When dealing with brain chemistry issues it can be really difficult to know that what we are experiencing isn’t “normal.” After all, we don’t have anything to compare to how we feel. ADHD is particularly hard to identify because it doesn’t develop later in life. Depression, for example has an onset. So there is an opportunity to compare how you feel when you are depressed with how you felt before you were depressed. Not to say that that is always easy. But I feel like we, as a society also have a better vocabulary to talk about depression.
As ADHDers we also get so much negative feedback telling us that we are lazy, unmotivated, not reaching our potential, that it’s hard not to internalize at least some of that. I guess my point is that you should trust yourself. How you feel is unique. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t valid.