ADHD Can you have ADHD and not know it?

[SeekingAfrica]

I was looking for an app to help me with routines and found one that is designed for ADHD, but the issues it addresses are my issues. That can be complete coincidence, just like having the same symptoms in physical illness. Maybe it's just the current mess that I'm in.

But to be fair, when I have watched ADHD channels the advice they give about certain things have been more useful that most advice out there I've received. So that is coincidence number 2. Of course, to be perfectly honest, as long as the advice work I don't entirely care, but I am just curious.

 

[arfie]

i asked this very question of my therapy pros way back when people were smarter than phones and combat ptsd was still being called, "shell shock." at that stage, we were still treating symptoms more than dx'es and my pros shrugged that it wasn't their specialty but they were game for experimenting with the tools. to this day, i treat symptoms more than dx'es. i go with what works. call ^it^ whatever floats your boat.

 

[whiteraven]

i treat symptoms more than dx'es.

This!

I am in the same boat, and I learned a very long time ago that the diagnosis is just a label created by a panel of people who wanted to make more sense of symptoms, make (maybe) treatment easier, and get adequately compensated for their work. Even my T does not like to label with a diagnosis (and doesn't have to because he doesn't take insurance). Over time, treatments are developed to match the symptoms associated with diagnoses, but sometimes they don't work and we have to reach outside the box.

 

[arfie]

the diagnosis is just a label created by a panel of people who wanted to make more sense of symptoms

as a patient, having a name for ^it^ makes those symptoms much easier to discuss and research. "manic depression/bipolar" was my primary dx for most of the years i was in formal therapy. it was inaccurate, but it was better than calling ^it^ any of the other names available in the 70's. i believe in working with what is available.

but even the cause-identified illnesses, such as diabetes and epilepsy, vary wildly from one patient to the next. that need to reach outside the box is forever present.

 

[whiteraven]

as a patient, having a name for ^it^ makes those symptoms much easier to discuss and research.

Oh, I don't disagree, for mental or physical illness. My only issue is that people get married to their diagnoses (and providers are often unable to get beyond what they learned in med school) and sometimes other things are going on.

 

[Justmehere]

One can have any diagnosis and not know it. I apparently had severe ADHD and didn’t know it for 20 years. Shrug. It was the only way I knew to be.

What helps ADHD often helps most people. Does it mean someone has ADHD? Maybe, maybe not.

Diagnosis labels are a tool to gain other tools to respond to life’s challenges better. You could very well have ADHD and you could not have it. PTSD hypervigilance and ADHD have some overlap - and significant differences too. In the end, it channels give advice that helps and doesn’t harm - go with it.

If you begin to wonder if more could help, it may be worth it to get an official test or work up of the symptoms & see if you do have it.

 

[Charbella]

You could have it and not know it but in The Body Keeps the Score he also talks about how trauma creates ADHD symptoms so it could also be that.

 

[Friday]

One of the reasons it took so long for ADHD to be recognized as a LIFELONG Neuro-disorder, instead of a condition of childhood? By the time most people with ADHD are adults they’ve

A) Learned to “hide” the annoying parts (for other people)

B) Been able to structure their university/career to suit themselves, instead of being a square peg jammed in a round hole, in compulsory one-size-fits-most k12 schooling.

Adding those 2 things together? Meant that until ADHD’ers got their medical degrees, and psych degrees, and had actual real/strong/vetted VOICES in the DSM discussion (no. My disorder did not magically go away on my 18th birthday. Or 16th. Or 26th. Shockingly, my disorder doesn’t pay attention to what my country’s laws are, and conform itself to meet those standards… magically disappearing once I reach adulthood. I was born this way. I’ve lived this way my entire life. As a 40yo, instead of a 4yo, I “just” go for a five mile run, in the morning, instead of running around my kindergarten class screaming. Shocker. I know. Learning. It’s a thing.)

ADHD splits into 3 base subtypes. The hyperactivity is ALWAYS present, but in different ways.

ADHD-H = Physically
ADHD-I = Mentally
ADHD-C = Both

All told? ADHD’ers make up about 4% of the population.

Most people with ADHD find meds are entirely unnecessary IF AND ONLY IF their life conforms to the basic needs of their brain.

