing all my classes, when asked why I would say I couldn’t remember what happened in class. After being assessed I was diagnosed with inattentive ADD (idk if that diagnosis is still a thing)
My prompting for ADHD was my eating habits: I was homeschooled by a mum who wanted to make the world fit me, and who is definately the Phil to my Luke 😂. I feel into really bad eating and hygiene when I left home, and after trying literally everything I could find or be reccomended onto, I found a video linking adhd and realised a lot of things I thought were happening to everyone might not be so common. (To be fair to the psychs I saw for food, I never really brought up the hygiene or adhd related stuff because I thought it was normal stuff that I was just kind of naturally bad at) Diagnosis and medication has made some massive differences
What prompted my diagnosis: I'm GenX and a woman, and had previously understood that it was mostly boys who were hyperactive. However, when my niece was diagnosed with ADD, I started to wonder about it for me because she was a lot like me as a kid. I dismissed it at the time though, partly because I'd done really well in school (I thought poor performance was a symptom versus a consequence) and partly because with Bipolar, I felt I had bigger fish to fry. However, a few years ago, my inability to concentrate was so severe that I asked my doctor about it. My blood work was all normal so I asked my psychiatrist if she could evaluate me. Turns out - yup. After that, I started watching the TH-cam channel How to ADHD. She also did well in school (which was a barrier to her diagnosis from one doctor) and hearing her experiences and how it's shown up for her, all the light bulbs went off. It explains so dang much. However, I can't take any of the stimulant meds. I tried all of them, and even at the lowest doses they all put me to sleep. Whether it's a medication interaction or just that my brain's been running on 20 cylinders for decades, that little hit of dopamine sends me straight to bed. But I'm glad to know more about why my brain works the way it does, and am able to get advice on coping strategies that might actually work, lol.
I figured out I was queer in HS and went to Uni to study Fine arts so I attriubuted a lot of my sense of feeling different because of those two things. And because making a living through art is difficult even when you can finish your projects I had a bunch of time to fail a lot which sort of became a long term depressive episode that eventually got so bad I finally considered medication. I also went back to school to study something I was really into but was struggling with sort of the same things I always was, with prioritizing tasks and the deadlines and finishing stuff and a lot of the school was online so I had to watch video tutorials a lot and I couldn't focus on them too long, and at the same time since it was immeediatly after the pandemic, people started to talk more about AHDH in women so I actually finally connected the dots. It was odd to because I had other friends who had depression, but for me even at my lowest I still have stuff I was interested in to a degree that would excite me and give me a boost for a bit so I could feel a bit better. Of course when that excement wore off I'd go back to being depressed. I talked to my therapist who recommended a psychatrist and got assessed, I went on antidepressants for a couple of months and then I was put on Concerta as well and I felt that one instantly. I didn't know your brain could be quiet and I had insomnia since like middle school and I could finally fall asleep. It's been a year now since I started taking the medication and the effects are no longer as dramatic, but I can still feel when they are wearing off or when my brain becomes a bit loud again. Hilariously even if I basically had all of the inattentive traits and a couple of the hyperactive ones the thing that solidified it was my reaction to stimulent medication. Oh and this is very long, but I don't think you should add any additional points of interests to you videos. Your generally warm vibe and the kindness you show towards the people having the conditions you also explain from a medical stand point is more than enough. And as a fellow queer person I'm just glad to see people in my community being medical professionals. People where I live are still for the most part closeted and it's very reassuring to see someone being open about their sexuality while also discussing very delicate topics.
i have 2 relatives and one friend who as a kids were diagnosed as hyperactiv (old term for ADHD), one relative in pre teen years started to have food issues, bulimia to be exact, other started to show hyper sexuality around age 12 (male), teenage years were insane, they had periods of high up and darkest downs lasting from 14 days to months, then female cousin sarted to drink and be gone for days around age 16 to 21 and would come back like nothing ever happend and often was not even aware where she was and hat she was doing and with who, male relative started to do drugs and would behaive same as her when got home around same age. more time passed it was obvious something is wrong, they are kids from 2 brothers, until grandfather said they are acting as his late wife who had manic depression, long story short the thing wich manifested as adhd in their young age seems to be a symptom of bipolar who blew in their young adult age. friiend who also had adhd as a child, also had imaginary friend who never left him actually, but he never said that until he was 30 and something, around age 16 he started to be obsseed with certain things, like conspiracy theoris, would change religions ( wanted to d fce operation to be an asian so he could be true budhist), would sleep with man and then go on a gay bas*** spree with skinheads who he met and imaginary friend told him it is his people. there was bunch of situations with him where he was like off, we all started to notice, around his 30ties it become visibel, he acted like he was not he, he had stranged paranoid acussations or scenarions wich never happened, we had no clue wth is going on. so we all kinda put a distance ( i suffer from c ptsd war caused so i had enough of my own sh***). one day his mum called us did we maybe talked to him or saw him, coz she went to his place and realised he did not take his meds for whole month, we were like wtf what meds, he is schizophrenic, when she told that everything made sense, he was diagnosed at age 21 ( in my country it cant be earlier) even thou he had signs since age 13, but his mum thinks it was even earlier. his adhd also was symptom of something else, his dad had it too and it seems the war traumas messed him up and triggered it eralier than it is usual. adhd is not always just adhd....
I actually think that Alex showed signs of ADHD too (especially at her birthday breakdown and subsequent psychologist visit) but that wasn't delved in the show.
I'm 42. Started to piece the puzzles together about a year ago, and now I am 100% certain I have adhd. Undiagnosed yet. What prompted me to think that was 2 things: 1. My son, who is autistic (5yo, diagnosed at 2) and my obsessive interest in neurodiversity, since then; and 2. Perimenopause, that started flipping the train carriages off the 'coping strategies' track...
Was diagnosed as a child but because my brothers where hyperactive and I just had issues concentrating my dad said they made a mistake and that I didn’t have it.
My husband was diagnosed with ADHD at around age seven. Our older daughter was as well, they both have hyperactive type. Our younger daughter was diagnosed Autistic-ADHD at 12. I was only assessed and diagnosed AFTER both children - I was 47. Our younger daughter and I both have inattentive type, and I think not having the hyperactive aspect keeps a lot of people from getting a diagnosis, especially afab people because girls are expected to be "drifty" and "air headed". 🙄
I didn't go to therapy to get diagnosed with ADHD, cus my mom always said "I was just like that". I went to therapy for self-harm/depression (at 12), but then at 13 my dad committed suicide and it became all about that. Then my testing was delayed a year (to deal with the trauma), and then I got a diagnosis. It came as a total surprise for me, but looking back it was so obvious. I'm now 22 and still struggle daily with my ADHD. It's not a quirky personality trait but a real disorder.
Also, after 8 YEARS of therapy, I realised my dad had ADHD too and him not being diagnosed made him depressed. I wish I wasn't so much like him, even though he was the best person I knew. He was masking his whole life, suppressing it all with anti-depressants.
My parents used to beat me because of my hyperactivity. Eventually I learned to cheat and mask my hyperactivity and that got me through high school. Then as an adult, I casually mention this to my therapist after dropping out of college. A couple adderalls later, and I have a bachelors, and I'm in my masters for engineering. I also want to pursue a PhD(maybe, I need money). I'm not on adderall anymore, now I'm on atomoxetine, non-stimulant but still makes my symptoms manageable with less side effects(except for the long lasting erections, buyer beware, its not as fun as it sounds). I might go back on adderall if I slip up on the other practices I use to catch myself and maintain focus, but definitely give it a try if stimulants scare you. And don't be afraid to buy adhd stimulant toys like the one Phil was using in therapy sessions. Those toys help me sooooooo much on zoom calls.
I was diagnosed very young, I'm not actually sure why. I had accommodations throughout school and had meetings with my school psychologist in my elementary school years (6-11 years old). I'm a girl and I had more of the lack of focus, though it didn't often impair my ability to complete schoolwork or participate. My brother however, also has ADHD and was not diagnosed until high school. He had more of the hyperactivity, and frequently had issues with classes and teachers. I did learn it's not uncommon for siblings to share it but its interesting
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Im not diagnosed but I read the comments on a tumblr post about coffee and went "what do you mean it only works like that on adhd brains" and it gave my view of myself a whole 180°
I was Diagnose with ADHD when I was kick out of school because I was having a hard keeping up with classes and even having problems reading and writing to the point I had to repeat a grade It did not help I was also bullied called names been called failure by teachers and adults as well as being abandoned by friends I thought where their for me yet abandoned me as easily So I was put in a Special educaton school worse year of my life then I was diagnose with ADHD and Dylexia when I was 14 years old
In my mid 20's I hated myself for the one paragraph generated by the 2-12 hour days I spent trying to study for my professional engineer's exam. I realized I was unable to find the precise level of overstimulation I needed to drown out the need to look for distractions. Turns out my decades of depression may have been eintirely exhaustion from fighting ADHD. Claire's obsessive organization actually feels more familiar than Phil's impulse control.
