Heyo! Earlier today I found out it was both Ace Week and ADHD Month, and as someone that falls under both of these, I thought I'd go over my experiences. Ace Week: Formerly known as Ase*ual(not using that word as I don't know if it falls under the badword detector and incase it does, I like having an account) Week. Compared to grouping myself under the Lesbian title, Ace is relatively new. I didn't even know Ace was a thing until a few years ago. First: the difference between Aromantic 'Aro' and Ace. Aromantic is the lack of attraction. Ace is the distaste of (how do I world this to be kid friendly? If you /know/ what I'm getting at, you /know/). Even after I found out Ace was a thing, I was hesitant to apply the label to myself as to everyone else I 'was a late bloomer' or 'haven't found the right one yet.' Once I realized 'I don't care when it's other people, even if I hate when that topic comes up in a conversation. No one needs to hear that anyways. It's the fact I can't see myself doing that and feel nausous when it's brought up in the context of me.' Identified myself as Ace ever since. I can read it, I can hear about it, those thoughs cross my mind, just not for me personally in the end. My family seems to thing it's a choice because I want to, but it's not. It's more of a 'making these descision as it's what feels right and any other way makes me physcially ill and feels wrong' sort of thing. ADHD Month: Out of ALL my labels (Lesbian, Ace, They/them Demigirl, ADHD), this is the newest. Only added last month after I saw a therapist for the first time and was diagnosed with both 'preliminary ADHD' and 'preliminary Anxiety', with 'preliminary' meaning that more research would have to be done to recieve an official diagnosis. Mostly because there is no one-way to diagnose ADHD and symptoms vary from person to person and affect our lives differently. I was scheduled for a second appointment, but the Therapist's office decided to 'loose' our appointment which angered my family, the lead member of which was already against seeing a therapist in the first place, so that put the nail in the coffin and I was never rescheduled. Seeing as the therapist was able to connect some of the symptoms of ADHD to reoccuring aspects of my behavior and tendencies, myself and the rest of the family agree with the ruling. Another reason I stopped going was out of fear of the medications. We're not Anti-medications people, it's just the fact that: A) my cousin who has ADHD had a bad reaction to the first medication he was put on and B) I already take SO MANY medications(2 allergy injections a month as I'm allergic to most things on this planet and even hugging a tree could off me easily, 2 vitamin C a morning to prevent kidney stones, an additional allergy pill at night, and additional Advil+pain+nausea meds when I do get Kidney stones) to keep me functioning as is, we fear they might clash with some NASTY side effects. My personal symptoms include: -getting distracted by anything and everything(usually lizards and birds) -sudden bursts of energy+inspiration that leave me jumping project-to-project that I VERY RARELY finish one -Heavy procrastination, even on things I DO want to do -Hyperfixation(Sharks mainly, sometimes I just get sporadic urges to look up unorthadox things that have nothing to do with what I'm /supposed/ to be doing. Once I get 'in the zone' with something like a video, drawing, 3Ds, or Switch I can hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing. You can yell at me several times and I will have no idea you even called me once.) -Walking into a room with a to-do list in my head, only to walk in the room and forget all of it -Mind running a million mph when I'm trying to get to sleep -self destructive behavior because my hands need to be doing /something/ at ALL times. Doing schoolwork in general has been VERY hard for me this past year. In the past I was so focused on my studies that I would catch myself focusing on something else and force myself to get back to work. But over the past few years when I've been trying to take it easy after a period of severe burnout last year, that control has relenquished and it's a pain to get anything done at all now. Basically I didn't show signs of ADHD until about a year ago as I learned to cope without knowing what exactly I was coping with, I simply chalked it up to being a kid that didn't want to do homework. I have noticed that I can finally focus between 8-11 pm. Basically my brain get so tired y slows down to the point where I can wrangle my thoughts were they need to be. It's when I get most of my schoolwork I get done in a day completed. Consider 6am-8pm wasted on doodling, chatting over a google doc with my friend that goes to another school(she/they go to a public school while I'm doing virtual), or good ol' YouTube. I'd like to go back one day to get an official diagnosis and maybe some help. It'd be nice to get things done again.
