Introduction to the Community

[medincas]

Hello. I have just joined this online community. Even though I have gone through life knowing my brain worked differently than others' brains, I did not get diagnosed with ADHD until age 70. I am not sure the term "ADHD" was even around when I was a child. Since the diagnosis I have gone back through my life story to see the impact of ADHD brain. I was truly surprised at how great an impact it had. Perhaps it caused me to be a little kinder to myself and my past. In any case, since the diagnosis I have tried to learn all I can about the condition to learn better coping strategies. I hope to learn a lot from the community, and hopefully possibly add something to the discourse.

[STEM_Dad]

Welcome to the forum!

There's so much to learn. Like you, I became kinder to myself about my past, as my knowledge of ADHD has increased.

I'm sure that you can add to the conversation here in a meaningful way. 🙂

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The term ADHD has been around since the 1990s, and the condition was known as ADD (attention deficit disorder) starting in the early 1980s.

However, the condition was known about for decades before that. The name has changed, as the understanding of the condition has increased.

[Wasted71years in reply to STEM_Dad]

back in the fifties and sixties, the inattentive type wasn't recognized as far as i know. Diagnosed at 71 myself and I also was amazed at the evidence sitting there in the open all those years, which I falsely ascribed to character or moral flaws in myself and hid from everyone.

[STEM_Dad in reply to Wasted71years]

You're correct. Actually, Inattentive ADHD was not really recognized until the 90s, I think. Even then, many Inattentive types were believed to have some other issue, like depression or other disorder, causing ADHD-like symptoms. (This mindset still affects many people in our society, including some in education, health care, and mental health care.)

In the 80s, it's believed that it was mostly hyperactive boys who got the diagnosis. Inattentive kids were often thought to have learning disabilities, or presumed to not be interested, or characterized as lazy.

Before the 80s, there were other labels put on people with ADHD, including things like "minimal brain dysfunction".

Even today, ADHD is too often overlooked, particularly in inattentive males and all females with ADHD.

For decades, including today, people have put blame on many different factors: character flaws, lack of discipline, poor parenting, dietary elements (to much sugar, food dyes, food additives processed foods, etc).

While these might contribute to ADHD difficulties, they don't cause ADHD. (For instance, I know someone whose ADHD symptoms were kicked into extreme severity by a particular food dye, even when on meds that normally worked fairly well. They had to check ingredients on every packaged food they ate. )

[Wasted71years in reply to STEM_Dad]

In the mid 60s I was referred to a child psychiatrist by the school to get to the bottom of the gap between my average but erratic grades and what they saw as my potential. Sadly, the psychiatrist focused on possible family disfunctions, being at the time wholly unaware that 2e people had ADHD and that it could have mostly impulsive and inattentive manifestations. Wasted opportunity!

[Jozlynn]

Hi medincas! Welcome to the group! We're so glad to have you here!

Like many of us here, I was diagnosed late in life - at the age of 50 - and like you and STEM_Dad - became a lot kinder to my past AND current self. As STEM_Dad mentioned, I was one of the ones incorrectly diagnosed with anxiety and depression for the past 25 years. Those things were there, but having being diagnosed and treated, they're no longer an issue - so I think they were linked to/caused by undiagnosed ADHD. Looking back can be a little mind-blowing. Seeing it in hindsight, it seems so obvious - but we all know the information just wasn't there back when we older folks were children.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and welcome!