MY ADHD DISCOVERY

What’s up my neurodivergent angels!

Thanks for tuning in to my first blog post (-:

For my first post I think it makes sense to talk about how I discovered I had ADHD when I was in my late twenties. It hasn’t even been a full year of being fully aware I had ADHD. Before I begin, I need to add a couple of disclaimers.

One: I AM NOT A DOCTOR, PSYCHOLOGIST, THERAPIST, blah blah blah. To be honest, I would never want to be associated with the western medicine business. Doctors have been anything but helpful in my life. I hope one day people understand ADHD in women on a deeper level (like they do with males), but until then- I’m not in the mood to be gaslit by indoctrinated people in white coats.

Two: ADHD and its quirks are not a one size fits all type of thing. If you don’t agree with my story or opinions, I would love to hear from you and learn about your story so we can continue to educate all the ADHD girlies and grow together <3

So to begin, after years of denial and suffering, I realized I had ADHD from a damn Pinterest post. Kinda boring, I know. Oddly enough, Pinterest has taught me a lot of eye-opening things in my life. It’s like my phone is spying on me and really wants to help. Some people will think “Pinterest isn’t a real doctor!!!,” well I don’t care. Pinterest gave me a little glimmer of hope that changed my life. Also, doctors don’t know the ins and outs of my mind and life. They don’t see the pain and confusion ADHD causes in an annual 30 minute appointment.

Let’s start by explaining what ADHD is in case you don’t know. ADHD stands for “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.” A description of a stereotypical person who has ADHD is viewed as disorganized and chaotic, but there is a slew of other symptoms that are invisible to most. For years, ADHD was viewed as a “male only” disorder which is 100% false. This is due to the medical system doing most of their studies on white males and society failing women, so now many of us suffer in silence while dealing with the symptoms of ADHD because there are no resources for us.

I kept getting post recommendations about undiagnosed ADHD in women and, I had all the things except one: I am incredibly organized. This level of organization I believe is a coping mechanism, but we can get into that in another blog post! Looking back, it’s pretty funny to me; I had every single symptom of ADHD besides being messy, so I refused to believe that I could have ADHD. Even though my brother has it, my father has it, AND my mom clearly has it but refuses to embrace it (yes, another story for another post).

I feel like it took me so long to realize I had ADHD because most of the symptoms are internalized for women and can usually be blamed on something else. Perhaps I was having an extraordinary hard day where the neurodivergent burnout was kicking my ass, I would blame it on Mercury Retrograde or maybe I was in my luteal phase. To the girls that get it, get it. Subconsciously, I wasn’t ready to accept that I had ADHD. At the beginning, I had the same stigma around ADHD most of society had. But the more I educated myself about ADHD in women, the more I realized how in deep I was with it. It seems like everything I did was neurodivergent coded, I just never realized it was, I thought we all lived and felt like this all the time.

Brooke

Thanks for reading!

XOXO