And when you become identifed in your neurodivergence or your chronic illness that disappears and you realize that, fuck, I'm actually not just going to be a normal person. This is something I'm going to have to balance my whole life. So while there's a lot of freedom, I guess there's also that loss of that little bit of hope that one day you will

She felt shame for one or more of several reasons: that she (1) had disappointed herself, (2) felt exposed in an unwanted way, (3) found her interest in other people to be unreciprocated, or (4) felt disconnected from her social environment.

The deep shame of adults with attention deficit predates any recollections of poor achievement. The association between low self-esteem and attention deficit disorder is not that the first arises from the second, but that they both arise from the same sources: stress in the parenting environment and disrupted attunement / attachment. Healthy develo