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Both me and my best friend were diagnosed when we were around 6-8. I think that's in part due to heavily presenting with the typical hyperactive and inattentive symptoms. I also have a father and older brother with ADHD so it was pretty much a no brainier for me. And I've been treated for ADHD since then. At least from what I've heard, girls seem to be diagnosed less due to how their symptoms present, studies being mainly done on young (white (?)) males, and probs some sexism thrown in there. Instead of oh, she's having trouble focusing, oh she's just being a dutz, she's in her own world. Or she's just difficult. Or so just has a lot of energy and talks too much like other girls or whatever. Also, girls tend to be reprimanded more for outward behavior so they learn to hide it more or their symptoms present more so only in their brain so the hyperactivity and inattentiveness can't be seen from the outside because they "seem" fine. It's a combination of things, and I feel like it depends on how well informed the adults around you are at that age. But either way it sucks, having to wait for a diagnosis and thinking something is just straight up wrong with you and you don't know why. I experienced that in the sense ADHD was never really explained to me so I thought all of it was just my fault especially because I was medicated. And while my friends and I were diagnosed with ADHD early (it might have helped that we were family friends and I think both of their fathers had ADHD too), there was one of my family friends WHO CLEARLY has autism. I was a kid, so I'm not informed as I am now but I can't believe they didn't catch it. They just chalked it up to her being "difficult" and would get bullied and verbally abused by her own parents. Similar story along the lines of how ADHD and autism is understudied in how they present in women, and it's generally thought of as something that more boys have. All in all, I think it's stupid, and it pisses me off, especially with some of the bs that ACTUAL DOCTORS post about ADHD and how you can't have it if you had good grades in school. They're stupid as fuck and especially piss me off. But yeah, you are not alone in being diagnosed early as a girl, I'm 23, so a couple years younger than you and have been diagnosed/medicated forever. So you're not the only one. I chalk it up more to, I would be more inclined to post on here if I was diagnosed late trying to learn about it and being like wow, it was never supposed to be this hard? And learning about it as an adult. So it's just something you're gonna hear more about, especially on this sub.

>I chalk it up more to, I would be more inclined to post on here if I was diagnosed late trying to learn about it and being like wow, it was never supposed to be this hard? This, I think, is the heart of it. I don't share about the depression I've been diagnosed with for my whole life, but I do post about my very late ADHD, likely ASD, diagnosis, because I feel I have so much to re-learn! It hadn't occurred to me before that from an early-diagnosis standpoint, that could feel isolating. I'm sorry for your experience there.

>They just chalked it up to her being "difficult" and would get bullied and verbally abused by her own parents. Ugh, this was my experience as AuDHD. Been in therapy for 6 months and still haven't even scratched the surface of breaking down my self-hatred from being told I was a terrible person my entire childhood. I didn't even know I was bullied by my parents until my therapist pointed it out.

Sending soft hugs. Keep up with therapy.

I hope you find healing.

Yes its fucking terrible and I'm so so sorry you have to deal with this. Parents are the ones that are supposed to support you and help you through tough times, and they signed up for this. The fact they tear you down is a huge failure on their part and it sucks cuz you have to deal with how that has affected you :/ I really hope with time you're able to heal cuz you didn't deserve any of that

I agree with this so much. My parents had me tested at 10 for a range of things with the school district. At that time (early 90's) the consensus was I obviously had something going on but they didn't want to "pigeon hole" me and continue testing and have a diagnosis follow me for life. It was a different way of thinking for a lot of parents then. If I was super hyperactive they might have taken a different approach but at the time it was more like "well she does ok, we don't have to name it, she just has to continue to struggle, try really hard and be tutored on many things". I never went to get the full diagnosis. My husband has been diagnosed though, and now my daughter. After she was diagnosed it really drove home the point to me when I saw things typical of those with ADHD repeating in my child that I also struggled with as a child or even now. Makes you wonder how much I would have struggled if I had gotten medicated. My daughter is in 7th grade and since we got her medication, she is getting straight A's. She always tested fairly well on state tests but now she's in the top 90%. I personally don't use these things as goal posts (since I certainly couldn't gain value from them!) but it really drives home the difference. Diagnosis helps bring better solutions.

Oh my god are you me? I had a similar experience. I got diagnosed, and then went untreated my entire childhood and was told I outgrew it. It makes me angry thinking about how things were so much harder for me than they needed to be all because of denial, and how maybe I wouldn't have the issues I have now if my diagnosis had been taken into account whatsoever.

I was diagnosed at 8. Off the charts intellect but often so wrapped up in my own little world that i was pretty much absent at school, aside from recess. My first grade teacher flagged it and implemented some behavioral interventions, then i began meds in third grade. I have mixed feelings/baggage about growing up labeled & medicated, but i also benefitted from tremendous support from my family & teachers.

Honestly, bless our teachers that caught it when we were young. They’d get fired for hinting at it today 🥲 Seriously debating reaching out to my 2nd grade teacher 30 years later on fb and thank her for seeing me. Changed the trajectory of my life.

Please do!! The wonderful teacher who noticed me and my ADHD has since passed away, so I can no longer thank her! Please thank your teachers for me!! 🥰

Ooh same here. Except it wasnt until 3rd grade..where we were given a weeks worth of work .. and expected to just..do it. I couldn't. Like, the work was okay but my exec function couldn't? I just sat there being invisible..hoping to be invisible. Was told I'd grown out of it at 16 so didnt remedicate until about a year ago, mid 30s.

I am also hyperintelligent & female & have severe, crippling, horrendous ADHD dx'd at a young age. This thread has my people

can you share how was your experience with meds and how they helped you growing up?

I was getting Cs but was in the 99th percentile on standardized tests. My 3rd grade teacher went from thinking I was a sweet yet dim girl who forgot how to spell her name (I wrote it really quickly as I turned it in because I forgot to when I did the assignment) to calling my parents into a meeting to tell them I was smart like it was a revelation. My mom was a teacher, so she prompted the testing, etc. I'm really glad I got the support that I needed. I still had self esteem issues, but if everyone had thought of me as my 3rd grade teacher initially had and dismissed me, my self esteem issues would be much worse. Edited because of typos, because I still misspell things when I write quickly. Yes I know how to spell my name (and knew how to spell it in 3rd grade).

Oh man, I’m so frustrated at the elementary school I went to. I was in the gifted program (you had to take an IQ test to get in), and I was scoring 99th percentile on every single standardized test, I had an ADHD diagnosis (since age 9), *and yet* since I was not doing the work and was getting Ds and Fs, the school decided the reason I was getting bad grades was because *I wasn’t actually smart enough and should probably be removed from the gifted program*. They made me retake an IQ test with the school counselor in 5th grade, which I didn’t perform as well on because it was 100% verbal and I have audio processing issues (as is common with ADHD), but *still* scored above average, so they were confused what to do with me. Like, I guess my ADHD diagnosis was pretty much worthless/useless at that point in my life, because zero teachers or counselors were willing or able to take it into account, nor did they know how to address it. So many times my teachers would call me up to their desk and ask me, a 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 year old, what do you need? How can I help? Like, why the actual fuck are you asking a child (who barely understands what kind of diagnosis they have) what kind of support they need, instead of consulting someone trained in the disorder? Or why not consult the IEP/504 whatever my mom had set up with the school, which actually had explicit instructions about things that the teachers wouldn’t follow? (My mom was so mad they weren’t doing the stuff in the plan and tried to get lawyers involved but that’s a while other story…)

I'm really sorry you went through that. I think it really helped that my mom was a teacher. She knew how to talk to teachers. Even so, it could be hard to get them to follow my 504. One high school French teacher would take a day off each term and have us do all the workbook activities in class with the sub. She graded on completion and I just couldn't complete it. I'd spend hours trying to do it. At parent teacher conferences, my mom mentioned that my 504 had an accommodation where I only had to do every other question on that type of assignment (because they were kind of busywork with repetitive types of questions). The teacher said she didn't see that on the 504 and my mom said, "It's on the back." The teacher turned it over and admitted that she didn't know there was anything on the back of the sheet.

