My nephew was diagnosed with ADHD & reading up on it I realised that probably several of my generation have ADD at least also. It explains so much about underachievement, problems at work, etc.
Oh yes - once I learnt about ADHD through my son's diagnosis I realised that my MIL has it quite severely. She has all sorts of coping mechanisms that help her, but even so she's the sort of person who will actually miss a flight because she's running late.
Through the diagnosis process for my son's ADHD the psychologist noted other processing issues he has.Then from talking to other parents about his diagnosis, I started learning about their children's processing issues. Till about 18 months ago I knew nothing about this - now I find it fascinating.
My DD who has just gone to university would, I think, be diagnosed with ADD if she was assessed, but she refuses to be assessed. She found ways to cope throughout boarding school - in fact it was really good for her to go to boarding school because she had the need and opportunity to work out coping methods, plus she was surrounded by other students with varying issues of their own, and they shared and supported each other.
To give an example of how it affected her academically, she is a straight A student who won a National Merit Scholarship in the US (this puts her in the top 0.5% academically nationwide), yet in her junior year at school she got a C for physics, because they had to hand in 150+ pieces of work, and she missed 3 through disorganisation. Her average score was 96%.
To check if she really is a C level student she took the Physics SAT subject test (it's a nationwide test a bit like an A level) and scored 100%.
I'm intrigued to see how she copes at university, but so far she's finding it easier than high school - she did go to a very challenging school so this isn't a surprise.