It’s so fucked up how depression is a natural consequence of untreated ADHD in women, yet it’s not widely recognized by the mental health community. Honestly, it’s the same with trauma. I’m a trauma therapist. People will come to me with “treatment-resistant depression,” having tried TMS and ECT, and every med under the sun. And we start digging… bam, trauma. Treat the trauma, and depression slowly starts to improve.

Makes me think we should routinely screen women with depression for 4 things: ADHD, thyroid issues, bipolar disorder, and trauma. Treatment plans would look wildly different for those cases.

This is such bullshit, I’m so sorry you went through that. Of course, it’s us “fragile” and “emotional” women and not differences in brain structure. And to say that your symptoms are a way to garner attention… how dismissive. As a mental health professional, this makes me angry, sad, and many other things.

I completely understand you wouldn’t want to go through that again. It would be easy for me to say “don’t give up, keep trying,” but I know it really depends on the area you’re in and what insurance you have or what you can afford out of pocket - not to mention this experience. Makes me realize I got lucky with my psychiatrist, and I will be grateful for that.

Edit: unrelated, but I love your pixel art!

If this resonates, it might be a good idea to get assessed. Of course, it’s up to you if you want to seek out diagnosis or not, but for me it was a big deal to know something was actually different about me. And then the meds really helped. I wouldn’t be able to run my own business without them. I was even able to go to grad school and do really well. I’m saying all of this to let you know that even if you do have ADHD, you can still live a good life. I have shitty days, but overall my life is much better than before I got diagnosed.

I’ll leave this here: