this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
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ADHD Women
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I think your point needs to be highlighted here. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 17 . I was the quiet kid in class. I hardly participated but i came off as shy. The primary reason was that I never bounced off the walls like my son literally does without his medicine. My ex wife was diagnosed at 5, but it was because she presented with hyperactivity you usually see in boys.
With ADHD in general, if we improve diagnosis in girls, it will drastically improve it across the board.
For real. It sucks so hard that not having the classic disruptive hyperactivity is pretty much an express ticket to going undiagnosed. That's what caused me to go undiagnosed until like 27.
Luckily my daughter isn't going to have to go through the same thing. Between having an established family history, having that more classic hyperactivity you usually see in the boys, and the fact that we've known she's had it since my wife was pregnant with her and she'd take a nap while her twin brother got all hopped up on the caffeine my wife would use to help her migraines. Only reason she doesn't already have a diagnosis is because she's too young to officially diagnose. Everybody from her pediatrician, to the people at the clinic that diagnosed her autism, to her preschool program agrees she has it.
It was hilarious. One time, she stole an entire large iced capp while we were in the checkout line at Sam's Club. They were doing inventory at the nearby tables and one of the workers had sat it on the register. We didn't see it because they were in the cart on the other side of the checkout lane until we're get the cart back to leave and we just see this little thing HUGGING THE DAMN COFFEE to hide it and greedily chugging it. It was apparently full when she got it and she had drank pretty much the entire thing. The look of horror on that poor employee's face as my wife finally wrestles the cup away from her and it's got maybe 2oz left in it. She immediately fell asleep in the car and had what I can only assume was the best nap of her little life because she didn't wake up for like 4 hours. Even when I picked her up out of her seat.