That ended with me finally explaining to him how the way he and my mother treated me as a child, with undiagnosed (and really not even conceptually understood at the time) ADHD caused me lasting trauma that persists to this day. I’m a 45 year old man, and I cried.
This is me, too. Undiagnosed ADD until my 50s. No H, probably like you. Misunderstood for decades. It was really hard for my parents, but they had no idea and are now passed.
Learning about it made everything click about my difficult life, but made me proud of what I had accomplished in spite of ADD. And now I have a toolbox of methods I can use to recognize my ADD as it is happening, and help counteract it. I also have medication to help.
I think one of the things I needed to know is, ADD / neurospiciness can also be an asset at the workplace. One of the marketable I excel at is learning new things. Whenever I am given a new skill to learn, I dive into it passionately. I love learning new stuff! So that fits perfectly with IT, which is constantly moving forward with new technology.
And with that I’m currently working on a late-life Masters degree in IT. So, happy ending, I guess. Find your niche!
There is a before and an after. Once you get diagnosed you can start mitigating. There are many tricks but one thing I’ve learned is being vocal about it. My colleagues know I’m forgettable so they send me meeting requests and tasks all the time. They’ve also learned not to bother me with questions all the time because a simple question can turn into a deep dive for me.
I did the same thing as you. Got my masters degree in public management 2 years ago.
Finding a niche is hard when you like to learn new stuff all the time. Setting up a home lab got me into IT so a few days ago I also payed for my inscription fee at the uni.