this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
56 points (86.8% liked)

ADHD

11475 readers
371 users here now

A casual community for people with ADHD

Values:

Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.

Rules:

Encouraged:

Relevant Lemmy communities:

Autism

ADHD Memes

Bipolar Disorder

Therapy

Mental Health

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I discovered I had ADHD about 18 months ago and since then I've noticed my personality has changed quite a bit. Just knowing the reason why the world always seemed such a confusing place and realising how much masking I did all my life, I've noticed the pendulum seems to be swinging in the other way now. I'm never masking again and if that means I seem strange to neurotypicals then so be it.

Have any of you who also discovered your neurospicyness in the last few years experienced anything like this as well? I'm just done pretending and I know it's probably making me more of a challenge to be around.

I wonder if this is normal and if the pendulum will swing back eventually to a more harmonious place.

Also when did it become ok for dentists to tell you off for not brushing up to their standards. I just noticed how they routinely use shaming as a form of control.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

Wow :) you're the only one to engage with my post and not the throwaway bit at the end when I randomly thought about dentists.

So I can easily describe to you how my behaviour became less masked using the "golden retriever" analogy. My energy has often been described by close friends as being "golden retriever" like, a bit like Dug, the dog from UP. Kinda goofy and positive and bouncy. Before I knew about ADHD I used to keep that fairly hidden except to friends. Now that I know why I behave like that I can be a lot more me, a lot more of the time. I'm a much happier person for it too.

My leading theory at the moment is that now I feel the world understands and accepts ADHD a lot more, I'm not only dropping the masks I show the world but possibly also the unconscious masking of my behaviour from myself.

I'm still trying to understand the ins and outs of it though hence the question in here. I just wish I hadn't got distracted and added the random thought about dentists. It seems to have triggered a few people. Probably dentists 🤣