Tuning out the static: It took 40 years before I found out that I have ADHD | Tom Hawking

It's hard not to wonder how things like jobs and relationships might have turned out differently had I been medicated all along

In retrospect, the signs were there all along. Difficulty concentrating, especially on things that didn't interest me. Awful short-term memory. A complete inability to keep track of time. Lack of emotional self-control. And so on.

Nevertheless, it took 40 years before someone realised that I might have ADHD. That person was my psychologist, who I started seeing after a particularly rough patch in life involving a relationship breakup, the loss of both parents, and losing the job that had kept me in New York for most of the 2010s. Back in Australia, with a lack of both direction and motivation, I found that it was harder than ever to concentrate - less than ideal for a writer who's found himself newly marooned in the self-directed world of freelancing.