#12. This post is a part of a series where people answer my anonymous survey question. If you have ADHD but haven’t gone public with it, what would it take to you go public with ADHD?
There are risks and rewards for going public with ADHD AND for staying hidden in the ADHD closet. See this post for context on the series.
“I believe that not going public (with ADHD) hinders the possibilities of getting help.
In my case I spent my entire life with this problem, and no one could identify the problem.
Everyone tried to fix everything else other than what the real problem was.
At the age of 45 my sister and wife (both health care workers) were the ones that came up with this diagnosis, not the doctor. With the research that they did, they convinced me that this was my problem.
I then went to the doctor and explained it to him and he finally put me on meds. The change was obvious right away.
Like any problem that people encounter, only the knowledge that comes forth from being a publicized make it possible to get help.
If you are an alcoholic everyone knows that AA is there, what about if you suffer from ADHD?
Therefore if I’m stepping forward, it can help people not go through what I have been through and it was a start of a possibility to the ball rolling, I would be willing and have been very verbal already as to the fact that this problem exists.”