My story blew up into infinity. It's not ADHD-friendly. I'm keeping that one in my journal. It went like:
female, in mid 20's, STEM grad student
recently diagnosed with ADHD
IQ is 140-something, 120~130 when depressed
elementary ~ high school: great grades, winning math competitions, many random awards, college classes, gifted programs...
fidgeted, doodled, threw paper balls at the teachers and other students, juggled erasers during classes... most of it did not get addressed.
extreme procrastinator
tiger mom kept me on track
got depressed young
got into a prestigious college, but was getting like 2.5 GPA there
impostor syndrome jet fueled my depression. I stopped functioning, got suicidal & etc., took a leave of absence to work on my depression
got back to college, took classes I already knew to get my GPA above 3.0.
got into a fast-paced research group with multiple papers on the way all the time and 2~3 meetings a week. The constant sense of urgency was pleasant and stimulating. It went really well and I got a stellar recommendation letter.
depression is completely gone by then
graduated with GPA of 3.1... or was it 3.2? I forgot.
got into a nice grad school, top 3 in my sub-field
my cognitive function still felt really off. I thought it was from the depression, but maybe it's not...?
things were falling apart rapidly
ran to the student mental health center
went through CPT, survey forms, and diagnosis sessions
got diagnosed with ADHD
That's still really long :(
The walking issue you mention is interesting! I used to walk weird, too. When I walked, my knees rotated the wrong way and my lower leg moved in an arc, not a straight line. I've seen other non-athletic girls do this when they run, so maybe it's more of a female joint thing? I found out about it when I was walking towards a glass gate one day :) I think I got it fixed now.