And was often left undiagnosed in the past. I know I probably have it hard and somewhere on the autism spectrum. (My estranged father, sister and nephew all have been diagnosed at varying degrees/combinations). But I can't even get a appointment at my doctors office, there is never availability and I tend to stop trying after a few times until it bugs me again. It's like the system here is made to weed out people like me.
It's kind of nice to know why I felt/feel so inadequate. But it also hurt to know I will never feel normal. At 46 I feel so at a lost at a chance of a better future. I fucked it up so often, have no savings, have to work two jobs to barely get by (keep on doing bad financial decisions) etc... I always hope to win the lottery (I almost never play it) just to not have the stress of life catching up to me and going back on the streets.
There is no such thing as "normal", just "rejected". Society needs to adjust because autism ain't going away.
To get a diagnosis, you need to see a psychologist through a therapist, afaik doctors don't usually hand out autism diagnoses. Seek psych clinics that specialize in neurodivergence.
Doctors can't, it takes a several appointments with a psychologist (or psyc through therapist) to be sure before making a diagnosis. You don't need to go to a specialist either
You don't need to go to a specialist, but it definitely helps. I've had therapists deny my childhood autism diagnosis because they have no clue what to look for in a masking individual.
Psych through a therapist is cheaper and easier in my experience.
Medicated ADHD can be close to normal. It definitely makes everything easier to do. For many like me it's night and day, it becomes easy to focus and get tasks done. Seriously life changing.
I had/did the same. Switched to adderall and found out Concerta is trash(Ritalin). I found out that they went with Concerta because time release is easier to give to children and most of all, the manufacturer gave them kickbacks when it was still legal.
Plus with primarily hyperactive and combined, often parents take their kids in because they can't handle them acting up. With Ritalin, when the personality is gone, there's no more acting up.. they choose that and go "wow, they're so normal now", not knowing the damage they're doing to their childhood.
That makes sense, it's exactly what happened to me but I got the generic version of Concerta instead.
It kept me shut up, and it kept my conservative parents happy that they no longer had to deal with an autistic child, then wondered why I never developed as a person until I was out of the house.
I got diagnosed in my late thirties and went from an abject failure at life to making some pretty astounding changes.
I can’t take all the credit, I had quite a good support system to help me make the changes and I don’t think I’ll ever get over what I perceive as lost time or be fully happy, but it’s never too late.
I thought I had ADHD for a long while, partly due to communities like this, but when I went to get diagnosed, it turned out to be an anxiety disorder. So if/when you go, try to avoid letting your assumptions bias the results.
I've had good results managing it by planning my week very loosely: I write down 1-3 things I plan to do each day (including work, exercise, cleaning, leisure, seeing friends, appointments) and it's just enough structure to keep me moving without being stifling.
Chaos is the natural state, but life is part of the universe and life brings order. As long as there is energy for life to use to do its work, it will continue to bring order to an unordered universe.
it's because solving the challenge of how to do it is fun and interesting whereas actually putting forth the effort in doing it sounds like work and is not fun.
For me, this might mean studying with the knowledge that when I get antsy and need to task switch, I can do the dishes instead. It feels like a weird form of circuit training
Or you start out with folding clothes, then start putting them away, get distracted by the dishes or cleaning up the bathroom, and start on that other chore. The key is to eventually get back to the original (easier said than done), but even if you didn't really get it done quickly, you often put yourself in the mindset of cleaning, which helps on its own.
Nah, try forcing yourself to start one, and decide you're going to take a break from it for "*just a minute" *™ by doing another chore, and be amazed by how many chores you get done avoiding the first one. Bonus points if the first chore isn't even that bad.
