Angela MondorClickUp Verified Consultant, ClickUp · Operations consultant & ClickUp Verified Consultant for neurodivergent entrepreneurs

The Grief of a Late ADHD Diagnosis #Shorts

25 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:14

In this YouTube short, the speaker reflects on the stark differences between being diagnosed with ADHD early in life versus receiving a diagnosis later as an adult. She contrasts her daughter's high‑school diagnosis, which allowed for early support and reduced the need for self‑crafted coping mechanisms, with her own experience of navigating adulthood without any external guidance. The speaker likens the process of receiving a late diagnosis to moving through the stages of grief: confronting the realization that long‑held beliefs about oneself are inaccurate, re‑evaluating personal identity, and figuring out how the new understanding fits into her life narrative. The monologue emphasizes the emotional journey of self‑discovery and the necessity of developing survival strategies in a society that offered no accommodations for her earlier years.

Chapters

late diagnosed, I think it's very different. Like, my daughter was diagnosed when she was— I don't know, she was in high school at the time, but, you know, and I was 30, so I could calculate the dates. I'm not going to, but— But like, she got diagnosed early enough that she didn't have to come up with all of those coping mechanisms, right? She then was diagnosed, and then we started to make things better for her in terms of how she was moving through the universe. Whereas us being later diagnosed, nobody did that for us. Nobody helped us with it. So we had no choice but to find ways to survive in this society. Yeah. So I think that's really interesting. And, you know, I know that like, there's different ways that people work with their ADHD. There's different stages. I mean, I would say that Being late diagnosed with ADHD, there's almost like, it's almost like the stages of grief, right? Like you've gotta go through this whole concept of everything I knew about myself and my life is different than what is true. And now I have to figure out how does that now fit with who I am? Yeah.