My ADHD Journey

Welcome to my first blog post! I figured the best place to start would be an introduction of myself and how I found out I had ADHD.  My ADHD journey didn’t have an official name until the summer after my junior year of college. This was when I was finally diagnosed with ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Type. For years I had suspected that I was different, but it ultimately took me hitting rock bottom to receive the diagnosis.

I come from an immediate ADHD family.  My second oldest brother was diagnosed with ADHD by the time he was entering first grade. He was what most would call your “stereotypical ADHD child”.  He presented with all of the outward symptoms of ADHD, making it fairly obvious. My mother also has ADHD, but was not diagnosed until her 50^th birthday. According to her, it was her own birthday present to herself! What the both of us would put together eventually was that my ADHD presents itself very similarly to my mother. We’re the cases that tend to be unnoticed by others.  Our struggles focus more not only on the inattentive aspects of ADHD, but also the lesser known.  What many often don’t realize is that while the predominant characteristics of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, these are simply umbrella terms for so many other things.  ADHD also includes struggles in emotional regulation, planning/organizing, task initiation, and self-regulation just to name a few. These were all areas that I struggled with immensely, but most others were unable to see this at the time. 

On paper, I excelled academically. All the way up until my high school graduation I had stellar grades. There were a couple B’s here and there, but I was predominantly an A student and was in National Honor Society.  I had been a year round swimmer since I was 6 which provided a lot of structure growing up. I was involved in several clubs and to my teachers and friends I looked as if I had it all together. What they couldn’t see were my struggles internally and at home.  I was a huge procrastinator and could not for the life of me begin my homework until 11 or 12 at night. I thrived under the pressure, but I was always doing everything last minute. I started going to a psychologist for organizational issues, but my ADHD still went undetected.  

Now let’s get back to actually being diagnosed. As you can see I can easily go off on tangents! Going into college I decided to continue swimming. It provided so much structure for myself and helped with time management without me even realizing it. I already knew college was going to be difficult for me.  While my grades were fine in high school, I knew that I had to work harder to receive the same results as some of my peers. I knew that I was different and things didn’t come as naturally. My first two years of college were average.  I was scraping by, but nothing too concerning.  I was still getting most of my work done, but I knew I was underperforming and didn’t know how to ask for help. Flash forward to my junior year spring semester. I had studied abroad in the fall and I really struggled transitioning back into my routine. Transitions are also very difficult for those with ADHD! I decided to quit swimming and was excited to have so much more free time for schoolwork and social events. What I quickly realized though was that without that anchor of swimming which I had my whole life, I didn’t have the skills to manage my time. I tanked that semester and failed my first class in my life. It was at this point I knew I had to do something. My years of suspicions of having ADHD had come to a head and I finally received my diagnosis that following summer. The relief I felt at the time was incredible. After all the years of silently struggling, I had my answer that I wasn’t just dumb or I wasn’t working hard enough. This was only the beginning of my ADHD journey though! Stay tuned to read about how I turned my diagnosis into a profession!

Talk Soon,

Kathryn