This woman was diagnosed with ADHD in her 50s. She says it shouldn't have taken so long
CBC
Robbie McDonald wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until she was in her 50s, but says she had always suspected she had the disorder, after years of difficulty with her career and escalating issues relating to "raw" emotions.
The 53-year-old Vancouver resident says she wasn't able to sustain a job for long periods of time, bouncing between journalism, filmmaking, arts, and event management.
McDonald considers herself lucky to have received a diagnosis last year, saying access to medication is tough for those without a doctor willing to prescribe.
"There was definitely a period of grief when I was first diagnosed. Of wondering what my life would have been like had I known about this when I was young," she told CBC News.
"Had my teachers, had my family known about it, we may have been able to create some structures that may have led me down a different path."
With October being ADHD Awareness Month, patients and doctors in B.C. are highlighting the stigma associated with the disorder and the difficulty accessing support.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder occurs in four per cent of adults worldwide, according to the Centre for ADHD Awareness. It is a chronic condition and can lead to an inability to properly regulate attention and emotions.
Intelligence regarding foreign interference sometimes didn't make it to the prime minister's desk in 2021 because Canada's spy agency and the prime minister's national security adviser didn't always see eye to eye on the nature of the threat, according to a recent report from one of Canada's intelligence watchdogs.