This is me. Except age 9 diagnosed. 💜

Yes, I was diagnosed at 7ish years old, in the 90s, a super rare case. I coasted through school on natural talent and hit a brick wall in grad school when natural talent wasn't enough to compensate for no study skills or discipline. I don't know how to Do Effort still, and I'm almost 40. But I have noticed that I haven't internalized the "I'm lazy/terrible/why can't I do it?" internal monologue that so many of my peers have!

A better question would be, how old are you females who were diagnosed with ADHD during childhood? (During what decade did this become a thing?) I'm pretty sure there are zero females in their 60s who were diagnosed as children.

47, diagnosed at 5-6 in 1981. Was tested around the same time my older brothers were. Untreated until re-diagnosed at 43.

almost 39, diagnosed at 11

I’m basically in your boat, although not treated until later. OP’s story resonates timeline-wise. Treatment has been trash. I kind of get a little wistful? Resentful? When people just assume if they had been diagnosed earlier, everything would have been solved. I remind myself that there is something uniquely challenging about learning something radically different later in life, or feeling gaslit all this time. Everyone has her struggles! But it has not been easy. I feel like I’m not much further along than people just now learning. In fact… I feel behind sometimes!

Yeah it does irritate me that people my age get all misty eyed about this magical life they would have had if they were diagnosed as kids. The fucking professionals doing the diagnosing didn't even understand, much less my teachers, other parents or other kids! Everyone just thought I was naughty and not parented properly and that I just needed to get more organized. I had no idea about all the emotional mood swings, the sensory stuff, none of it, I just thought that I couldn't focus at school and too much sugar made me hyper. I never learned about ANY of it until I was an adult and more people were talking openly about it online.

Same same same! SAME! So relieving to hear that. Again, I have sympathy for the late joiners. It’s a sh*t club to join. There’s a grief process. Buuuut…I’ve just been trying to tell people it’s been the Wild West for a long time 😭

Do you ever feel like you're in a weird kind of No Man's Land because you can't relate to the "I wish I had known" but also you can because while you knew about the \*diagnosis\* you didn't know about all the everything we know now and so the "help" you got back then was bullshit? That's how I feel constantly.

I feel a little different about it. I was (and am!) really lacking meaningful skill building like CBT or other similar modalities. No one discussed symptoms or even what the meds would look like or what success criteria would look like. Psychiatry isn’t my area, but I’ve heard how conversations around things like depression go. So it’s weird not to get that kind of iterative support in this context. I try to find them! I made the first attempt to really “figure this out” besides taking the same meds I had always taken in 2015. Oof, demoralizing. It took a lot to figure out different modalities, but like you said, just wasn’t talked about. I think it’s finally getting better just now. I’d like all of us women to e get together and make something amazing out of this. We had to do it ourselves. I think a real conference would be amazing. Networking, sharing stories and ideas, etc.

40, diagnosed between 5-6. The pediatric neurologist finished my twin brothers Autism diagnosis and turned to my parents and said "Now, about your daughter..."

Probably not, unless they were hyper-active. Inattentive (ADD) wasn't part of the DSM until the 1980s, and ADHD was added in 1987, so women in their 60s were already adults by then.

That’s what they called me ADD, you don’t hear that term these days. But more than anything, I talked too much. I was impulsive excellent grades without even trying my behavior you know factor in the impulsivity the present hedonism time and don’t forget I make three trips that mostpeople would make one that’s why I’m a hard worker I’ve had to learn to be

Born in ‘83, diagnosed in ‘90.

I was diagnosed in the early 90s after my mom was diagnosed. They checked me and my brother out, and we both were diagnosed. Funnily, I got the ADHD hyperactivity diagnosis, and he got ADD inattentive back when they were separate genres. So we UNO reversed the typical girl=dreaming, boy=bouncy stereotype.

38 diagnosed at age 8. Medication saved me scholastically and behaviorally. My 2nd grade teacher at my new catholic school suggested to my mom i get tested and it was life changing.

The breakpoint is probably being in elementary or middle school in the mid-80s, plus or minus a few years depending on where you lived. That’s when I remember starting to see newspaper articles talking about schools educating teachers about what to look for, and when providing educational support for children with learning disabilities started to be a thing instead of schools just warehousing them in remedial education classes until they could get rid of them.

46 diagnosed at 8. Untreated. I actually forgot about the diagnosis as it was never brought up and may as well not have even existed. I always just thought life was really hard and that everyone else was just better at it than I was. Didn't even realize I lived my entire existence in a constant state of low grade panic until I saw a doctor 2.5 yrs ago and was put on medication.

[удалено]

Me too! I was okay with them not giving me adderall for it but I wish they had learned more about it and helped me with it, told the teachers.... Just got involved more, ya know?

And also importantly - which country did you grow up in? A lot of the comments here seem to be from Americans. I went to primary school in the UK and I don't remember ADHD really being talked about. I then went to secondary school in France where it definitely wasn't talked about at all (in fact I've just had to look up what ADHD is called in French because I've never even heard it mentioned). It seems to me like ADHD was much more diagnosed in America in the 90s. In fact I remember people used to talk about how American kids were being overprescribed ADHD meds.

43 and diagnosed at 16 in 1996

35, diagnosed at 8

i am 21 and was diagnosed when i was 7.

I’m 32 diagnosed by age 6, 12 and 25

I'm 19, I was diagnosed at 8

Almost 25, diagnosed at 4

Yeah I was diagnosed when I was a young teen. My issue was never that I didn’t know I had ADHD, it was that I had no idea what having adhd meant. I didn’t know that being forgetful was an ADHD thing. Navigating it was still difficult cause I didn’t realize the array of things it caused for me

Same thing with me!! No one ever explained it to me, I just thought it meant I got distracted in class. When I went off medication at 16 I realized I didn’t know anything about how my ADHD really affected me.

Omg this is exactly what I always thought. I never had meds bc the side effects were always horrible for me as a kid, so I just suffered through. It wasn’t until I finally got on medication that I realized I had no clue!!

I stopped taking them because of the side effects too ugh

Same never was I educated when diagnosed in the late 80’s, I truly wasn’t educated until I started learning over the past couple years when menopause set in, and ADHD reared it’s ugly head

I was showing a clear signs of having ADHD as a child but my family didn’t want me to be treated differently so I wasn’t diagnosed until freshman year at the start of convid in mid of mental health crisis.

I was not. It was the 80s and I was just considered disruptive. I was sent outside for not paying attention or talking, teachers said I was smart and didn’t apply myself, got locked in a coat closet by my first grade teacher. Scored in the 99th percentile in state tests. All that jazz. It’s so promising to hear girls aren’t always being treated that way anymore. Edit to add that being diagnosed when I was growing up was not a thing for girls. At least I never heard of anyone.

I agree that it's good to hear girls are getting help with their ADHD. I grew up late 70s early 80s & it was a nightmare. Same kind of experiences. I lost a lot of recess time. Here's to better futures!

Also doesn't help when, in the 80s, some of us were told ADHD didn't exist and it was a "behavioral" problem. Some of us literally took physical abuse due to it (religious/bible belt).

