I was Diagnosed with ADHD at 29: My Experience - Ep 18

At 29 years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD.

As a high-achieving Black woman, entrepreneur, and Christian, ADHD was never something I thought applied to me. I did well in school. I built a business. I was “fine.” But behind the scenes, I struggled with focus, organization, finishing projects, and constantly feeling like I just wasn’t living up to my full potential.

In Episode 18 of I Guess I’m an Adult Now, I open up about being diagnosed with inattentive ADHD at 29 — the signs I missed as a child, how depression and anxiety masked it for years, and what finally pushed me to get tested.

Watch / Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe.

CHAPTERS
00:00 – I Was Diagnosed with ADHD at 29
01:05 – What ADHD Actually Is (Inattentive Type)
05:30 – Why Women Are Often Underdiagnosed
06:35 – Childhood Signs I Didn’t Recognize
09:40 – Entrepreneurship, Burnout & Losing Confidence
12:50 – Hitting a Depressive Low
14:25 – Therapy & Getting Tested
17:30 – My Official Diagnosis Results
19:50 – Starting Medication (Adderall Experience)
21:30 – Dopamine, Hyperfixation & Creativity
22:30 – The Grief of a Late Diagnosis
26:20 – “This Podcast Exists Because I’m on Meds.”
27:25 – Telling My Nigerian Mom
29:00 – Religion, Prayer & Mental Health
31:10 – Medication Crashes & Drug Holidays
32:15 – Renewed Hope & Confidence
33:00 – You’re Not Lazy. You Might Need Support.




You can also listen on:
Apple: 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-guess-im-an-adult-now/id1810057948 

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6RTnICKr8KoafopcFoOLqR?si=ef446f1c3802432e 

Catch up on:
The very first episode of Season 1 ⬇️
I’m Starting Life Over at 29 - Ep 01 
https://youtu.be/rucAJBDkc3c

You might like ⬇️
An Honest Conversation with my African Dad on Addiction - Ep09
https://youtu.be/_j8TtWodLcc

There's more for Season 2⬇️
Am I still Christian? Navigating Religion as an Adult - Ep 12
https://youtu.be/ahU5uaDd7DM?si=PNVY2iRoYlYmFn_d

Should you be a Content Creator in 2025? - S2 Ep 11
https://youtu.be/xymT216OLOE?si=cjGS2QQXJjPBkB5-

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Transcript

Welcome And Topic Preview;

