Diagnosed 30 years ago but just now fully accepting that I have ADHD

Intros
#1

I am a 62 year old female, diagnosed in my early 30s. But I’ve spent the last 30 years trying to pretend like I’m neurotypical. Of course I’m not and it’s been exhausting trying to pretend I am. I also find that symptoms have gotten worse as I’ve aged, especially the emotional dysregulation type, and I find myself struggling with relationships like never before.

I’ve been on and off meds all these years, mostly off. I’ve been through a lot of shame around obtaining the meds, including having a primary care physician think I was scamming her for drugs because how could a woman possibly need stimulant medication at 60?

So I’m here now, reaching out, hoping to connect with other ‘brains’ who can relate. I’ve been bingeing the youtube channel, enjoying just listening to someone who gets my struggles.

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#2

well you have found the perfect place, this is like an adhd sanctuary where we can be ourselves without judgment, no need to pretend here, welcome :grin:

also that would make a great topic for a post, if you wanted to start one.

“pretending to be NT”

i’m sure most people on here csn relate to that on some level, would be interesting and fun to hear peoples stories around this. :+1:

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#3

Hello @Tiny_Shepherdess , and welcome to the HowToADHD forums. Thanks for joining the conversation.

My story is that I was diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD at 45 (just last year), at the same time I was diagnosed with anxiety. Although there were some signs in my youth, I compensated enough on my own that I was never evaluated for ADHD (known back then as ADD). After many years of struggles as an adult, I finally sought help and got diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD.

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#4

@Tiny_Shepherdess

Welcome . . . to the family!

Could not have said it any better than @Samuelburns

As you will no doubt discover, many of us have been diagnosed later in life. Always good to know why things are the way they are. Knowledge all by itself can be quite an affirmation!

:sunglasses:

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#5

Aside from my very short, short, short term memory, emotional dysregulation has been the most vexing and threatening to my marriage of 48 years. While I do not have time at this moment to go into detail, I would welcome anything more you might wish to share about the nature of your emotional dysregulation, its frequency, any methods you have found to try to deal with it, etc.

TIA,
:sunglasses:

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