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Question 1: When you were first diagnosed, what was that process like?

How did you feel about it?

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The reason I found out about it was because I had always used games on my phone as a way to help me ‘listen better’ during lectures and even whilst watching tv. During class one time, my lecturer told me to put away my phone, even though I said it helped me stay engaged in the content. My friend (whom I knew to have ADHD) silently leaned across and handed me her shiny, flippy-sequin pencil case to fidget with, as though she knew exactly what I needed!

The process was not too terrible, filled out some questionnaires and got a referral to a specialist psychiatrist. The 8 month wait was a bit rough, where the ever-pressing weight of imposter syndrome was quite gnarly. I have spoken to a lot of my friends (turns out most of my friends also have ADHD, and quite a few were also undiagnosed… funny that!) who all talk about this feeling. Most of us have spent the majority of our lives being told we’re just lazy and incompetent, so a part of me continued to believe that this was just some excuse to try to get medication to ‘cheat at life’ or some BS like that. Now, having professional psychiatric confirmation has been enough to dispel the notion of being 'weaker, lazier, and bad at life’ - and has also given context and understanding to a large majority of struggles across my life. It was in most ways, a huge relief.