It's not just realizing there is a reason school was hard, it's realizing how dysfunctional everything else has been for you.....that is hard.

Many times when an adult is diagnosed with ADHD people imagine it solely feels validating and they are "psyched" to get the diagnosis. Sometimes this is when things vet the most depressing.

Suddenly you realize it wasn't normal to live in a house where everyone had "piles" of laundry in their rooms because folding was too hard.

You realize that this career path you picked was possibly something you did because of an untreated neurodevelopmental disorder.

You didn't need to take out that much student debt because the college was "really pretty," you didn't need to major in some random thing because it was "neat."

Maybe the great love of your life would not have left you due to your forgetfulness, emotional dysregulation, and so on. That hurts.

That is why many people assume people will get diagnosed and suddenly "feel better." As a specialist in this area I know that is not the case.

Many at this time will need therapy more than ever before and not even solely for the skills but the healing.

Which takes time