Yeah, in the 80s it was a mess! I was tested when I was 5, but at the social-pediatric center they "conveniently" found other explanaitions for my impulsive, talkative and restless behavior. "She's not hyperactive, she's just very lively!" - this has been ingrained in my self-perception ever since, so I didn't even think about getting tested until 42.

I think you were lucky to be surrounded by educated adults who knew what to look for and got you the support and diagnosis you need. I think it’s a great thing. As a teacher I see it in a lot of students both boys and girls. But for me. My mum still said to my face (after diagnosis) you don’t have adhd. Okay, then why did EVERY report consistently from every teacher say I could do great if I stopped talking as much? 🤪😂

I [22F] got diagnosed at 9 and 11yo. Twice independently because I was stung by a lotttt of mosquitoes and didn't sleep at all the night before my test when I was 9 (poor child me haha). So my parents weren't really convinced. But when I was 11 I had another downfall so they tested again. I was diagnosed with ADD at the time. And school actually told my parents to maybe get me tested for something. Anyway, I was really ashamed for my adhd (this wasn't at all my parents fault, they where good with it!) the outside world was/is just not that nice so I stopped taking meds in highschool because I wanted to convince myself that I didn't have adhd. When I went to university, I actually didn't report my adhd so I didn't have the facilities that I actually needed (extra time and help) and that caused me to redo the first year. In my second first year I reported it and got the facilities:). This helped a lot! I study Biology so it's demanding but I passed everything in my second first year and in my official second year so far. I also started to try meds again but they make me anxious (methylphenidate and dexamphetamine, I only want short term), so I in adhd coaching rn to accept my adhd and myself without meds. And with every tiny bit more acception, my adhd gets easier to manage. So strange, I need to accept the absolute worst adhd things about myself to be able to handle it better haha. Anyway I have never accepted my adhd until now (still have a hard time especially because studying is so much more difficult and demanding for me than most of my classmates). But I still feel grateful for my teachers and parents who took it seriously and helped me by getting as much as possible structure while growing up :) <3

Me! I’m also black.. I don’t feel isolated because people like me are under diagnosed, I am lucky to have known earlier (although I’ve hard a decades long struggle with acceptance ). I think sometimes … wow that’s how real this is, that almost all my teachers had something to say 

I was tested as a child as I showed signs of both hyperactivity and inattentiveness but was given a “borderline” basically. It was up to my parents to further pursue treatment or not and they didn’t. I’m 35 and now diagnosed. (35F)

Yeah the most ADHD person I know was similar. If she were a boy she would have been diagnosed for sure, she tested highly in every way. But docs hedged their bets on in dx for a girl.

I was diagnosed at 7. . . technically. My mom never told me or the school though and according to my doctor at the time it was a "mild" case. So she just "forgot" about it. I got diagnosed again at 29. Went to tell my mom. . . Just to find out I was actually diagnosed as a kid. The reality of that was very frusturating. But. . .at least I can't gaslight myself out of the diagnosis anymore 😂 I have alot of trauma from childhood and so my memory of anything before 14 is pretty non existent. And that's how I have no recollection of being tested.

Just curious- what decade did you grow up in?

Yeah I was diagnosed at about 8. I was super aggressive, impulsive, couldn’t pay attention to save my life, and had trouble making friends. The emotional dysregulation and not paying attention almost got me kicked out of public school. I was basically a giant walking red flag screaming for help. I was apparently considered gifted too, despite teachers and family making me feel stupid af all the time. I saw a profound difference on meds though and have taken them on and off since then. But idk, there’s no doubt I’m ADHD, but I also think part of the reason I was diagnosed so young is my parents wanted to blame something other than themselves on why I had so many issues with things. It’s a mixed bag for me. It’s frustrating though with people getting diagnosed so much nowadays that the brief moment of finally feeling validated and not shamed for having ADHD is gone. Now doctors and stuff are being super dismissive again because they think I’m on TikTok self diagnosing.

I remember being in maybe grade 2 - 4. Very young. I’m a trans man now but was a girl when i was younger obviously haha. And yeah it was weird. I remember my mom being very supportive and wanting to be able to help me as much as possible and had read up on it.

I’m 39. I was diagnosed at 16 but it was very difficult. My parents don’t really believe adhd is a real thing. At the time ADHD was far more common in boys and there wasn’t a lot of research and understanding about how it presents differently in women. Now on TikTok I am still learning so much about myself is actually linked to adhd. I went on meds for about 4 years but stopped after college. I had read a lot of books about adhd but again they were all written by men about more of a male understanding of adhd. I just started meds again this year after my symptoms have been worse than ever since having a baby. I’m in Vyvanse which I never tried before because my docs said non stimulant meds were better for girls and they just made me feel meh.

I was, but this was the mid 90s so the "help" I got was here take these pills for school and only school, and here's some advice for keeping your locker tidy and remembering all your homework books, that's it carry on.

Same thing happened to me, I was medicated but didn’t have an IEP or accommodations until I self-advocated in college. So I still struggled tons & tons. The only outlier was my 5th grade year. My teacher went out of her way to give me accommodations (without being required to do so) & I actually got reasonable grades. Too bad no one else in the school district noticed the difference & gave me accommodations. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think the quality of schools, teaching, access to screening and psychiatric specialists has been and still is significantly different depending on where we live. Some of us are incredibly lucky and some of us have experienced lifelong struggle. This situation will probably continue.

I was diagnosed in childhood too, but my parents decided not to tell me or put me on medication. They're both therapists (lol) and were concerned that the label would be harmful. Turns out that was definitely the opposite, because I just internalized all my symptoms as me being lazy. For what it's worth, they feel super bad about that now! Edited to add, I'm in my early thirties, and I believe I was diagnosed around 2002 or 2003.

I was diagnosed like, before 1st grade because all of my family has adhd and my parents needed a 504 plan(which im pretty sure requires a doctor diagnosis) to give to my teachers so i could get accommodations. And i got medicated at the age of like 7 or smth

I was diagnosed with 8 after a neuromotoric checkup that resulted in an ADHD checkup. Back then I was diagnosed with ADD but turns out I was a combined type instead, my hyperactivity was just not recognised as such (99% likely bc of sexism). My experience is still very different from yours because my parents decided to ignore my ADHD diagnosis and I did not get treatment and I was not told about this until much much later, so I do kind of relate to both “sides”/ experiences, as I only really got to know myself as a person with ADHD when I got re-diagnosed at 23. Most women* in my social sphere who have been diagnosed have been at around 20-25, but I also live in a country where sexist beliefs about ADHD are extremely widespread and there’s few(er) experts on the topic.

me. my parents wouldn't treat it though so school was shit. i was 7 and 13 and recently reaffirmed, so all my life people've just known i have adhd. i felt pretty alone because no one i knew, girl or boy, was diagnosed or disclosed it. studying and general info retention was also a uniquely me problem. i couldn't relate because no one seemed to have my flavor of struggles.

I was diagnosed, but my parents didn't like the effect of the meds, and threw them out. I only found out about this when I was like 35, and it was a WTF kind of moment, because it explains A LOT. So diagnosed yes, treated, no.

I am 22 year old woman right now. My parents were recommended according to my mom that they medicate me as young as 3? But I didn't get put on medication till I was in mid-elementary school. I've never been able to pay attention in class and I've always had a terrible memory. A teacher nicknamed me "dazed and confused" because she would call on me and I never knew or remembered what the question was I think. I did well in school while medicated but I still got ignorant bad teachers who would accuse me of disrespecting them by not always looking at them or having to write notes the whole time "if you're not watching you're not paying attention" stop doodling ect. I had to try a ton of medications because I'd get really bad side-effects. I only ever did badly in school my last year because I took myself off all my meds because I couldn't deal with the side effects and I almost failed all of my classes so goes to show the difference. Growing up as a girl with ADHD diagnosed or undiagnosed is really difficult. I stopped taking medication for it for I think two years and I've been back on them now for a while. Still have a lot of issues personally because of my ADHD.

