@PuzzledObserver your end point is so relatable! Part of how I managed to successfully mask for all those years was by all these various hyper-focuses.
It creates this facade that "winched is a person who runs everyday!" And "winched is a person who knits baby blankets!" And "winched is a person with so much discipline because she painted, papered, and DIY'd a whole room overnight!" And "winched is so good with money because she uses YNAB!"
But I can't do all of those things at the same time. If I'm obsessed with saving money that fortnight, my house is falling apart and I look like shit. If I'm obsessed with "princessing" ala those MN threads about plucking your eyebrows and always having perfect nail polish, my spending is completely out of control.
Same with health kicks, although I guess I've been quite "lucky" in that my ADHD made me constantly forget about food, so I've never been overweight.
I read recently that they are successfully using Vyvanse in the US to treat Binge Eating Disorder. It's also pretty clear how there could be a link between the two things. According to Russel Berkley, ADHD, at it's core, is the inability to stop and think about consequences and for any consequences you DO think about to make you change your course of action. We know spending £400 on X will have consequences, we just don't care because it'll be fine. I can see how that same attitude transfers to food. It's the inability to regulate our feelings and actions.
I'm just trying to piece together what posts are yours but this earlier:
One of the things which put me off pursuing a diagnosis was reading (can’t remember where) that the diagnosis criteria include that your functioning has to be impaired in more than one area of life. So if you have managed to keep a roof over your head and your family fed and clothed, you can’t have ADHD.
This is correct, they look for two areas. But try to think of all the little things that add up to a detrimental effect on an area of life. For example, friendships. Do you have many friends? I lost any friends that weren't due to circumstances (i.e workplace, children's friends parents) a long time ago. That's an "area of life". Same with hobbies, which I think you touched on in your previous post.
If you take a look at this, this is what the psychiatrist uses to "mark" you when you do your assessment and interview. It's basically the answers to the test 😆. I found it really helpful -- not so I could cheat, because really what is the point in that, but more as a memory jogger. I found some things that I thought were just "me" and discovered they were the ADHD. There's also the widely held belief that the diagnostic criteria (and understanding of the condition, in general) is still based on hyper little white boys and not grown adult females, so there is an element of having to play inside the rules created by the system. A good example of this is the entire hyperactivity part. It's accepted by the leading expert that in adults, the fidgeting ants in your pantsness is mostly gone for most people. But it manifests in other ways... such as a hyperactive mind, biting nails or picking skin or constantly running your fingers through your hair, and also the feeling of not wanting to sit still in life (constantly reinventing yourself or taking on new hobbies and hyper-focuses). Taking risks with sexual partners, life decisions, jobs, haircuts, safety, you name it, is all more related to the hyperactive subtype than the inattentive subtype. I have done all of those things in the past, but still could only manage to get the primarily inattentive diagnosis. Which is fine, the treatment is the same, but it shows you how the system is still slightly skewed, so it's good to be aware of it before going in.
www.advancedassessments.co.uk/resources/ADHD-Screening-Test-Adult.pdf