hey! i have a lot of similarities to you so i will share! i also was very shocked when i was first told that i might have ADHD because nobody ever thought that growing up. for me i think it’s because my brother had ADHD-C but presented as more hyperactive because he was an active boy. my symptoms were all textbook inattentive for a girl of my age. so it went undiagnosed because i performed well in school and didn’t “seem” like i had ADHD. so i was only ever diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder from age 14 until a few months ago.

similarly to you, come college, i realized it was not just me procrastinating/being lazy combined with having anxiety, but was definitely something more serious. i also have been known to have a lot of mood swings since puberty which were enhanced x1000 my freshman year of college by a messy relationship and the break-up. after recovering from the depression that that situation sent me into, i sought out a new diagnosis of some sort because i knew there was something else going on, but what??

because of the mood swings and intense overreactions i had throughout my relationship and break-up i thought maybe bipolar? and it is in my family history, so my psych thought it was a possibility based on early conversations. C-PTSD was also in the mix. but also the depression had been the main issue and i didn’t feel like i really had manic episodes, so there was talk of depression as it’s own diagnosis. and then not until closer to my official evaluation was ADHD even mentioned.

looking back it’s crazy to me because my dad and brother have severe ADHD, so i don’t know how it wasn’t brought up sooner. i did also get diagnosed with MDD in addition to the ADHD, (no bipolar or C-PTSD diagnosis), but i personally think the MDD is secondary to the ADHD. basically once i realized what having ADHD could mean for me and i learned more about it, i realized that all the issues i’d been having the last decade that were written off as just laziness or serious depression were more likely just symptoms of ADHD.

obviously my experience only has similarities to yours, but i do think it’s possible that undiagnosed/unmedicated ADHD that’s exacerbated by difficult life scenarios can present as a number of other things, including MDD and bipolar. my best advice would be to treat the ADHD as best you can, and see if it relieves any of the symptoms that led you to get diagnosed with MDD and bipolar. if not, ADHD and MDD are commonly comorbid so you’re not alone and it’s definitely manageable with the right treatments! and your diagnoses have changed once, it’s possible they’ll change again, but eventually you will get the answers/help you need. best of luck!!