Meeting Myself for the First Time

• Rewriting 46 years of a false identity — How being diagnosed with ADHD forced you to question the belief that you were dumb, lazy, incapable, or somehow less than everyone else.
• Investigating the voice inside your own head — Recognizing that years of mistakes, forgotten appointments, unfinished projects, and struggles had become “evidence” for a verdict that was never actually true. 
• Learning who you are after a late ADHD diagnosis — Your deep dive into ADHD, psychology, CBT, NLP, trauma, habits, brain function, performance, and learning—not simply to understand ADHD, but to finally understand yourself. 
• Discovering your value was there all along — Leaving a 19-year career and realizing that while you questioned your own worth, the people around you already recognized your ability to solve difficult problems quickly and accurately. 
• Moving from masking to investigation — Why ADHD Case Files exists: to challenge assumptions about ADHD, imposter syndrome, masking, biology, nutrition, psychology, and identity by following the evidence instead of accepting old labels. 

1. A diagnosis can explain your past without defining your future.
   Understanding ADHD can give new context to decades of struggles, but the more important question becomes: “What do I do now?”
2. The story you've been telling yourself may be based on incomplete evidence.
   When you repeatedly focus on mistakes and shortcomings, you can miss the abilities and strengths that other people have seen in you for years. 
3. Understanding yourself requires investigation, not judgment.
   ADHD is only one piece of the case. Identity, learned beliefs, masking, environment, psychology, biology, and other factors deserve to be examined before reaching a verdict about who you are. 

“I was reading because… I was trying to meet myself… for the very first time.”

-Chris Steindorf

Chris Steindorf

chris@adhdcasefiles.com

Connect with Chris on your favorite social media platform

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.steindorf.2025

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-steindorf-89a5363a6/

For more information, go check out the ADHD Case Files website

https://adhdcasefiles.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

At 46 years old, Chris Steinorf finally received the answer that explained a lifetime of questions. ADHD. For most people, the diagnosis would have brought closure. For Chris, it raised an even bigger question. What if ADHD wasn't the whole story? He refused to let a diagnosis become the end of the investigation. Instead, he followed the evidence. He studied the science. He searched for patterns. He challenged assumptions. He tested ideas. And with every clue he uncovered, one thing became increasingly clear. There was more to the story than anyone had ever told him. When he discovered transformed not only his focus and his health, but the way he understood himself and the way he now helps others understand themselves. Today, people know him as the ADHD detective. Because every symptom tells a story, every pattern leaves a clue, and every clue deserves to be investigated. This is ADHD Case Files, and the investigation begins now.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

That's how long I've been believing something about myself that wasn't true. Imagine carrying a backpack filled with rocks every single day for 46 years. Then one afternoon, someone shows you the backpack was empty the whole time. I can't fully explain the relief. It wasn't excitement, it wasn't celebration, it was grief, relief, anger, hope, all at the same time. Because if I wasn't dumb, then who was I? That day I made myself a promise. I wasn't gonna spend the rest of my life asking, Why did this happen? I was gonna ask, What do I do now? The first thing I investigated wasn't ADHD. It was my own thoughts. I realized that for forty-six years I've been listening to the same witness and that witness was lying. Every mistake, see? You're stupid. Every forgotten appointment, see? You're lazy. Every unfinished project, more evidence against me. But now I knew the witness wasn't credible. So I downloaded an app called Self-Talk and I listened to affirmations twelve, fourteen, sometimes sixteen hours a day, every day, month after month. Not because affirmations are magic, but because forty-six years of evidence wasn't gonna disappear overnight. Then I became obsessed. I read everything I could get my hands on, ADHD, psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy, NLP, trauma, habits, brain function, performance, speed reading, learning itself. I was reading because I was trying to meet myself for the very first time. The more I learned, the more one truth became impossible to ignore. I couldn't stay where I was. I couldn't stay working in the position that I was. For nineteen years I built an incredible career. I loved the people. I was grateful for everything it gave me. But I knew I wasn't supposed to spend the rest of my life behind a desk. I needed to work with people. So I walked into work and I told them. I expected them to respond like okay. Instead, the president kind of gasped. Shocked, he said, You have no idea what you mean to the company. We have all just learned to leave you alone and let you work. He went on to say that when a large project came in that needed to be estimated with a tight turnaround, we all knew we could just give it to you and you'd figure it out. Your work would be fast, accurate, and we would generally get the targeted margin. That's when I realized something. I had spent years believing I wasn't valuable, yet the people around me were terrified of losing me. Isn't it amazing how often other people can see your value before you can. I didn't quit that day, but understanding that I would be leaving them in a tough position, I requested to have my salary broken up into an hourly wage. I would then find an employee on the shop floor who knew the processes already. Someone who thought like I did. You know, another one of us with ADHD. So I stayed, and once he was fully trained, six months later, January 2nd of 2026 was my last day at that shop. Now something still bothered me. I was learning faster than ever had before. Yet I kept hitting the ceiling. There was only so much information I could process. It felt like my brain wanted a sprint, but something inside me was pulling the emergency brake. During all of that research, I stumbled onto something that almost nobody had ever mentioned to me. It wasn't another productivity trick, it wasn't another mindset exercise, it wasn't another ADHD hack, it was biology, it was inflammation, it was nutrition, it was something measurable, something I could actually investigate. That discovery changed everything again. But that's a case for another episode. Up until now, these first three episodes have been about my investigation, my story, my evidence, my mistakes, and also my discoveries. But this podcast was never meant to stay focused on me. I wanted to give you, my listener, the chance to get to know me a bit so you could see that I'm just like you. I'm new to the podcast world, so I won't be perfect at this, nor do I aspire to be. My focus is getting you the most useful information to help you better navigate this new discovery that you are not broken, only misunderstood by so many people, especially yourself. My goal is to help you understand that you may have been operating under the wrong set of instructions given to you within a neurotypical societal structure. A structure that is foreign to the way your brain is biologically designed to follow, which has been causing you to mask. Because as children, we have learned that belonging to a tribe means survival, that fitting in determines our worth. When we don't understand what's happening around us, we pretend we do and hope we never get called on to contribute. This is one way imposter syndrome begins to emerge. Because we have faked it for most of our lives. We focused heavily on the areas of our performance where we fall short. However, what you can't see are all the areas in your life that you are excellent at. You know, the things your closest friends would say if I were to ask them. You were so much more than that little voice in the back of your mind keeping score of the events in your life where you weren't perfect. As we spend time together, you'll start understanding where that little voice really came from and how perfection is so unrealistic. I would rather fall on my face in front of a tribe who I know get me than fall from grace trying to be someone I'm not. I have done that far too long, and I'm more than sure you have too. Over the coming weeks, you'll hear from psychologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, physicians, nutrition experts, coaches, uh, researchers, uh, entrepreneurs, people living with ADHD, people who live with loved ones who have ADHD. Every one of them brings another piece of evidence to the table. My job isn't to tell you what to believe. My job is to keep investigating, to ask better questions, to challenge assumptions, to follow the evidence wherever it leads. Because every symptom leaves evidence, every struggle leads clues, and every clue deserves to be investigated. I'll see you in the next case.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Thank you for tuning in for today's episode. If anything you heard caused you to stop and question some of the limiting beliefs that may have been holding you back, please like and share this podcast with someone you think could benefit. If anything said in this episode contradicts anything, please.