ADHD is so casually thrown around these days.
Like everyone is little ADHD right now, right?
Can't focus on a task?
Must be ADHD.
Procrastinated a little bit?
Must be ADHD.
Scrolled TikTok for three hours?
Must be ADHD.
But what the hell is ADHD actually?
Like, is it just an excuse for being a lazy ass?
Or is there something real there?
Because the thing is, there's actually a huge difference being distracted sometimes and procrastinating a little bit versus having an actual neurodevelopmental disorder.
And in this video I'm going to break down exactly what ADHD is, what it actually feels like in real life, the different types, how it shows in different genders and, most importantly, how to know whether you actually have ADHD, versus you show ADHD-like symptoms.
Because the thing that pisses me off is that when everyone self-diagnoses themselves for ADHD for the smallest inconvenience that they have in their life, it actually makes it genuinely hard for people who actually have it and struggle a lot and would get help if they knew they have ADHD.
So let's clear this up once and for all.
So what is ADHD actually?
ADHD basically stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but I feel like that name is completely garbage because ADHD people usually don't lack attention, attention deficit and women with ADHD oftentimes often also don't show the hyperactivity part.
Who thought about this naming?
Like literally, it's so crap.
So ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder.
What does it actually mean?
So let me break that down.
Neuro means basically brain and developmental means it's been there since you were a kid.
It's not something that you develop just because you scrolled too much on TikTok, or it's not because the modern world is making us distracted, et cetera.
You don't develop it suddenly.
The way your brain functions, how it operates is different from the birth.
And the most important thing to understand about ADHD is ADHD is about executive function.
If you don't know what executive function is and wanna learn more about it, I have a detailed video about it.
But if I would summarize, basically it's like the CEO of your brain, okay?
It's the part that helps you to plan organize, start tasks, switch between tasks, control impulses, manage emotions and also have a sense of time.
And when you have ADHD, you have weak executive functions.
So it's not necessarily that you lack discipline or you're lazy.
That part is like impaired or less developed than a neurotypical person.
So your brain naturally struggles with the things that people do very naturally and you're expected to do as an adult.
You know.
So ADHD is not actually only about like focus and being distracted procrastinating, even though it's like portrayed that way in the media.
Procrastination and focus is just a tiny piece of ADHD.
And I feel like, because people are focusing too much on that aspect, it actually like confuses people what ADHD actually is.
So what do I mean by like confuses people what ADHD actually is, right?
We can understand this better by understanding the types of ADHD because it's actually not one type.
There are three different types.
And a lot of people actually don't know this.
And this is the exact reason why actually, I didn't get diagnosed till I was 20, because I didn't know that there were different types.
I thought this just like the hyperactive loud kid in the class that couldn't pay attention.
Type one is the predominantly inattentive.
This is what people call the daydream ADHD.
You're not necessarily hyperactive or bouncing around.
You're more like zoning out, forgetting things, losing track of conversations, starting tasks and never finishing them.
A lot of women have this type, which is why they go undiagnosed for so long, because people think ADHD means being hyper.
But it can be in your brain.
It can be an internal chaos. it doesn't have to be necessarily an external chaos.
That's the difference between like how it shows up in different genders actually.
And the second type is predominantly hyperactive impulse.
This is basically the stereotype of like can't sit, still always fidgeting, interrupting people doing things without thinking that like loud kid that always like shakes his you know, shakes his like leg during the lesson that kind of a kid.
This is more common in men and kids, which is why they get diagnosed earlier, because the symptoms are like easy to basically figure out.
So that's why like it creates this like stereotype of adhd.
And the third type is the combined type, which is the one that i have, and this is basically both you are inattentive and hyperactive, so worst of both worlds welcome.
This is actually the most common type, by the way, and this is what i have.
The thing that is important about adhd is that it's also a spectrum.
So some people have mild adhd and can manage it with just like lifestyle changes and adjusting their systems and environment around it and also having a support system, whereas some people have severe adhd and absolutely like need medication and professional support and more enhanced support around their work.