3:12 no dont worry. im currently swinging a wooden sword i found in the attic around and it's focusing me just fine. its horribly balanced tho, a sword should balance at the handguard but this one balances half way up the, "blade" feels wrong lets say plank, which makes it a little awkward and painful to swing about. i might get a blister tbh. anyway i had the video paused. what prompted my diagnosis was i related to a lot of people who were talking about it and we all already thought i had autism so we when to get me had a look at. ps/ what happened to your yellow minifigure.
What prompted my diagnosis of adhd: struggling within a rigid education system for my entire lifetime, almost not being able to finish college, and finally advocating for myself after years of misdiagnosis of anxiety and depression. When you’re an Asian woman, people will sooner diagnose you with just about anything else before a learning disability.
Two years post diagnosis and treatment, I’ve gotten a job working as an evolutionary genomics research assistant and finally feel like I have control of my life. I have an offer for a biology DPhil (PhD) programme and finally feel empowered in a system which once chained me down.
Exactly the same for me. But being Latina, people attributed my inattentiveness and excessive talking as just... being Latina. It took YEARS before I could find a psychiatrist willing to give me a screening test.
Yeah honestly the bias around certain groups that psychs seem to have really affects their diagnosis. Me and many fellow male ADHDers had our psychs rush to diagnose us with ADHD but when I would mention stuff like anxiety I always just heard a lot more judgement and psych and therapists all sounding judgy when I’d mention what made me anxious and how I felt. It really felt like a “why are you scared of this? Just man up” type of situation.
@@isabel4036I'm so happy for you!! 😭Hoping for a similar result, I'm still waiting for my assessment.
My prompting for diagnosis was my husband. He's a teacher and had learned about how ADHD presents in overachieving girls. He told me basically every story I have and myself in general checked almost every box. That if he was my teacher he would contact the school counselor to talk to my parents about assessment.
Went to a psychiatrist and discussed my question. It provided so much context for my life and has been so helpful. My parents still don't believe it. Even after I explained it doesn't mean they were bad parents. Only that we have updated diagnostics since the 80s and 90s.
Your description of undiagnosed ADHD in girls and women reflects my story very well! I went 29 years without a diagnosis, during which i always felt different and inexplicably anxious. It was actually through TH-cam videos about adhd that i realized it was so much more complex than just hyperactivity and that inattentive type described me perfectly 😅 so thanks for making videos like these!
I was similar. I actually asked about getting evaluated when I was about 13 because I realized I had a lot of similarities to my younger cousin (who was a boy) and was actually told that “girls can’t get ADD”.
After that, I didn’t go to get myself actually evaluated and diagnosed until I was 29.
im a girl and i was diagnosed with adhd in middle school. i was frequently zoning out, forgetting things, and had a really difficult time doing homework i wasnt interested in. i'm glad i got diagnosed, it really helped me!
First diagnosed as a child, but as a young adult I thought it was wrong cuz I was doing well in those areas. Then the military happened, I struggled with some tasks, got depressed, and my therapist there basically said "no, you clearly have ADHD," confirming the diagnosis.
When I was around 4-5, my parents brought me to our family doctor because they suspected that I may be on the autism spectrum. The doctor told them it was a phase and I would grow out of it. It wasn't until I was 19 that I finally got a diagnosis, not just for autism, but also ADHD, OCD, and depression. I do often wonder how my life may have turned out if I had gotten an earlier diagnosis. I also kinda wonder if being my being female had contributed to the doctor's dismissal of my parent's concerns.
What prompted my diagnosis: moving out on my own when I started uni. School and college before I coasted through with high grades without studying or even learning to do homework because I could show up to a test and be fine - once I had to actually start writing papers on my own, keep track of my own class schedule, take care of my own meals and nutrition and household, it was all too much at once. I struggled with depression, anxiety and started missing class etc. One day I did attend and we were given an assignment to talk to a classmate as an "active listener" and the person I spoke to was telling me about her recent ADHD diagnosis - everything she told me fell in place. One of the hardest conversations I ever had because the entire assignment was to NOT interject with your own experiences but the whole time I was bursting to say "I have that" and "that's how I feel". I never did, but did go straight to the dean who referred me to the uni psychologist. I was diagnosed three months later.
the documentary Three Identical Strangers is about a "let's split up these triplets and place them with different families in different socio-economic classes to see what happens" study.
After spending my whole 20s being unemployed, or stressed out in hospitality jobs, I got into university at the age of 30, during the pandemic. I lasted 4 months at university as I could not get the work done, and then I got myself diagnosed with ADHD and ASD.
I really appreciated Phil’s character in Modern Family. He was an incredible father and his Godfather episode is one of the best in tv ever.
I was diagnosed with ADHD in January, at 44 years of age. It was a long road, many years of depression, CPTSD, Fibromyalgia, Anxiety, and Narcolepsy all being diagnosed before, not meaning those are real diagnoses, just that all of that took more attention until things were just getting harder, even with all else being treated, I still struggled with jobs, with motivation, I would get stuck unable to do the simplest things like getting breakfast, would forget to do basic things like going to the bathroom if I was focused on something... then I started seeing that many of the content creators I resonated with had ADHD, and when they shared their personal struggles I started seeing things in common, things that I always thought were just "broken" in me, and then my therapist suggested for me to get assessed, I did and here I am, still adjusting, trying to find ways to unmask and to be kinder to myself.
2:10 I've always loved the whole "Judge a fish on its ability to climb trees..."
What prompted my diagnosis of adhd: severe anxiety. Over decades, I strugled with always being late, no matter what; fired from jobs multiple times; impulsivity; and hiperfocus on anything other than what I need to do.
My original diagnosis of ADHD wasn't very exciting. My mom was an elementary school guidance counselor, so when I showed distractability, forgetfulness, and difficulty being organized around age 6, she pretty promptly took me to get evaluated, and the psychologist diagnosed me with ADD (this was the mid-90s). I was too young to remember a lot more details than that.
Around age 10, I went off ADHD meds because I wanted to. I think I wanted to prove I could succeed without the meds, and it makes me sad realizing I had already internalized the stigma around mental illness. As a young adult I learned that my ADHD came as part of a BOGO deal with anxiety and got treated for a bit with low-dose antidepressants, but it wasn't until I was preparing for doctoral comprehensive exams that I decided to reconsider ADHD meds. The difference it made was incredible. It became so much easier to get things done, and I felt much less like garbage when I had to start working on something. I also got assessed again for adult ADHD, which confirmed that I still do have it.
One thing I only recently began to realize is the extent of ADHD's knock-on effects on my emotional health and relationships. To this day I'm really insecure about my ability to function and can get really discouraged by something as simple as forgetting to lock the apartment. I also have a lot of social anxiety, which has often led to social isolation, which, it turns out, is bad for you. The good news is I'm finally starting to address these things in therapy.
Wonderfully explained science in your videos! I truly enjoy listening to your warm tone of voice and the way you explain concepts like 'adenosine'.
Also, omg, Denali shout-out and Plasma mention! Omg I totally agree... I will miss Plasma like crazy in the show!
Best of luck to you in everything!
Admittedly this is in response to a tiny part of your video regarding twin studies. Way back in the 1970s, one of my Profs, who was the head of the Psychology Department, talked about "twin studies". He had gone at the subject from a different angle and analyzed 3 children who had been adopted by the same couple to see how much commonality there was in personality, mental health, etc., the factors looked for in "twin studies". He said he found a lot of commonalities. He lamented the fact that no one tried to do another study like this because he thought it was a valuable way to look at the nature vs nurture issues and because it was easier, at the time, to find families that had adopted multiple children, who had no known genetic ties, as infants.
