I don't know how the fuck I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD (or autism or BPD) until I was in my late 30's, when my parents had taken me to the same therapist my younger sibling was diagnosed with ADHD by as a child.
Adhd was demonized back then. I was diagnosed and my parents decided to do nothing because the media was telling them that Ritalin was the devil. Hard to blame them given the climate but man I coulda used the help back then.
That and most people's idea (including some doctors) was that unless the person was hyperactive, they couldn't have ADHD. Happened to me. And rather than being diagnosed and treated correctly for the problems I did need help with, I got diagnosed with Asperger's [ASD] and was put in a curriculum well below my level not because I didn't understand the subjects, but because they just didn't interest me.
Probably because you were the easy one? That was what it was for me, didn't realize until my mid 20s (covid really wrecked havoc with my studying in college because I couldn't go to a physically separate space that I had designated as a place I couldn't goof off).
Exactly. My younger brother and I both have pretty bad ADHD. I am Primarily Inattentive but he got the hyperactivity and ODD. Guess who got diagnosed at 9 and who got diagnosed at 32?
Samsies, my sister had other issues and was for sure the one who needed more effort from my parents. Meanwhile, I got A's without much effort in HS and for the most part in college (until Masters, which of course landed me with a bit of a breakdown and being depressed for a long while). I'm not formally diagnosed, but that's mostly because I feel it's largely a waste of money for my case (I checked into it a while back when I had terrible insurance, and it was gonna cost me something like $1200).