The lighter side of ADHD
Just got yelled at by a co-worker at a new job and called lazy because after only a month my invoices aren't descriptive enough...I told them i have add but i think that like most people the don't understand it. Just gonna keep doing my best and work on highlighting my good attributes : )
if they aren't hitting you it is because they don't love you
Mine used to scream at me for being lazy all the time, and now she wonders why I don’t talk to her about anything 🤷♂️
Mine was "why can't you be as hard-working as (whichever kid got the highest score)?". Unless that kid was me, then it was suddenly irrelevant. Did fucking wonders to my work ethic.
I have parents that love me to bits, but their strategy to get me to do my homework was... adversarial? It felt like they were checking my performance, just like the teachers were. It didn't feel like they were on my side, even though I'm sure they were.
Getting told off even gently felt like an unbearable punishment for some reason. I read something recently about adhd folks being more sensitive to negative interactions?
And that's how I became a pathological liar and master of masking!
The trauma of dad trying his best with 6th grade math homework he can't actually do...
Problem is that the approach "MUST do NOW, until it is DONE!" doesn't work for many of us. I developed methods for myself, which I try to apply to my own child now, like: "When you get home from school, lay out everything you need to work, then relax. At time X, do 15 minutes on a timer, as far as you get."
He still moans and groans about it, and it's hard for me to tell if my "soft push" feels to him like the "hard push" I got. It's all relative, and nobody else can tell.
Getting told off even gently felt like an unbearable punishment for some reason. I read something recently about adhd folks being more sensitive to negative interactions?
Check out Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. It's a common side effect of ADHD.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
Aw crap, it reads like a character sheet... Guess I'm binging this now.
that's the one. As a kid I never understood why punishments even exist. People being mad at me was already unbearable torture
Because most people do not react the way you do. You do your best to teach kids why it's wrong and have them correct behavior but letting them do whatever they want and not escalating when needed is a bad strategy as well. This works well in most children. To expect most parents today, much less 30 years ago to be able to closely identify what might be going on under the surface as well as a professional is unrealistic.
I was tested by someone who came to my school when I was about eight years old because my parents were concerned. They diagnosed me as being lazy.
30+ years later and my kid is going through the same thing. The workers at the nursery are decent though, and suspect neurodiversity. A couple of appointments later and my kid gets an autism and ADHD diagnosis. My wife and I speak to them because my symptoms are so similar, and they said that from the conversations we had about my kid, they assumed that I had already been diagnosed.
I'm now 45 and still on a waiting list for an official diagnosis 😫
Exact same story down to every detail. Both parents teachers, but no clue. The weirdest conclusions and theories about me. Like: Far below average intelligence, but with a talent for languages and mathematics (is that even a thing?), which got me through school with effortless Cs. Most of the time I (and probably others) thought I was just a general shithead.
I realised what it was 4 years ago and told a psychiatrist, who did not disagree, but was like: woa, hold your horses. Got a referral to a full neurological & psychiatric check-up from my GP, who wrote on the referral that he suspects ADD without hyperactivity, 1 1/2 years ago. Couldn't use it, because they are overrun by more urgent cases.
Started paying out of pocked to a private clinic 6 months ago and got the official, written diagnosis 1 month ago (exactly what my GP already suspected). Since then, lots of delays to get treatment. No appointments, then appointment available, but latest bloodwork and ECG expired etc. Had one appointment last week cancelled 2 hours before start.
Honestly, with a medical system so overrun, a GP should just be authorised to do the diagnostic if supported by purely computer evaluated multiple choice test. The standardized tests appear to be the foundation anyway, and the many hours of additional psychiatric evaluation are just something that the medical system can't support.
And yes, now my child. He is a true math genius who could do 2 or 3 classes above his own, but he hates books (only since school, not before!) and his reading & writing is just a hateful, effortless B. In two languages equally well, though. I suspect something is up there, but don't want to project. I never had problems understanding math, but was certainly not ahead of the class. Loved books though, perfect spelling.
Let's hope things work out for us and our children!
ADD subtype PI, for primary inattentive. If methylphenidate and atomoxetine don't work for you make sure you try lysdexamfetamine.
Be sure to test your kid, these things seem to be very hereditary.
Yeah, it's incredibly frustrating. GPs can diagnose and prescribe for things like anxiety and depression. But the main treatment for ADHD is a "fun" drug that people would like to abuse as much as opioids and we saw how GPs abused prescriptions for that.
So now no one can be trusted, so the test isn't good enough because what if they're gaming the system to get drugs?? Psychiatrists are overbooked because we never have enough of them, and we're heaping all these extra checks just to make sure it's not someone trying to abuse the meds. And people who have a diagnosis that means they already aren't good at these kinds of things have to make sure to get a script and bring it to the pharmacy on the exact right day every single month.
I'm not even sure what the solution is. I wish we just a way more holistic treatment of drug abuse and mental health treatment in general so that we aren't having to make everyone jump through hoops to get the things they need to function.
Knowing is half the battle.
I was one of those "gifted children that was too lazy" and my mother was one of those "nothing can be wrong with my child or it reflects poorly on me!" and I got diagnosed with full blown ADHD at 29.
Therapy and drugs are great. And I'm glad you were aware enough to get your child tested. Early is for their best.
My parents had a book titled "how to parent a retarded child". I guess they were trying?
My parents called me lazy and unmotivated when I didn't have an executive position at Google right out of highschool wile also saying I'm wasting my life on computers.
Got a "life sucks, then you die" any time I had any problems.
I just want a low effort life where I can be cozy. I'd probably taste test another gun if my job was stressful.
If you're tech inclined, look for tech positions at non-tech places. Sometimes they can be hell "we need you to be the entire technology division on the salary of a remote helpdesk worker", but there are rare places where you get to help and do cool tech stuff without the constant "climb the ladder or die" bullshit.
Another gun?
Too honest? I do sorta have my shit together currently, atleast.
Same AF.