Why My ADHD Diagnosis Was the Best Thing that Happened to Me

My clinical diagnosis of ADHD happened during one of the worst times of my life.

To say I had reached rock bottom would be an understatement.

My biggest symptom had been overwhelm, and I had been teetering on the edge of burnout for several years straight.

When I started to experience severe uncontrollable panic attacks, I knew something was very wrong and I needed to reach out for help.

That was when I was diagnosed with ADHD. But not only did I get diagnosed with ADHD, but was also diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression all at the same time.

I was dealing with a lot, which was why I was put on instant stress leave from my high pressure career as well.

TikTok Led to an ADHD Diagnosis

My ADHD diagnosis actually didn’t come as a complete shock.

This fairly new app at the time called TikTok had just come out, and I had downloaded it at the urging of my stepsons so that we could share funny videos back and forth.

The algorithm of my “for you page” must have known something that I didn’t, because it kept showing me all these random videos from women in their 20s or 30s who were being diagnosed with ADHD — and they were sharing all their symptoms that lead to their diagnosis.

At the time I still had that old-school mentality that ADHD was something that fidgety young boys who couldn’t pay attention in school had.

I wasn’t aware there are multiple kinds of ADHD, or that there are so many other symptoms of it that people weren’t talking about.

Symptoms like:

Hyperfocus
Rejection sensitivity
Disordered eating
Abnormal amount of daydreaming
Procrastination

I found myself relating to all these women who were making videos about their symptoms, and it really had me questioning things.

So when I was diagnosed, I was not surprised.

My Childhood with ADHD

The more I started to educate myself about ADHD and neurodivergence, the more I began to realize that my diagnosis is 100% correct.

But knowing what I know now, it isn’t shocking it took so long for me to receive an accurate diagnosis.

I had done amazing in school.
My grades were great.
I was on the honor roll every year.
I didn’t break a single school rule.
I had never been in trouble for anything. In fact, my teachers routinely wrote that I was the “perfect student” on all my report cards.

But they didn’t see that I was trying extremely hard to appear normal and fit in with my classmates. They didn’t know what was happening inside my head.

I’m always thinking or daydreaming about dozens of different things all at once.

Trying to focus on one thing and articulate my thoughts and feelings has always been a struggle.

It reminds me of that scene in “Harry Potter” when Harry is trying to catch the flying keys.

My thoughts are flying around my head in all different directions, and I am constantly trying to make a conscious effort to ensure that I capture the correct one.

Staying on topic is still a struggle for me, because I am worried if I don’t express myself, a new shiny thought is going to catch my attention — and I will forget about the old one.

My ADHD Diagnosis Changed My Life

MissLunaRose12/Wikimedia Commons

Receiving my diagnosis was the best thing that could have happened to me.

It empowered me to learn as much as I could about ADHD, and it enabled me to discover that I was not alone, and there were so many other people out there dealing with the exact same things that I am.

Instead of moping and feeling sorry for myself, like I had been doing for most of my life, I felt that there was something I could do now to try to manage my symptoms and improve my life.

I had been convinced for so long that I was doing okay — that I was doing what was expected of me, and that I was successful.

But my panic attacks and then ADHD diagnosis made me realize that I was in complete denial about my life.

I had used food as a source of dopamine that my brain was missing, and as a coping mechanism during a time of intense stress in my life.

Over 10 years I gained over 100 pounds. I was extremely unhealthy and unhappy.

My job which had once made me happy, was no longer doing so, and was only increasing my stress and feelings of overwhelm.

I didn’t have the energy to do anything when I came home from work and spent the weekends just trying to recover before I would have to do it all over again.

Something needed to change.

So I began to learn how to take better care of myself, and how to love myself in the way that I needed to be cared for and loved.

I used my ADHD superpower of hyperfocus for good, and concentrated on learning and experimenting with everything that had to do with self-love and self-care.

Once I started to put myself first, my life completely transformed around me.

The stress and overwhelm I had been experiencing began to melt away.

I became more resilient to new stress, my energy increased, my mood shifted and the weight began to fall off without even trying.

When I say I wasn’t trying to lose weight, I mean it started to happen as a side effect of better self-care instead of weight loss becoming my full focus as it had been with previous attempts.

While my life started to transform around me, I realized how many other people in this world were exactly where I used to be.

There are so many people out there struggling or deeply unhappy.

So I started a blog to share my own journey, share everything I’ve learned, and help other people learn how to take better care of themselves and learn to love themselves.

Helping other people heal themselves and improve their lives gives me so much intense joy and such a sense of purpose that I have never experienced before.

My life has completely transformed for the better.

And I would never have any of that if it hadn’t been for my ADHD diagnosis in the first place.