I think the difference is the masking and different freedoms between being a kid and an adult.
Adult ADHD isn’t quite the same as kid ADHD. It just presents differently. IOW, the kid that can’t sit still and can’t focus on boring tasks (the adhd stereotype) with school’s rigid rules or home has grown up and maybe found a job that allows a workaround or maybe ADHD helps a bit, and the other symptoms have morphed into messiness and tardiness - stuff that nobody but the ADHD person and maybe a partner has to deal with. They become quirks vs failing grades.
Yeah, ADHD can be a lot worse as an adult and cause real problems, especially for people who had life progression interrupted because of school failures and maybe substance abuse used to self medicate or even abuse at home when people were verbally or physically abused because they were non-normative.
My entire family is non-norm. One of them was incredibly frustrated, hurt, and angry that their parents knew they were ADHD, didn’t tell them, and did nothing about it. They spent years rudderless and wasting time at schools, never accomplishing anything despite the good resources. They were particularly angry because they knew that if they’d known and been able to be medicated they would have far more likely completed a valuable higher education and likely be in a desirable career far sooner than the twenty-odd years extra it took to get even close.
But back in the day you kept your mouth shut about mental conditions because the prejudice was so much worse than today.
I think the difference is the masking and different freedoms between being a kid and an adult.
Adult ADHD isn’t quite the same as kid ADHD. It just presents differently. IOW, the kid that can’t sit still and can’t focus on boring tasks (the adhd stereotype) with school’s rigid rules or home has grown up and maybe found a job that allows a workaround or maybe ADHD helps a bit, and the other symptoms have morphed into messiness and tardiness - stuff that nobody but the ADHD person and maybe a partner has to deal with. They become quirks vs failing grades.
Yeah, ADHD can be a lot worse as an adult and cause real problems, especially for people who had life progression interrupted because of school failures and maybe substance abuse used to self medicate or even abuse at home when people were verbally or physically abused because they were non-normative.
My entire family is non-norm. One of them was incredibly frustrated, hurt, and angry that their parents knew they were ADHD, didn’t tell them, and did nothing about it. They spent years rudderless and wasting time at schools, never accomplishing anything despite the good resources. They were particularly angry because they knew that if they’d known and been able to be medicated they would have far more likely completed a valuable higher education and likely be in a desirable career far sooner than the twenty-odd years extra it took to get even close.
But back in the day you kept your mouth shut about mental conditions because the prejudice was so much worse than today.