[Spare_account]

Asking as an adult that increasingly suspects he may be undiagnosed ADHD: Did the diagnosis result in being prescribed a treatment? If so, what, and has it helped?

I'm conscious that each case must be handled individually, and whatever happened with your diagnosis/treatment would not be the same with me, but I'm interested to hear nonetheless from anyone that's willing to share.

[Jensson]

I got diagnosed as an adult.

Before then I spent my life being unable to put any time or energy into something for more than a few hours, and then I got bored and could never focus on that thing again. I couldn't do homework, I couldn't study for tests, I couldn't do much at all unless it was something hyper interesting that I could focus on it for a few hours before it became boring again. Even if I locked myself in a room with only that thing I couldn't focus on it.

Then a decade out of high school and after struggling with finishing the last bits of college so I could graduate I got diagnosed. The pills they gave me meant that suddenly I could sit down and focus and finish tasks. Suddenly everything that was impossible before was now possible. I could sit down and do all the homework no problems. I could sit and learn programming on my own no problem. I could perform at the software engineering job I got thanks to that self study no problem.

If I stop taking the pills I stop being able to do all of those things, even if I go months without, so there is nothing addictive about it at least for me, I just can't perform a job without them. I just take them because I want to get things done, I've never felt a need to take them to have fun or so, if I don't work I don't take them.

[Spare_account]

Thanks for the reply.

Was your initial approach "I think I have ADHD", or was the diagnosis a suprise to you?

[Jensson]

I didn't think I had ADHD initially, I just assumed I was lazy and that everyone else just pushed through the mental challenges ADHD people has to deal with, but after a decade of nothing working I looked at the criteria again and realized it fit me. So then I went and directly asked to be tested for ADHD describing my symptoms. The science about ADHD isn't that good so sometimes you just got to do what I did, if you go in without an explicit goal chances are they wont find anything wrong with you or just try to treat the symptoms. Like I was depressed since trying to put so much effort and still failing to even focus was an extreme burden on my mental health, trying to treat that depression was hard, but now that I can focus most of that disappeared.

Edit: I think the biggest misconception about ADHD is the "the kid is loud in class, how do we make the kid stop being loud in class?" and thinking that disturbing class is the main problem the kid deals with. That was how ADHD started and what people know today is very biased in that direction, even among professionals. There seems to be very little information about ADHD and career prospects. Like lets say I want to build something, but my ADHD prevents me from building it, but with medication I can build it and I take pills to make that project into reality. That is what I care about, but most studies just look at how these pills improve kids behavior in class.

[bserge]

What medication is it?