So it's not like one size fits all and also, depending on your life season where, for example, you know you move to a new place and there are so much stress factors around you, it can also make your adhd a little bit worse as well.
So it's a spectrum.
Just because, like you don't struggle with something you have adhd you don't struggle with it doesn't mean that other person also doesn't struggle with it, which makes things even more complicated, isn't it?
So now let's talk about how ADHD shows up differently in men and women.
This part is really important, because this is the exact reason why most women don't get diagnosed until their 20s, 30s or even later, just like my mom who got diagnosed in her 50s.
In men and boys, ADHD tends to show up external, disruptive behavior.
They're the kind who can't sit still in class, always getting trouble, who's loud and impulsive.
So teachers notice, parents notice, and usually they get diagnosed young.
But in women and girls, ADHD tends to show up as an internal struggle because the societal expectation of what women should be, how girls should behave, what you're supposed to do this and that.
Also, there's like the societal pressure.
We learn to mask.
Basically, we learned that our behaviors are weird or quirky or too much, so we learned to hide them by like emulating what other people are doing.
This was literally me as a kid.
Everyone was like telling me that i was a weird kid like with the weird thoughts.
So i learned that okay, i should not be in this way because it's not benefiting me socially.
So i would like literally look around the people around me and learn how to react, how to do things, so that I can mask my ADHD and adapt.
And when I would go home, I would crash out and I would tell my mom, I hate school.
I hate it so much.
I don't want to go.
I don't want to go.
It was because I was like trying to mask everything that I wanted to do naturally, but it was societally unacceptable.
So I would like calm down and mask and hide everything.
You know, it's almost like you analyze people's reactions and the patterns that they show up, how they respond, how they act in certain situations, almost like playing the simulation game and then you learn the basically the options, the common ways that people react to certain things, and you select your option and you try to select the correct one, almost.
It also made me like such an observant person about people's behaviors and how people think and how people behave.
And maybe that's the reason why I'm so interested in psychology and self-improvement overall, because I analyze people naturally, because I had to do to fit socially.
Maybe that's the reason why I hated people as a kid and didn't like socializing.
And women with adhd also struggle with like emotion dysregulation that gets dismissed as just being dramatic or hormonal and perfectionism and overcome, compensating to hide our struggles and people pleasing because we learn early that our natural tendencies aren't acceptable, and also the gifted kid burnout pipeline where we did well in school because of external structure but then crushed hard in college or in adult life when that structure disappeared.
So the messing thing about women is that because it's inattentive and it's like more of like in your head and you socially like pressured to learn more about masking than men and kids, it often gets like missed and completely like forgotten.
In adhd research as well, and one of the things that actually hurt my hurt me so much still to this day is basically my mom got diagnosed in her 50s and what she told me really breaks my heart still.
She basically said that if i only knew i had adhd when i was younger, my life could have been way different.
I would not be blaming myself for the things that i couldn't do.
It feels like i lost my potential by not knowing and constantly fighting against myself, And she's right.
Like now that she knows ADHD as our family, we actually like, adjusted our lives, our habits, our basically systems overall to accommodate ADHD rather than using it as an excuse.
For example, like our clothes are labeled with what's inside them because we forget, even we have opened them like million times.
And also we use transparent boxes, because if something is out of sight, it's literally out of our mind and we will buy the same cable or book three times in a row.
Or you know if we would make coffee for each other like multiple times and we would forget and it would be on the counter and now no one is mad because we were like okay, i got you, don't worry about it, you know.
So you don't get mad about the things because you know the other person didn't intend to do that.
So you become more acceptable.
Okay, so forget about the clinical description for a second, because I feel like they don't help that much.
So let me tell you how it appears in real life and how they show up as symptoms.
So the first one is time blindness, okay?
You think you have five minutes passed and you look at the clock and it's been hours.