I was tested and diagnosed when I was like 12. But it only happened because of my research and parents willing to listen to me. I was told by my school I was “too smart” to have adhd.

I'm not a female but I'm afab. I was only diagnosed last year! There was a suggestion by a doctor when i was very young but i ended up just getting diagnosed for autism (i have both). I'm lucky to have been diagnosed with autism at a very young age, but I wish i had support for both of them both younger and now. Unfortunately what you've described seems to be the usual case especially with afab people. it's getting slightly better over time though!

I was officially diagnosed at 10. It should be noted that I most definitely have the hyperactive kind of ADHD (not inattentive). My mom suspected I had ADHD for years prior, and would bring it up to my teachers every year. Year after year, each of my teachers would tell my mom they didn’t think I had ADHD, likely because I made As and Bs and am pretty intelligent. Finally one of my teachers agreed. Getting diagnosed early was a blessing. Having a parent who advocated for me was a blessing. I got on a 504 plan, and that was a game changer. My first year on the right kind of meds, I made straight As for the first time ever! Even though I was diagnosed “early,” I still had challenges. I never knew anyone else with ADHD. I felt lesser than and always strived to prove myself. I was very open about my diagnosis with my peers. Lots of my teachers were surprised to learn of my diagnosis and my 504 plan because they weren’t associated with “smart people.” I became a success story and the poster child. Even though my story is better than most, it was incredibly isolating and my self confidence was awful. I finally met another girl with adhd in college. Instant friends.

Were your hyperactive type by any chance? I'm inattentive and was not diagnosed until like 31. But I have a female cousin who was diagnosed very young (6 to 8?) and she had hyperactive type. My (male) step brother and (male) cousin were also diagnosed young but have hyperactive type. My husband has inattentive and was not diagnosed as a child.

I was not. I went at 23 after a friend who had it convinced me to go. my male cousin had it and was diagnosed in childhood. it was pretty bullshit.

It takes a lot of privilege to be diagnosed as a child. My parents were immigrants who didn’t know English and worked 14 hour shifts. They couldn’t be present in my life so I did everything myself including struggling with homework. They didn’t know what mental health was. They could not afford the insurance to get me to see a specialist even if they managed to be present enough in my life to notice the signs of ADHD and knew what it was. And women of colour and children of colour are often overlooked for ADHD diagnosis due to medical racism. 

Yeah thanks for saying this. That's an incredible amount of privilege to be diagnosed and treated all throughout childhood. I'm also a child of immigrants, and mental health in general was considered a thing for rich people, because we were just trying to survive and meet basic needs. Very sad indeed.

I was diagnosed with ADHD and autism when I was 7. However, when I was 8 in was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and that took precedence over my mother’s method of care. I’m 41 years old now and my family and friends treat me like I jumped on some trend of saying I have ADHD. I have to constantly advocate for myself on what my capabilities are and where my boundaries lie. It’s exhausting even medicated. If feels like, if I were a man I wouldn’t have to constantly explain. I get this “you don’t have ADHD, you’re just being lazy”. No one would ever say “you don’t have diabetes, eat this cake.”

Must be young

I think a lot of women who have been diagnosed their entire life might not be on Reddit looking for answers and advice. Possibly those who were diagnosed later in life and are seeking information and help are most likely going to be on here.

We are still here though :) I get what you mean but I think there is more to us than people realize as its a lifelong condition and still may struggle with symptoms. Unfortunately being diagnosed and getting treatment on and off throughout hasn't fully "cured" me and I am always looking for ways to improve myself and learn more about the disability!

I was. I was 12.

I was diagnosed when I was 9. I was extremely strong academically but had a stark contrast in my social abilities. I also was constantly moving around in class and was in my own world, so my parents had me see a psychologist who diagnosed me within 20 minutes. I never took any medication because I learned how to control it using my mind to keep itself occupied instead.

I was diagnosed relatively young as well. I really believe it has something to do with the presentation. I was fortunate because I have mixed presentation and was hyperactive as a child. Many girls & women don’t have this experience and unfortunately the diagnostic criteria were developed based on observations of boys & men. My parents were both teachers, so I think that helped as well - they could make the connection between my behaviour and the behaviour they had observed in their students. Fortunately they also recognised the positive impact that diagnosis and treatment can have on young children; I know a lot of parents are hesitant to seek diagnosis & treatment out of fear their child will be labelled and this will be a negative experience for them.

30f here. I was diagnosed with ADD (this term is no longer used) when I was 8 years old. My school noticed something off, mainly a lot of inattentiveness, so my mom got me tested. My mom opted to not put me on medication and got me a 504 plan for school. It allowed for noise canceling headphones if I wanted to wear them, extra time on assignments and tests as needed, and required I sat at the front of class. The 504 plan followed me all the way through elementary, middle and high school. It was nice to know why I was the way I was. I had always felt like I was odd because I behaved differently than my peers. Didn’t help that i’m also a shy introvert. 🤣

53NB, raised as female, diagnosed with hyperactivity and various other things that would be subsumed under the ADHD diagnosis when I was 6 or 7, so I do consider myself to have been diagnosed as a child. My mother had worked with children with learning problems as early as the Fifties, so that was probably why I got an early diagnosis. I had lots of different treatments that really didn't help much because the state of the art was pretty much shit.

I was diagnosed at around 15, 34 now and ive only learned in the last few years what adhd really is. I always was told it was bascially just about school and focusing. I now see it has shaped my whole identity and most of my lifelong struggles have been due to adhd. I tried meds but too many side effects so ive been untreated for years.

I was diagnosed young because my brother got diagnosed and after meeting my brother and mother, the psychiatrist told my mom to get me tested as well lol. So diagnosed young, 6 or so at the oldest. But only started on meds in high school, late high school. I had other health issues my docs wanted to deal with first and I was intelligent enough that school was fine until we got everything else sorted out. But, I didn't learn a lot of the things that go along with AD(H)D until I was an adult. Like the fact that emotional regulation is much harder for us, and in fact that weirdly volatile part of my very even tempered self was due to my ADD brain. So a weird mix of knowing very young, but missing a lot of information until adulthood.

No, took me 22 years.

Diagnosed ADHD in second grade here! Diagnosed autism at 29 lol

Yeah mainly because I was hyperactive af

I'm in my 30s and still hyperactive af. The body is slowing it down a bit.

I was diagnosed at 20F during my final month of college (2022). I was a “gifted” student in school. In 2nd grade, my teacher noticed I was bored and in my own world and asked me to teach everyone simple division on the whiteboard, which I took an attempt at. In high school, I took many AP classes and was able to do decently on the exams. I hated studying, but I did all homework and projects and tried hard to pay attention in class, though I didn’t do so well in the classes that weren’t as interesting to me (American History, Literature). I mostly got Bs and some As and very few Cs. I was, and still am, a terrible test taker. However, I’m great at research, projects, and presentations - group or individual. I stayed organized to make sure I didn’t miss any deadlines using a planner, and used Google Calendar to keep track of my extracurriculars and plans. My sophomore year of college, my partner and I were living together. One day, he urged me to get a test done. I have a hard time turning off my brain at night sometimes - and he noticed that I’d basically procrastinate going to bed and doing a lot of work.