That's v interesting
@@DoctorElliottCarthy I was too young to know I had adhd but mom and the doctors already knew but then when I was 8 or so they thought I might have autism too, when I was 13 I finally got diagnosed with autism, adhd, a possibly tic disorder, at risk for a serious mental illness like psychosis, I think there was one more thing but I can’t remember, since then my mental and physical health has only deteriorated cause no one ever believed me and also cause I didn’t know my problems weren’t normal, so on top of all that I have depression, anxiety, ptsd, symptoms of an eating disorder, breathing issues, partial paralysis on the left side, walking problems, chronic pain, and more, unfortunately no one believes me not even doctors so I can’t get help and it feels like getting help is a hopeless dream that’s never going to come true
my father has ADHD and is pretty open about it. as soon as he told me about it in 2nd grade, i said "i have that, can we get tested?"
however i was a "gifted kid" with good grades so they never took it seriously. at my first hospitalization at 13 i mentioned this to my therapist there and she diagnosed me with ADHD (hyperactive-impulsive type)
and when they were explaining it to my mother, she realized she had ADHD too. she got diagnosed soon after i did, which i found funny. anyway, it actually was pretty relieving, because my family understands that i cant just "try harder" to make it go away
I asked about testing for autism (which I also got diagnosed with) and they said it's an autism and ADHD service, did I want testing for that as well. I figured "sure, why not", but didn't think I had it because I'm so exhausted all the time. Then I did research on it and realised "Oh my god, that's one of the reasons WHY I'm so exhausted!" On Atomoxetine now and it really helps with my emotional lability.
ADHD is absolutely exhausting and we know its more common in autistic people than in neurotypicals so glad you got the right diagnosis in the end
During my second year of uni in 2020-2021, when I was 19, I had a massive burnout (I had already had one when I was almost 17, mere weeks before what would be the equivalent of the GCSEs in France) and had to drop out. I had been struggling a lot with uni and life in general for a while but because of past mental health issues and ongoing depression and anxiety, we'd always thought it was just that. I had begun questioning whether I had ADHD for a bit but I was in a really bad state mentally and basically had more urgent matters to solve. After a year and a half of talking to my psychiatrist about ADHD and them completely invalidating my feelings, I'd dropped the subject and stuck to my ongoing really bad depression, clinical anxiety disorder and the long-term effects and difficulties that come with two burnouts in the span of less than 3 years. One day, my psychiatrist casually asked me if I'd ever given a thought to ADHD. I was fuming internally but didn't say anything cause I was so relieved someone was finally seeing what I was seeing. I went to get diagnosed (twice because my mom didn't believe the diagnosis, we're still working on that) and both doctors I saw were baffled because of how blatantly obvious my ADHD apparently was.
So it took 4 years on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, an ED, two burnouts and a lot of unaliving ideation (plus 21 years of a LOT of symptoms and traits -and feeling alone and misunderstood, being told to calm down, that i'm too obsessive, that my head's always in the clouds etc- that, in hindsight, were so obviously indicative of ADHD it still makes me really mad) before I got diagnosed...
When I got on ADHD medication, I went off my antidepressants, and I felt completely okay... I obviously did suffer from very bad depression for some of my life, but a lot of it was most likely depressive episodes that were a consequence of my ADHD...
So yeah...
I was honeslty unfortunately "lucky" to get diagnosed at "only" 21 years old, being a woman with a family history of poor mental health, but it still stings...
It really took a toll on my studies... I had to drop out of an incredible uni program that I'd gotten into and that I didn't have the money to start over again after that.
I'm now 22, turning 23 in a few months, and I went back to uni this past September and now I see just how unfit the system is (France really isn't great with disabilities), but now I truly see how and why I struggle way more than most of my fellow undergrads, and I don't blame myself and put myself down half as much anymore.
The meds aren't helping as much as I'd hoped they would, but they definitely do to some extent.
What prompted my diagnosis: going to therapy for perfectionism and talking about things I thought was normal, and then people telling me that's not normal.
Essentially, I had a built in fear of my distractability and had be scolded by it for so long, I'd hyper fixate on a task until every aspect was done before I could finish. It was more obvious when I was alone, I'd forget to do basic things like eat or take medication or end up with a trail of unfinished tasks. I was talking about it the other day was someone saying "I don't think I'm that bad...omg I forgot to clean up the child's pee on the floor." How did I forget? I went to boil the jug. There was rubbish that needed to go outside, I took it outside, I saw a spider, decided to photograph a spider for the rest of the afternoon.
My mom saw a 20/20 episode in the 90’s on adults with ADHD (can’t remember if it was specifically about women) and called and said,”this is you”. When I was a kid, my parents were taking their psych degrees and my mom took me in for testing one day with her child psychologist instructor (to the best of my recall) I remember it being a fun experience. What I remember the most was repeating back long strings of numbers and apparently doing really well at it. Years later my mom told me that the doctor suggested letting me have a little coffee mixed with milk on days where it seemed I was being particularly challenging. She stopped taking me shopping because the changing room was a nightmare for her. I was fidgety and talked out of turn in the lower grades and occasionally spent time sitting in then hall (this was the 70’s-pretty sure they aren’t allowed to do this anymore). I was accelerated until fourth grade (actually skipped 2nd grade but asked to be put back) and then school started being difficult for me. I got diagnosed around the age of 28. I’m 56 now. My grandson was recently diagnosed with autism and ADHD and my daughter (also ADHD) and I have both started to consider whether we might also be on the spectrum. It’s hard to get evaluated as an adult in Rhode Island though.
What prompted my diagnosis of adhd as a woman in my 30s was going through decades of trauma therapy for complex ptsd due to severe childhood sexual abuse, and having improvement with symptoms like nightmares and flashbacks, as well as improved emotional regulation overall, but experiencing zero improvement in my ability to start things when I wanted to start them, keep projects or activities going if they weren’t new or particularly interesting to me, or finish anything really at all. Plus relational issues like being distracted easily in conversations, having problems with not interrupting folks, and not finishing their sentences.
In my sophomore year of college, I was struggling - not because I didn't understand the subjects (I was tutoring people will better grades than me). My mom called me and told me she read an article and it sounded like me. It took a few tries, but I got myself scheduled, tested (super crazy hours long test), and diagnosed.
Then continued on my long road to a BS degree. When I "came out" and told a few friends, the major consensus was "no shit, sherlock"
What prompted my diagnosis was the birth of my first child. I woke up several times per night to feed the baby, and since I had troubles getting to sleep again, I was seriously sleep deprived, which made adhd symptoms much worse. When our child doctor heard what was going on with our lives she prompted me to get tested. They first tested for autism but none of those seemed to stick. The doctor did an adhd test as a part of those tests, and a lot of those really fit into my life.
After the diagnosis I told my friends that I had adhd, they were baffeled and said "No shit sherlock, you didn't figure that out yourself?" So they had all known that for years before. They just didn't talked me about it since they assumed I also knew.
After the diagnosis I have also find out that there is a lot of neurodiversity in my family, although a lot of it is undiagnosed. Those older generations didn't have the same knowledge as we do now. At least I now know to keep my eye on my kids about it.
The split screen example actually drove me crazy. It made me feel very overstimulated.
What prompted my diagnosis of ADHD: I was concerned about one of my students who was distractible and hyperactive. I did some googling, looking at ADHD and then ADHD in girls. I got suspicious and then looked into ADHD in adults and in women. It was all a bit too familiar
The prompting of me getting diagnosed with ADHD was slow, and slowly growing. Most of it was during the pandemic, probably because it forced me to actually spend time with my brain, not escape it constantly. My D&D character played a part in it too, funnily enough, to spice up having to play a cleric I gave her the backstory of being a true polymorphed dog - and I roleplayed her as such, loyal, fearless, but also very easily distractable and hyper. At first her being ADHD was a group in-joke, but the more I thought about it (and the more I came across ADHD memes on social media, especially the one saying "Either ADHD people need to stop being so relatable or I need to go to the doctor", which happened around the same time), the more I recognized myself. Which makes sense, roleplaying still uses parts of your personality, and longterm roleplaying is bound to accidentally unearth some psychological stuff.
The last push was uni. Given enough information about ADHD I think sooner or later uni would have led me to the same realization. Im not dumb but somehow I waited to study until last second every time, had issues starting a task. Because I realized outside of exam pressure I would start to doubt, I wrote a long e-mail I added to in such high pressure times, then forbade me to edit it and sent it hail-mary to the unis psych councellor one day when I was fed up enough.
