“What would my life have been like if I had known this 10 years ago?”
That’s how I felt when I was diagnosed with ADHD.
School was characterized by procrastination, late assignments, and lost papers. Once in the workforce, managing my time and making phone calls felt insurmountable. No one was monitoring my work, so it was up to me to make a plan and set a schedule.
Repeated failures at starting or finishing tasks wrenched chunks out of my self-esteem. By the time I was diagnosed, I was a tight ball of fear drowning in a well of shame. I was so far beyond any tips for managing ADHD.
But what if I had known ten years earlier? I could have gotten ahead of the disorder. I could have learned how to manage myself.
We mourn for loss. You can mourn the loss of what you never had. You can mourn for the loss of relationships and opportunities. You can mourn the loss of what you could have been, could have done, could have accomplished.
What do you need to mourn?