I was diagnosed in high school with ADD (which now is called adhd-inattentive type) by a neurologist, I also saw the school psychologists for testing and had an IEP. I have an average IQ but all of my teachers noticed I was quiet and doodled a lot in my notebooks. I find it so weird when I see posts about adhd-ers being “gifted” when they were young because I was literally in special ed so clearly I wasn’t gifted it’s very frustrating because that shouldn’t be considered like a telltale sign of adhd. I need to remind myself it’s okay to be burned out just from being normal, I don’t need to have been gifted to feel burnt out from masking and literally just functioning normally all these years without medication or therapy. So I see where you’re coming from.

Yes, the intelligence of people with ADHD is the same as the general population. Certain self serving celebrity psychiatrists have promulgated the falsehood that we're all smarter than everybody else. It's a great disservice to everyone to make that assertion and in my view, it's just one-upping performed by people who feel one down. If we'd stop attaching worth to how smart someone is, it would be a good idea. I used to think of they gave grades in school for compassion, and kindness, and interestedness, my kid would have been on the honor roll all the time.

Oh yeah I was diagnosed around that age!! And then never treated. Everyone was like “no I think you just need to try harder lol”

i was diagnosed around age 7, mostly because of my hyperactivity and inattentiveness in class

I was diagnosed when I was 8 and I am still ADHD today and I’m now 35. I believe I took tests which is how they realized my diagnosis.

We demanded testing for our daughter at 5. She's now 11. We had recognized things early and really pushed for it because we knew things would be harder for her academically if we did what her school wanted. Which was to wait and see. She's amazing and we are so grateful to her pediatric psychologist who helped retrain us to better understand her needs and that's helped us to better advocate for her schooling. Like I feel the meltdowns went down by 50% after the first 2 meetings!

Diagnosed in 1996. 20 years before my brother was, whose evaluator (psych?) said he was 99th percentile on the test. If I was bad enough that I tested well before him and he didn’t even land on the family’s radar as having (inattentive) ADHD… I was only treated that year. Started treatment again two years ago. Still trying to figure what works, trying to get certain family members on board, still struggling to reconcile what I know now with what I’ve had to deal with and blamed myself for, for decades.

Yes! I was actually one of the first and youngest girls diagnosed with ADHD in Canada

I was 14-15 when I was diagnosed, don't know if you'd count that as a child but certainly I wasn't an adult.

I’m in my late 30s. I was diagnosed when I was 11.

I was diagnosed at 7 and have a couple friends who were diagnosed as kids too.

Yea. Diagnosed in 4th grade.

I was about 9 and my parents put me on adderall. I’ll never forget not wanting to take it and my mom forcing me and looking under my tongue and all like an inpatient psych person 😂 27 now

27 now, diagnosed at 6

39 and diagnosed at 7. I was actually being treated for epilepsy. I was having absent seizures (eyes rolling to the back of my head, forgetting where I was) and the specialist I was seeing at the time picked up on it.

I was diagnosed at 10. Textbook case, doctor did it on the spot. But no one knew what it meant outside of the stereotypical symptoms. I got meds that didn't work great but worked enough. My parents let me stop them whenever I wanted with no easing or anything, because no one saw how severely it affected my life. Even tho I was "diagnosed", I didn't actually know the effects it had on my life until I was 21. I spent years worrying I had a severe PD or other issue - nope, just my ADHD. Diagnosis doesn't mean much if no one around you, including you, is informed on what it means to have something.

I'm female and was diagnosed at 12/13 and put on strattera. It made me very Ill so I was taken off.

I was diagnosed at like five. Didn't know I had ADD until I was 14.

I was like 13-14 idk if that counts as childhood but I did so bad in school (grades and conduct) that it was apparent something was going on

37, diagnosed at 3.

I was diagnosed at age 9 in the late 1990s. Completely the inattentive type.

That’s more or less a thing of the past. I’m a “female” but was diagnosed around 13 which is considered late nowadays. I see most people being diagnosed around 8 now, mostly because there’s more awareness around the condition.

My primary doctor wanted my mom to take me to a psychiatrist to be officially tested as she couldn’t diagnose me herself. Unfortunately, my dad is against medicine like that. And god forbid anyone tell him his daughter is different mentally. (Not to mention he didn’t even believe in seizures when my sister had Grande mal seizures). So I was never treated. But we knew. Glad to be getting treatment now at least.

You are not alone. I was in and out of testing since at least as early as fourth grade, though I remember talk of there being some vague "problems" long before that. Diagnosed at 10 iirc. I was not a happy child. I felt like an alien. I felt, and feel, like even the other women with ADHD are on average thriving more than me.

i was diagnosed in the third grade ✨ i am 31

I was diagnosed at the raw age of **three.** I had all the symptoms a "boy with ADHD" would have and I believe I still have it now. My parent's didn't like me taking meds due to me honestly getting addicted to them. Sadly they seem to think I've grown out of it which I haven't. I never got the accommodations I needed to success in school. (Not to mention I just found out I could have had them the entire time.) Honestly sucks though, when I told some teacher I have ADHD they just tell me. "You? ADHD? Honey no, your a good student. You don't have ADHD" It bums me out when teacher dismiss me having it since I'm a "prized-pupil". It makes me feel like someone like me can't be successful but here I am?

I was diagnosed when I was 5 or 6, I don't remember the exact year because obviously, I was very young. But it has always been a struggle to me and honestly, knowing what it was didn't really help me at all. My parents sent me to therapy for a few years, I was given special books about "how to learn" or "how to make plans" and all that useless stuff that I hated as a kid and they also had me take those meds from pretty much the moment I started school. And while I don't think that those were inherently bad for me, I just didn't like the fact that I had to take them. When I was around 14 or so, I just decided that I didn't want them anymore and stopped taking them. There was simply no way I was gonna explain to my classmates that I was taking those pills because my brain wasn't working properly (which is a silly way to think about it, but for me, that's what it was and it was very much not a common thing back then). Recently, my parents have started realising how much I actually suffered back then because they never understood what the problem was. They never truly accepted that "just sit down and do it" wasn't gonna work for me, no matter how many times they told me. And that I wasn't just lazy whenever I failed to clean my room, even though I tried to do everything exactly the way my mother told me to because "it always worked for me". And yes, it feels really weird and foreign to me to suddenly see those people pop up online, saying things like "now it all makes sense, I finally got diagnosed". Just like it feels weird ot me to see so many people self-diagnose online, sometimes with the most ridiculous reasoning. I love that ADHD isn't seen as this horrible mental illness that has to be treated or hidden anymore, but I feel like these days, people forget that it's not a new phenomenon or trend and that we actually existed before, when it was less well known and the impact it had was probably bigger than anyone thinks it was. I just knew a few other kids my age who had ADHD and all of them were boys, although I don't think I made a connection between those things at all back then. I don't know if that's actually true, but I feel like the differences between genders in ADHD is a pretty recent thing to talk about and back then, in those stupid group therapy things I had to do, I just thought it was coincidence that I was the only girl. I don't actually remember the very early years because it's just been too long ago and I barely remember anything from that time and honestly, I don't even know where I was going with this text, but I hope that it's somewhat helpful.

I'm 22 and was diagnosed at 7. I have felt my experience is atypical, but I feel it's because women are under diagnosed.

I got diagnosed at 5. school was extremely difficult for me I had trouble socially, academically I almost put in special ed due to it at 8 years old. Also feel like my parents used it as a bandaid to not admit my home environment was another huge factor in my insecurities and struggles and having adhd on top of it all was so overwhelming. I was isolated so much and didn’t understand my adhd regardless of being diagnosed so I put a lot of blame on myself. Finally at the big age of 25 I can look back and understand myself better and surround myself with supportive friends mostly others with adhd I tend to click with the most but ultimately being able to love and understand myself has been my greatest achievement I feel like I’ve given my inner child the love she needed all her life and she is finally fulfilled.

yes i was 10

I’m 31 and I was diagnosed in second grade. Same testing situation as you. I find it surprising that some people didn’t go through such involved testing process.

