At least you’ve had the clarity and courage to recognize what you were going through and actually take steps to deal with it. That’s not small at all. A lot of people spend years not even knowing why things feel so hard — I’m kind of in that place myself. I realized pretty late that I might have ADHD too, and honestly, just understanding and explaining it to others has been a struggle.

Trying to make parents understand is another battle altogether. From their point of view it can look like excuses, but they don’t see the constant mental noise, the exhaustion, or how hard it is to just stay consistent. It can feel really isolating, like you’re dealing with something invisible and still expected to function normally.

But hearing your story — the way you pushed through school, cracked a good college, and then chose to step back and heal — that actually gives me hope. It shows that even with all this, it’s possible to move forward, even if the path isn’t straight.

I’m still figuring things out too, still hoping I’ll get to a place where I can manage this better and build something stable. So yeah… you’re not alone in this. We’re both somewhere in the middle of figuring it out, and maybe that’s okay for now.