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hey guys, it's your girl Chizzy and welcome back to I Guess I'm an Adult Now, the podcast. All right, so today we are back and we are talking about the brain. Neurodivergency, baby. I was diagnosed with ADHD at 29 years old. Um, and I want to talk about my experience, all the things that led up to the diagnosis, how I feel about it. So I know ADHD is a very popular term that is being thrown around. Everybody seems to have ADHD now. And I would say that I was probably a part of that number too. But turns out I actually have it. Now, here's my thing. If you are not open-minded and you think that this is a demon, let me let me stop. This diagnosis was actually really groundbreaking for me and life-changing. And you know, I'll talk about all of that today, but I think being a black woman, being of African heritage, and also being Christian, there are just so many things that really keep many of us from looking into any mental health problems or neurological disorders or things like that. And while I am a big believer in things being absolutely spiritual, I am also a big believer in science and just things happening with our bodies and getting treatment for it. And at the very least, just knowing what is going on with you so that you know how to work around it, right? Because I think, especially with ADHD, and we'll get into like the scientific like definition and stuff. According to the internet, ADHD is considered a neurodevelopmental disorder, which means it affects the development and function of the brain. So, in this scenario, right, it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. I feel like ADHD is one of those things where your brain just operates a little bit differently than the standard or like more normal way that people operate. And you just need to know that. I think if you know that, then you'll know there's nothing wrong with you and you know how to work with your brain. So having this diagnosis really helped me a lot with understanding how my brain works. So let's get into it. So, first and foremost, let's talk about the definition of ADHD in the first place. So, ADHD stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and it is a neurodevelopment disorder, which means it affects the development and function of the brain. While it is often classified as a mental health or psychiatric disorder, the underlying cause is neurological, impacting brain regions that control executive functions like attention, impulsivity, and self-regulation. So that is what ADHD is, and there are a couple different types, but the main ones are hyperactivity or hyperactive and inattentive, or you can have combined. So I actually was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD. And apparently, according to research, women usually are underdiagnosed for inattentive ADHD because they fly under the radar. Women tend to be very high achieving. We can multitask, we'll get it done. So most times we're not really diagnosed for it, and especially because inattentive ADHD is a lot harder to spot. Most people with ADHD are very smart. It doesn't affect your IQ level, it's more so just um executive function. So you probably struggle with things like organization, um, planning, staying focused, things like that. So yeah, so that's why it's a lot harder to spot. So this was something that I kind of kept to myself for a long time. And I didn't want to like come on and just share about it immediately because I wanted to like understand it a little bit more. I think there is a level of responsibility that I have to just be careful of the type of information that I spread because I just know the power of sharing, right? And some of you really do like, you know, you take into consideration the things that I say, although at the end of the day, you're an adult and you can do what you want to do. And I'm not, I'm not here. You can never say I forced you to do anything. Thank you. But um, regardless, I just wanted to do more research and understand it more. Um, I also did start taking medication for it, and I just, you know, I needed some time to really understand it, get acclimated before I really came out and started sharing my journey. But it has been about, I want to say almost a full year, but yeah, I'm ready to talk about it because man, man, oh man, does so much stuff make sense now? Let's actually take it back to me as a child. Um, because a lot of times this stuff starts as children. And if you don't like spot it when you're a child, it usually follows you in into adulthood. So that was actually the case for me. Never once did anybody say you your child may have ADHD. I was actually really smart. Um, I was in, you know, a lot of honors classes, a couple advanced placement classes in high school. Yeah, I liked to read. My dad always says between me and my brothers, he always saw that I was the one with the brain. But yeah, like school pretty much came pretty natural to me. Um, and I excelled at school pretty well without having to try too much. So I didn't really struggle with school. I mean, yes, I did have to apply myself for some of the harder science classes, but I did pretty well. There was never any indication of any type of ADHD. And I think at that time, we didn't even know about like multiple types of ADHD. All we knew about ADHD was actually it used to be called ADD. That's what we remember, I remember it as. And I remember it being like a derogatory term. Like if somebody said you you had ADD, like they were essentially calling you crazy and dumb, you know? So that was definitely not something that I would attribute to to myself. But looking back, it's so interesting because when I had to do the diagnostic test, they had to ask about my childhood. My room was always a mess. My room was always a mess. I could not keep my room clean