Or you avoid a task for weeks because you think it's going to take a lot of time and it's going to be difficult.
And you do it and it's like three minutes and then you're like why did i do that?
And then this happens, like very often.
It's a part of your life.
It's not like it here and there happens, it's the constant thing.
The second one is object permanence issues.
This is basically, if i can't see it, it doesn't exist in my world, like out of sight, out of mind situation.
For example, this is the reason why i find my phone in the fridge, like quite often, like why is it even there?
And also like this is the exact reason why i wash the same laundry four times in a row, always forgetting that it's inside of the laundry thing, and i forget to take it out and just hang it outside because it's not outside and i cannot see it.
So i forget about it and i wash it again and again and again.
It's also the reason why a lot of people with adhd don't miss other people, because if they don't exist visually in your world, you almost like forget about them.
It's also the exact reason why I bought the same book four times in a row, because I forgot that I bought it.
The third one is task initiation paralysis.
You know exactly what you need to do.
You want to do it, but you physically can't not make yourself to start.
And it can be anything that already became a habit in your life.
It could be maybe even like brushing your teeth.
It could be even going for a pee.
Like literally, there were times that I wanted to pee.
I wanted to go to the toilet, but I would sit there like an hour thinking like I really need to go to the toilet.
And then I just can't go.
I don't know why.
Another thing is all or nothing attitude.
Either you're hyper-focused for eight hours straight and forget to eat, pee or drink water, or you can't even focus for five minutes.
There is no in between.
And a lot of people say like, but you can focus on the things that you enjoy.
Like sometimes I cannot even focus on the things that I enjoy.
Like it's not really about discipline or motivation.
Like I really want, I really love that thing.
I really want to do that thing. but I just can't sit still.
Another we have emotional dysregulation.
Like small inconvenience feels like the end of the world and rejection feels physically painful.
You go from like fine to furious in like literally 0.3 seconds.
And people tell you either you're like too sensitive or you're overreacting, but your emotions genuinely feel that intense.
This actually doesn't happen with me that much.
This is more like my mom and my brother has it.
I'm not that emotional to be honest.
Rejection and sensitivity.
Any form of criticism, even constructive feedback, feels like a personal attack to you.
You replay conversations for days wondering if someone is mad at you because they used a period instead of an exclamation point in a text.
This is also something that I don't have.
Like, I think I used to have this as a kid.
Now, not that much.
Another one is executive dysfunction.
You need to brush your teeth.
You know you need to brush your teeth.
But the steps required, like walking to the bathroom, getting the toothbrush, putting the toothpaste on it, brushing feels so overwhelming that you just don't and you hate yourself for not being able to do basic stuff that everyone does automatically.
Like with adhd, i feel like nothing is automatic in your life.
Everything is just hard as day one impulsivity.
I actually gave like an example about this.
You know, when i'm riding a bicycle and there's like a car coming in, a normal person would be like oh, the car is coming, let me stop And then cross the road to be careful.
But my brain suddenly goes like, go, go, go, you have to go now.
You have to go now.
And then I would do things like recklessly.
And then I would think back and I was like, why did I do that?
That was low-key dangerous.
Or I would like impulsively say something out loud that I'm not supposed to do.
That was going in my head.
And I just like said it.
And now the room is so awkward.
And I'm like oh, why did I do that?
Sensory sensitivities, certain textures, like make makes me want to crawl my skin.
And if there's also a flickering light or a repetitive sound or the temperature of the room is not right, like it screams for my attention.
You know also, like if my hair is not clean enough and it's not like in the perfect balance of like dryness, i just cannot listen to you.
Like i'm sorry, i cannot listen to you because my hair is not feeling right today and i thought everyone experienced this, but apparently not, Because it was a norm in my house.
The internal chaos.
This is actually a big one, because when I took ADHD medication, like for the first time in my life, all the voices in my head went silent and I literally cried because I thought the loudness was the norm.
