As a child I was different to any other child. In November 2024 I spoke to my doctor with the help of my parents and step parents to see what that missing piece of the puzzle in my life was.
I went to a doctor in Bristol with my Dad to do a potential autism assessment as that was one of the things that the doctor was thinking could be it. At the end of the assessment I was diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder which is a long-term that causes significant and lasting difficulties of understanding or using spoken language. I will go into DLD in more detail in another blog.
After that diagnosis I still personally thought that something was still not right with me due to the difficulties that I faced in life.
I faced difficulties with timekeeping which made me behind at certain things especially at work. I've also faced difficulties with money management and excessive and impulsive spending which made me guilty after spending the money. I've also had hyper focused thoughts on certain activities and things like David Bowie and The Royal Family.
I knew that there was something else and I went back to my GP to get another opinion. He referred me to get assessed to see if I actually have ADHD or at the time ADD. Once I started the assessment I had to write down everything that happened in my childhood that might relate to the problems I was facing.
As a child I was very abrupt and interrupted people mid conversation. At school I used to struggle to keep my mind on one thing at a time and had mild learning difficulties in various subjects like maths and English.
I got my mum to write her own statement to support the assessment on what I was like as a child and what I'm like right now. The doctor who was in charge of the assessment came back surprisingly really quickly and diagnosed me with ADHD.
When I got the diagnosis I felt relief that I knew what it was that was causing me all of these past and present problems but anxious as this was a new diagnosis for me and needed to find ways to cope with it.
Luckily I have an amazing step mum who also has ADHD who helps and supports me with advice and encouragement and I feel that I can trust her with all the questions I have about ADHD.
After the diagnosis the family and friend support was incredible. My family and friends can finally understand me and support me and know how to help and support.
My work life was very very rough. My first job was at a garage and I was working on my own in the garage which probably didn't help with my timekeeping. My Second job was better than the first one at the garage and I worked at the CO OP where the staff were supportive but I kept making mistakes that cost me my job after 2 years.
Now I work in a care home as a catering assistant and I couldn't say a bad word about it. The staff knew how I was and supported me throughout to this day. I was told about my ADHD diagnosis in November 2025 and I was still working at the home. I spoke to my manager and she was super supportive and we wrote together a welbeing action plan to see what support work can do for me.
I was supported by this job via We Work For Everyone and had a job coach called Nikki who helped me to get started on the new job that I’ve had. She would call me to catch up with me and visit the home to see how I’m getting on at the home.
By writing this blog I hope that it will help other people with ADHD and raise awareness on the condition. I will be writing other blogs on my research of ADHD and DLD and hoping it’ll help other people learn and understand it and to get people to think more about ADHD and the struggles people face.
