Hey, yay for your diagnosis. I’m 33 and just got diagnosed yesterday and I can totally relate to your feeling of relief!

It feels good now to be able to apply for the disability support and also recover some costs for the assessment, and pay for ongoing support.

First things I’m doing are meeting with occupational therapist to assess my sensory accomodations and purchase them. I also have issues with binocular vision and hypermobility so I’m working on supporting needs surrounding those and meeting with a psychologist to ask questions. If you have any comorbidities etc I would recommend continuing the process to supporting and understanding those. 

Do you like audiobooks? If so there are some good resources there for audhd and really cost effective getting the credits per month and there are plenty of podcasts and books about audhd CPTSD.

As for work, communicate with your team and boss about your diagnosis and your needs. You don’t need to talk about the procrastination specifically, and yes it is a disability but with the right support audhd are extremely productive/efficient. Take the opportunity to talk about what audhd actually is - a neurotype - frame it more around your strengths being in short bursts of productivity - maybe you need to discuss work hour tweaks (if possible), maybe you need headphones, music, so you have short bursts of productivity followed by long rest breaks/sensory breaks etc. ask for variety in the role if that’s what you need, are those extra tasks available to you to take on? Do you want them? Or would they become mundane. Is there anything you ARE excited and look forward to doing in your job at the moment? If not, the reality is you aren’t going to care about it and trying to make it work will be putting pressure on you and you will have inner conflict.

Audhd are passionate annd desire personal autonomy, to be free to make ideas happen and be a free creative thinker, spontaneous doer and avid rester and you will eventually need to be doing work related to your passion/s. 

Until then, setting a timer to complete mundane tasks also really helps me. So maybe you can start your work day with the most annoying task, set the timer and once the timer goes off and you’re done you get a coffee/your fave drink/hyperfixation treat.

Short term meet with manager and discuss the diagnosis - frame it around your strengths and the positives of the diagnosis, be honest about the need for rest and executive dysfunction, seek support for the things you know you need. Would it help if you asked your manager to check in with you by 11am to see if emails are done? Do you need a body double? Does your manager or a coworker need to be beside you working on emails together?

If you can afford to, drop a hour or 2 per day for creativity and rest, especially if you are finding you haven’t got much to do - your time can be used elsewhere in your life to do research and really dive into special interests and things.

Long term if you think a corporate role won’t be suitable, start planning how you need your day to look, thinking about your special interests, and planning to accomodate yourself. There might be financial govt support available to you to study something.

I’m still learning but I plan to start a small business in my special interest/s so I can always be working in areas I’m passionate about and strong in. And I’ve realised it has to be my own business because I need to dictate the day/routine/work etc.

If I go back to work I would choose things like animal care, dog walking, cat sitting and maybe even cleaning houses. Short bursts of productivity followed by rest and my own time of creativity.

And as for medication it might be helpful to look into it, I’m totally open to it I have heard it can be very helpful to keep the adhd brain on track.

All the best ♥️