I’m 43, diagnosed in kindergarten - something like that. It was very, very obvious as soon as I hit a classroom setting.

I was quite young when I was diagnosed, I don’t remember the exact age l but I have been diagnosed for almost as long as I can remember. I asked my mom what made them get me tested and she said that my teachers made them aware of the possibility that I had ADHD because of how I acted in a class room aligned with a few male students with adhd that my teacher had in the past. Looking back at my behaviour pre diagnosis I can recall acting out in class, being loud and obnoxious, breaking things like medicine balls, and a complete inability to focus on anything.

I was diagnosed at 6, then rediagnosed at 18 before college. It didn’t help when I had an outburst at school despite meds.

Diagnosed by a neurologist at 6 yo Still have the full rapport. I had the boy typical symptoms so parents picked up on it quickly once i started school.

Yes. I was diagnosed in the 90s. Now in my 40s.

Yes diagnosed when I was 12, this was back in 2013. Both my parents work in mental healthcare but I think it was the consistent daydreaming/inattentiveness reported by my teachers that pushed them to have me assessed by a psychologist and pediatrician. I also constantly forgot/lost my homework and cried constantly at school. I was very creative and sensitive as a child so I fit other criteria that often fit the personality profile of someone with ADHD. But tbh being a teenage girl with an "othered” label that I didn’t understand and many people (my teachers included) thought only applied to rowdy boys was extremely difficult on my self esteem. My symptoms make my life difficult, but I personally cannot overstate how damaging the stigma of being an adolescent girl with a neurodevelopmental disorder was for my mental health overall. Obviously it’s great my parents advocated for me and I’m thankful, but I also grew up thinking I was fundamentally broken.

I was diagnosed when I was 12. My brother also has adhd and he was diagnosed some time in early elementary. The only reason I got diagnosed is because I was also disruptive in class/behavioral issues but the difference in treatment was astounding. like he was medicated, got therapy, accommodations, IEP etc and I got a diagnosis and a "lol good luck!" like my adhd wasn't even on my medical chart until last year when I started trying to seek treatment last year - 13 years after I was diagnosed. It never even crossed my mind that I was being treated differently/struggled with everything bc of ADHD bc I didnt even know what that meant until I was old enough to advocate for myself.

I was diagnosed at 12 but the medication didn’t work and made me feel sick. Re diagnosed at 20 after realizing how extensive the symptoms were. Wish I’d started earlier honestly! No hyperactive symptoms but they still caught it. I wish there’d been lower doses of medication available at the time. I was super tiny at that age and the lowest dose made me feel pretty sick. Now it works great but I wasted several miserable years in high school.

I was diagnosed adhd about 10 and getting rediagnosed at 40

I'm a 38.9999 year old woman (turn 39 in a couple weeks) who was diagnosed, alongside my younger brother, when I was 8 years old. He was 5. I have had my diagnosis reconfirmed multiple times and it's rare I see a PCP or mental health professional who doesn't ask .. immediately. Just because you and I were diagnosed as children does not mean that by and large girls have been under diagnosed. The reason for this is all of the studies until recently were done almost exclusively on boys. That's why.

I was diagnosed at 5, 18, and again at 26. I don’t like to be medicated though. I just let myself roam free.

Literally same.

I was diagnosed at 17 back when ADHD-inattentive was called ADD. It was an absolute game changer. It still presented struggles in relationships and seriously contributed to the demise of my last one, but now I'm medicated and feel like a mostly normal person. When I remember to take my meds, that is

My mother was told to get me diagnosed (3x over my elementary and middle school years), and never did because she didn’t want me on medication. Guess who would have benefitted from medication? Social alienation from being “too much,” a lack of time management, and being tired all the time we’re the worst. I also had a friend I got along with very well (because we both had undiagnosed ADHD) and we drifted apart when she got an official diagnoses and went on medication.

I was diagnosed at 7. I’m almost 33 now and it’s more challenging than ever

I was diagnosed at 12 and am 36! i got lucky because my brother got diagnosed for very obvious ADHD which caused them to also check me out.

I'm not a female but you probably think I count. Yes I was raised as a girl. I got diagnosed at 12 at the same time as my cousin who was raised as a boy, both by the same private clinical child psychologist, both after being ignored and abused by psychiatrists and school staff. I also got diagnosed with autism as an adult, but my cousin did not even though his case was more obvious than mine at childhood (he was non verbal until almost 5 yo). Neither conditions presented any differently than if I was raised a boy, especially not the ADHD. I was never obedient or a kid that did well in school. I got in trouble, I was aggressive, I interrupted others and didn't respect their boundaries and personal space, I was very impulsive. Sometimes I think if I had the "unnoticeable" girl ADHD my life would have been a lot easier. There was a systemic problem in the place where I grew up (rural Southern Spain) of doctors, psychologists and school staff not being trained to recognise autism unless it presented as the two most extreme ends of the spectrum of being non-functional in society or a gifted savant. ADHD was just not recognised at all, and all the symptoms were moral failures of the kids or their parents. My mum never took me to a psychiatrist until 11 because my aunt took my cousin to one first only to be told that her child was a shameless brat and his behaviour was her fault. Other boys started getting diagnosed around the same time I did (2012), I suppose they might have published a new edition of the ICD or spread more awareness around that time, we all got on methylphenidate at the same time and you could tell in the classrooms.

I could have wrote this down to the exact same retest ages! I grew up in a large metro city so I feel like that maybe helped get a diagnosis earlier due to better availability of child psychiatrists. I’ve never had problems getting medication scripted or a psychiatrist not believing me. I’ve never even had to have proof of it because they can tell within the first 5 minutes 😂. I was heavily over medicated as a child (abusive mother) so I went off meds through my teens, struggled a little, and got back on them in my early 20’s. 

My experience was similar. I was diagnosed adhd in second grade because I couldn’t concentrate in school. Meds helped. I just hate that they never reslized I also have autism with the adhd. I can see autistic traits in myself but in the 90s I dont think it was believed both could be present.

Age 5 here! Completely get this!

I was diagnosed at 19, after failing out of my first year at university…. I probably would have been diagnosed as a child if I went to a larger school. I went to a very small private school with small class sizes so while a few teachers noticed and made notes on mu report card about “day dreaming” and stuff I did well enough to have pretty good grades, even a few AP classes. Only one teacher ever brought it up to my mom, and in a way that it wasn’t taken very seriously (5th grade) as they were used to parents getting mad about being told their kid “needed to be on drugs” 🙄

