When the Ground Shifts Beneath You (ADHD, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder and Anxiety)

For most of my adult life, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what was going on with me. I was  diagnosed with ADHD about 8 years ago and what my doctor at the time believed was depression about 3 yrs ago.  Medication helped — at least for a while — and I did my best to manage the ups and downs that came with both.

But as time went on, something started to shift. What had once been manageable began to feel heavier. My energy dropped. My motivation disappeared. The smallest tasks felt impossible.

And instead of feeling better with each medication adjustment, I started to feel worse. The more my medications increased, the more unstable I became. My moods swung from deep lows to unexpected highs. My mind raced one day and felt foggy the next.

I started to wonder if I was doing something wrong — or if maybe I was just broken in some way that medicine couldn’t fix.

It was confusing. Frustrating. Scary.

I trusted my doctor. I followed every instruction. But the harder I tried to “get better,” the more lost I felt. 2 yrs ago, after more conversations, new evaluations, and a lot of reflection, I received additional diagnoses.

When the doctor mentioned the words bipolar 2 disorder, ADHD, anxiety, and PTSD, all at once the floor crumbled underneath me.

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I will be the guest on a show hosted by my friends Dawn Helmrich Neuburg and Neil Parekh, “Shining Light on Shadows: A Candid Conversation About Mental Health.” Ep. 38 will focus on how a new mental health diagnosis can change everything you understand about yourself. It will be livestreamed Thursday, October 23 at 6pm CT / 7pm ET. You can watch the live show or recording on Facebook, Twitter*, LinkedIn, YouTube or Instagram.

*We won't know the exact urls for Twitter or Instagram until we go live on Thursday. For now, these links go to Neil's Twitter and Dawn's Instagram. You can also watch the live show or recording right here. (But if you want your comments to be visible on the show, click on one of the links above.)

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While part of me felt relief, another part of me felt grief. Grief for all the years I’d been trying to fit into a story that didn’t quite match. Grief for the times I blamed myself for symptoms I couldn’t control. Grief for the energy it took to keep going when I didn’t even understand what I was up against.

Getting multiple diagnoses as an adult isn’t just about understanding your mental health — it’s about rewriting your story while you’re still living it. It’s disorienting. It’s emotional. And it’s often hard to know which way is up.

When I first heard those new words — those new labels — it felt like my world was closing in on me. Everything I thought I knew about myself suddenly felt uncertain. How do you move on after hearing all this? Who do you turn to when you are so scared?

Sometimes the support comes from unexpected places. This support came from my son — my son who experiences his own mental health challenges.

We’d had some very difficult years before understanding his diagnosis, and honestly, I thought our parent–child bond was lost. But at that moment, something shifted. He was the one who grounded me.

What amazed me most wasn’t just his knowledge… but his empathy.

He didn’t lecture me with facts or minimize my feelings with “you’ll be fine.” He leaned in, gently, sharing his own lived experiences.

That conversation brought us closer in a way that’s hard to describe. It healed something that had been broken between us — not through perfection, but through understanding.

I’m still learning how to hold all of this with compassion. Some days are easier than others. But I’m starting to see that this process — as messy and uncomfortable as it is — is also an invitation.

An invitation to know myself more deeply.

To show up with honesty, courage, and empathy.

For myself.

And for the people I love.