To be perfectly honest I don’t know much about ADHD, one of my close friends was recently diagnosed at 21 years old. He wondered how he got to that age with no one noticing, in a way he was let down by both the schooling system and his family. If he has gotten to where he is today completely on his own he believes that it has made him a stronger person. My friend is now taking Ritalin, feeling clear headed for the first time ever, his anxiety is gone, all he sees now is the potential of the world and how it has become (to a degree) limitless. As he was confessing his mental illness to me, I started to think that I had never seen him so happy, he couldn’t keep the smile off this face, and he even had more confidence when he was speaking then in all the years I’ve known him.
My friend had originally only gone to the doctors for help with his anxiety, the doctor diagnosing him as also depressed when he wasn’t, the antidepressants his doctor prescribed him did nothing. He was later sent to a psychiatrist and diagnosed with ADHD, I’ve never met someone who is so happy to be diagnosed. He just keeps saying “if I got that far without being diagnosed, I wonder what I could do now, considering I can actually focus and pay attention”. He had already completed an IT course at Tafe and was climbing the career ladder at his work but he is now considering psychology. He is a really smart person, no one realised though. My friend’s ADHD was left unrecognised for so long because he didn’t exhibit hyperactivity, it is apparently extremely common for adults to get diagnosed with ADHD without hyperactivity as it wasn’t recognised when they were children and adolescents. The world has truly become his oyster.
My Wonderland. Mental Health Blog 
So so good to read a positive blog post, thanks!
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ADHD is a neurological issue not a mental health one. It is important to be clear as there are stigma attached to both and to cloud it with inaccuracy makes the world more difficult than it has to be.
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He labelled it as a mental illness, i have a mental illness that it neurologically based. I didn’t mean to offend, i just meant that it is categorized as a mental disorder. I would just presume that a mental disorder would be categorized in the mental health schema because of that. Sorry if thats inaccurate, i just always percieved it that way, even though i dont like the ‘mental illness’ terminology. Then again i dont find it should always be labeled as an ‘issue’ which comes across as something wrong.
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In the United States it is not classified as a mental disorder, it is a neurological one. I think that more ought to be done to identify when the brain itself is not functioning ‘properly’, though then, how does one notice when a difference is a potential evolution that has unidenfied advantages in some areas and seeming lacks in others? And, you are correct socially acceptable is a broken bit of the physical body rather than a thing of will(as mental illness). It is difficult in this short comments area to get across all of my understanding of Aspergers Autisim, ADHD sensory processing ODD(which I still believe just needs a swift kick in the pants) as I do many of the whooo activities in OCD and bipolor disorder. Mood regulation comes from discipline if the brain is not doing as it ‘should’. In our freer society everything must be fluffy and we ought to be able to explore and to have this or to have that , which is adding to those with mental issues because no one has any boundaries of acceptability and of control. My own home is full of such issues, and at the moment I am exhausted from it, and from the categories that somehow make me responsible for an adult person’s behavior, which is violent and aggressive no matter what the cause. Perhaps I should have refrained from commenting as I am now in tears. I am really buried here by it all and my life is taken over by fear. On a ‘normal’ day (normal being a setting on a dryer), I advocate and educate many. It really sucks when medical ‘professionals’ with the power, are backward and behind on neurology and pharmacology and lives go to shit from it. As a safety note there, while one ought to be educated about one’s own condition and medications, it is important not to make decisions alone or without medical supervision–of which I am qualified for neither. Thanks for listening. 🙂
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I’m so sorry for making you upset. Everyone should always be able to voice their opinions. I agree with you about the potential in having different mental capabilities that vary from the majority of society, I personally find that it benefits me whilst crippling me at the same time. I’m really sorry if the mental disorder or mental health part was offensive, I studied a few years of psychology at uni in Australia, so that’s the terminology we were taught, maybe it varies between countries. It really does seem that society is sometimes hindering the process of mental progression (to an extent) and exploration, we don’t have the necessary boundaries and self-control, but it seems that Bipolar disorder hasn’t changed much in centuries from the research I’ve done, but maybe it has and we haven’t the technology to adequately track it. I don’t know how you go day-to-day with violence and aggression in your life, I find it frustrating when people take it out on others. I really hope that your day gets better though. No one should be made to be unhappy from other people. Just wanting to wish you the best of luck with everything. x 🙂
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I have a lot of anxiety issues and I am about to get tested for ADHD. I was kind of depressed by this but the story of your friend makes me feel like it could get better after all. Thanks for posting this;
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He thinks its the best thing that has happened to him. Hope everything works out for you 🙂
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