I was diagnosed with it when I was 5 but they said it only Asperger's and Dyspraxia a few years later. Probably because diagnoses of both Asperger's and ADHD weren't a thing until 2013 or so, I've read.
I didn't pay any attention to it until recently, despite struggling massively in both my personal life and education for many years. Having been thinking about it for a while, looking at what ADHD actually is and how it presents, I meet almost every single criteria. I'm not going anywhere as I am so I want to find out if I have gone undiagnosed all these years (despite having had a diagnosis on file as a child) and at the very least trial medication as I heard that is often successful, whereas antidepressants are hit and miss (in my case they didn't do anything, all 3 of them at varying doses).
My concentration span is non-existent, my head is fried after no time at all and I can't understand basic information or follow instructions after being told something once.
I have to read things over and over again for it to start to sink in, and then I still forget it anyway. I can never remember what day it is or what work/events I have coming up. Thank god for Google tasks.
I'm impulsive but also chronically bored. I won't want to do anything and then at the drop of a hat will decide I need to go for a coffee. Or book a coach to London and leave an hour later... And then stop at a library and book a trip to France on the way home... Not sure why. Can't even afford it really.
I cannot ever bring myself to do work, despite having extra resources and support available. I have so much I need to do and leaving it is only making me more likely to fail but I still somehow can't even start. I'll make myself go to the library but end up staring at the screen with my head in the clouds.
The longest essay I've written is 2 pages long and that was a struggle.
I can't finish basic tasks and it takes me ages to start them. It took me 2 months to set my PC up when I moved house. I only had to plug it in. I just couldn't bring myself to. I'm a computing student.
I had a primary mental health care assessment and he was very dismissive, said 5 was too young to have been diagnosed with ADHD, that all the mental health advisors I've spoken to aren't qualified to offer advice on coexisting conditions like I believe I have, and that all my problems are simply due to Asperger's. I'm not convinced.
I've also since read that ADHD medication can be a treatment for dyspraxia anyway, so even if they don't think I have ADHD outright, it's with a try anyway?! I failed college, dropped out of jobs, struggles even in cleaning jobs, and am about to fail university. I need proper help. I've done all the mindfulness stuff and had mentors etc. None of it fixes my brain.
I even paid for an MRI because I was starting to suspect my total lack of ability to focus or do anything all these years may have been due to some kind of growth or brain damage. But it was clear...
So, if you've read this far thanks a lot. Does any of it sound like you, if you have it and were diagnosed as an adult? I haven't listed all symptoms and traits, I find it hard to explain myself and always miss stuff out.