She recommended my doc to me, I spoke to him 10 mins and he called me an obvious case lol. I think Im pretty standagrd for a "smart" girl with ADHD: Daydreaming/Doodling instead of rambunctiousness, good (enough) grades through a deep interest in science and weaponizing my fear of failure to cram, in adult life slowly getting worn down because uni is harder than school and adulthood means you also have to somehow juggle household stuff and grocery shopping. Invisible, because Im not a young, loud boy and because I didnt fail classes
My pet theory btw is that the different ways ADHD shows in boys and girls is trained, not neccessarily inherent. Switch Kindergarten Mes gender and you have the most clichee ADHD kid ever, I was loud, wild, had issues with interrupting people and was generally pretty active - and then I turned sedentary and day-dreaming in elementary school. I suspect I would have stayed this tomboy wildfang of a kid without outside pressure wanting me to sit and be quiet (and without other kids bullying the hell out of me so my head got safer than interacting with people). I still talk loud and fast if I feel safe, but most times I hold myself in check strongly because Im afraid to be rejected/attacked by/disappoint people by being "weird"
Ok now I reached the part where you spoke about difference in diagnosis in boys and girls and dead right, I was definitely the suffer in silence type. I was 24 when I got diagnosed. My doctor said me being "smart" (I have issues saying this without quotations about myself) hid it even more, beause I managed to finish school and one degree in uni on stress-induced cramming and interest in the topic alone (Not that it was easy - my mental health was definitely way worse during that time, up to things I wont traumadump here)
What prompted my ADHD diagnosis - I had always struggled without structure and deadlines, plus anxiety. First anxiety diagnosis at 6! I read an article about late diagnosis of ADHD in AFAB people. I read it, didn't clock it was about me, because of course I was different and it was all my fault. It sat with me for a while and then I realised. Asked for an assessment and was on the waiting list. I realised just how bad it was during COVID when I didn't have the structure of the office. Diagonosed formally one week before my 41st birthday
My prompting of diagnosis was that I was a sophomore in high school and failing all my honors classes. I had a 32 in my lit class. I loved that class but had a really hard time staying focused and had panic attacks while doing tests because it was so quiet. One time I got so overwhelmed I scribbled squiggles on my paper, gave it to my teacher and called it a day because I was so anxious and couldn’t focus enough. I have adhd and bipolar among other things but that was what started the journey for me. My mom gave me a concerta pill for a test to see if I would do better and I did amazing for the first time in a while but also had a panic attack because I wasn’t used to being that calm which lead to me being diagnosed
I startet to think about this possible dignosis only a couple of years ago. so in my forties. it was a thousand little occasions were I found out chatting to friends how different their brain works, that it doesn't sound like an arcade in "silent mode". the admiration from collegues for the million little things I can do seemingly at the same time while I worried that I just cannot focus on one task for long. finding out that other people are not drained after work from pretending to be "normal". and lastly finding out, that all the little tricks my husband (working in daycare for children up to 10 yo) uses on his diagnosed adhd-kids also work on me.
What prompted my diagnosis was a 2nd grade teacher noticing I was consistently the last one to got to recess because I was slow in putting on my shoes. Also always the last person to leave the classroom at the end of the day.
My doctor actually brought in a behavioral expert of some sort because of my binge eating. She was the first person to pose I might have adhd ( I was 22). She said a lot of the symptoms look different in women. I was referred to a psychologist and he said he was looking forward to the tests but my insurance blocked any more treatment saying it was medically unnecessary. I almost dropped out of my masters program. Looking back I’m thankful for my primary. Not only did he spend hours trying to write back and forth with my insurance but he switched my antidepressant to bupropion, which I later learned was an off label treatment for adhd. A few months went by and I got better; but I still wish sometimes I knew for myself. I’m a teacher so I just started making adjustments and accommodations for myself assuming I needed them (driving with naps on, visual timers, earplugs for overstimulation).
My ADHD diagnosis was prompted by hearing a bunch of ADHD diagnosed folks describe their school experiences and realizing that not everyone relied on a last-minute panic to complete every assignment during school. Then when I read a profile for someone with ADHD (inattentive type) and OCD, it was like reading my own biography.
Girl here:
Got my diagnosis at 20 years old, almost 21.
The process for me started during teenage years when I made a friend who’s been diagnosed with adhd very early in her childhood. There were constant instances of her saying something about herself and me going “oooh, I do that too” and she’d tell me “you know, that’s an adhd thing”. I started also learning a little about it and I’d relate to basically everything. Problem was 1- I thought I was being “disrespectful to people with actual adhd” to even consider that was my case and 2- lack of information, when I tried talking about this suspicion with my parents they’d always go “oh, no, you normally get good grades so that’s not your case”.
Middle school and high school were hell (not due to bullying but school itself) but I pushed through it. I even once, when I went to see this doctor from another city for my Tourette’s, was diagnosed with adhd as well as Tourette’s, this still during high school, but she didn’t go through any tests nor anything, then an old psychologist I used to do therapy with said I did not have it, it was just my anxiety and depression, so I kinda ignored it. But then I got to college and realized hell could get a whole lot worse. So, I decided that the way I was heading I was sure to drop out in soon enough and I was tired of being misunderstood in many other aspects too. That when I decided to allow myself to actually think about this possibility as real and went after more professional opinion. So, my psychologist I had started doing therapy with for some time at that point agreed it was likely, then I did a bunch of tests with a neuropsychologist she gave me the number of, got diagnosed, then did a smaller version of the tests with my neurologist just to be sure, got diagnosed again, my psychiatrist who for some reason didn’t want to tell me before called it “obvious” (that I do have it) and now I’m here, still wanting to drop off college but way better than before
In my early 20's I seriously started googling brain damage because I was desperately searching for answers to why I had certain impairments in my day to day life, that I was deeply ashamed of. It was during that phase that I stumbled across ADHD several times, which I first had excluded as a possibility because most descriptions spoke of hyperactive and impulsive symtoms, which I had not (to the contrary). At some point I finally read more into it and decided to get a screening. So - here I am, years later, still disorganized, zoning out on the regular and barely getting through uni life, but with an ADHD diagnosis - so at least having a name for it, being better able to step by step build strategies and being more selfcompassionate towards things that in the past I would have hidden away and be ashamed about.
What prompted my diagnosis: I started having trouble in school.
My case feels odd because my family and I didn't really notice anything wrong until I was halfway through 5th grade (~10-11 years old). I started feeling really apathetic about school and I had no idea why. My grades started diving, but not too terribly. The next year (my first year of middle school) was quite possibly the WORST academic year I ever had (barring a semester or two in college where I had to drop 3 out of my 4 classes). I was completely apathetic, never did homework, and acted like a complete ass to my peers and parents. I have no clue how I managed to pass the 6th grade. During this year, my mom had me go to family counseling. It was there that the psychologist helped me get a diagnosis of ADHD-PI (then ADD). I got started on medication the next year. And then everything was great for a little while. But that's a whole other story and I've rambled on enough here. :P
I was diagnosed as a child. School suggested it and then I was lucky enough to end up seeing a specialist for about 10 years :)
What prompted my diagnosis of adhd: people kept asking me so there was always a possibility that i had it but I performed while in school but then I was perform ACCA exam and was going down the self study route (which Iv'e never done before) and realize I was having an hard time concentrating and sitting still and fearing I might fail I decided to look into it.
I investigated if I could be adhd due to my depression and anxiety worsening during covid. My anxiety was causing depression which was screwing with my executive function. Anxiety also gave me insomnia, and the sleep deprivation made me fidgety and made it hard to focus. Anxiety also just made me a perfectionist, which could look like hyperfocus.
I heard it could be linked to some of my past struggles, like how difficult it was to read textbooks and inability to multitask.
Also vaguely wondered about autism since I can be quite literal and struggle to read facial and body ques.
Ultimately, though, my therapist and I decided to focus on my anxiety instead, and once I started managing that, the other symptoms went away. So theory is there is some mild something there but still within neurotypical range.
AFAB diagnosed at 32 after anxiety meds didn't help my anxiety and constant job-hopping, but it took an already diagnosed partner to get me to really consider it - i had a family who valued academics, private school which was more individually structured, and felt enough pressure to succeed/positive distraction with achievement from other things like my sexuality that i was an excellent student for many years. all fell apart as soon as i entered the workplace though!
There were a few false starts in high school/college where I repeatedly couldn't finish assignments on time and probably would have been diagnosed with ADHD if my parents had suggested the possibility. I finally went to a psychiatrist and got diagnosed last year. What prompted it in particular? Having to write and edit an academic paper! I'm getting a PhD in math and having to edit a 30+ page math paper is probably the hardest thing I can imagine doing with ADHD. It's a really slow process with a lot of small details and requiring a lot of focus. It's still hard but so much more manageable now with meds.
