When I was a kid, I was punished excessively. My diagnosis occurred when I was 25. In the 1980s, I got paddled every day at school and was punished constantly. It made me feel rejected, leading to rejection sensitivity dysphoria. By the time I was 9, I decided life was not worth living and have not changed my mind at 45 years old. I would never have a child to suffer the way I did. I still feel like nobody wants me around. My mental health issues have severely impacted my quality of life. I'm just now figuring out that this might be why I have never felt my clock tick, or thought for even a second of my life that I wanted kids.
Has this happened to anyone else? I wonder how many in this forum might have decided against parenthood due to ADHD effects without realizing it.
I relate to the excessive punishment sho, I was kicked out of multiple schools, even though I didn't do too bad academically. But my thoughts on having children, as much as I've thought about it as an idea, not ever seriously, it's something that obviously requires all of your time, effort and a huge commitment, and I worry about whether I am actually able to raise my yute the way I would want myself to, as much as we'd all want to raise our kids to achieve the things we weren't able to.
I understand how me having ADHD makes my future kids more genetically predisposed to having it as well, but I personally worry less about that than how I myself am able to raise them, since having ADHD myself I'd be able to pick up symptoms much earlier and try my hardest give them the support I never got for most of my childhood.