What Happens When Inattentive ADHD Is Undiagnosed

As a result of my not being diagnosed, what I realize now are all adhd symptoms, all have gotten progressively worse into my 40’s. My life is a complete mess and it’s all due to my unawareness that I was coping poorly and masking from a young age, Inattentive ADHD.

I have inattentive adhd yet one of my worst symptoms is impulsivity. (Spending, leaving jobs, making rash decisions, interrupting people) I meet all 9 symptoms of Inattentive criteria.

I’m 59. I’ve been aware of difficulties but not what they were. I just felt like a messy failure even when people thought I was ok. I often feel overwhelmed, I think a lot, I talk a lot I give up on things I get confused with too many choices , I feel unbounded if I have time to myself and don’t know what to do first. I never feel excited about anything i don’t look forward to anything. It’s very sad.

51, diagnosed and took my first Vyvanse 4 days ago. It has been quite an emotional eye opener of how different my life would have been if this was available 30 years ago.

“ I have learned to let people finish their sentences 😁” One of my biggest issues and my hat is off to you !

My psychologist said I most likely wouldn't have developed anxiety or depression if I was diagnosed as a kid. He said they seem to have come about because I couldn't figure out why I always had so much trouble with things that were so simple for everyone else.

This hits home. Diagnosed at 33 with inattentive type ADHD. Self image, anxiety, lateness, daydreaming and intrusive thoughts, all internalized as "I guess I am just a lazy scatterbrained socially awkward know-it-all." Even now, medicated and armed with knowledge and tools to help, it is hard not to feel like my stuggles are just my fault.

My daughter suggested, about 6 months ago, that I have ADHD. I was resistant at first because I was going off the stereotypes I'd always known. But once I watched some videos on ADHD I felt like I was watching videos about me. So many things suddenly made sense. I'm 47 and in the process of trying to get diagnosed.

I wish there was some kind of support group for women with late diagnosed ADHD. It was around the time the symptoms started getting me in trouble in elementary school that I developed this unrelenting feeling of loneliness, and I don't know if it will ever go away. I would be bullied by my classmates for being weird and go home for my mom to yell at me for how I couldn't do anything right and I was the reason why she drank. I'm 35 and been in and out of therapy for years.

My ADHD - along with other issues I know to have - remains undiagnosed. Life has simply become too expensive.

Adding a comment to say that rereading many of the comments today is like being in a support group. Thanks to all who shared.

I’m self diagnosed but I’m 70 ! Just checking and learning about the different kinds of adhd because of my grandchildren. I’m definitely inattentive . Totally unlike my brother and sister. I felt very stupid. Horrible at school , but my life has not high stress. I have three girls and a stay at home mom. My parents couldn’t understand why I couldn’t understand things quickly. Memory was bad as a child. Cant remember what I just read so I just watched tv. Can’t sleep even today. My mind won’t turn off. Can’t remember names after someone just tells me. It has answered so many questions … at least I know why I am the way I am.

I was diagnosed this last year at 56 with severe mixed ADHD . I now take Vyvanse and it's an eye opener. I cried the first day with both happiness for the quiet mind and sadness for the life I lost. I can look back and see the signs from early in life .I am not an outward hyperactive person.

I'm clinically diagnosed as inattentive but I definately have some traits of hyperactivity even though that was not established in my clinical diagnosis. I'm happy to contribute if its needed. I'm in my 40's, got tested 3 times - at 7, in my 20's, and finally at 43. It took this long for my Diagnosis. If I could have been diagnosed in my 20's, my life would be completely different muchless as a child. I love that these conversations are happening.

I’m really grateful for this video that you address the dying early due to self harm . I’m 55 was diagnosed in my 30s and things were better with medication and other coping skills but then my doctor retired and the next one I went to insisted that I didn’t have it without doing an evaluation and took me off all meds . It was awful. I take Effexor now which is very helpful but trying to get adhd meds like Vyvanse is difficult because doctors just think we are drug seeking when in fact 70 mgs of vyvanse helped with taking showers and brushing teeth you know ? Not to get high or whatever.

The DSM-5 came out in 2013 (she was trying recall the year) and ironically it did away with ADD, replacing it with ADHD, so people have an even harder time getting diagnosed. It also did away the Aspergers diagnosis and grouped it under Autism spectrum disorder, again making it much more challenging or unlikely to get diagnosed.

I’m 61 and hoping for a dx soon. Mostly a talkative underachiever but have so many cringe-making memories of being horribly inattentive at inopportune moments throughout my entire life. Think I’m only just developing the ‘If only’ syndrome of understanding how different things might have been. But hopeful that there’s some life left to be lived nevertheless. Every video I watch helps the process of understanding and coming to terms.

I was diagnosed when I was 7, and my dad never let the psychiatrist prescribe me the medication I needed. I am 20 now, and I am struggling with crystal meth addiction. My life could have been so much more if people were just more educated on mental health in general.

I also have bipolar disorder and that can be more prominent than my undiagnosed adhd. (23 yr old female) But what I keep telling my dad and other people is that the anxiety of inattentive adhd can create mania in me. And my dad simply doesn't understand what I'm talking about. I explain it like this... Example: Inability to regulate attention while driving. Leading to running stop signs and stomping on brakes because i didn't notice the person in front of me is slowing down. Now I choose to obsess to an OCD dehree of explaining and writing my adhd symptoms in effort to get people to understand that my inabilty to pay attention in a task that requires my full attention to be safe can lead to mania because now I can't even think about going to sleep until I make myself understood by people I need help from. But I fell brushed off by my psychiatrist and dad because what I'm saying makes no sense to them and people chalk it up to my mania. I'm so very frustrated with people and their inabilty to understand that my experiences are real and my adhd is disruptive in my daily life. I really think if my psychiatrist treated me for adhd my bipolar would get a lot better! Ugh! I'm so frustrated with medical professionals and people around me that simply don't understand!

Mine was diagnosed, but at the time it felt like "you're in trouble for not paying enough attention, so we're going to punish and humiliate you by making you take pills in front of everyone." I didn't start actually treating my ADHD intentionally until I reached adulthood and learned coping mechanisms and talked to the doctors about my own symptoms instead of letting my mom do it. I was very undereducated about it as were my parents. Even though I had the diagnosis, it wasn't taken seriously and I didn't receive a lot of help in school despite consistently getting d's and f's. They thought I was "too smart" to really need it and that I just needed to "apply myself" and "focus." All things I can do quite easily now that I'm on medication that actually works for me, but that were unimaginably gargantuan tasks to me at the time. I feel like a lot of us are in this grey area where people knew but didn't care/discounted it/were unequipped.