to save my life. It would always become a mess, and then I'd have like these big cleaning days, and then it would be a mess again. So I could never keep my place and my things organized. Yeah, looking back now, I know that that was one of the ways that it was presenting, but again, that's it seems that also seems very normal as for a kid, right? Okay, you can't keep your room clean, sure. So yeah, growing up, it wasn't ever something that I really struggled with. But let's also keep in mind I had a lot of structure growing up. School helped me a lot, school kept me going, right? I knew that I had deadlines for things, so I would get things done. But when it came to the actual organization of things, like when I go back and look at how I stayed organized as a as a as a kid, I was all over the place. Like my binders would be a mess. Like, and I'm and I would always compare myself to my my friends that were like very organized, and I'd be like, I was a little bit of a mess, but I got things done. So it didn't really matter because I got it done, right? I was more of the organized chaos. But yeah, so school really kept me in check. And I think that's probably why we never noticed it. And then also intrinsically, I am very strong-willed. I'm a very determined person. And I, you know, I feel like as people, we all have just these gifts that we naturally have within us, right? And I definitely feel like one of mine is just this will to succeed. Like I cannot help it. I just want to be the best. I do. I'm just a highly competitive person, highly a high achiever. So, because of that, all of these things allowed me to still be very fairly successful and achieve really well, even though I struggled with things like staying organized, planning, keeping to tasks, and things like that. So, where it really started to present was after I graduated from college and became a full-time content creator slash entrepreneur, I no longer had the structure of school. And that's my friends. That's when I started noticing something was up. Okay. Now, again, I am a very motivated person. And I think internal motivation to just, you know, level up and and succeed and build my business out and you know, really be a thriving content creator, it kept me going for a long time, even though I was definitely struggling. But after, you know, eight plus years doing this full-time, it became pretty clear that the way that I was struggling with staying on task, right? Um, organizing myself, um, completing tasks that I set out to do, keeping my room clean, like it became really clear that I was struggling more than the average person, right? Because I mean, if I'm a sociable person, so I'm around different types of people. And I started to see, like, oh, I don't, I don't think people really struggling the way I'm struggling. Like, like when I would talk to my friends about certain things, they would think I was joking, but like I was really serious. Like, I was really Yeah. So as I got older, got more burnt out, you know, I just started getting really, really overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of not only being an entrepreneur, but being a human being, right? Now, this isn't to say that, you know, being overwhelmed with life means you have ADHD. No. You know, I think it's something that you definitely have to go get tested for and things like that. And this is probably why I never thought to actually get tested for this because I thought this was just something that all human beings have to deal with. Like, we all have different responsibilities, we all have different jobs and businesses. Like, what's the problem? You know, like, yeah, I struggle a little bit more than it seems like other people, but maybe that's just how I am. I don't know. But it really started to affect my personal life and also my business. And that's when I knew, like, okay, this isn't normal. Why? Because it also did not reflect how I intrinsically felt, right? I am a like, I am naturally a high achiever. I want to achieve things right. I want to be successful, I want to complete things. Like, that's me. And that's what I've historically been. As a content creator and as a business owner and entrepreneur, it's like after years of saying, I want to do this and do that and do this, but never actually stay focused long enough to complete the thing. After years of that happening, it really starts to weigh on you because now I'm starting, I started to lose confidence in my own abilities. And also, what happens is as time goes on, you start to see a gap. You start to see a gap with your peers, right? You see the the your uh the high achievers, right? The ones that have gone off to do different programs or they get promoted at their jobs or they're growing as a content creator as well, right? They're launching this or different products. And then I look at myself and I'm like, I know I'm supposed to do that too, and I know I can, but I can't seem to get myself to do it. That, my friends, is not a fun place to be. Of course, naturally, a lot of times ADHD will be linked with depression and anxiety because usually if you are struggling to complete tasks and it's you know it's affecting your personal life and it's affecting your business, it's gonna weigh on you, you're gonna get sad about it, you'll be depressed, right? So that was one way that it was affecting um the business. And then personally, it was also affecting my personal life, friendships, relationships, because I could not, for the life of me, keep up with anything. Between forgetting to follow up with people, forgetting to respond to this text, telling somebody that, oh, I'll do this thing for you, and then forgetting to do that thing, like it was it was becoming a lot. It was really a lot to deal with, and it wasn't fun, talkless of the fact that my my living space was a hot mess.

