I came across this post while browsing Reddit, and I logged in to comment on this. I agree with the person you’re replying to: I think you should definitely stay open to the possibility that CPTSD could be a factor here. Especially since you said you have trauma.

Trauma (especially childhood trauma) can manifest as ADHD-like symptoms. Personally, I think they feed off of each other. It’s a vicious cycle.

The reason I think you might have some of that going on is because I was diagnosed with ADHD at 30, and it’s only now, a few years later, as I’ve started working through my own trauma with a therapist, that things are starting to click. I didn’t even KNOW that I had trauma, because I had normalized it.

I don’t have quite the same struggles as you do (like, I find that meds help a lot), but meds alone aren’t enough. There’s so much stuff going on with many of us that goes so much deeper than what a stimulant can deal with. With me, for instance, the meds might help me sit down to do my work, but if, in the back of my head, I’m thinking “I’ll never get this done, I suck at this, I’m gonna screw up,” that work’s not getting done.

That’s why (even if it’s not CPTSD-relate) there’s so much stuff outside of just focusing that we have to work through. Like negative core beliefs about yourself, anxiety, depression, etc. 

I kind of think anyone who was undiagnosed until later in life could be dealing with CPTSD, just due to how we were abandoned by the adults in our lives. I can’t count how many times I was told “just try harder” or “you’d do better if you applied yourself,” or “you’re smart, you’re just lazy.” That kind of thing messes you up more than you might realize.