Never. I felt like a fuck up who couldn’t finish tasks before. Now I have an adhd therapist and forums I read for support and help.

I can ask other people for tips on how to get things done better instead of just wondering what’s wrong with me and feeling like a loser.

This is much much better.

You’re over thinking this. Neither health insurance companies nor any employer that isn’t a complete pile of shit cares if you have ADHD. The only time an employer has even had an official record that I have it is when they have mandatory drug testing and mine comes back positive for amphetamines. If they ask about it at all, usually “I take Vyvanse for ADHD” ends the conversation and it never comes up again.

Do what’s best for your health and well being.

Unless your seeking work accomodations, your employer has no right to that information. The only exception might be for some government jobs.

I personally have never disclosed my diagnosis to an employer. I’ve even gotten some level of accomodations just by telling them it works best for my work style.

Don’t believe they can’t fire you for a disability. If the job description says that the job requires “attention to detail” or a “self starter” they can argue that accomodations aren’t possible.

Diagnosis is a relative thing. What do you mean, should you get diagnosed? Are you sure that ADHD isn’t mentioned in your psychiatrist’s chart? It might be hard for them to justify prescribing controlled substances in case of an audit if it’s not. Right now most pharmacies and insurance don’t require a diagnosis code to be sent to justify prescriptions, but it is something that’s starting to get traction as the industry modernizes, even if slowly. But the diagnosis may already be there and may or may not be in your chart. If it is, it likely will get out as insurance companies often require large amounts of information to be sent to them as they tend to just deny claims and say, “we need more information”, so the doctors have no choice but to send entire charts. Also, a lot of the big medical records systems tend not to have good security as well as the intermediaries that transmit data to insurance companies. There was just a big hack last year that shut down a whole bunch of systems due to the consolidation of various systems recently. Anyway, the only way to keep your diagnosis private is to ensure that your doctor doesn’t use electronic records and you don’t use insurance. Otherwise, it’s going to get leaked eventually, somewhere.

Now as to whether that information will be used to discriminate against you, that’s another story. It might be if you intend to emigrate and you likely will be excluded from high security clearance work due to general mental health discrimination in those areas. But otherwise, an employer is unlikely to go looking for the info, at least for now. Usually jobs didn’t require disclosing medical conditions unless they require high physical labor, security clearance, or some other very specialized work that is very sensitive, so YMMV.

And, if you’re in the US at least, the full repeal of Obamacare/ACA has stalled as conservatives have realized how bad that would hurt them. So it’s being picked apart piece by piece instead, and the preexisting conditions part is low on the priority list as it would be high on impact and thus very unpopular if done alone without hiding it in a larger repeal of the ACA.

Anyway, I had similar concerns and decided it was well worth the risk. I may want to emigrate some day, so I have been avoiding an Autism diagnosis, but that has no treatment options for adults anyway, unlike the ADHD. And I no longer have a job with security clearance, so no concerns there.

For reference, I’ve worked in medical billing and charting technology for a couple of decades and I’m currently a software architect for a major health insurance company in the US.

I was diagnosed about as early as my childhood memories go. As far as i can tell there has been no negatives to getting diagnosed, and it was instrumental in finding the only medication that has ever helped, which is adderall. Without that diagnosis, it was impossible for me to get adderall. As soon as i mentioned i was diagnosed, the pathway became almost easy. And if you have serious adhd issues, i would highly recommend adderall. Its seriously like a cheat. Its unbelievably wild to decide something needs to be done and just be able to do it. It honestly makes me very confused that people without adhd arent more successful, because adderall turned life into easy mode straight from suicidal depression because my life was a mess.

First off, how would anyone else ever find out? Second off, fuck anyone that judges you for it.