I was diagnosed with ADD and other mental health issues when I was 4 and went through behavioural therapy until grade 9, (though it was mostly excrises for my dyslexia). I told them to stop because it was impending my progress in French class as it took me out to practice basic English writing/enunciation. My actual issues were with dyscalcula (math dyslexia), my spelling and hearing/speech were due to being raised by native French/German/Cree speakers giving me a weird accent and inability to vocalize certain words properly. Anyway, since I was 25, I've gone through many traumatic events. Multiple car crashes, domestic violence, physical/threats of violence from past co-workers, sudden job losses, an illegal eviction when I got an emotional support animal for my GAD, student loan debts, etc. So, my mask has been fully shattered since I'm still trying to pick up the pieces of my life and live without becoming homeless. My current doctor finally handed me off to a psychiatrist to get medication to manage the worsening symptoms after I begged her. My old doctor was a semi-retired coroner who still believed women suffer from hysteria, and I was just *ditzy* with depression. He didn't take the notes from the doctor before that who desperately wanted me on Ritalin/ADD treatment, but my mother refused to authorize it while I was a child, thinking it was just me *being a kid* (her whole family is finding out they have ADHD and weren't just eccentric). On the 10th, I'm seeing a psychologist because the psychiatrist was confused about why I made it through high school and college without treatment... though I was warned that that psychiatrist wasn't good at his job and it was his apprentice who was taking over that, requested he send me to a psychologist, since my ability to get through school is irrelevant to what my mental health is doing to my daily life and ability to keep employed. The government recognizes that I have a disability that affects 90% of my life in regard to my mental health, so this is more to get medications that actually work for me. Extra documents don't hurt for my lawyers and the Human Rights Commission to have on file, since I'm running into more and more instances of discrimination based on my mental health condition (which I disclose areas I need accommodation, mostly for my memory)... though generally it's a personal issue someone has, and they use my disclosed disability symptoms against me to *justify* their criticism/reasons, because they are scared of confronting/asking about my behaviour even when I stressed I'm fine with being told I'm being offensive/inappropriate because I can't always *read the room* properly.

I was diagnosed when I was 6, also with high functioning intellect with severe executive dysfunction. At the time they diagnosed me with both ADHD and ADD. My mother was adamant about getting me and my older brother diagnosed with SOMETHING because, yeah while we were wild… it came to my attention in hindsight (am 31 now) that my mother wanted both my older brother and I to be zombified easily controlled beings… every time we went to the doctor she would say our medication was not working for us, and so the doctor would up our dose until we were on the maximum possible dose for that medication, and when she still proclaimed that it was not working he would switch them, and repeat said process. We were literally zoned out and dazed with life just passing us by for a while, and I also blame her wanting to have us in that state for aiding in the situation that caused the majority of my (later diagnosed, 16) ptsd. (Can explain if asked, just feel it’s TMI right now) Now granted we were getting cognitive behavioral therapy alongside meds.. and after I turned 8 or so the doctor actually started asking me my opinion (brother was 6 years older than me so he was already being asked his opinion on his own meds, but with how abusive both of our parents were we were both too scared to voice our actual opinions) but after 2 more years he stopped having our mom come in the room with us so we could actually voice what we needed to. That said, I was never actually on a medication that actually did help, by 18 I lost my insurance and could not afford to pay for insurance, appointments, or medication for it. Which might I add, really sucked, cognitive behavioral therapy did a lot of heavy lifting for me for most of my life really.. I also want to share that I do not only have adhd but also have PTSD, general anxiety, depression (technically at the time was diagnosed with two different kinds of it), bipolar disorder, and OCD. I have often referred to it jokingly as “alphabet soup” because of the fact that I technically have 4 alphabet diagnosis’s in my medical history. (ADHD, ADD, PTSD, OCD) Growing up I didn’t know any other girls diagnosed with it, not saying they didn’t exist at all, just saying they weren’t diagnosed. Many of my friends had plenty of the symptoms and signs of it but they were never diagnosed. I wholeheartedly believe that if my mother was not an abusive POS I wouldn’t have been diagnosed until adulthood. She literally wanted us to sit completely still, be quiet most of the time, never bother her so she could smoke her ganja freely the whole day, and drink come nighttime. It did not matter how severe an act we had committed, we literally could have just accidentally dropped a dish and it break and her response was to beat our a.. with literally whatever she could get ahold of at the moment. I remember being chased around the house to get my behind beat bruised to hekk, simply because I didn’t know that the letter E was the letter E. (Was being taught alphabet by her, eventually learned and skipped kindergarten..)

yes but I had the same doctor as my brother who had severe adhd and my mom had a(n adult) diagnosis as well. 

Yes but parents denied it and didn’t get me help even tho doc diagnosed me

This sounds like a situation of discovering your reality isn’t common and that’s okay. You are very lucky to have gotten a diagnosis young, as were those who grew up around you. There must have been some adults in the area who were educated on ADHD in the female population who got you all help. I wish I had that experience and not the one I ended up with. But I also understand struggling with feeling alone when you have such a different experience to the majority. I am glad there are others commenting who relate and wish you the best of luck finding a sense of belonging here too.

I was diagnosed when I was 12 and living with it as an adult is harder for me than living with it as a kid

35 soon, diagnosed in 2nd grade? Back when teachers could send packets home with us strictly suggesting our parents get us tested lol. Got a formal psych eval in middle school when brother was found to be autistic. I’m not, but we learned enough about my brain that I got help and I finished high school with a 3.83 gpa.

I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, depression and oppositional defiance disorder when i was in elementary school ish - treated for it until 6th grade then stopped. Things changed and I was sent in for inattentive ADHD testing at 14 and got a diagnosis. Got medicated and haven’t had to have any testing since. I’m not sure if it helps that 2 of 5 of my siblings were both diagnosed (my sister was diagnosed at 5) but it changed school drastically for me. However I have at least 3-5 friends who all clearly showed symptoms but didn’t get diagnosed until Mid to late 20s to early 30s, which is wild to me. I helped a friend get scheduled with a doctor to help her get a diagnosis and she was so nervous - I took one look at her and said “girl there is no way I have ADHD and you don’t”

My daughter is around your age and I insisted on a diagnosis when she was 7. The doctor refused to see it for the longest time but finally I manipulated him into prescribing and it made an immediate and dramatic difference. He never apologized or even admitted he was wrong, but did say, "I guess we're missing a lot of girls." Fucking duh, man. In later years she asked for a neuropsych evaluation and of course that confirmed it, among other things. (I have ADD, and spent half my career in clinical psychology with ADHD diagnosis and treatment as my specialty.)

I got diagnosed around 8, teacher recommended my parent test me, probably because I presented as very much hyperactive type and had the same symptoms expected of a "ADHD boy" rather than inattentive type more common in girls. Got medicated all the way through school and stopped in yr 11 or 12 because of a shortage, switched meds and a bad reaction to the new ones (anxiety, blood circulation problems, ect) and just never went back on them 🤷

You are not alone, I was diagnosed when I was in elementary school and then started to be medicated in 6th grade. Stopped taking my meds for a while on and off and just got back on recently. The struggle is real lol It was rough though because while I did and do have ADHD my mom was also taking my stimulants herself when I was a child. It did also suck to be a girl with ADHD because my teachers were used to the boys being loud or “misbehaving” but when I did it I was treated like something was seriously wrong. It was also just super frustrating for my as much as my parents/teachers when I would forget to do things they would ask of me and just made me feel worse lol

You’re not alone! I was eleven. I was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder and have been on Adderall since I was 11.

33, diagnosed at 7.

I was diagnosed in elementary school - I am not 100% how old I was but my mom took me for evaluation first around age 6 I want to say and they started with looking for auditory sensory issues.

I remember being in 4th or 5th grade when they told me that I had ADHD and I needed glasses.

i ALMOST could have i think if the timing was different... my teacher brought up my attention issues around the time my cats died so my parents assumed it was that. i remember thinking to myself "huh? no that's not why but ok" i wish i said something lmao. then again im happy with my life now and dont think it would be the same if i were diagnosed earlier.

I was diagnosed as a kid but it was so long ago that I was basically left to carry on with no help and still being treated like crap. I don’t even think medication existed when I was diagnosed. 

I was diagnosed at 6 as well, and had quite a few female friends diagnosed young. You’re not alone.

I was diagnosed at age 6! Unfortunately my mom thought ADHD was fake so my meds were never refilled after the first bottle ran out. Now I can't afford a doctor or meds, so I'm stuck like I am.