And I didn't know that people were living in a such peaceful environment when they don't have ADHD.
So it made me realize like this was the thing that I was dealing with my whole life.
Oh, my God.
You know, I had that grief.
OK, so let's do a quick check.
I'm not going to give you like a boring clinical checklist because I'm not a doctor.
I cannot diagnose you.
But instead I'm going to like describe some real case scenarios and see how many of these sound familiar.
OK.
So the scenario one is you sit down on Sunday and make this elaborate plan.
Like you time block everything.
You break down projects into smaller tasks.
You're feeling so productive and organized.
And the Monday comes and you don't even look at the schedule that you've made.
You just do the task randomly as they pop into your head, because you feel like everything is so loud and screaming your attention all at once.
And by end of the day, you just realize that you did something random for hours for no reason.
And you feel like a complete failure.
And this happens very often.
Scenario two, you avoid a task.
Let's say you're going to the dentist or replying to an email for weeks or even months, not because you're necessarily scared about it or lazy, but because the thought of doing a very simple action feels overwhelming.
Then you finally do it and it takes like 10 minutes and then you're angry for yourself for avoiding it for so long.
Happens very often.
Scenario three you lose things constantly, and i don't mean like occasionally misplacing things, i mean like finding your phone in the fridge or putting your wallet in the pantry, looking for your glasses for an hour when they're on your head, and this happens like multiple times a week.
Scenario four You start hobbies with intense passion, buy old equipment, spend hours on it, get really good at it, then abandon it completely two weeks later.
Your house is literally full of half finished projects and expensive equipments you don't use anymore.
Scenario five.
People tell you stories and you genuinely don't remember them happening in your life.
Not because you weren't listening, but because your brain just didn't retain it.
You feel like you're constantly disappointing people around you because you forgot something that told you that was important.
Scenario six, you can focus for hours on things that you find interesting.
It can be anything.
It can be even researching about a topic that you went into rabbit hole at 3 a.m.
But you can't focus for a task.
That's like working or studying, even like for 10 minutes, and you genuinely struggle with a lot until the deadline comes closer.
You achieve this godlike hyper focus and you're so calm in a pressure and you get the thing done.
Because of that, you don't learn and you keep doing this.
Scenario seven you interrupt people constantly because you're rude, but because if you don't say the thought immediately, it will disappear your from brain forever.
And even if you learn the skill of not interrupting people and waiting for them, you almost like don't listen to them because you're trying to not to forget what you want to say.
Scenario eight You make impulsive decisions that you regret later quite often.
Expensive purchases, cutting your hair at 2am, texting someone that you shouldn't making a big life decision on a whim?
Like literally, I decided to move to Dubai out of nowhere and I moved the next week.
And I've never been to Dubai.
And I came to Dubai and I'm like, Oh my god, when did I decide that?
You know you should think things through, but the impulse is stronger than your ability to stop yourself.
If you're reading these things and asking yourself like, wait, doesn't everyone do these things?
That might be a sign.
Obviously, not like everyone.
The important thing is also the frequency and there are more details to ADHD.
Just because you relate all of these doesn't mean that you have ADHD.
It's just a part of the picture that it might be better for you to look further around those things.
And let's talk about the difference between ADHD and ADHD-like symptoms, because this is the important part.
So, even if you relate it to the symptoms that I mentioned, we actually need to understand the difference between ADHD and ADHD-like symptoms, because this is the part that confuses a lot of people.
And I think this is the reason why most people think that they have ADHD even if they don't.
I think this part is going to piss some people off, but I'm going to be completely honest about it, okay.
Just because you procrastinate, you don't have ADHD.
Just because you struggle with getting things done doesn't mean you have ADHD.
Just because you're impulsive and distractive and loud or maybe inattentive, like I mentioned, doesn't mean you have ADHD.
Just because, like modern life is overwhelming and everything is constantly fighting for our attention doesn't mean everything is because of adhd.
