Bouncing off the walls again?

So, time for a story.

Last year, my mother received a panicked phone call from her younger sister, whose son had just been diagnosed with ADHD. This sparked a discussion in which my mother revealed that she was certain that I was ADHD and had known for quite a long time. [Many of you are probably laughing that this needed to be said.] I knew I was, and know I knew that my parents knew.

Last week in child psych, we were discussing learning disorders, including ADHD. [There was a checklist with fourteen criteria (you need only a few) and I met nine.] And now, quite frankly, I'm pissed.


As far as I had known, ADHD attributed to my short attention span and inability to sit still.

No. Apparently, several problems I have that I though were just me being crazy are syptoms/results of ADHD. And my mom thought it was humorous that I have it.

Should I be as upset as I am? Possibly, probably not. But I spent so many years thinking that so much was wrong with me and struggling with so many things. And now I find out it's likely because of a problem my parents knew existed. I'm irked.

One of the girls in class mentioned she had it, and talked about the assistance she had had in learning to deal with it. I'm not saying my parents should have put me on drugs, or taken me to classes, but acknowledgement would have been nice. And not screaming at me for things that I was struggling with so much but that I had a disadvantage at to begin with. And with the degree I struggle with it, even after having developed strategies for years, it's very likely I should be on meds.

This may be a self-pitying rant, but for God's sake, I thought so much of it was my being lazy or having other problems and now I find out that it was all something my parents knew about. I'm just frustrated.