unknown 12:15

Oh my god.

Official Diagnosis And Symptom Deep Dive;

Genetics And Starting Medication;

Dopamine, Hyperfocus, And Work;

Grieving A Late Diagnosis;

Faith, Family, And Cultural Pushback;

Meds, Routines, And Managing The Crash;

Self-Advocacy And Renewed Hope;

Practical Supports And Accommodations;

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Oh my goodness, I could not keep up with anything. I one day I gotta get my roommate to come down here and tell y'all like how bad this place would get when I was unmedicated. Like, I I'll have laundry. Well, to be fair, the laundry still kind of do be sitting there for weeks now, but I've gotten better. Yeah, it just made me feel bad about myself, right? Because not only like also, I'm a woman. Women are supposed to be clean and organized and this and that, and I'm just like a hot ass mess. Like, oh my god, what is going on? It got to a point where, you know, between all of these things happening and then just life stuff, other life things happening as well. I got to a really low place last year. And if you want to know a little bit more about just like my experience with depression and anxiety and my journey with that, you can watch uh the previous episode. But yeah, I got really, really, really, really, really, really, really depressed. I had been working on um a project for like two and a half years at that point, and that project should have been done. Couldn't get myself to focus long enough to complete it. And things like that really weigh on you. You want to know why? Because it's not like I was doing these things for fun. Like I'm spending and pouring money, thousands of dollars into completing projects and this and that. And at the end of the day, it's like everybody else was doing what they needed to do. But when it came to me, I could not get my like I could not focus long enough to just complete things. Yeah, it was, it was, it was bad. It was it was real bleak. It was real bleak. My God. It seems like so long ago now, thinking about it. But thank God that I was uh in therapy. So, you know, getting to, you know, talk to my therapists consistently, she started to notice just the things that I was saying and just the fact that I was struggling so much, and it seemed like day to day it was just hard to do the day the daily activities. So that's when she suggested uh to for me to take a diagnosis test for um depression and anxiety and PTSD. Ended up getting that the results back, had major depressive disorder, um major anxiety, PTSD, all the things. Okay, for the two years or maybe three that we had been working together and I had been seeing her, it's so funny because it was like a running theme in all of our conversations. I was always complaining that I was not being productive. Besides other things, like that was my major complaint when it came to work that I knew I wasn't being productive enough. And to, I think to the average person, it could sound like I was being hard on myself, but like I know myself, right? And I know what I'm capable of, and I know I'm not operating at my maximum capability, like I knew that. So, yeah, so that was one of the things I would always complain to her about. So I would see uh different things on social media about ADHD, and you know, I would laugh at the fact that some of the symptoms that they would talk about really sounded like things that I was dealing with. So I had a small, tiny inclination that maybe I had it, but I, you know, I wasn't sure. But I mentioned it to my therapist and she said, you know, let's uh get you treated for the depression and anxiety first and then see how I'm doing. And then if I'm still struggling with focus and stuff, then we can look into ADHD. Cool. I suspect that she probably thought that I was just like saying it because everybody thinks they have ADHD. I mean, to be fair, we are in a social media age where there are just so many distractions. So I do think just in general, as a people, we are more distracted. I will absolutely say that. But there are some people that are just actually different. Um, yeah. Started uh the antidepressants about a month or two in, was feeling much better, mood was boosted. But guess what? Still couldn't focus and do no work. Still couldn't focus and do no work. And um, yeah, so I shared that with her, and then that's when she was like, okay, let's look into um uh getting you tested for that. So I started working with a nurse, a psych NP, and she then referred me to online like ADHD diagnostic testing site where they work with like psychologists that will read your report and all that stuff so you can get an official diagnosis or not. So I do the diagnostic test and let's actually read my report. The assessment was evaluated by this PhD doctor guy, the psychologist, and based off of his review and evaluation, I met the diagnostic criteria for the following conditions: uh attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, predominantly inattentive type, and unspecified depressive disorder. Go figure. So it was about a month or two into taking um antidepressants. But anyway, yeah. So of course, naturally, this sends me down a rabbit hole, and I'm looking through just like what this means, what is inattentive ADHD, what are all the things for it? And oh my gosh, the way my mind was blown when I was reading like all of the symptoms of inattentive ADHD, when the amount of dots that started to connect for me, I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I was sitting here struggling like this, thinking there was something wrong with