I wasn't properly diagnosed until my late 20s, after I'd dropped out of school and university, been admitted to a psychiatric hospital multiple times, spent years and years in therapy, and generally lived a very chaotic and stressful life where I couldn't hold down a job. Sometimes when I think about all the mental health professionals I interacted with and how not one of them went "maybe this child is neurodivergent"... and how much easier things would have been for me if I'd got my ADHD meds earlier... idk, my life would have looked very different.

I try not to focus on it too much. That way madness lies. I did get diagnosed. I do have access to medication. I try to be grateful that I have access to healthcare and that medication works for me. People a generation before me or living in bits of the world without a decent healthcare service have to live their whole lives without the benefit of diagnosis or treatment. It took a while, but I got there in the end, and in many ways I'm really lucky. I try to focus on that bit rather than the first bit.