No Such Thing As Mild Autism | Ellie Middleton’s ADHD Diagnosis Journey
Вставка
- Опубліковано 13 лют 2024
- Ellie Middleton is proof that living with ADHD as a woman is a tough task. Let alone autism and ADHD in women combined. Adult female ADHD symptoms can vary from male symptoms - meaning women are often diagnosed with different conditions before receiving an adult ADHD diagnosis.
After dropping out of school, being misdiagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, and constantly feeling misunderstood, Ellie Middleton was finally diagnosed with Autism and ADHD.
Since then, Ellie Middleton, who you may know as Ellie Midds, has built a thriving online community of over 300,000 people, founded the groundbreaking Unmasked community for neurodivergent people, and worked with global brands like The Independent, Google, and LinkedIn to change the narrative on neurodiversity.
In this chat with Ben, Unmasked Ellie Middleton, talks about the lost generation of people who received their ADHD and Autism diagnosis in adulthood, why ADHD symptoms in women are slipping through the net and also delves into the benefits to those who self diagnose ADHD.
#autism #adhd #neurodivergent
On THE HIDDEN 20% - a Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Tourette's, Autism and ADHD Podcast - host Ben Branson chats with neurodivergent creatives, entrepreneurs, and experts to see how great minds... think differently.
Host: Ben Branson
Producer: Bella Neale
Video Editor: James Scriven
Social Media Manager: Charlie Young
Music: Jackson Greenberg
Brought to you by charity THE HIDDEN 20% 1203348
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2g80pw5...
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Website: www.hidden20.org
Instagram: / hidden20podcast
TikTok: / hidden20podcast
LinkedIn: / prismnd
Ben Branson: / seedlip_ben
This is all sooooooooooooo relatable. I love every bit of this talk. It's so incredibly relatable. It's an oddly new experience to see a setting of two ppl talking and it's not just mutual understanding but also relatable on the very personal everyday decision level.
It feels to me like diagnosis (and to a lesser degree, self-diagnosis) gives you
My parents hid it never told me, like it was a dirty little secret. How I found out is too long a story to go into, but now at 53 I am finally meeting the real me. Three years plus waiting list or two and a half thousand pound where I am, so cool if you can afford it as always.
I was pulled in by the deadline but then drawn away once she started using Intersectional language to describe the origins of ADHD studies. Now the whole conversation feels less credible from that starting bias. Instead of focusing on neurodivergent issues, people will only hear Men vs. Women and totally politicized the entire conversation. The lack of clinical evidence to make her points with speakers like this only fuels popular psychology as misinformation. Such a bummer. Gonna keep listening for any good bits just incase though. - Random ADHD/Dyslexic guy
As a GenXer we didn’t get diagnosed with anything. No mental illness, no disabilities (unless physically apparent). As a child I was labeled as shy, over active, disruptive, loner, distracted, gifted…….I struggled to make friends. I preferred to be alone, to read or play solitaire. For hours. I hated having my stuff touched or moved. I learned to mask at a really young age. Meltdowns were internalized because “tantrums” were punished. I wanted to be a good girl. I developed an eating disorder at 10 years old. I was diagnosed with ADHD at 48 and now I realize that I am also on the spectrum. I am rigid, black/white, struggle with transitions, prefer to be alone, struggle with socialization, struggle with focus, and mask like crazy so much so that I have no idea who I am. I know I am AuDHD because my 17 year old is and he said, “duh Mom, I have known for years.”
I take my meds the same way. When I know I need to get a lot done and I need to focus, I take my meds. When I know I don’t have deadlines, I don’t. HUGE difference. And yes, the mind is quiet.
As a GenXer we didn’t get diagnosed with anything. No mental illness, no disabilities (unless physically apparent). As a child I was labeled as shy, over active, disruptive, loner, distracted, gifted…….I struggled to make friends. I preferred to be alone, to read or play solitaire. For hours. I hated having my stuff touched or moved. I learned to mask at a really young age. Meltdowns were internalized because “tantrums” were punished. I wanted to be a good girl. I developed an eating disorder at 10 years old. I was diagnosed with ADHD at 48 and now I realize that I am also on the spectrum. I am rigid, black/white, struggle with transitions, prefer to be alone, struggle with socialization, struggle with focus, and mask like crazy so much so that I have no idea who I am. I know I am AuDHD because my 17 year old is and he said, “duh Mom, I have known for years.”