me, and I was a this lazy person when in reality my brain really just different. Oh my gosh. Actually, let me tell you guys some of the um symptoms. Inattentive ADHD, you may have trouble paying attention to details, be easily distracted, find it hard to manage time or finish tasks, forget to do routine chores like finish homework, pay bills on time, or return phone calls. The condition interferes with your quality of life by intruding on your day-to-day function. So that's what that executive functioning is like called and about. Things like following through on tasks or obligations, you can easily lose focus in the middle of the task, managing time and meeting deadlines, keeping track of common items needed to complete everyday tasks, like a pencil, a wallet, a key, your keys, your phone. And it's so funny because when I say I will lose my keys, like it doesn't make any sense. Actually, as a kid, I used to lose things like nobody's business, and I had no idea where things would go. Like, it's like they would just run away from me. But anyway, in terms of what causes ADHD, one of the main causes of AD ADHD is actually genetics. And the funny thing about this is once I got this diagnosis and I looked into everything, I looked at my parents and I said, I know exactly who gave me this. I won't say because who am I to put their mental, I mean, to put their medical information out there. But you guys should take a guess in the comments which one of my parents do you think had ADHD? But yeah, I knew immediately that it was genetic. Since getting this diagnosis, I did decide to um get treatment with medication. So I did decide to start medication. Um, so I have been taking Adderall. Again, I am not a medical provider, this is not medical advice. Um, and I'm not telling you to start medication, I'm not telling you that you got ADHD. I'm just telling you my experience. But yeah, so I decided to start taking Adderall. We did try other non-stimulant meds, but I found that that didn't work for me. Stimulants were actually the best for me. It was a lot on my body at first, like the crash was crazy. But oh my gosh, it was like night. I remember the first time I took Adderall, and I was like, oh so this is how this is how people feel just normally. You want to know the funny part about it? And this is how I know this is how I know this is real. My producer Donald, who's right here right now, he literally like operates like he's on Adderall, but he's not on anything, it's just how he is, and it's so interesting, like watching him, because I'm just like so. You just normally and naturally like this, can't relate, cannot relate. But now that I've you know been taking the meds, it's so it's like night and day. It's actually crazy. So one of the things about ADHD is that it affects your dopamine, right? So it's essentially essentially like the thing that makes you feel good when you want to do something. So it helps you to complete the task, right? I think also the reason why I've been able to still be successful um while struggling with this is because I just hyperfixate and focus on the things that excite me. And you'll see this a lot with people with ADHD. They'll do things, right? They'll start a lot of things because they're excited about the thing and then they lose interest in it and they don't finish it. So that's honestly why I've been able to continue, like even with content creation. But honestly, even with content creation, after a while, I couldn't even keep up with it no more. Like, could not even keep up. But anyway, so I really want to talk about the grief of getting a late diagnosis like this. I got diagnosed at 29 years old. That is like a major part of my adulthood. Um, obviously, I've gone my whole childhood, teenage years, and then you know, all of my 20s undiagnosed, untreated. And I had a period where I really had to mourn where I would be had I gotten diagnosed earlier in my life and treated. Damn. That just hit me like a ton of bricks. Oh my god, I just Got so emotional. Whoa. I was not expecting to get emotional. Can I get a um attention, please? I was not expecting to get emotional. You know, I think sometimes when you just say things out loud, that's when it really like hits you. Because actually, have who have I really talked to about this? I don't think I've really like sat down and like truly reflected on this. I mean, like, I have, but not out loud. So I think that was the first time I've really said that out loud, and it just hit me like wow. Clearly, I'm still navigating, um, processing all of this, but yeah, I've really had to grieve like where I could have been, right? And how much I would have gotten done had I gotten diagnosed and medicated earlier, or at least like treated. Because I don't know if medication is always going to be the answer for every single body. It it definitely has its drawbacks, but regardless, like I could have gotten accommodations in school. Like, who knows? Maybe I would have actually gone to med school had I been able to know that I could multitask and focus long enough. I like school, right? I got a whole biology degree. Like, there's a reason why I was always into the health and sciences path. Like that was an interest of mine. But I remember by in college, because I was doing content and you know, um, getting my degree at the same time, I was doing both in tandem. And I that's when I actually started to notice that I couldn't multitask that well. So I knew ultimately that I had to make a choice. I had to pick one. It was either going to be med school or it was gonna be focusing