Went to community College at 18 and got a 1.9 and didn't get my degree. Got diagnosed and meds at 36, got waiver to take AA classes and BA classes, taking 27 credits a quarter to catch up. Ended with a 3.8, deans list, and highest honors for my major.
I was diagnosed as an adult even though I knew it growing up for age since my mom said we PROBABLY were from our teachers telling her... but we were just fine and being kids so no need to intervention or medication. I got along just fine until college when I dropped out after the first year since I couldn't coast by with great test skills and doing basic homework for high school...
Meanwhile the stepson is going through all of the above still despite getting the help once I got involved more in his life lol. His mom has it too but doesn't medicate.
Meds and therapy do little for teenage bullshittery, boundary testing, a lack of friends, and an addiction to electronics no matter how many clear rules and strict enforcement you have.
Being a shithead teenager knows no bounds and affect neurotypical people alike lol.
Edit: Forgot why I commented in the first place. Top center and bottom right make no sense lol. Everyone knows, they just don't know how to deal with it. Your parents are flawed humans too and spent a lifetime hearing shit from friends and society saying MY BROTHER TURNED INTO A ZOMBIE!, DOCTORS OVERMEDICATED CHILDREN AND NOW THEY AREN'T TERRORS!, RITALIN IS A FAD AND CRUTCH FOR LAAAAAZY ENTITLED NEW GENERATIONS!!!
Not only that but everyone with ADHD is so different between each other just like neurotypical people. There's no cure all. And I know how much you motherfuckers hate yourselves, you don't think other people don't like you when you're being an ass no matter the diagnosis? Of course not. Understanding how you operate doesn't mean they get to be a doormat and it doesn't mean you get passes every time because learning to control yourself while unmasked to your family is tantamount to forming healthy close relationships. Medicating sucks for everyone initially. Trying to get people literally going through puberty to find your miracle combo of meds is beyond difficult and it's mostly about getting a bandaid on it until you grow into yourself and find who you want to be.
It's not what neurodivergent kids and parents like to hear because going through it sucks, but for 95% of teens getting to adulthood is one of the quickest ways for things to settle down. Parents have a responsibility to turn you into a decent human being and MOST are trying their best in flawed ways. Most of them just want you to be able to take care of yourself and potentially hold down a job while having some of the most BASIC skills of home life. I've seen way too many regular teenagers, let alone neurodivergent kids turn 18 and just not be able to do a damn thing. No, you don't like keeping your room clean, having to do dishes, not backtalk on accident when you hear something you don't like. Nobody likes that shit lol. But it's a skill and you have to learn through routine and constant reminders about how people are going to react.
Parents can't just trust their kid to hit 18 and turn a leaf, because you won't. Those sorts of routines and inherit traits are ingrained in your body like a piece of metal being forged. While you can change yourself when you get older, you'll be surprised just how much of what you grew up with is innate to what you're metaphorically made of. Almost ANYONE can always change at the drop of a dime though. It's what being human is all about. It's just hard as fuck depending on how ingrained shit is and can take a lot of effort into changing it, or acceptance in things you CANNOT change.
Does your stepson have a therapist he trusts? ADHD diagnosis and medication helped with school, but finally getting the right fit with a therapist made such a huge difference with my teen's social life and rapport with me and his dad. I know therapy can be crazy expected, but we found a person through Open Path Collective that does telehealth, and it's much more affordable and convenient.
I hope things get easier between you all and that he realizes how much you care about him and want to help. ❤️ Teens can be so difficult but so fucking cool, it's such a privilege to watch them develop as people.
It's mostly an unwillingness with inability to cooperate while going through the motions for him. We use state aid for his appointments so therapy for him is less an outlet and more check ins while making sure his meds are going well. They can make time if he's going through a particularly rough spot but it's normally me noticing while everyone else pretends everything is fine.
He's had a few different therapists with at least one decent one. Unfortunately he doesn't like what he hears back from them since he's VERY sheltered due to alienating himself from his peers despite me telling him some of those people are trying to offer olive branches or be friends. He suffers from being a weird kid and not understanding that he needs to lower his standards a bit too.
He has a very poor understanding of how easy he has for his home life since he was an only child for 13 years of it. He's loved and he knows it. But he also goes through big mood swings that are exacerbated with mom. When she's in a bad mood, he immediately becomes defiant. They feed off each other and it quickly becomes a negative feedback loop. They have short fuses with each other which results in him breaking his courtesy rules and mom making it worse by calling him out bluntly with little tact.
Would more therapy help or from someone different? Maybe a bit. He is very much one of the has a great month or few weeks then one bad couple days just ruins it all due to the executive dysfunction and the teenage need to pour gasoline on a fire out of spite lol.
This so much. I was diagnosed at 6, put on meds, and expected to function. Things improved enough for my grades to go up but not enough to have basic social function. I was still miserable.
I got along just fine until college when I dropped out after the first year since I couldn’t coast by with great test skills and doing basic homework for high school…
Oh hell yeah. Honors student to failing out of my first year of college. Fuck. I went back years later, but that first time was a helluva wake up call.
Thank you for the heads up, I just edited it. It took me a second since Memmy didn’t let me edit the title, had to login via the web page for that. I’m still new to the fediverse.
Man the self laothing still comes, even if you were diagnosed. I was on meds only for a very short time. Money and all that because the pills were expensive on my family's insurance.
So yeah, I grew up knowing what was wrong and trying so hard to just seem almost normal on the surface, and now that I'm older and have my own decent insurance I'm scared of who or what I'll be if I ever get back on the pills.