Thank you for being so civil and understanding, I appreciate it.

And I know that is not fair to my friends and family - I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until I was an adult (as is common with women because we’re not “typically” hyper like boys when we’re young). As a result, I didn’t know what this was and I often got told by others how disrespectful it was to always be late. I took that seriously and tried to fix the problem - extra alarms/reminders, every physical and electronic calendar/alert thing I could find. I would write dates and times on my hand because I knew I was guaranteed to see it (but showers screw that up if I don’t remember to add it when I get out; I keep a pen and a sticky pad in the barhroom).

None of it works; my mom and SO collaborate and told me things were 30 mins earlier than their actual time so that I wouldn’t be late.

The best I could figure for events that day is that I consistently underestimate how long it will take me to get ready - ADHD also means you have to spend an equal amount of time searching for items you planned to wear/bring because they’re never where you thought they would be…ever.

The other thing for “day of” is *overestimating” how much time exactly 5 mins, 10 mins, etc actually takes to pass, so I always think I have more time than I actually do. It’s weird and frustrating & has cost me a lot of money in just late doctor appointment fees alone over the years.

I don’t know what else I can do at this point - my brain just doesn’t have the capability to keep time straight like other people do. It impacts my work life, social life, relationship life, family life, school life, etc. Is that a bill I need to pay? Yep. Is it due now? Nope…boom it goes into the abyss of “stuff in the future/not now”. It can be debilitating sometimes; luckily my partner is neurotypical and takes care of a lot of it for me. If they weren’t around, I would have to get some sort of personal assistant just for personal life duties. And that’s embarrassing to admit because I’m well into adulthood and have a “good” job with a lot of responsibilities. That’s why I typically never mention it at work.

The upside of ADHD people, is that our relationship decay modifier tends to be low or zero; meaning I can go a year or more not talking to someone and still be just as happy to see them as if we'd be regularly hanging out that whole time. I know it sucks for people on the other end (if they're not ADHD; if they are, well, they're probably the same way as me), but I legit forget people exist. I don't notice time passing until I do, and then I start to panic because I realize how much time I've spent doing nothing. Then eventually something takes my mind off that and I go back to not realizing how much time is passing.

I've got a double whammy, ADHD and medical issues. But my coping mechanism for ADHD scheduling is calendar entries with multiple reminders. It's hard to learn new habits, but I wouldn't let another ADHD person use it as an excuse more than a couple times before I just moved on. As for medical issues, they're generally in the morning and I usually plan afternoon or later so if I have to cancel there is a bit of advance notice.

We know that, and we hate it, but that doesn't make the problem go away. Shit sucks for us, too, and getting yelled at for it doesn't make anything better. It's why a lot of us will just limit our circles to people who understand from direct experience, and not make plans with people who don't have the 'flake' trait.