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AlucardMarch 2, 2023

Also a 27 year old with ADHD, except I wasn't diagnosed until 24 due to having the inattentive presentation and doing well enough in school to go under the radar. I grew up as a competitive dancer, spending almost every day after school in ballet or tap or jazz or modern dance, sometimes multiple classes back to back. Many of my cousins (who pretty much all played sports) and both of my siblings, (including my brother who was always playing a sport or playing pickup basketball or soccer games with neighborhood kids) also have ADHD. All that exercise didn't make us not have ADHD because that's not the underlying cause of an actual ADHD diagnosis. It was in our gene pool.

Getting diagnosed literally changed my life. I used to only be able to get anything done if I felt under immense pressure to do it. Homework got done, enough that I took like 5 AP classes in high school and got a physics degree without knowing I had ADHD. But I only managed to stay on task if 1. someone else was making me or 2. the adrenaline from procrastinating until the last minute finally made my brain cooperate. It was less 'I work well under pressure,' and more 'I ONLY work under pressure.' It caused me so much grief and anxiety, I used to get so frustrated with myself I'd end up crying because I couldn't make myself focus. With stimulants, I can even do the dishes and fold my laundry without my brain wanting to rebel. That's such a small thing, but people without ADHD will never understand what a big difference that is for me. My depression also resolved itself once I started stimulants. Almost like that was caused by the ADHD the whole time and that was what I needed to be treated for.

That being said, I do think exercise does help us a lot. It's not enough alone, but I definitely notice a huge difference between when I'm active or when I've been slacking with my exercise even on my meds. But exercise alone only does so much to help. It's better than not exercising, but it's not going to make someone who does have ADHD not have it.

I think if anything this study just shows that ADHD is still diagnosed less on how it affects the ADHD person and more how it affects those around us. So people like me who were never really disruptive in school but still struggled in many unseen ways don't realize until we're in adulthood that that's what's going on, whereas some hyperactive kids in elementary school just need to be allowed to run around in the backyard at home for like an hour each afternoon, and maybe they'd be less disruptive in class. It sucks that instead of coming away from studies like this with the idea that maybe there needs to be adjustments made in how ADHD is diagnosed and that there's still more to learn about the disorder, people will just think its proof ADHD doesn't even exist. I think it's entirely true that it's overdiagnosed in certain populations, like young boys who can't sit still in class, while still being a real disorder that does greatly impact those of us that have it. Those are not mutually exclusive statements.

[Deleted]March 3, 2023

ADHD is still diagnosed less on how it affects the ADHD person and more how it affects those around us

Yes. I have inattentive ADHD and wasn't diagnosed until adulthood after years and years of struggle. My cousins had / have hyperactive ADHD and were diagnosed and medicated young.

My older child probably has inattentive ADHD but was not diagnosed via an expensive screening. The evaluator did not ask about said child's experiences or look for patterns in behavior or problems in classroom environments. She observed the child in a single novel situation--a testing environment--in a way that would not imo reveal whether inattentive ADHD was present.

It took me a long time to understand that information continually slipping away like wriggling goldfish and desperate levels of disorganization, continual daydreaming, and hyperfocusing are not ordinary human experiences. I have no idea how anyone could have tested me for this as a child tbh. If anything, in an evaluation scenario I would have looked compliant and even a little bit brilliant.