I did not say a word until after my third birthday. My parents were concerned and took me to a doctor who quickly figured out that I got everything I needed through gestures and facial expressions. He prescribed that they stop responding until I spoke and when I did it was in full complete sentences. They were acting out of guilt for my close call with death at 18 months due to intestinal blockage and my having to spend 6 weeks in isolation on IV. But since research had recently been published by that genius hack Skinner that said mothers only were milk delivery systems, the hospital did not let her near me. That was not a healthy experience for me.
What prompted my diagnosis: I wasn't diagnosed until a couple of weeks before my 28th birthday. I'd been seeing a campus psychologist for a few years because I'd really been struggling with my studies and we both assumed this was because of anxiety and ptsd. Funny thing that happened was that around age 25/26 when both of these things started to improve, it became really obvious that they weren't the only cause, and my ADHD symptoms started to become obvious when it wasn't being masked by anxiety any more. I was also reflecting on a friend's diagnosis at the time, because we'd often lament about having similar struggles with our studies, and so it was one of the first times I had a bit of a mirror to my stuff. My psych and I went through one of the adult questionnaires and he got me to get a referral from my GP for a pyschiatrist, and I made sure to find one who was familiar with co-morbidities in case it WAS just the anxiety and ptsd. Literally at the end of that appointment, the guy was like 'oh yeah, you definitely have ADHD.'
Hilarious things:
- I studied psych in undergrad AND spent some time in my early 20s researching mental health issues to figure out what was 'wrong' with me, and came to conclusion that it was actually nothing and I just needed to work harder (yes, I missed the anxiety and ptsd too - was not very self aware at 20 lmao).
- During my evaluation, the question about fidgeting came up, and we both stopped and looked down at my hand, which was mid-fidget poking my shoelaces into the eyelets of my shoes
- In retrospect, my ADHD was all very obvious, it's just no one was looking for it when I was a kid. I hyperfocused on reading, if I didn't enjoy a class I would surreptitiously write stories instead of paying attention, I would constantly miss deadlines and not understand why I struggled with sitting down to do the work. The head-shaking thing in this video made me laugh because it reminded me of when my mum used to be late picking me up from Brownie meetings and I would pass the time by spinning in circles across the room
We've been learning about 2e kids in my diverse education class, and I cant deny the fact that I identify with a lot of the characteristics, but it's easier for me to continue thinking of myself as someone who was an average student who got to masters by sheer stubbornness, than to think I was gifted and that it was missed because everyone thought I was lazy. But my awareness of my ADHD has also meant that I'm very interested in including the teaching of metacognitive skills in my pedagogy, so hopefully the kids I end up teaching are given the tools that I didn't have when I was their age.
Being diagnosed and medicated for my ADHD also made me notice for the first time how bad my health issues were getting, so I can safely say that if my ADHD hadn't been diagnosed, I never would have gotten my sh*t together enough to actually start taking my health seriously, rather than just thinking I was lazy (my definition of lazy before all this being if you failed something regardless of effort). So even though it took until my late 20s, I'm really grateful it happened when it did.
(soz for the long comment, I am very tired today :P)
two of my family members have adhd, so when i started having some trouble in school and socially they tested me for it but the results were inconclusive and they said since i didn't have adhd so they couldn't help us more. fast forward to me being 17 and finally diagnosed with nvld, non verbal learning disorder, a processing disorder that explained the things i'd thought were just me being a bad student or a bad friend. an earlier diagnosis and actual help and attention could have really changed things for me as a kid, as it was i was pretty miserable thinking it was all just Me Being Bad
Also the film Three Identical Strangers covers the twin/triplet studies you mentioned here. It’s completely wild
So for prompting my adhd diagnosis: terrible time and energy level management: midnight lasagna. As a teenager I wouldn’t be able to sleep and I’d get these rushes of energy in the evening so I would do some really elaborate acticivity at night like make lasagna it became like an inside joke in my family. And also impulsivity and hyperactivity/ doing too much and then being exhausted/ then extremely bored. Like first year of high school I decided that on top of having a part time job I should also be in an outside of school play that was really far that ended up taking up every evening weekend when I wasn’t in school or working, burnt myself out like crazy
What prompted my diagnosis of ADHD:
I was already diagnosed with many other mental illnesses. I was never assessed for ADHD because I had/have severe GAD. So the attention deficit was masked by my severe anxiety. I started to get a bit of anxiety under control and suddenly I noticed all these ADHD symptoms I’d seen online on mental health reels etc. so I asked for the paperwork and boom.
Only put on reboxetine for it though and he worries about stimulants due to my recovering addictions x
Regarding ADHD, I can only speak as someone on the ever lengthening waiting list for ADHD assessment in the UK, but I can still talk about some of the reasons I went to my GP and ended up with a referral! Growing up, I did really well in school, I was often top of the class, I didn't have to try very hard and looking back I think I was in my own little world a lot of the time because sometimes I didn't even NEED to concentrate because I didn't struggle to understand what was going on.
Fast forward to my A-levels (which all gets a bit clouded with the pandemic and me moving countries and stuff), I was REALLY struggling to concentrate, to get down all the notes, I didn't understand how to summarise, I could barely do my homework, I missed all my deadlines and thought it was just you know, the transition back to school after learning another language intensively in another country. But no! My struggles continued all the way through my A levels, only seeming to get worse, and started causing me genuine anxiety (and I'm not a very naturally anxious person, I'm quite go with the flow), and I would start missing lessons and sometimes whole days of school, until I basically stopped going for a few weeks, determined to drop out. Me and my new friend-she's diagnosed with ADHD-bonded over our school struggles at the beginning of our A levels and she would say sometimes "are you sure you don't have ADHD?" and I'd just laugh it off. Some months later, I watched a video online by this video essayist I liked explaining how she had been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and after I watched it I felt a bit strange-like how obviously it was about her, but some of the things she said felt so on the nose for me too. So then I went through a MAJOR rabbit hole of ADHD information, thought "there's no way I don't have this", then promptly spent about two months researching it because I was literally obsessed. Like even if I don't have ADHD it was super fun to learn about it. It was eight months before I went to the GP though, because I just never got round to it, even though I desperately wanted to talk to someone about it.
Right now, I'm 19, and I'm holding off on going to university until I get assessed for ADHD. The truth is, I hated my A levels, and as much as I want to study psychology I know that at this point I would not be able to get through a degree without support, and I know that I probably have ADHD and need a diagnosis to access that support. I've been on a waiting list for about a year and four months, after initially being told the waiting list was just one year :/ (which is still considered pretty good for the UK anyway!)
Also a quick note! when I went to my GP, she asked me if it could be anxiety that could be causing some of the issues I was having. And I just said, "no, I don't think so. even when I feel mentally well-not anxious at all-and there's no big stresses in my life, I still struggle with all the same things." so if you ever need a referral or something yourself, then maybe this kind of thing can help you - obviously this is specific to me, since you can absolutely have an anxiety disorder and ADHD or whatever, I just really don't think I do personally. Any anxiety I experienced was coming from the stress of not being adequately supported at school, and that's it.
I'm nearing 30 and I'm only now getting somewhere re: ADHD assessment, despite trying to get it since 2019 when I first became aware that I might have it. Hopefully will get the DIVA questionnaire by next autumn. My biggest problems are basically executive dysfunction, getting stuck doing something other than what I should be doing, no consistency in my hobbies (especially sucky for art hobbies, hard to see improvement), impulsive spending of money, leaving everything until the last minute, etc..... I mean basically I've been unable to study or work for the last couple of years while we've been trying to figure out ways to help me survive. But basically until now the answer was "you did well in school + you have depression and anxiety so you can't get assessed for ADHD" for years, despite the fact that most of my depressive / anxious symptoms are caused by my ADHD traits (e.g. not getting things done). Oh and being an AFAB person definitely didn't help. 😅
I was too young to know I had adhd but mom and the doctors already knew but then when I was 8 or so they thought I might have autism too, when I was 13 I finally got diagnosed with autism, adhd, a possibly tic disorder, at risk for a serious mental illness like psychosis, I think there was one more thing but I can’t remember, since then my mental and physical health has only deteriorated cause no one ever believed me and also cause I didn’t know my problems weren’t normal, so on top of all that I have depression, anxiety, ptsd, symptoms of an eating disorder, breathing issues, partial paralysis on the left side, walking problems, chronic pain, and more, unfortunately no one believes me not even doctors so I can’t get help and it feels like getting help is a hopeless dream that’s never going to come true
I was 35 before I even suspected that I could have ADHD and as I write this now I’m still waiting on a formal assessment but working in mental health means I regularly refer to the DSM and (more regularly) the ICD. One day I completed the ADHD assessment tool from the ICD and the questions were eye opening. That’s what promoted me to referral. Since then it’s really opened my eyes to just how frequently it impacts on my life.
