[hirvi74]

It's true, and I alluded to this more in depth in a comment in this chain.

Growing up in the semi-rural South East, USA, where kids didn't get diagnosed with ADHD. (Fun fact -- I had 5 boys who were my childhood friends that grew up with. We all lived within 3 miles of each other, and all of us have ADHD -- something in the water maybe?)

I didn't know I had ADHD until I was in a dark dark place in my early 20s after 4 years of college (only took me 6 years lol).

I swear I have some kind of CPTSD from growing up with it. I developed all kinds of healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms and a lot of anger and negative self-talk that I struggle with still to this day.

I mean, I was chewed up and spit out by the public education system, little league sports, other children's parents, my peers, and even my own parents from time to time. Constantly, day in and day out, being punished, ridiculed, and humiliated for something I could not control. I didn't want to be that way, and I still don't want to be that way, but I am what I am.

I would not consider myself to be anything but average intelligence, maybe even below average, but if it weren't for sheer luck and a determination to prove everyone wrong, then I do not think I would have survived.

[bitexploder]

There is a reason alcoholism (and drug addiction) and ADHD strongly correlate. Coping and self medication are a big deal when it feels there is no other tools available or the negative externalities just get to be too severe. Add in addictive personality traits common to ADHD folks and it is quite a thing to overcome for more significant ADHD sufferers.

[Valakas_]

Did the ADHD cause CPTSD or the CPTSD that you might already have from childhood neglect/trauma that you're not aware of/dismiss/paint as "not too bad" manifests itself as ADHD?

Distraction from pain is one of the most common ways we deal with pain when it's not possible to escape it (which is the case for children that suffer emotional abuse/neglect).

[hirvi74]

I should probably have said that I am self-diagnosed with (C)PTSD, and have never consulted a professional about it, then again I truly believe we will one day look at psychologist of today like they look at Freud and psychiatrist like blood-letters of the past.

This may sound wild and woo-woo snake-oil, but using cannabis products coupled with mindfulness/deep-thought, I am sometimes able to fire up my "mental debugger" and access parts of my subconsciousness that I cannot tap during normal sobriety. I can pull out memories that I had subconsciously blocked, but I am able to process them in a healthy, compassionate, and understandable manner.

> Distraction from pain is one of the most common ways we deal with pain when it's not possible to escape it

Probably explains my compulsive levels of video games and screen time as a youth, then again... I grew up on a small horse farm on the outskirts of society, so it's not like I had anything else to do lol.

I do sincerely believe that anyone that ever wronged me (especially my family) ever did anything intentionally. Parents aren't given a "Parenting an ADHD Child 101" course or anything. Hell, both my parents probably have it themselves, and my parents swear on their life that the school system never told them anything.

I do think my ADHD manifested first though, for a variety of reasons. A lot of signs and stories seemed to point that I was even symptomatic from infancy. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if it were environmental. All my male childhood school friends that grew up in a <small distance> radius of me all received the same diagnosis at one time or another.

So, while I do think you are on to something, I do not think it applies to me directly.