The lighter side of ADHD
I was in GT classes in middle school and my freshman year of high school and I absolutely did not belong there. But, you know, I liked teaching myself things so obviously I should be put in the class that made me do extra boring bullshit work.
Why yes, I did end up dropping out of high school and getting a GED.
Never been evaluated for ADHD, but I have basically all the symptoms my daughter, who definitely has ADHD, has, or had them at her age.
I've passed the third section and moved into the fourth, horrible section. "Diagnosed ADHD but no medication will work."
Went through most if not all of the stimulant treatments 15+ years ago. The most reaction I got was panic attacks for routine stuff at work. In the meantime depression has taken over, with similar lack of response to treatment.
I feel like I'm an onion inside of a Russian nesting doll stuck in a can of worms that tumbled out of Pandora's box and down the stairs to be kicked around the neighborhood by bored old timey kids before getting stuck in a storm drain and abandoned.
Maybe what you're experiencing is an accurate emotional assessment of the state of our society.
I'm deep in phase 2, just building up to phase 3 I think.
ADHD memes do seem to resonate with me, but I'm not sure I experience the deleterious effects to a severe enough extent to really have diagnosable ADHD.
Even if I am, I'm not sure stimulants would be the right way to go, and I'm already doing my best with ADHD style interventions to support productivity et cetera.
Stimulants aren't the only solution, they're just the solution with the most obviois results
Stimulants best short term, management strategies and lifestyle changes best long term
No some of us have been failures our whole lives, thank you very much.
Yeah! There are dozens of us!
Baker's dozens, even!
Not to diminish the struggles of those with ADHD, but this is also a thing for neuronormative folks. Society simply tells us all to be brilliant in order to be useful for others. But the problem is that not everyone of us are the same and if we don't live up to expectations, we also end up disappointing ourselves. So, we try to keep up to please others, neglecting ourselves, and hence leading to burnout.
This hits a little too close to home. Still working on the anxiety and depression as an adult, but burnout has been a something I have done my best to put my foot down on, especially after my last job gave me panic attacks.
I almost failed 1st grade because I didn't understand the concept of homework. I had a huge pile of it stuffed in my desk. Eventually, they called my dad and I was given a chance to do the weeks of assignments and catch up. I didn't do them because I was bored and spent most of the time in my own mental world. I finished the whole stack in a weekend. I got the dreaded "GT" designation in elementary and was accepted in this "pre-AP" program in middle school. Most people would view this as a mistake, but due to my specific circumstances, the alternative would have been worse.
The burnout bordered on abuse. I had less homework in the actual Highschool AP classes. Hell, I had less homework in University. Apparently, the parents threw a big fit as their kids were staying up until midnight finishing homework several nights a week. The solution was to the lower the requirements to stay in the program. We were fucking 12! My hair was falling out by the end of the year. The first 2-3 weeks of summer I did nothing but sleep as I was exhausted. I have no idea how I managed to force myself through that for 3 years straight, while going through puberty, rapidly declining mental health, and still failing to find the right kind of stimulation.
When I got the diagnosis as an adult, I went through a mourning period at all of the things I could have done better. Once the plastic in your brain settles, doing things as an adult is significantly harder. It is what it is though, and I still have done amazing things with my life.
Yeah I swear if they take away my meds and say just get over it
I screwed up and am stuck deep in 2. I even screwed up a miraculous way out with this awesome startup. And I was diagnosed in kindergarten! No drugs, I’m healthy, just… Yeah.
I wish I could subscribe to this community over and over.
Yep. But at least my life makes perfect sense now. Everything just seems so clear now.
Nothing quite like the feeling of a dumpster fire coming into perfect focus around you.
Hey, it's me!
