this post was submitted on 19 May 2025
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I was recently diagnosed (at 42). Up until then I had no clue what was wrong with me. If I could travel back in time and get treatment in my early years, I would definitely do it. But as it is, it has become part of my character, whether I like it or not. I'm not romanticizing it in any way, just putting it the way it is.
You don't understand what it is and has made it your character instead of being yourself. It is not part of your character to have problems that disturb your daily life. A diagnosis comes when it is disturbing you. If you're over it, you should not have a diagnosis.
No, but everything that happened around this illness did have an impact on my life. Learning to live with it (unknowingly), all the difficulties I have faced and somewhat overcome did build a certain character. Character isn't something you're born with. It's how you interact with your surroundings that builds your character. Whether I like it or not. 40 years of this shit has an impact on how you do things, the friends you make, everything. Claiming that this hasn't formed my character would be a lie. I'm definitely not over it. I got diagnosed because work became too difficult to handle and I sought help, believing it was a depression or a burnout. I never knew it was ADHD (and depressions from the shit i had to go through in my childhood) up until very recently. I'm now getting treated and it is an absolute godsend. And that's just therapy. Meds are coming soon. Still have to go through some medical hurdles first but I'm very eager to find out how meds will have an impact. Looking back at what I could have achieved without this illness really brings me to tears at times.
So again, if I could travel back in time and were able to eliminate this illness from the beginning, I wouldn't hesitate a bit. It might have made me a different person than I am now, but I'm very sure life would have been easier.
I don't really understand, we are discussing if you want to be cured. And you do. No one has said it will destroy your character, except the people that has made these arguments for not curing themselves and they are just fundamentally not understanding how the diagnosis works
I have a feeling we're talking about different things. I just wanted to add to the OP that a life with ADHD does have an effect on your character. I didn't want to put any value into whether that is good or not.