on content full-time because there was no way that I was gonna be able to do both. It's really interesting because sometimes your life really does look different because you didn't have access to certain information. Um, and even just looking within my own family and seeing how others in my family definitely present and have this as well. And I've and I saw throughout my life how it affected them. And now I know that it was because of this thing and it was because they were never treated for it. And I'm just like, oh my God. Like, this is what I mean when I even said this in the last episode about how many people are walking around with undiagnosed mental health conditions and neurological disorders, and their life could look so much different had they had they just gotten diagnosed, right? And treated. And it's just very interesting. So I've definitely I've definitely had to grieve. I guess I'm still grieving, but I'm okay. Like it's not like I'm doing bad for myself, it's fine, but it's just I know that there are so many things that I wanted to do and that I have tried to do that I've started but never completed. And it's like, dang, I could have completed that thing. Looking back, I can see how some of a lot of the behaviors that I indulged in as a kid and a teenager specifically, and even college, were directly um linked to the ADHD. Because ADHD is all about, you know, the dopamine and seeking dopamine, that's why I was probably always also going to the more dangerous things, because I was just always seeking something to like excite me, you know. I mean, all I can really say is I'm really thankful that even though we caught it later in my life, that we caught it now, you know, because there's still so much time, and I am like so excited for all of the things that I've been able to even just achieve in the short period of time that I've gotten, that I've been getting treated for it. Like, y'all, the reason why this podcast is here is because I'm on these meds. You know when I got the idea for a podcast three years ago. You know how many other ideas I've had? Like, there are so many ideas that I've had and they just they get they get written down and either never started or never or started and never completed because that was just the track record that I that I held because I could not, you know, stay focused long enough to complete things. But it's been a complete 180. Um, not only have I been able to launch and complete a lot of like major, major projects that I've wanted to put out and do, it's also helped increase my confidence in my own abilities and reminded me that like I can do all the things that I set my mind to do. So it's been really, really beautiful. Um, and I'm really grateful and thankful that my therapist championed for me, and then I also championed for myself. Now let's talk about culture and religion, because you know these are very major things that can affect a lot of these experiences. So obviously, I'm black, I'm Nigerian, I'm and I'm Christian, okay? So let's talk about my family for a second. The beautiful thing about getting a late diagnosis, right, and being an adult is that you get to just do things for yourself. You don't gotta ask nobody nothing. All right. I pay my own bills, nobody runs my life. I do. So even though my mom's a nurse, right? She's a nurse practitioner, I just I knew she was gonna talk me out of this. So I had to just do what I had to do. So when I finally got the diagnosis and I told her, you know what that woman said to me? She said, There's nothing wrong with you. I don't know why you keep seeking these mental health diagnoses. Huh. On one hand, I cannot blame her because you don't know what you don't know. And also, not only am I living this life for the first time, my parents are also living this life for the first time. Our parents are living their this life for the first time. So they only know so much, right? Like if they did not grow up with a certain thing, it's gonna be hard for them to help guide you with that if they don't know about it. So I wasn't shocked by her response. Funny enough, she ended up going to some seminar and some doctor was telling her about how he got diagnosed with ADHD at 50 years old and how everything started to make sense for him. And that's how she came back to me. She was like, Oh, this doctor told me that he was anyway. All that to say, she's on board now. Cool. And the funny thing, well, I guess you guys will be fine. It's my dad that has ADHD. Can you tell? The funny thing is when me and my mom talk about it, we're just like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, your dad definitely has that. It's so interesting to like piece it all together now. Yeah, so she definitely wasn't like for it at first. Um, and then also religious-wise, right, spirituality-wise, I've had mentors and people in my life kind of tell me, like, oh, I don't need to get treated for this, like I need to just seek God more about it and pray more, and He'll help me like with my focus and things like that. And this isn't to say that prayer and all these things don't work. Actually, I find that when I spend time with the Lord in the mornings and things like that, I am a lot more focused. And those are just also natural ways to help focus you, right? Because I think there can also be natural ways to treat things like ADHD, one of them being prayer, meditation, right? All these things. But I was doing all of that. I was doing all of that. I was doing all of that, you know? And I think everything isn't one size fits all. That could help you. For