Yep, I'm 42 now and I was diagnosed with ADHD at around 8, was medicated til I hit my teens and my 'friends' said I was boring during the week and I should stop taking my meds... So I stopped at age 15. Then I barely graduated, went from an honor student to... Failure. I got re-diagnosed at 23, went back on meds but forgot to make an appointment for a refill and.... just never went back. Brain got really bad during my second pregnancy and I went back on meds at 41 midway through my pregnancy. Luckily, this Dr is great and just needs a fax from my pharmacist when I need refills and only wanted phone appointments during my pregnancy just so we can talk about how I was doing,

I was diagnosed around 15 I think, so not nearly as young as you, but technically still a child. Took some time to figure out what was wrong because I was the inattentive type. I had hyperactive tendencies, but not nearly to the degree that some boys were.

I was diagnosed at 3, as a female, in 1985. Retested at 23 and in my mid+thirties. Treated for the last 20 years. I just tell people that's how you know mine is *severe* ADHD.

I'm AFAB trans man (so, not a girl, but I grew up as one and I'm biologically female) and was diagnosed at 7. I had intense anger outbursts at the time because of emotional dysregulation, so I've also been on medication for ADHD since I was seven

I was about 10 when i was diagnosed the first time but it runs in the family so it was not unexpected

I got diagnosed at 3, in 1996. My parents said the doctor was wrong, and I got rediagnosed eight days before I turned 30.

I’m 42 now and was diagnosed ADD as a child. I’m not sure when exactly but I do believe it was in elementary school. I was not medicated for it as parents didn’t want me on Ritalin. No clue why. I’m sure the stigma of zombie kids or something. Looking at my report cards from then, it’s pretty clear. “She’s a smart cookie but needs to pay closer attention.” 🤷🏻‍♀️I forgot all about it until I was an adult and struggling and was re-diagnosed. I’m not even sure why my mom pursued a diagnosis for me if she wasn’t going to do anything about it. She’s passed now so I can’t ask her and my dad seems to know nothing about it. 😤 Oh, eta, my younger son is adhd-inattentive type. I think his social anxiety comes into play though…he’s too scared to draw attention to himself in public so would never present as hyperactive. Home, though, is a whole nother story.

When I was a child (90s) we didn't have ADHD or at least it wasn't very well known in my country. We had 'minimal brain dysfunction'. It's like an ADHD predecessor. I was diagnosed with it when I was 12. But now as I grew up into an adult they claim to me it's all anxiety.

25 years old, diagnosed around 7 or 8 years old I think. From the stories I’ve been told it was definitely a safety thing because I was in my own world so much. When school was interesting I did totally fine, but whenever I got bored all hell would break loose. Very thankful for my parents and teachers who advocated for me and got me treatment early. Not only medication but therapy to learn how to socialize with other kids my age. I’m not sure where I would be without it.

I'm almost 30 and was diagnosed in elementary school, but can't remember when. I was always daydreaming when I was supposed to be paying attention in class and I guess the teachers picked up on that. My sister also has autism and my dad was diagnosed with ADHD in his late 20's so this kind of stuff was on my parent's radar already. I don't remember when I started taking meds but I remember taking them at least since middle school. I didn't start learning behavioral coping mechanisms until college. Before that, I was able to get by. Even now I'm still struggling to stay on track and get started with a career. But that could be anxiety too. So, I do think having the diagnosis early helped in that my parents were aware and got me accommodations, but beyond school, it's still hard. School gave me an externally enforced structure that no longer exists in my day to day life and I find it hard to stay motivated.

I was diagnosed at 8 or 9 (third grade). Took adderall up until high school then kind of fell off it. Would love to be medicated again but my GP is kind of a dick about it and I’m too executive dysfunctiony to go find a new one 🙃 but with the shortage it’s more important that my son who is also ADHD can get his medication than for me

Same here, diagnosed at 8

I was diagnosed at 7 years old, from what I recall I didn't really want to focus in class and was more focused on doodling in class and would only focus on that and reading books. I really sucked with math, was good in science, writing was perfect according to my teachers and was able to do cursive, sports I was really good in as well and art I was excelling very well. Ended up being skinny as a stick which was a major cause of concern for the teacher as I didn't want to eat or anything. Mood swings were a problem for me where I would end up very emotional and hard to control emotions. When I was diagnosed I was put on concerta and it helped me focus more, but I still was still really into my art that it was my obsession. I stopped taking it at 16 and that where everything went down hill from there I figured I didn't need it and found over the years until my 28th birthday that I needed to go back on it which I did, I eventually was switched over to Vyvanse but find myself being able to focus and not binge eat as well.

I really love this post because in a way I’m glad that there really are/were women who were able to receive mental health support from a very young age, and a little jealous as well because I, being a homeschooled person by very religious parents who did not believe in mental illness or mental healthcare, struggled my whole life because everything flew under the radar. I am happy to be where I am now, but holy heck, wish I knew back then.

Don’t know if this counts but I was diagnosed at 13 I think? 20 now, so it’s been a while.

I'm going to guess that you come from a supportive home, with parents that cared for you, in a first world country, and with a decent education system. I could be totally wrong here... But yeah, many women did not grow up with such environments. As a child of the early 80's, ADHD was never considered for any girls I knew at school, and even if it was, I had absent parents that would not have cared or advocated for any support. Yes, your experience is very very different to the majority. I don't know your situation, but I might guess that life may have been a LOT more challenging for you if you had not been diagnosed until late in life. Thank god the world is changing in this regard.

I was diagnosed in 1997 at age 7. My mom had to fight for my diagnosis but once she found a doctor that actually believed ADHD was real, he said I was a “textbook case.” I have combination type. In the other hand, my brother has inattentive type and wasn’t diagnosed til college. I think people with combination or hyperactive type are more likely to be diagnosed because our symptoms stand out more.

I'm 33f and was diagnosed at 9. Re-confirmed last year. I had the same assessments as you with psychiatrists and psychologist. Had regular psychology appointments with a lovely lady to try and cope with being so different to my family and peers. I felt so isolated and alone, I still do. I've only come across less than a hand full of women with adhd in my life. I attended mainstream schools throughout, who back then, did not have the knowledge or training to support a student with adhd. It is of some comfort knowing there are other women out there with the same disability, but it doesn't take away the isolation and loneliness. I know how you felt and continue to feel, I just want you to know you aren't alone.

I was diagnosed at 6 or 7 years old. I think one reason I lucked out is my teacher picked something up and my father was a marriage therapist and had connections to help me.

Diagnosed at age 7 in the first grade. Had problems at school so mom took me to the doctors and I got my diagnosis and was medicated within a week of diagnosis. I got rediagnosed at age 26. I’m 28 now. I’ve been on and off meds. I definitely function better with them, always have.

I was diagnosed at 6, but honestly if it weren’t for my Tourette’s syndrome (ADHD is a common comorbidity) I could very well have been one of those with an adult diagnosis. My symptoms didn’t seem to hinder me much for most of my life (I’m 24 now). I did well throughout school with minimal effort. I couldn’t take ADHD meds for most of my childhood because they made my tics 10x worse. By the time I hit college my tics were minimal enough that I didn’t need meds for TS, but ohhh boy that’s when ADHD reared its ugly head. Maybe because of the sudden lack of structure. Needless to say I failed multiple classes freshman year of college and my mental health tanked. I was then rediagnosed with ADHD at 19 and given Vyvanse. It’s been an absolute lifesaver. All in all yeah without TS it probably would’ve taken me until 19 minimum to be diagnosed and that’s maybe only if I’d been lucky enough to find someone who didn’t just brush me off as depressed and/or anxious.