Told my parents when i was a kid it feels like I have constant anxiety. Response? "you dont know what anxiety is, wait until your older" im older and still have constant anxiety, not sure what was supposed to change lol

And parents who have diagnosed mental illnesses:

I am sorry, that i passed it to you

I’m in my late 30s and I told my mom recently that I think I have adhd.

She reminded me that I took a test at a psych when I was like 18 and they said I was borderline adhd and that they could give me meds for it but I declined.

I completely forgot about that until my mom told me the story.

Hey, look, it’s me!

Thanks so much, Mom, for thinking that prayer and church are the way to fix things, not medication and therapy 🙃

As I kid I was having auditory hallucinations at night when trying to sleep. I tried to tell my mom: "That's because the house is haunted, you're hearing the ghosts."

...

Also, my dad built the house. No one else has ever lived there.

Yep, I used to get panic attacks, and I think the reason I used to hit my head on the wall when I was toddler age was likely related to Autism and ADHD. But it took until my early 40s to figure out that I had ADHD. And likely Autism as well though I didn't want that on my records if I decide to emigrate or something that is biased against it. And there's not really treatment available for adults with Autism anyway, but I don't really care to get rid of Autism. It's a big part of who I am. Just hard to find friends and jobs that will accommodate your needs or at least be accepting.

And parents without that issue: I too sometimes have trouble to concentrate.

Be me at 15, obviously depressed, mom: "I'm worried about you hanging out with (my partner at that time), they wear black and are weird, it seems like they are bad company for you!". Me at 35, still struggling with mental health problems and having recently got an ADHD diagnosis w/ autism traits, been to psychotherapy for 3 years because of trauma-related depression and anxiety, yet mom goes: "it must be the guy you hang around with in your teens!" (And has nothing to do with the trauma of being neglected as a child and raised by undiagnosed neurodivergent parents with their own traumas, as well as having lived with undiagnosed AuDHD and dealing with the consequences).

So damn that weird guy who wore black! I wish I had known better! Also can't be AuDHD, probably just want to use drugs or something, everyone has those same problems anyways! And they aren't really problems either, just similar to her "personal traits" or could be that I'm just not trying hard enough!

The other side of it is they threaten to call the authorities to hospitalize you whenever you "misbehave".

Schrodinger's Psychaitry: "you're lazy and pretending and there's nothing wrong with you" and simultaenous "you are a psychopath that need to be locked up and abused by hospital staff"

cuts the other way too

kid: I have difficulty focusing and chronic executive dysfunction, I think I might have adhd

parent: well all I need to do to get something done is want to do it therefore you're just lazy

Everyone thinks of gay guys

Could … be true!?

I don't know.