Lmaoo stop the bottles falling actually managed to distract me 🤣
what prompted my adhd diagnosis was actually surprisingly when I was 7! It's surprising because I am a trans guy and girls are still incredibly under diagnosed so I count myself VERY lucky. But yeah, they noticed I was struggling in school at a degree that was starting to be a little concerning, so they had me tested for a bunch of learning-related neurodivergencies(dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and others I think) some came up positive but mainly those that are also just symptoms of ADHD (actually ADD because at 7 I was already mostly internalizing the hyperactivity because I was already learning masking due to my undiagnosed autism) so they tested me for ADD, it came back positive. I've been diagnosed ever since. It took until 12 years old to get my ASD diagnosis though. And until 18, last year, for a depression diagnosis, after my second episode ever. But finally I'm on duloxetine and I'm doing better so🥳🥳
My twin and i were 11 or 12 when diagnosed with ADHD (just ADD at the time). We had trouble forgetting homework and hyper focused on reading and drawing when we had less stimulating tasks to accomplish. The executive dysfunction came in more in high school. I wish more attention was paid to executive function back then. It would have prevented so many fights and misunderstandings with my parents.
I was diagnosed with adhd at 18. My brother had been diagnosed at 8, given a medication that caused a lot of negative side effects (and is no longer on the market- but this was the mid 90s). And so my parents never allowed him to try a different medication, and refused to let me talk to my doctor about my own inattention and school problems. I was “gifted”, & was able to get through high school without regular class attendance or studying.
Wasn’t until I was making my 3rd attempt at freshman year college that I finally went to a doctor to get diagnosed
As someone with ADHD, the split screen question at 3:14 just had me laughing outloud.
(But to be practical, it doesn't work for me. Maybe because you already have a split screen with the show and you both on screen)
What prompted my diagnoses was a close relative getting diagnosed, an ex saying I had symptoms that matched his ADHD, and the building frustration of not doing at well in uni as I could,
I'm 43 and was only recently had my ADHD diagnosis confirmed. I think because I wasn't a physically active child and did quite well at school it wasn't something that occurred to anyone, but it was maybe ten years ago I realised that I had attention issues. "Just concentrate" were words that might as well have been "Just start flying". Thankfully I'm now starting medication.
(NOTE: dx means diagnosis) I have an adhd and autism dx. I did well in school so I didn't get assessed at all until I went out and did it after struggling at uni so much that I didn't finish it. I had read through the dsm-V cover to cover multiple times so I knew the symptoms but was so used to being told I was being lazy and needed to apply myself more that I assumed I could not have ADHD. I wasn't epecting the ASD dx, despite the fact I had issues with language in prep/pre-school and my brother got an ASD dxwhen he was 5 and I was 7. My mum is an anti-vaxxer, she believes my brother got ASD from a vaccine. I also just presented really differently from the stereotypes of autism and adhd. I have combined type ADHD and was fidgeting and flapping my legs about all the time but nobody noticed. So my experience definately follows the pattern we have been seeing with late dx in girls. Post dx I talked to an autistic friend of mine and he said my sensory issues were too much to be caused by the autism (He's wrong according to psychiatrist and clinical psychologist).
Re ADHD diagnosis, I'm a doctor who hit burnout hard during F3/F4 during the pandemic. My mental health really deteriorated, I started therapy, started looking into things, (treated for/assumed to have anxiety/depression/OCD for many years while still being '""""high functioning""") diagnosed as autistic and then was prompted by my assessor to look into ADHD as I present very much like one of those high achieving women who're AuDHD but go unrecognised until later in life when they hit burnout (: all of the coping strategies I had developed over my life are starting to fail me because they relied on me being super anxious all the time and masking a lot. my anxiety had improved and i'm getting really tired of masking which is good overall but it means that my performance is being affected since I don't have the driver of anxiety/trying to seem normal to keep me going. due to start vyvanse later this week and am really hoping to see some positive effects.
Fingers crossed access to the right treatment is helpful, and getting the right diagnosis is a crucial step
I was diagnosed after my second grade teacher told my mom I was incapable of formal education and that I would never get anywhere in life. After that I was transferred to catholic school and was kicked out for "an inability to sit still".
Cis woman here, I was first diagnosed autistic at age 22 after a misdiagnosis of bpd/eupd because I was also diagnosed with cptsd at the same time as autistic. It was my partner who was diagnosed as an early teenage with adhd who first picked up on my adhdness. I didn't really understand what was autism and what was adhd so wasn't until having someone close in my everyday life who had adhd but not autism that it actually started to make sense
Me and one of my partners are both AuDHD and our other partner is ADHD all of us diagnosed as adults (well I found out that I *had* a diagnosis from childhood that my parents never disclosed, but that's a different thing altogether) it's always super fascinating (and frequently infuriating) seeing neurodiversity in media.
Well my prompting for a diagnosis:- as a kid I was taken to a counselor but I had already learnt how to mask my symptoms and was sent back as just the "smart but weird" kid fast forward to age 17, had a messed up life and a few attempts to end everything and thinking I'm going crazy. It was still real hard to get a diagnosis and studying medicine in such a non supportive system doesn't help. I just have gotten used to people being disappointed by me, saying that I could have done so much more. But yeah, at least I'm trying to learn to accept things.
I was diagnosed with ADHD around age 7. For additional context I'm currently 28 and female.
What led to getting me diagnosed:
1) Teachers suggested it to my parents
2) when my parents were trying to teach me to read I kept sliding off of the chair because I was bored or restless and I'd learn a new word and then the same word could be on the next page and it was completely wiped from my mind.
3) Once my grandparents came to visit our family for a few weeks and they arrived during the time that their eldest grandchild (me) was in Kindergarten and my parents and grandparents decided that they wanted to say hi to me during my recess... they couldn't find me from the fence for the longest time until they eventually spotted me....what was I doing???.... I was all alone, standing with my head between my legs for the entire recess.
Hilariously I actually remember doing this. I was looking at the world upside down.
This was when they realized I was a little different lol
I was diagnosed with ADD (the predecessor to “ADHD predominantly inattentive presentation”) when I was in the third grade. I don’t remember much of that time, except for the fact that the Ritalin had a negative impact on my appetite and I started drinking nasty Pediasures. Less then 6 months later, they diagnosed me with OCD and decided that the ADD was a misdiagnosis. I’m not sure why they did that when OCD and ADHD can be common comorbidities. But it wasn’t until I was maybe 16 that I started to suspect that the initial diagnosis had been correct. I didn’t do anything about it though. Then when I was 22ish, I went to a neuropsychologist to be evaluated for autism. I came out with a diagnosis of ADHD (the autism result was “undetermined”).
I was diagnosed with adhd in the 2nd grade. I was falling behind in school and was a distraction to my class mates lol. My school social worker observed me for months and formally tested me over time in her office. I got diagnosed so young because both of my parents have adhd and 3 of my 5 older sisters. It runs in the family lol
I was diagnosed in childhood because I was more hyper than other girls...
My partner was diagnosed in childhood as well.
I expect a diagnosis for our children to be in their future as well. It's ok, we'll have better tools then our parents did to support them!
I am 32. I live in the Unites States. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 1995 when I was 3. I was in the foster care system at the time. My adoptive mom (then my foster mom) was a school psychologist and had noticed that I was struggling with sleeping. I would tell her that my brain wouldn't turn off at night. She thought I might have ADHD. She was right. I found out years later that my biological mother had ADHD, one of my maternal half sisters has ADHD as well, and so does her son. I also have ASD which tends to overlap as well. My nephew that has ADHD like me also has ASD like me.