The difference is that adhd is a neurodevelopmental disorder, so you are born with it.
You don't develop it later on.
If your struggle started adulthoods because of your environment, like stress burnout anxiety responsibilities depression trauma, social media addiction, that's not ADHD.
That's ADHD-like symptoms caused by external factors.
The diagnostic criteria literally says you must have shown symptoms before age 12.
If you functioned perfectly as a kid and a teenager and wasn't really showing those symptoms and only started struggling as an adult, it's probably not ADHD.
It It might be a burnout.
It might be depression.
It might be anxiety.
It might be that modern life is genuinely just overwhelming and not designed for how humans are supposed to function, but it's not ADHD.
And this actually matters quite a lot, because people self-diagnose ADHD for like literally every single little distraction.
It dilutes what ADHD actually is.
And it makes people think ADHD is just like oh squirrel, i'm so destructive, i have adhd.
And then actual people with adhd don't get taken seriously when we actually really, really struggle.
Adhd isn't like only about struggling with focus.
Actually, it's struggling with basic life tasks, despite desperately wanting to do them and adjusting things accordingly.
It's your brain literally working against you every single day.
It's about like losing jobs, ruining relationships, struggling with self-care and feeling like you're constantly failing at being human.
I want you to ask yourself did you struggle with these issues as a kid, even if they weren't diagnosed?
All the symptoms that you were experiencing, did they happen before the age of 12?
Did these symptoms started to become more visible when you change the environment or when you get stressed?
And do these struggles persist across multiple areas of your life, like work relationships home, health?
And also, have you tried different methods and different approaches and different tactics and different environmental designs to help you achieve the things that you want?
Like, for example, if you're scrolling a lot on social media, when you use apps to block it, do you find yourself doing something random for hours, or did it really helped you a bit?
If you say these symptoms actually happened before the age of 12 and you struggled since you were a kid and it's just like a part of your life, then it might be ADHD.
If your struggles only started recently or are limited to one area, like maybe only work or maybe only relationships, etc.
It's not ADHD, it's probably environmental.
But I'm not a doctor, so I cannot diagnose anyone.
Just wanted to clear that out.
So you might be thinking like, okay, so maybe I have ADHD.
Maybe I don't know.
But like, I don't know what to do now.
So the thing is, you don't need an official diagnosis to actually adjust your life around it.
Because the thing is, diagnosis can be quite expensive.
And I didn't know about this.
And I was really mad at people who were self-diagnosing themselves online.
But actually a friend of mine from US said that Actually in the US it takes about a few thousand dollars to get a proper diagnosis.
So it can be very expensive and not everyone can get actually a proper diagnosis.
And I was like, what?
I was shocked.
I thought health care is something free, you know?
I didn't know that it was expensive in the US, so it's insane.
It blew my mind.
To be honest, and yes, if your ADHD is severe and it's like severely impacting your life, and if you need medication, I think you absolutely need to get a diagnosis.
But if you're not sure yet, or if you can't like afford a diagnosis right now, you don't necessarily need to wait to get a proper diagnosis.
To adjust your life around it, even if you have severe ADHD, you'll have to adjust your life, environment and the way you do things anyway.
So, whether you have a diagnosis or not, actually adjusting your life and environment accordingly is something that you need to do either way.
Because the thing that actually matters and changes a lot is that understanding your brain's tendencies and working with them instead of against them, and building systems and habits around it.
Like the problem is when people use adhd as an excuse, so like oh, i have adhd, i just can't do xyz.
Oh, i have adhd, that's why i'm late, like i don't want you to do that, okay.
What i want you to do that is that okay, i have tendencies.
I seem to be always late when I'm meeting with people.
So I need to build systems and methods to work with my brain instead of finding it constantly, and stop trying to function like everyone else.
You know, I always struggle with time quite a lot and I used to be late so much.
But now, if I'm meeting someone at 1am, I literally start getting ready at 10am because I know three hours will slip by and I'll realize it's like 10 minutes later, like prior to our meeting, and I'll be rushing.
