There's a specific phase after ADHD diagnosis that nobody prepares you for.

Not the relief of finally having language for it. The quiet withdrawal from things you'd been doing to compensate.

The job taken for the wrong reasons. The social commitments sustained from obligation. The version of yourself performed for years because it was the version that kept criticism away.

One by one, they stop seeming worth the cost. The resulting stillness looks like regression. It isn't. It's the scaffolding coming down.