Depression, Neurodiversity
I'm having a bad day today b/c I came to a realisation that my untreated ADD has robbed me of developing a strong 'talent' or skill...
And I'm angry that my mother KNEW, beyond the shadow of a doubt, about my condition and did NOTHING about it even as my grades suffered and I dropped out of school.
No drugs (that I understand) but no behavioural therapy, no coping mechanisms, no worksheets... I was the one kid she had that 'passed for normal'...
...until I didn't.
Depression, Neurodiversity
I'm just frustrated b/c what do I do now? The damage has already been done. My anxiety and depression stems from spending a childhood growing up asking "Why am I not normal? Why can't I just buckle down and focus like everybody else?"
Young Me couldn't understand that there was something fundamentally different about my brain... And neither could my mother, judging by the screaming matches we had about my grades.
But I had to do all the heavy lifting regardless.
Depression, Neurodiversity
I didn't get a 'childhood' as such, because I was a latchkey kid who had to look after his high-functioning Autistic sister. She wouldn't cook for herself until she was almost adult aged, and even then, only the most rudimentary stuff if it's not prepackaged.
I didn't really make good friends, if and when I made friends at all... up until my mother moved out to the middle of nowhere and asked why I didn't get out more.
My computer was my window to the outside world.