So now I know it.
Therefore, I start to prepare way, way, way earlier.
Normal people maybe get started around like, I don't know, 12 or so if they're meeting at 1.
But I start to prepare to leave the home from 10.
Is it inconvenient?
Yes, but I know I'll be late if I don't do that.
So using ADHD as an excuse versus building systems habits, mindsets around it to help you live like a normal human being, and understanding your limitations and adjusting to them is basically what I mean.
Because understanding means you adapt.
Excuses means you give up.
This is actually the exact reason why I built my Kaizen ADHD system.
The biggest problem with ADHD is that everything screams for attention all at once, right?
Like you have to do that thing.
What about that thing?
What about this thing, that thing, that thing?
Like everything pops into our attention and you're like, oh my God, I'm so overwhelmed.
I don't know what to do.
And everything feels equally important.
People say prioritize, but like how?
In my system, because I struggled with this so much, I actually created a solution for this.
So Kaizen system teaches you the priority by so-called elite day system, which automatically calculates when you need to be working on tasks and which tasks you should be working.
So it does the calculation part for you.
I basically use AI to code this because I was struggling so much and I would be like every single day I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to do.
And I would just like waste my whole day.
And my to-do list would get like bigger and bigger and bigger, because I've been avoiding so many things.
So it really helped me to like do the thing that I'm supposed to do now instead of doing irrelevant shit that I'm not supposed to be doing right now.
And the other thing is we oftentimes don't know where to start, when to start, how to start, right?
Even if I did the same thing like 400 times, I'll be still lost as day one.
And a lot of people say like, oh, time block things, time block, block your calendar.
But ADHD does not function with time.
Our sense of time is already messed up.
Like, what do you mean I need to do something from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.?
I don't even know what day to day is.
And also the thing is that sometimes tasks take five minutes.
Sometimes it takes three hours hours, so I cannot really predict how long the things are going to take.
And when one thing ruins over, your whole schedule collapses and you give up.
But I got you on this as well.
So basically Kaizen uses sprints instead of time boxing.
What basically means is that you divide your day into sprint categories, and this could be based on tasks that you like, your energy levels or maybe the type of the tasks that you do.
For example, I divide my sprints based on the task types.
For example, we have an urgent one.
Deadline, admin work and creative one.
So the sprint one, urgent, is the things that I have to do today because I avoided them for long.
Sprint two is the deadline.
So the deadlines that are approaching that I should probably be starting to doing them.
Sprint three is admin work.
Like, I don't know, like everything that as an adult I'm supposed to do.
And the sprint four is the creative work.
This is usually brainstorming, coming up with ideas, all that stuff.
And the reason why I don't divide them by time is that because my energy just like ebbs and flows.
And sometimes I'm in a creative mode.
I start with the creative tasks.
Sometimes I'm like, OK, I'm kind of bored.
Let me do some admin tasks.
So I do them and I go through them once I'm in a flow.
And because I'm like doing the similar tasks that have like similar energy that required for me, it's way easier for me to complete them.
So it's like teaching you to have a structure without being very restrict.
I also want to say that learning something new has a learning curve, right.
It can be very annoying to learn something new and adapt a new way of thinking, and that's actually the reason why i created the kaizen with two adjustable modes.
It has a simple mode and advanced mode.
Especially if you're new to notion, if you don't know how to use it, you can start with the simple mode just do the basics okay, and then, once you get used to it, you can unlock the advanced features.
The great thing is that both of them are synced so you never lose your data.
So the days when you're feeling overwhelmed, you can always switch to simple, and when you're like i actually feel fancy to that, you can do the advanced version.
I also use like both of them back and forth, to be honest, because some days i'm like oh, let's go, and sometimes i'm like i don't want to do anything, so i just do the simple mode, like.
I'm not going to get into the details of all of them okay, if you let me, i'll.
