Quote:
Originally Posted by Gundo
When we were going through the diagnosis process with my son and during many of our appointments I found myself saying "wait, I do that too" or "that's how I think/act as well in those situations". And with many of the Doctors mentioning it being genetically passed down I started thinking back to how my mother in particular acted and processed things when she was around and some of her struggles which lead me down to bunch of phone calls and at times have uncomfortable conversations with Aunts, Uncles and cousins about family history and behavioral traits.
That side of my family is large (family of 11 brothers and sisters) and comes form a very conservative English background and there was LOTS that was not talked about in the past or swept under the rug. Well I quickly discovered that side of my family is a mental health 3 ring circus and I have a few relatives who also have had adult ADHD diagnosis among other things.
Once I discovered that I spoke to my family Doctor, he had me fill out some questionnaires which helped me get a referral to a Mental Health Professional who specializes with ADHD in adults and form there it became very apparent that ADHD has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and we were able to begin talking about they ways it negatively impacts my life and come up with a strategy to help in those areas with both daily medication and weekly or bi-weekly counselling appointments.
|
My doctor laughed when I said those exact things to him....'it's always the kids first then the parents follow'. At age 50-something I started on meds and like you say they have been life-changing. One benefit you didn't mention is that in my case it turned me from a complete introvert to a functioning introvert, happy to start conversations with anyone (but not very experienced at it!).