How an ADHD diagnosis saved my life

Each night, before I go to bed, I set the two alarm clocks in my room, encourage anyone else who might be in the house to knock on my door when they wake up and then, I set my phone alarms to start blaring two hours prior to starting work. I have an alarm on my phone set for each minute of the two hours and it takes me several minutes to set them all up.

This ritual, along with many others, means that my life is filled with the noise of alarms which remind me to do something I forgot to do or had otherwise been distracted by. Alarm after alarm — one might think it’s unhealthy — but it’s the healthiest way for me to manage my own life.

Before being diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), I’d been treated for depression. A lot of the symptoms overlap for someone that struggles to get out of bed in the morning or someone who seems disinterested in the day-to-day tasks that others seem to perform well and seem happy to complete.

It kickstarts something of an inferiority complex, where focus is fried and the will to keep going, just to stay at the same standard as everyone else, eventually dies down.

Whether it was in university or high school, I’d always heard the same word buzzing around for the disconnect between the discussions I’d have with educators and the grades they’d give me…

“Potential.”

Many of the same people that had spoken dismissively about ADHD off-handedly were the same people that, I would come to realise much later in life, were unable to discern how my performance didn’t match my potential.

After speaking with a psychiatrist in 2020, following years of treading water and keeping my grades high enough to skim by, I was finally diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 20 years old.

At first, it didn’t really make sense to me, as I’d bob my knees and twiddle my thumbs or play with my hair, but I wasn’t bouncing off of walls or running amok at my part-time job or in my full-time studies. I was just a regular guy struggling to get his life together.

Similarly, being prescribed medication for the condition didn’t really make sense at first, with Hollywood depictions of crazed studying or frantic output of work.

My grades continued to simmer at room temperature and my IQ didn’t kick up a hundred points, but I had managed to clean my room once I started to take my medication and put my mind to a task.

As soon as my room was clean, I was able to iron my clothes and organise them for the week ahead.

Eventually, I’d worked my way up the mountain of tasks I had before I could start at the ground floor of a schedule and work towards a life ahead of me.

So, here I am today, three years after getting the news which overturned a decade of professional help that wasn’t helpful to me and learning more about ADHD after recognising it in myself.

The defeated feeling that I held onto for so long is no longer there in my life, but each day is a way to work on myself and no label or medication can help me beyond my ability to take charge. Luckily, with the support that I’ve received and through working on new strategies to keep my life on track, such as those pesky alarms, I seem like  an entirely different person.

However, I’m the same person that I always was. All it took was hard work, perseverance and accountability. I’m no longer lost when it comes to my own potential.

My potential starts from the moment I wake up to 120 alarms that I can’t just hit ‘snooze’ on.

For mental health services and access to support, please visit the Mental Health Services DSG portal.