Being unexpectedly diagnosed with ADHD when I was thirty changed the course of my life.
Prior to ADHD Diagnosis
Up to that time I had been a professional dancer, choreographer and teacher. I co-owned a dance studio and helped direct and perform with a professional dance company.
Unfortunately due to increased chronic pain I had to retire from dancing. I decided to go to graduate school. Having struggled through K-12 and college due to sort of nebulous learning disabilities, I knew I would have to be retested before I started grad school in order to get some accommodations. I had brains but somehow I couldn’t translate what I knew into concrete work.
Getting Tested for Learning Disabilities
After two days of testing, I was ready to hear about how I was slow in processing, especially in math and writing. The opening salvo of the woman who evaluated me was, “aside from the ADHD, you have…”
ADHD!
Hold on! I thought ADHD? I was shocked but I shouldn’t have been. I had always been very successful teaching students affected by ADHD. So much so that classes I had taught had begun to have noticeable ADHD constituencies.
At the time of diagnosis, my life was not going well. Receiving treatment including medication, therapy and coaching helped me turn my life around. Without the diagnosis of ADHD, I would never have found my second career, ADHD coaching, from which I get a profound satisfaction.
Blast from the past
My mother commented that after being tested in first grade for learning disabilities, the evaluators asked to do one more test. They explained the test was unofficial and wouldn’t diagnose anything but they were curious how I would do on it. They gave me blocks to play with and put headphones on my ears with sound to see how long it took for me to get distracted. I lasted less than a minute.
What about you?
When were you diagnosed with ADHD? Was there anecdotal evidence that had already made it clear to you or your family that you had ADHD? Comment here or on facebook or any other of my social media sites.
Abigail Wurf, M.Ed, CLC
ADHD and Executive Functions Coach
Abigail Wurf works with adults, couples and parents affected by ADHD or executive function issues (see definition below) in a coaching and/or consulting capacities. Her clientele also includes college and graduate students struggling to make it through their programs.
She conducts workshops and speaking presentations on executive function issues such as productivity, planning, prioritizing, goal setting, time management, task initiation, emotional disregulation, focus, meta-cognition, working memory, self inhibition and flexibility/shift.
Abigail’s work also includes presentations on ADHD, specific executive functions or theories of executive functions, invisible disabilities, resiliency and motivation.