I'm still warring with myself about getting tested for ADHD. I've got a major depresison and social anxiety diagnosis, but am not convinced that my problems with executive function and focus and my inability to work as many hours as other people can (even now with medication and therapy) is due to the depression alone. When I talked to my therapist she gave me a number to call about getting an ADHD assessment but I never ended up calling (because you know, depression and social anxiety and executive dysfunction...) I know I can still do it and really I have nothing to lose by just finding out, but since I didn't present with many of the classic symptoms in my youth and don't know of any family history I'm just... kind of worried about being told that no, I don't have ADHD and the way I am struggling to function right now is just the best I can do.
My diagnosis was prompted in part due to my autism diagnosis and me knowing that some of the traits (the word symptoms is a bad one I won’t get into) were better explained by ADHD and because autism and ADHD are sometimes so similar while also being incredibly contradictory at the same time it makes things even harder to live with when you have both.
ADHD definitely seems like it impacts me the most of the time when compared to autism with struggling to keep myself following routines, struggling to finish tasks as a result of being distracted by other things and big issues with task initiation.
I would also be interested to see a video from you Dr Carthy, about bipolar as a comorbidity alongside autism and ADHD. As I am currently in the stages of questioning if that’s another component of how my brain works and struggling with people not taking me seriously or just jumping to the conclusion that it’s autism or adhd related without letting me figure out how it all fits together and making communication more difficult as a result of them being unable to communicate properly and not me being unable to. More so me being overwhelmed by information overload and noting being able to figure it all out myself with their help.
(Also self diagnosis is valid no matter what but I have both Autism and ADHD formally diagnosed so no one better come at me with some bullshit.)
I didn’t realize how much ADHD impacted education until I went back to school (unmedicated). Procrastination and working memory are definitely deficits while trying to study. I mean, how many times do I have to read something before it sticks? Why can’t I just use normal study habits like a normal person? It just brings me back to my middle school years, before I got on the right meds.
My 4th grade Teacher (I was 9) pointed out to my mother she should could consider getting a diagnosis because "this is the most severe ADHD Ive ever seen in a kid." I never had behavior issues and actually was always a well behaved kid but I'd be picking at my jeans, playing with my crayons like dolls or just zone out completely everything but paying attention in class. Honestly my only favorite part of class was when she read Percy Jackson series to us because she voiced the characters so well and there lied my introduction to my obsession with mythology . Its still pretty bad because at the time there wasn't any management and tools provided with how to live with my ADHD until I reached adulthood. I always thought it was just a "learning disability" that only affected me in school, little did I know its been the reason Ive struggled with every facet of my life until now.
I was diagnosed 2 years ago, I was in treatment but there was a medication shortage in 2023 (at least in mexico). It was really bad those firsts weeks without meds, I promised myself never use them again. Right now I feel as always, miserable, useless, insecure, lost, fat... When I was in med I felt confident, never knew what that was, I really missed that
What prompted my diagnosis was putting myself in danger when I was in second and third grade because I would like walk into the street and stuff without paying attention. I was diagnosed at a super young age and my parents wanted to keep me off of heavy stimulants, but I really couldn’t function without medication. Was in special ed growing up and needed serious intervention but now while I still take meds, I’ve had enough like therapy to navigate life successfully - im an accountant and I have my shit together. But if my ADHD symptoms were seen as me being disruptive and a bad kid instead of disordered thinking and behavior, I bet my story would be a lot different.
Also, it really pisses me off that so many people abuse my medication that I need because it makes it a lot harder for me to access my meds because it’s way stricter. The window to pick up my meds. Every month is like two days and if I’m traveling, and I have to get a partial prescription filled then it throws off how many you can get filled every 30 days and it gets super weird and convoluted. I don’t know it’s just like way more complicated than people think. Sometimes it bugs me because I feel like I’ve been taking my meds since third grade and it gets harder and harder every year to deal with the pharmacies.
I was diagnosed at 20 in the mid 2000's. Saying I struggled in school would be understating by quite a lot. At 19, I left to serve a Mormon mission in Finland. I came home after 9 months after completely losing my faith and making an attempt on my life. I spent the next year bouncing from diagnosis to diagnosis. I somehow ended up seeing a psychiatrist who was still in his residency, who referred me to an ADHD specialist. It finally fit. So much of life finally came into focus. Unfortunately, I stopped medicating my ADHD in the correct way and fell into opiate addiction. I went into treatment at 27, and would you believe that same psych resident I saw 7 years earlier was the one who also got me clean? He inspired me to pursue a career in psychology and I now work alongside him in substance misuse treatment.
(Now I have to restart the video after typing all that and letting the video play...)
I was 60 years old, and my friend told me that when I got really upset I lost the ability to speak coherently, my inability to do certain tasks, the questions I had about keeping my house organized all made her wonder about ADHD. Her husband and son have it, and she's a nurse, so she knew. I knew nothing, I thought it was about normal little boys annoying their teachers. So I started reading and it fit. I paid for a neuropsych exam because my doctor said I had anxiety and I wasn't in school so even if it was true, I still had to pay for it.
I can't remember what prompted my ADHD diagnosis... I was a senior in college, 24(10 years ago) seeing a college appointed psychiatrist for an ED and bipolar(though at the time it was just suspected). I'm very distractable and impulsive, but my grades were perfect. I've had a lot of ECT since then and my memory has been trashed because of it... I can't for the life of me remember how I was actually diagnosed. How frustrating. I remember being on medication that year for it, and it helped, but also I think may have made my manias worse. Hmm
An assessment is difficult as there are limited opportunities for one where I live, wish I could was always the talkative student then went to the distracted /day dreaming /sleeping through class student.
I personally like to use the term neurodivergent when talking about myself but that's because I am clinically diagnosed with ADHD (at age 11, and it was my teachers in school that prompted my mother to seek my DX, because I was struggling so much in school. Sadly a DX didn't do anything for me because of the stigma around meds I didn't take any until adulthood, nor did I understand what ADHD even was really until I was well out of school) but I purposefully don't seek a formal DX for ASD even though I believe I am autistic - because I there is nothing that the US healthcare system can offer me at 33 that is going to help me with that, and having a formal DX could have potential negative consequences or restrict my medical autonomy. So in non-healthcare related setting, neurodiverse is a good term for me!
8:25
Right after this, Luke praising the psychiatrist 😂
I have ADHD that was exacerbated my a ruptured aneurysm in my left frontal lobe with adjacent subarachnood hemmhorage, tbi and stroke. I was recently fired from my psychiatrist for something really minor where i believe i was in the right. I wasnt even given the opportunity to find out what happened and possibly work things out. I got a voicemail saying that I was not allowed to return. I got a letter 2 weeks later that is worded in a way that seems like i had a pattern of behavioe. My doctor went from someone who I was so happy to be able to trust and confide into someone who acted very callously and cold towards me and i still feel betrayed. Now i cant find a new doctor and im not doing too well without the stimulant. I tried to find a doctor most of whom were unavailable and the one doctor who cqlled me back said she wouldn't take a patient who took controlled substances! I'm in Vermont, US, and I'm wondering if anything has had this type of experience?
My mom got me assessed in high school after I was going to school everyday and still failing all my classes, when asked why I would say I couldn’t remember what happened in class. After being assessed I was diagnosed with inattentive ADD (idk if that diagnosis is still a thing)
My prompting for ADHD was my eating habits: I was homeschooled by a mum who wanted to make the world fit me, and who is definately the Phil to my Luke 😂. I feel into really bad eating and hygiene when I left home, and after trying literally everything I could find or be reccomended onto, I found a video linking adhd and realised a lot of things I thought were happening to everyone might not be so common. (To be fair to the psychs I saw for food, I never really brought up the hygiene or adhd related stuff because I thought it was normal stuff that I was just kind of naturally bad at) Diagnosis and medication has made some massive differences
What prompted my diagnosis: I'm GenX and a woman, and had previously understood that it was mostly boys who were hyperactive. However, when my niece was diagnosed with ADD, I started to wonder about it for me because she was a lot like me as a kid. I dismissed it at the time though, partly because I'd done really well in school (I thought poor performance was a symptom versus a consequence) and partly because with Bipolar, I felt I had bigger fish to fry. However, a few years ago, my inability to concentrate was so severe that I asked my doctor about it. My blood work was all normal so I asked my psychiatrist if she could evaluate me. Turns out - yup.
After that, I started watching the TH-cam channel How to ADHD. She also did well in school (which was a barrier to her diagnosis from one doctor) and hearing her experiences and how it's shown up for her, all the light bulbs went off. It explains so dang much.