Yap, i'll tell about it for you hours and hours, because i put so much hours into building this and perfecting it, so i'm obsessed.
Okay, if you're interested, you can check out my website.
I have all the details there, everything that you need to know, and if you have any questions, just comment down below and i'll just reply to you.
When you purchase Kaizen, you also get a lifetime access to my Discord community.
And here you can ask questions about ADHD.
Connect with other people with ADHD or similar life struggles.
And also in the Discord, like if you're struggling with the system, you can just literally like post your question and I'll reply.
Unlike any other, like Discord communities.
I'm actually quite active there and I'm like sharing my day there.
So if you want to join.
It's pretty chill.
It's really nice.
I like it.
And like over 700 people already purchased it.
And people are telling me that this is so amazing and helping their ADHD so much.
And the community aspect is also really nice.
So if you're interested, check it out.
Sorry for bothering you and talking about my system for so long.
But I'm genuinely so, so excited.
I worked on this for two years.
I put my heart into it.
And I'm constantly trying to improve it, make it easier for people with ADHD to use it.
So if you're interested, check out my website.
Okay, so if you have made this so far, first of all congrats.
I cannot believe you that you watched the video so long with adhd.
Good, let's go anyway.
So if you're thinking like, this is me, but how do i even get diagnosed?
So here's basically how the diagnosis process works, okay.
So first, one thing that i want to say is that don't go to a random psychiatrist that you found or random psychologist that you found.
Okay, i was a med student and i have so many friends in psychiatry trainings and let me tell you, not everyone, even with a speciality in psychiatry, is not that informed about adhd, because in the curriculum they don't necessarily cover adhd that extensively.
So if someone is not specializing in neurodevelopmental disorders adhd autism, that kind of things, they might not be the best person to go.
So ideally, what i would want you to do is that find a psychologist or psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD and similar neurodevelopmental disorders.
Like, just don't go to a random psychologist or psychiatrist, okay?
Some countries have specific ADHD centers or specific ADHD clinics, where you first go to a psychiatrist and then they direct you to a specialist.
But it depends on your country, so check your country's guidelines.
And also, know the difference between psychiatrist and psychologist.
So psychologists can diagnose ADHD but cannot prescribe you medicine because they're not doctors and usually they focus more on therapy to manage your adhd, which is actually proven to be as effective as managing with medication.
So that's one option, but the ongoing costs can be expensive.
The second option is the psychiatrist.
They are doctors so they can diagnose and prescribe medication, but they won't be doing as like talk therapy and like life system management and also supporting you, that kind of thing.
They usually don't do that, at least like that's what i've experienced so far.
If if you want medication as a part of your treatment, go to a psychiatrist.
If you just want the assessment and a therapy, then psychologists also work.
And the third thing that you need to know is that the assessment actually differs country by country a lot like some places you fill out a questionnaire, someplace you do like computer tests, some places they interview you and extensively about your childhood.
The diagnosis that i had was like extensively talking about my childhood and actually bringing my mom and like talking about my childhood and stuff like that.
So the regulation and available services differ significantly between countries and even like prescribing rules vary as well.
So research what is the process in your country.
The diagnosis criteria are like standard, standardized but the process of getting there is different.
And also, four is be prepared to discuss your childhood, because adhd is a neurodevelopmental disorder and the one of the most important factors is that like was it there since you were a kid right, so they need to know you showed the symptoms before age of 12, so you have to think about how you were as a kid in school, how you were at home, what your report card said.
You can maybe even look at your report cards and what the teacher said about you and also what your parents remember about your behavior as well.
So if you can bring, bring a sibling or a parent that you feel comfortable with and you feel like, you show the real version of you because, especially with females, the masking can be real.
Bring them in and they can provide more information that you didn't recognize as a kid, maybe about you.
And also another thing that is very important is that don't be surprised if you get diagnosed by other things, because ADHD can actually come with secondary things.
