Good for you if your ADHD has not interfered with your ability to work. However, you paint with an awfully large brush.

All my life, I knew I was different. I had trouble making friends, was bored to tears in school, and was often bullied and scapegoated. There was something "wrong" with me and no one could put a finger on it.

At age 55 I stumbled upon an article about face blindness and realized that I had this condition and that it has severely hampered my life. Further reading connected faceblindness with autism and I found out that autism presents differently in females and my presentation was very typical of females. I printed out some peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, got a referral, and eventually a diagnosis.

My diagnosis opened many doors in my life. I had often been fired for "not fitting in," now I knew why. Moreover, with my diagnosis, I was in a protected class and could no longer be fired for this reason. I returned to college and finished my degrees in math and math education with the help of ADA accommodations. In the classroom, the students quickly realized that I was "different" and bullied me the same way they bullied their neurodivergent peers, so I established myself as a tutor with my local community college. I've been working there for ten years now, far longer than I've ever held a job before diagnosis. I went from being an outcast to being a highly respected team member.

My diagnosis was a godsend. Without neurodiversity awareness and acceptance, I would probably be dead by now.

Here in the USA, health care is very expensive. Many people cannot afford an assessment, so they must self-diagnose. While a self-diagnosis is insufficient to avail oneself of ADA accommodations, it can make a big difference in understanding and accepting oneself. For most of my life, I thought something was wrong with me. Now I know that my brain is wired differently, and that's ok.

F-MRI imaging has revealed that autistic folks' brains are organized differently from those of allistic folks. So it's not true that "everyone is neurodivergent." True, we all have our quirks. But most of us don't struggle with sensory processing and social interactions to the degree that it impacts our ability to support ourselves and live a decent life.

This article is a slap in the face to those who have struggled with being neurodiverse. I was an outcast, a pariah. My diagnosis set me free to live as a decent human being. And there are countless other people like me.