To keep everybody busy this afternoon while I have a three hour meeting, here's a thread about my personal journey with ADHD.

I got diagnosed in August 2019, at age 33.

I was struggling with my job, I could meet deadlines, but the amount of stress that went into meeting it was rediculous.
I had trouble planning, I couldn't maintain any overview and constantly forgot things or at least didn't do ALL the steps.
Coincidentally, my mother got her diagnose a year before that and I remembered looking up what it meant and recognising so many things!

I made an appointment with my GP, who first referred me to the 'pratijkondersteuner' (psychologist-light sort of).
They referred me to ADHD Centraal, a Dutch organisation that specializes in diagnosing and treating ADHD.

I started medication and a 12 week program of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
The first time I took my mediaction, I didn't know what was happening! The noice just went down! No more constant thoughts and impulses.

Like being in a very noisy room and suddenly everything gets quiet.
My first thought was "OMG! Is this what normal people experience EVERY DAY? SIGN ME UP PLEASE!"

It just explained so many things of what I was dealing with and WHY I was dealing with them. Suddenly there was a reason for why I just couldn't do some things.
Things that seemed so easy for others.

I NEVER made my homework even though I knew I had to and thought it was important to do. I just forgot.
Studying for a test? Not me.
Just go call someone? I'd rather die.
Knowing where I put something I had been holding just 2 seconds ago? HA! FOOL!
The diagnosis, medication and therapy didn't 'cure' me of my ADHD. You can't 'cure' from it.

But you can definitely learn to live with it.
I finally realised that I wasn't lazy. I couldn't 'do it, if I really put my mind to it' or 'just tried harder'.

There was a neurological condition standing in my way!
It's the reason I took the long way round to University (mavo, havo, HBO). The reason I needed an extra year to finish my BA. The reason I could change moods so quickly.

It doesn't excuse it and madication doesn't take it away. But it makes dealing with it so much easier!
I spend my whole life having people tell me I'm weird, that my behavior is weird, that I'm lazy, dumb.

I'm not! My brain just works differently is all.
By the way, on our way home from my diagnosis, my boyfriend turned to me and said "Maybe I should make an appointment with my GP..."

He was diagnosed december 2019 at age 35.

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