Did ADHD Diagnosis Help You?

I'm now 70. I was diagnosed when I was 40. What to diagnosis did for me was let myself off the hook for being an underachiever, for being scattered, for being impulsive, and all the other ADHD traits. I am grateful to the doctor that diagnosed me and I am grateful for the therapist who helped me cope with/overcome some of the effects of ADHD.

I found it at least helped me find a community of people with ADHD.

I was diagnosed a couple of weeks ago at 52. The world suddenly makes much more sense now that I know the why. I'm yet to start taking the meds (high blood pressure), but I am hopeful that they will help. I spent some time grieving, not for the loss of not being diagnosed earlier, but for the fact that it is permanent. Laziness can be fixed, but ADHD paralysis is something that will have to be managed the rest of my life.

I was diagnosed at a very young age because it is so severe for me. I feel like on some levels it helped, like for treatment reasons, but I also feel like it was traumatic for me because of the events that ensued. I had a teacher pull me aside during quiet reading time with the whole class in the room to tell me that she was told about my diagnosis and wanted to set up a plan. WITH THE ENTIRE CLASS EVESDROPPING. I was thrown into therapy with the approach and mindset of "how can we fix you" rather than "your struggles are valid and you are still loved" I was shamed for things I didn't even know were symptoms and treated like I was stupid. So in a way I feel like it was helpful, but that doesn't take away from the trauma and mistreatment that took place.

I had lots of lightbulb moments of realising things

i was diagnosed at 16 and honestly it just confused me more than anything, i didn’t think i had ADHD at all and it came out of nowhere, my school at the time accommodated to me because of the diagnosis so i would say that helped but ADHD medications brought too many complications so i didn’t find those helpful

I'm recently diagnosed and yes it did. It showed me that it wasn't a "me" problem but a symtom of the diagnosis. Two books were recommended to me that really helped if you are interested.

Majorly! Ritalin has changed my life.

The diagnosis is super helpful for me for two reasons: 1) because I can better understand myself and my patterns and 2) because without meds I would be completely nonfunctional

I wasn't diagnosed until i was 37 and having that validation helped so much. Knowing there's an answer to the question of why I am the way I am.

I thought I was just lazy and that I was just broken. But seeing that other people struggled with the same things I was and that it was because of something I could fix made me feel a lot better. I am like a completely different person and it's been for the better. I had a lot of hate for myself because I couldn't do simple task even after telling myself I need to do it over and over.

I was diagnosed last year at 34. It was an absolute gamechanger going on medication. I've been in employment in the same job for the longest period of time *ever*. It really has been like waking up from a coma. It takes alot of tweaking to get the dose right but it's totally worth it. It's just heartbreaking that I slipped through the system as a kid.

100%. It's helped me explain alot of my actions and thoughts, I've received support from my uni, and obviously I can now have access to meds

i was diagnosed at 7, in 20 now, and it definitely helped, i’ve grown up knowing that i have a different brain than others and some things simply won’t work for me, i would say i am happy i got diagnosed early so that i didn’t go long portions of my life not understanding why i couldn’t just fit into this binary at school or why others succeeded at school while i failed even though i’ve been putting my all into the course. i personally would say that getting the diagnosis for ADHD is a necessary step for understanding how to manage it. of course self-diagnosis is very common and i believe many people can correctly diagnose themselves but there are things that medically you will not be able to move forward in unless you have that official diagnosis such as medication. you know yourself better than anyone, if you don’t think you need or want the label and/or want to try managing it on your own and work with yourself on your ADHD then absolutely do that, don’t feel pressured to do anything you don’t want !

Yes and no. Yes it helped when I was in school and getting some accommodations. Beyond that it was unhelpful because of stigma.

Wow thanks for the response everyone 💕

Being diagnosed in college helped me get accommodations in school and my meds. understanding myself and ADHD helped me with the rest

Self-understanding is what made me get a diagnosis, but it's also the only path to meds. I found a medication that I never want to have a day without. Had to try a lot to get there, but now it's like every day is a good day, productivity-wise.

Yes. Medication helps tremendously

Yes it’s incredibly validating and medication helps

I was diagnosed at 31 since being diagnosed it's made my life alot easier. Especially since my kids are adhd as well.

I was diagnosed in my final year of university (Master's level) and it definitely helped unlock extra support academically, like an extra 2 weeks to do essays. But generally speaking it hasn't really helped me since in any way, other than I now have an understanding of how my brain works so can try and work with it in life instead of against it. Such as simple things like using adhd hacks. But, a self diagnosis is just as valid as a full/medical diagnosis. If you think you have adhd, then give yourself grace and work with your brain and try to understand it by following adhd accounts online or by reading or by watching youtube videos. However if you're young and/or want to go into education, then academically, a diagnosis can help a lot. I suppose the other thing is pip support, but it would be very hard to get pip just from one adhd diagnosis, adhd must have a big impact on your life for people to get benefit support (which is frustrating because invisible disabilities should be treated the same imo but that's a whole other rant haha). I hope my mumble jumble response kinda makes sense! I typed this just before heading to sleep so apologies if there's mistakes/confused sentences.