Like, for example, autism and ADHD, the combination is actually very common.
Or ADHD and depression, ADHD and anxiety, ADHD and PTSD, because having an ADHD since you're a kid and thinking that you're like not enough, you're below people, you cannot do simple things it can affect your mental health quite a lot.
When I got diagnosed with ADHD, I also got diagnosed with major depression as well.
So just be aware of that, okay?
So why does this actually matter?
Like, why should you even care about ADHD, right?
Because actually knowing that you have ADHD changes everything.
A lot of people say, like, no need to label things, blah, blah, blah.
But I feel like getting diagnosed with ADHD helped me a lot for the things that I was blaming myself, you know, because I was blaming myself for the things that weren't my fault.
I was thinking that I'm like a piece of crap.
I'm not living up to the person that I could have become.
Even with a extreme level of self-discipline and drive, you know, there were things that I just cannot do.
That is like very normal to people and that would make me feel like i'm such a failure.
So when you get diagnosed, you start to notice actually the adhd patterns and the things that are happening into your life and let's say, like if you're struggling with something else.
If you get diagnosed, you're like, oh okay, maybe it was because i had adhd.
Damn like, how can i actually solve this issue?
And then you can look up online and there's so many people talking about adhd and how they overcome their certain type of struggles, which is also the thing that i'm going to do on this channel to help more of you guys manage it.
Because, know it was, it was like one of the best things that i've done in my life was to get diagnosed.
Now i'm like, oh my god, that was adhd.
Now i can, i can like solve it.
You know it becomes way easier to handle situations when you know the, the core reason, and also it also helps you to stop using the strategies that would never work for you.
Like i would read books about productivity, i would read books about things, and i would read people, successful people's methods, and i would be like i never think that way, i would never do in that way, you know.
And then when i would read someone with adhd and their methods and their way of thinking, i'm like this works way better for me, like it's way easier.
So you stop trying the methods and ways and frameworks that works for neurotypicals and you start to adjust for adhd, your strengths and weaknesses.
It becomes way more productive overall in your life And also it helps you to improve your relationships and your life quality as a whole.
When you understand ADHD, you get better at communicating people because you know your patterns.
Therefore, you can work on them or you can put basically like safety nets around them.
Not like you're going to change or anything, but you know the patterns that will happen.
And you can also let people know why this happens, why you're acting in this way.
It really helps relationships, that other person understanding that you have it and the reason that you forget important things is not because you don't care about them, but it's literally like that, every aspect of your life.
It saves you from so many fights.
Let me tell you that.
And also, the last important thing is that you might be really limiting your potential.
You know when you have adhd and when you really it like destroys your self-confidence quite a lot.
When my mom told me that, like if i knew when i was younger, I would have adjusted my methods, environment accordingly and I would have been so different and, in a way, better place.
And it just makes me sad because it is true.
Like once we started adapting and adjusting our lives like, her life quality improved significantly and she's doing way better mentally physically, everything wise.
So getting diagnosis and knowing that you have adhd obviously is not going to fix everything overnight.
It's really a constant adaptation and the thing with adhd is that the thing that used to work for you week ago might not work for you right now.
So it's very difficult and it's like sometimes very annoying.
Some people say it's a superpower, but like it's only superpower if you have a very, very supportive environment understanding, proper care, etc.
And most people don't have it and most people blame themselves for not being good enough, and also the advice that people give is just don't work for you, right.
So i just wanted to share this to help more people that are struggling with the same thing, because i used to be like that.
Like literally, whether you get a diagnosis or not, trying to have a better understanding of your situation and adjusting to your lifestyle is, i think, the best thing that you can do in your life.
And also, if this video was helpful and if you want to get more content from me about ADHD and ADHD tips and struggles, etc.
Let me know in the comments below.
I want to make more videos about ADHD.
And yeah, if you're interested, don't forget to check out my Kaizen system.
And if you join, I'll see you in the community.
See you soon.