However, I can't take any of the stimulant meds. I tried all of them, and even at the lowest doses they all put me to sleep. Whether it's a medication interaction or just that my brain's been running on 20 cylinders for decades, that little hit of dopamine sends me straight to bed. But I'm glad to know more about why my brain works the way it does, and am able to get advice on coping strategies that might actually work, lol.
I figured out I was queer in HS and went to Uni to study Fine arts so I attriubuted a lot of my sense of feeling different because of those two things. And because making a living through art is difficult even when you can finish your projects I had a bunch of time to fail a lot which sort of became a long term depressive episode that eventually got so bad I finally considered medication. I also went back to school to study something I was really into but was struggling with sort of the same things I always was, with prioritizing tasks and the deadlines and finishing stuff and a lot of the school was online so I had to watch video tutorials a lot and I couldn't focus on them too long, and at the same time since it was immeediatly after the pandemic, people started to talk more about AHDH in women so I actually finally connected the dots. It was odd to because I had other friends who had depression, but for me even at my lowest I still have stuff I was interested in to a degree that would excite me and give me a boost for a bit so I could feel a bit better. Of course when that excement wore off I'd go back to being depressed. I talked to my therapist who recommended a psychatrist and got assessed, I went on antidepressants for a couple of months and then I was put on Concerta as well and I felt that one instantly. I didn't know your brain could be quiet and I had insomnia since like middle school and I could finally fall asleep. It's been a year now since I started taking the medication and the effects are no longer as dramatic, but I can still feel when they are wearing off or when my brain becomes a bit loud again. Hilariously even if I basically had all of the inattentive traits and a couple of the hyperactive ones the thing that solidified it was my reaction to stimulent medication.
Oh and this is very long, but I don't think you should add any additional points of interests to you videos. Your generally warm vibe and the kindness you show towards the people having the conditions you also explain from a medical stand point is more than enough. And as a fellow queer person I'm just glad to see people in my community being medical professionals. People where I live are still for the most part closeted and it's very reassuring to see someone being open about their sexuality while also discussing very delicate topics.
i have 2 relatives and one friend who as a kids were diagnosed as hyperactiv (old term for ADHD), one relative in pre teen years started to have food issues, bulimia to be exact, other started to show hyper sexuality around age 12 (male), teenage years were insane, they had periods of high up and darkest downs lasting from 14 days to months, then female cousin sarted to drink and be gone for days around age 16 to 21 and would come back like nothing ever happend and often was not even aware where she was and hat she was doing and with who, male relative started to do drugs and would behaive same as her when got home around same age. more time passed it was obvious something is wrong, they are kids from 2 brothers, until grandfather said they are acting as his late wife who had manic depression, long story short the thing wich manifested as adhd in their young age seems to be a symptom of bipolar who blew in their young adult age. friiend who also had adhd as a child, also had imaginary friend who never left him actually, but he never said that until he was 30 and something, around age 16 he started to be obsseed with certain things, like conspiracy theoris, would change religions ( wanted to d fce operation to be an asian so he could be true budhist), would sleep with man and then go on a gay bas*** spree with skinheads who he met and imaginary friend told him it is his people. there was bunch of situations with him where he was like off, we all started to notice, around his 30ties it become visibel, he acted like he was not he, he had stranged paranoid acussations or scenarions wich never happened, we had no clue wth is going on. so we all kinda put a distance ( i suffer from c ptsd war caused so i had enough of my own sh***). one day his mum called us did we maybe talked to him or saw him, coz she went to his place and realised he did not take his meds for whole month, we were like wtf what meds, he is schizophrenic, when she told that everything made sense, he was diagnosed at age 21 ( in my country it cant be earlier) even thou he had signs since age 13, but his mum thinks it was even earlier. his adhd also was symptom of something else, his dad had it too and it seems the war traumas messed him up and triggered it eralier than it is usual.
adhd is not always just adhd....
I actually think that Alex showed signs of ADHD too (especially at her birthday breakdown and subsequent psychologist visit) but that wasn't delved in the show.
I'm 42. Started to piece the puzzles together about a year ago, and now I am 100% certain I have adhd. Undiagnosed yet. What prompted me to think that was 2 things: 1. My son, who is autistic (5yo, diagnosed at 2) and my obsessive interest in neurodiversity, since then; and 2. Perimenopause, that started flipping the train carriages off the 'coping strategies' track...
Was diagnosed as a child but because my brothers where hyperactive and I just had issues concentrating my dad said they made a mistake and that I didn’t have it.
My husband was diagnosed with ADHD at around age seven. Our older daughter was as well, they both have hyperactive type. Our younger daughter was diagnosed Autistic-ADHD at 12. I was only assessed and diagnosed AFTER both children - I was 47. Our younger daughter and I both have inattentive type, and I think not having the hyperactive aspect keeps a lot of people from getting a diagnosis, especially afab people because girls are expected to be "drifty" and "air headed". 🙄
I didn't go to therapy to get diagnosed with ADHD, cus my mom always said "I was just like that". I went to therapy for self-harm/depression (at 12), but then at 13 my dad committed suicide and it became all about that. Then my testing was delayed a year (to deal with the trauma), and then I got a diagnosis. It came as a total surprise for me, but looking back it was so obvious. I'm now 22 and still struggle daily with my ADHD. It's not a quirky personality trait but a real disorder.
Also, after 8 YEARS of therapy, I realised my dad had ADHD too and him not being diagnosed made him depressed. I wish I wasn't so much like him, even though he was the best person I knew. He was masking his whole life, suppressing it all with anti-depressants.
My parents used to beat me because of my hyperactivity. Eventually I learned to cheat and mask my hyperactivity and that got me through high school. Then as an adult, I casually mention this to my therapist after dropping out of college. A couple adderalls later, and I have a bachelors, and I'm in my masters for engineering. I also want to pursue a PhD(maybe, I need money). I'm not on adderall anymore, now I'm on atomoxetine, non-stimulant but still makes my symptoms manageable with less side effects(except for the long lasting erections, buyer beware, its not as fun as it sounds). I might go back on adderall if I slip up on the other practices I use to catch myself and maintain focus, but definitely give it a try if stimulants scare you. And don't be afraid to buy adhd stimulant toys like the one Phil was using in therapy sessions. Those toys help me sooooooo much on zoom calls.
I was diagnosed very young, I'm not actually sure why. I had accommodations throughout school and had meetings with my school psychologist in my elementary school years (6-11 years old). I'm a girl and I had more of the lack of focus, though it didn't often impair my ability to complete schoolwork or participate. My brother however, also has ADHD and was not diagnosed until high school. He had more of the hyperactivity, and frequently had issues with classes and teachers. I did learn it's not uncommon for siblings to share it but its interesting
I've never been able to watch a movie from start to finish in one sitting on my phone without playing a game at the same time. 😅
With or without ADHD, Phil Dunphy is the best father and husband ever. If everyone could be a little more Phil, the world would be a better place.
Suggestions:
Fawlty Towers S2E2
Law & Order: SVU S3E1
9-1-1 S1E9
Chicago Fire S11E20
Chicago Med S4E8
Chicago Med S9E1
Chicago Med S9E3
Chicago Med S9E5
Chicago PD S11E1
Im not diagnosed but I read the comments on a tumblr post about coffee and went "what do you mean it only works like that on adhd brains" and it gave my view of myself a whole 180°
I was Diagnose with ADHD when I was kick out of school because I was having a hard keeping up with classes and even having problems reading and writing to the point I had to repeat a grade It did not help I was also bullied called names been called failure by teachers and adults as well as being abandoned by friends I thought where their for me yet abandoned me as easily So I was put in a Special educaton school worse year of my life then I was diagnose with ADHD and Dylexia when I was 14 years old
In my mid 20's I hated myself for the one paragraph generated by the 2-12 hour days I spent trying to study for my professional engineer's exam. I realized I was unable to find the precise level of overstimulation I needed to drown out the need to look for distractions. Turns out my decades of depression may have been eintirely exhaustion from fighting ADHD. Claire's obsessive organization actually feels more familiar than Phil's impulse control.
3:12 no dont worry. im currently swinging a wooden sword i found in the attic around and it's focusing me just fine. its horribly balanced tho, a sword should balance at the handguard but this one balances half way up the, "blade" feels wrong lets say plank, which makes it a little awkward and painful to swing about. i might get a blister tbh. anyway
i had the video paused. what prompted my diagnosis was i related to a lot of people who were talking about it and we all already thought i had autism so we when to get me had a look at. ps/ what happened to your yellow minifigure.