The Challenge of Sharing Your ADHD Diagnosis
Even when we do open up about our ADHD, and try to explain the symptoms that have defined us for too long, many people are incredulous. They don’t believe that ADHD exists in adults. Or they think we're making excuses. Or they say we're too successful to have ADHD. None of these reactions is helpful.
“ADHD is not an excuse; it is an explanation — a totally physiological explanation,” Dr. Littman says. “The smarter you are and the better you compensate, the more people will doubt you. The harder you struggle to cope, staying up late at night to pull things together, the more people will doubt your ADHD. They don’t see that the cost of your success is terrible sadness, anxiety, and burnout.”