ADHD-H >>> Tend to be the pro (or devoted amateur) athletes, exercising for at least half the time they’re awake. ALSO? Back country sports people, park rangers, front line or special forces military, surgeons & ER docs (both are intensely physical medical specialties, often requiring a person to be alert and active for over 30 hours straight. ADHD hyperfocus? Allows that. With ease.), bike messengers, hunting and fishing guides, massage therapists, chefs, musicians, etc., etc., etc. People whose work & play keeps them moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving.

ADHD-I >>> Tend to be the artist crowd (visual, audio, written, sewn, sculpted, whatever), the academia crowd (the “absent minded professor” is a classic ADHD thing), the computer programmers, the political animals, the chess players, people who live inside their heads, spinning whole worlds in their minds, and then tetrisinf them into the real world.

ADHD-C >>> Are a mix of both, needing both the physical oomph and mental world building to stay sane.

Or somewhat more simply?

3 mechanically minded ADHD types

H - Mechanic… Usually a VERY highly rated one, as mechanical systems just “make sense” so rather than jiffy lube, you see them in the pits at NASCAR, or NASA, or chop shops, or their own specialty shop, depending on which way their life went. Regardless of WHERE they are? The people they work with will describe them as poets, geniuses, “the guy you WANT to do this”, etc. (Also usually with a great big giant “…BUT…” attached to some social skill or expected norm. (They’re a bit intense, they’ll forget unless you remind them, don’t pay them pay Julie, once you give them this project they won’t stop until it’s done, don’t take their tone personally, don’t get them started on subject ABC, do/don’t/do/don’t etc.)

I - Mechanical Engineer… the people designing new engines, heat shield systems, etc. Transferring their thoughts to paper, CAD systems, working in labs, etc….These are people who will sleep in the office, at their desk, have a cup of coffee, and not even realize it’s 2 days later. GREAT employees to have, as long as you can let them occasionally go home and sleep/shower even though it’s Wednesday at 8am, and your liability insurance covers people in the building after working hours. Because they haven’t left the office since they “stopped by to jot an idea down” on Sunday at 2pm.

C - Mechanical Engineer who knows how to turn a wrench?!? WTFO?!? …You’ll almost never see combined type ADHD’ers working in pure theory, or pure mechanics, but instead they up to their elbows in grease whilst their designs either blow about the garage or are being written/rewritten in their heads as their bosses yell for them to make a paper copy already… or… they are cross rated as a test-pilot, driver, etc., both designing, building, AND trialing their designs.


>>> YEP! This is only half of what I meant to write, but I figured it would be 3” of space instead of a novel, and need to stop here<<<

 

[Mislove]

I think l have ADD and wasn't diagnosed as a child because l did not have the hyper activity. I always struggle to concentrate and focus. I still do. Or some other mental illness are similar. If it helps that's what counts.

 

[joannethelost]

Yes, it's possible to have ADHD and not realize it. It's also possible to have a few ADHD traits but not enough for a diagnosis. Not everyone has the same symptoms or the same intensity of a given symptom. It's also possible for other issues to cause the same symptoms.

For your symptoms to be related to ADHD they must begin in childhood.

If the symptoms begin later in life that's going to be something else.

Either way, if the symptoms bother you, talk to a doctor.

 

[SophieBernstein]

I have ADHD and I suspected it since I was 14. I was diagnose with 21 but it didn't help me either. What helped me was the bullet journal, honestly, the bedt thing I could ever do. If you are curious and It gives you problems go to an examination if not, it doesn't really matters, you will be the same anyway

 

[Ice_Fire]

Just jumping in here to say that yeah, it appears you can have ADHD and not know it. My colleague /mate/ person who gets me said “you know you have ADHD too right?” Cue funny therapy session where I mentioned this and he went “WTF you didn’t know?! That’s hilarious it’s soooooo obvious”. Well, not to me it wasn’t, like, it’s my brain dude I don’t know any better. What do you mean y’all don’t have 50thousand million thoughts and need to lift something heavy or do star jumps whilst explaining anything otherwise it’s all gobbledegook and ooooh is that my ham sandwich from 2 weeks ago at the back of the fridge, sorry guys let’s throw that out.

Apparently there’s a lot of overlap with cPTSD anyway and I knew I had that obviously so never gave it a thought it might also be ADHD. Yes I was exactly like this as a child but also it was a very traumatic existence so of course I was weird/wired/forgetful.

Almost 30 newborn squirrel