Comment by hexbinencoded | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hexbinencoded | Hacker News Reader

Many moons ago in K-12 (80's-90's) in California public schools, I had really bad ADHD (undiagnosed until 35, often labeled "weird") with ASD, anxiety with stuttering, depression, and emotional disturbances. The schools basically put up with me because I was in a gifted program, though I must've been an annoying AF over-eager hand-raiser and a weird, nerdy kid.

My family wouldn't allow psychological or psychiatric intervention because they believed it was a conspiracy against children.

25 years later, I've tried the main classes of AD(H)D medications and cannot tolerate them even though I need them to function in society. (On benefits at present, looking to start a 3D printed custom parts business.)

Antidepressants: I wish there one that worked, but I've tried 14 of them; I'm looking at the dissociatives, psychedelics, TMS, medical implants, and surgical options.

I was misdiagnosed with ADD, because I had the audacity to speak to another student in class once. I was prescribed concerta for 8 years. It made me extremely anxious and nauseous, but they wouldn't listen to my pleas to stop. I ate about half of what the average kid ate at those ages, and my growth halted. I quickly fell into the very lowest percentile for growth. One day I skipped the meds and over-sprung-back from my usual meek self, was actually a distraction, and got myself a mild talking to that I actually deserved.

Now that I've graduated, I feel pretty worthless because I'm so underdeveloped and look so below my age, nobody would ever promote me to a position of responsibility.

Now for the really scary part: this is happening to apparently 15% of boys in school, despite the highest estimates from the APA being that, at maximum, 5% of children have ADD.

We're creating multiple generations of an extremely high proportion of men who were physically and mentally stunted in growth during their most crucial formative years. It's like all these parents who decided they didn't really want to try very hard with their kids and would medicate them into mediocrity and meekness.

I'm 41 and I am 90% sure I've had undiagnosed ADHD or some form since forever.

How do you go about an adult diagnosis for that? Do I just ask my doc "Hey have I had ADHD my whole life?"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com