Submitted by cmeehan on 04/28/2009.
Perhaps this is the totally wrong place to ask this. I have not quite been diagnosed with ADHD yet. I actually have Multiple Sclerosis with a lot of cognitive problems. In fact one neuropsych report said the testing showed some ADD. Is it possible to have ADD that was mild enough to go undiscovered all my life until my MS cognitive problems caused the ADD to come to the forefront? I am no longer married but in a relationship now. Thoughts on this?
Undiagnosed ADD
Submitted by MelissaOrlov on
Many adults lived through childhood without a diagnosis of ADD, even if they had severe ADD. The issue for you is whether or not your ADD, if it is mild, matters. Dr. Hallowell likes to say that ADD is a different way of being. It only becomes a disorder if it's getting in your way. So the question you should ask yourself is if you have ADD, is it getting in your way?
Also, make sure you get a specialist for the diagnosis. It sounds as if you have enough other things going on that it will take someone who is very familiar with ADD and other issues to be able to tease apart what might be going on.
Undiagnosed ADD
Submitted by brejask on
My husband just turned 50 and he was just diagnosed with ADD 4 months ago. Yes it can go all your life not being diagnosed. There has been no one in our families with it and we had no idea what to look for. As his wife I kept trying to analyze what was wrong with our marriage we had been married for 23 years and over the last 10 years our marriage has deteriorated to the point of divorce and thats when we found help and discovered ADD. To my understanding from our counselor is that while the kids were little my husband was just one of them and I ran the house and him. After the kids grew up and began to become responsible adults I still had one kid that wasn't growing up, it was my husband. I was moving on in life and he was still where he was when we got married he always had a saying I enjoy being a kid I don't ever want to grow up. Little did I know how true this statement was. I could write pages on this but Yes you can go through life and not be diagnosed.