Those who can "mask" most of the time have little to no impairments. Always preaching there is no such thing as "mild" etc. Able to do things like public speaking etc.
I think a big part of educating people on our traits is a conversation involving empathy. For example, at 35, and as a woman, plenty of people have treated me when I was young as if I was not interested enough in romantic relationships in order to carry on the human species. But people interested in the well being of things outside of humans have empathy that is farther reaching than neurotypicals. Because, if for example bees went extinct humans would follow shortly after. So being obsessed with bees can save humans even if someone is uninterested in human relationships. Neurotypicals don't want to think about this because it hurts their feelings personally. And view us as some kind of Thor like comic book villains. But look at how much genocide is occuring, people brought to life just to be tortured, due to human activity causing climate change. And they say we are the evil ones for literally just understanding how much they hate themselves because of their homicidal and suicidal technology
More stress = more severe symptoms until I reach burnout and then I don’t function at all.
One of the jobs I loved most was when I worked in a library cataloging books & maps.
In my experience as self-diagnosed, after struggling to figure out my son’s struggles, I’m going to point a finger at schools for being the reason the “middle-class white boy” traditionally got the diagnosis. Schools are great at creating intolerable situations for autistic and adhd kids. So desperate parents (with the resources) take their “difficult” children to psychologists and therapists. Girls, in particular, often manage to not be a “problem” for the school system, so do not get the recognition or assistance they need. (hoping it is somewhat different now. I mean, there was nothing for different, awkward, difficult kids back in the 60s when I was suffering through school and life.)
“Let’s see how great minds think differently.”
I wish I had been diagnosed that young. I was diagnosed at age 57 and have written my own book 'Living with Autism Undiagnosed '
Got diagnosed myself as soon as I turned 18. Diagnosed again at 24 when my mom realised she might have it. Took the same meds and dose and brand whicj worked wondere. Suddenly I'm paying 93euros a month instead of 11eu🎉
Self diagnosing my autism has dramatically improved my mental health by just simply allowing myself to be autistic. Even after the shutdown that made me 100% sure, I am still researching and reading up to get a better understanding of my behaviours and what I am masking.
I also wanted to mention, I love what you’re doing! I watched the intro when it first came out and subscribed, but forgot about the bell and got excited when I saw all these videos all of a sudden
I feel like - from my self-diagnosed perspective, that it feels more like a series of dials that have a wide range across the population of ASD and ADHD ppl, and each individual has a range on each of those dials that might be the whole dial or might just be one spot and at any given point a person on the spectrum might have their dial for sensitivities etc turned to their max or to their min and it's all very personal and varies based on the settings on the other dials and other inputs. Like being overstressed due to circumstances out of our control, like chaos in our lives, a bad health week etc.
The evidence from genetic research seems to be pointing toward a large number of genes being involved in autism. It looks more and more like there are a large number of people who have some of these gene variations and will have strong autistic traits but not necessarily reach the formal diagnostic threshold.
I was diagnosed with Bipolar but not until I was 24. I had already failed out of high school and my Navy computer school too. I have to admit that the meds for Bipolar are very helpful to me. I wish there was some kind of financial support here in the States instead of just disability. I have been on disability for Bipolar for 23 years now. $900 per month is really not enough. I can't afford to go off of disability for another six years because then I'll be 65 and I'll be getting SS retirement. If I lose my Bipolar diagnosis now I lose my tiny disability checks. I hate not being able to work. Sometimes I'm unable to shower for over a week. I really hate that. I'm still trying to find the strength to work out, even just a little. Internally I'm still quite exhausted by life. When I was working I would get exhausted by noon. I couldn't go out at night. I'm married now and my wife loves me even though I'm Autistic. She has ADHD and is a member of MENSA which is why we never run out of things to talk about. People tell me that I have pretty privilege so I have to accept that even though I don't see it myself. I've learned how to be less blunt and that's one of the tougher things I had to learn in masking. I have absolutely no idea how to find other Autistic people near me. I live in a small town of roughly 5,000 and I'm 45 miles from Austin which is not a big city but it's the closest. Since I have bad anxiety while driving I can't just drive to Austin or Houston to hang out with people.