somebody else, they may need to get on some meds. Okay. Again, one thing that I always preach when it comes to adulthood is you have to be able to live with like your own choices, right? People don't know what you're actually experiencing, like in your mind, right? And in your body. You can try to explain maybe the level of pain, for example, the level of pain you're feeling, but nobody's going to actually be able to feel the pain that you feel because they're not in your body. That's just how it is. So at the end of the day, even though people have opinions and this and advice, you know what you're experiencing the best, right? So ultimately you have to champion for yourself. That's all I'm trying to say. So that's exactly what I did for myself. And I'm really, really, really thankful that I did and that I had other people in my corner to kind of help me and guide me and point me in the right direction. So while I don't think medication is the complete answer, because medication definitely has its drawbacks, the crash is crazy. I will definitely say that. Because one thing the meds do is it increases your dopamine. So you'll have a high level of dopamine, which is going to help you focus and do all the tasks that you need to do. Um, but when the medication wears off, there's a drop in your dopamine. So that naturally is going to just like make you feel a little bit lower than usual because like your dopamine is so low. So that's one of the drawbacks of it. But I do find that the more that you, the more consistent you are with taking the medication, your body kind of gets used to it. So the crash isn't as bad. But I don't know. I don't know what the next steps are. I will be taking this for the foreseeable future. I try to make sure that I take breaks. So I'll maybe take my meds like throughout the week when I know I'm having a busy week. And then the weekends I, you know, lay off of it for some time. And then I go on what I call drug holidays. So, like for like two, three weeks, if I'm not doing anything, if I'm on vacation, I don't take it at all just so that my body can reset and things like that. So, but yeah, ultimately, what I can say is getting diagnosed and getting treated has really renewed my hope and confidence in my abilities. And I'm so, I feel like I find myself saying this so much now. I guess between the antidepressants and the ADHD meds, I'm constantly saying, I'm so excited for life. I am so excited. I genuinely and I'm and I mean it from the bottom of my heart, which is like that is that is beautiful. So this is why, you know, I just say at the end of the day, champion for yourself. Do the things that you need to do, right? Because we all deserve to have like a good quality of life, right? So yeah, I have grace for a lot of people that may feel like they're struggling and they don't know why. Um, maybe they feel like they're not smart enough or they're lazy. Because that was another thing that I constantly felt like. I was like, I why am I so lazy? I would always be like, why am I so lazy? But it's I wasn't lazy. I wasn't lazy. I really, I was not lazy. So annoyed. But yeah, I just have a lot of grace for people that, you know, are struggling. Um, and maybe just have underlying undiagnosed things that they don't know about yet. So that's pretty much it. That is my spiel. I don't know. If you feel like you got some symptoms, you should go get tested. I feel like it's better to just know than to not know. You don't have to take medication for it if it is something that you do have. I also think you don't have to claim it as your identity either. Um, I don't think there's anything wrong with me. I think actually it's just, I think ADHD is just a different way that the brain can operate, if you really think about it. Um, because if you think about it, a lot of creatives tend to have ADHD or very high achieving people andor very smart people. So I don't think it's necessarily a disorder. I think it's just a different way that the brain operates. You may not want to take medicine or need to take medicine, but I think if you understand how your brain works or just how you naturally are, then you are able to put things in place that help you. For example, I know that you know, staying organized and keeping like my place um really clean is difficult for me, right? So what do I do? I hire a cleaner. I hire a cleaner that comes in monthly. I bring in an organizer that helps me organize things because you can't do everything. You can't do everything. You have to help people help you or let people help you. Help yourself. You get what I'm trying to say. Or I like to do things that's called um body doubling. Funny enough, I used to do this. I realized this helped me before I even knew about me having ADHD. But I realized that I was always able to complete tasks better if I had somebody that was kind of just with me. And that's that term is actually called body doubling. So that is also something that is very helpful and a it's a natural way to help you complete a task. Also, if you have kids, uh, please go get your kids tested. Uh I feel like it doesn't have to be a part of your identity, but even just the idea that I could have gotten accommodations in school. What? Ugh, so many things. But you don't know what you don't know. So there you have it. I don't know what the future holds. I'm not telling you what to do, but this was my experience with getting diagnosed with inattensive ADHD um as a groly. And yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode, and I will catch you guys in the next one. Bye, y'all.