The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends.

Thanks friends.

I thought I was bad at lots of things other people were good at, because I was more disciplined and saw the bigger picture. So I only worked on important things. Things that could matter to millions of people, or still be relevant in 100 years.

And all the side quests and rabbit holes were obviously for recharging, expanding my biological-being-on-an-odd-planet situational awareness, or benefited me as self-improvement challenges. All in service of the important things.

How would tracking the day of the week, doing homework on something I could learn later if/when I ever needed it, or mowing the lawn, help me accomplish anything important?

Wasting brain space on those kinds of things would be dysfunction. I actively culled such dreck!

Now I know my self-narrative was Stockholm Syndrome coping.

But I still don't mow lawns, and if the blinds are drawn when I finish a big task, I couldn't guess if it was am or pm better than a coin toss. My day metric is when Amazon Prime's "Your Orders" list, tells me I am a day closer to getting a crafting item I ordered for a project I may never get to.

Don't be too mad at your friends. People are not receptive to being told they're odd. And as much as they might say "we knew", they didn't really. They might have suspected, but they cannot diagnose you. Many things are very clear in hindsight that weren't actually clear at the time.

I found out through a friend who has ADHD just talking about it and finding myself saying "oh god I know EXACTLY what you mean" too often. Then I stumbled upon the reddit adhdmeme community and found myself laughind and saying oh god so true to many of the posts there. Funnily enough now that I'm diagnosed I am noticing that I have unconsciously surrounded myself and just meshed much easier with ADHD people. My wife also has ADHD for example and was always undiagnosed, the friends at work I mesh best with.. you guessed it, also ADHD. Then I learned about how its to a majority genetics and a couple of months after (independent, not somehow induced by me) by nephew gets diagnosed too.

> The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends.

As someone with peer reviewed ADHD but not official diagnosis, what are friends gonna do about it? They can tell you, you're always late and it's annoying but that's about it. At some point it becomes just who you are as a person, part of your character sheet. If you're not planning to change and it's mostly under control (have job, life, etc), does it even matter to put a label on the thing?

I feel like a diagnosis in my 20's would've been useful. Now it's like I got me my coping strategies and they work pretty well. If I do or don't have ADHD doesn't really change anything.

And for anyone else reading, the leading symptom of adult-diagnosed adhd is saying and thinking things like "I don't get it, ADD can't be real, that's just how everyone is"

For years I heard I was ADHD from my parents, and while some questions when I got diagnosed no longer applied, weeks later, I reflected on them. One in particular was alluding to something to the effect of "has anyone ever told you to stop you're doing too much" which yeah, I was running at full speed all the time when I was younger, probably more than all my cousins.

Some friends I've known for over a decade clearly have ADHD, and I'm not going to tell them unprompted.

I feel like it is very disrespectful, especially when the conversation is about something completely different. Also, I'm not a medical professional, and it is possible that their ADHD-like symptoms are caused by something else.

That being said, if they ask if I think they have ADHD, or any other form of neurodivergence, I will say yes.