Harvard to Minimum Wage: My ADD Diagnosis Roller Coaster
by Aron Croft
There I was, 32 years old, broke, divorced, and earning minimum wage.
But I have a Harvard degree! What happened?
Maybe I should have seen this coming
In retrospect, the warning signs were everywhere. In third grade, my teacher gave me an award for “Best at Getting Around Doing Work.”
In high school, my family called me “Cliff’s Notes Aron” because I never made it through a single book to the end.
My behavior was seen as youthful disobedience since I still pulled off good grades.
On the inside, it was nothing like that.
It’s different on the inside
I longed to be able to sit down like my friends and write an essay before the eleventh hour. I envied the people who took meticulous notes. I dreamed of being able to study for a test over time instead of just cramming the night before.
But in the end, I got into Harvard. “Success!”, right?
No, my nightmare was just starting
At Harvard, I lost all the support systems that got me through high school. My parents, my friend group, and the structure of high school.
Hating college, I dropped out two times.
I only graduated due to the persistence of my family, fiancée, and Harvard.
Since I graduated from Harvard, “Success” now, right?
Six failed jobs and businesses later, I can say “no.”
So, there I was, 32, broke, divorced, and earning minimum wage.
Climbing out of the rubble
Motivated by the sheer terror of my new life situation, I started to rebuild my life and career.
But shortly after my 34th birthday, history began to repeat itself.
Three months into my new job, my boss told me I was underperforming. I talked a big game, but my actions didn’t back them up.
On the verge of yet another failed job, I panicked.
How my life changed
I had met some friends recently who talked openly about their ADHD.
ADHD never occurred to me as something I have, but then, I would not have thought these friends had it.
After my boss said I was down to my last straw, I went and saw a psychiatrist who diagnosed me.
How could I have ADHD?
The psychiatrist said it’s uncommon to see my level of academic success with ADHD. I explained all the workarounds that helped me achieve it. (My smart friends invited me to study with them; I leveraged Cliff’s Notes heavily; My natural intelligence fit well with high school tests.)
I explained the attention, focus, and procrastination issues I’ve had throughout life and their role in my latest failures.
He said that my non-hyperactive ADHD plus my natural intelligence and clever workarounds kept my disorder “under the radar.”
So, at 34, I had my diagnosis.
My life trajectory was forever changed
With treatment, for the first time in my life, I could sit down and work when I wanted to.
I couldn’t believe it!
Instead of having my employment threatened, I was starting to get good performance ratings.
In total, I racked up 4 promotions in a 6-year period. My current job is as a senior manager at a Fortune 500 company.
I also met an amazing woman and we got married at the start of quarantine over zoom.
We ADHDers are not lazy, unmotivated, or broken
I learned a lot these past seven years, recovering from my low point at 32.
I discovered we ADHDers are not lazy, unmotivated, or broken. We just have a different brain and “the most treatable disorder in psychiatry,” according to Dr. Russell Barkley.
I’m Aron Croft. I was diagnosed with Inattentive ADD — and my life changed! I created Hidden ADD to raise awareness about non-hyperactive ADHD, which is often “hidden” from view. I share the ADHD strategies I used to go from broke, divorced, and earning minimum wage to a career and life I love. My message to you is that things really can get better.
3 Comments
Aaron, your school experience has a familiar feel to me. I’m not hyperactive, and I was a good test taker, so I was always able to make good grades. But I always knew I was just doing the bare minimum and that I could have done way better if I hadn’t procrastinated so long on everything I was supposed to do. And dropping out of college several times — I did that, too. Took me 20 years to get that first degree. LOL! Thanks for sharing your story!
Linda and Aron – I feel like I’m similar. High performing but always procrastinating. College was definitely harder, and I have no idea how I got through some of my classes – I cannot even remember doing major projects. But my classes were tiny, and so I guess I was able to hold it together well enough. I graduated from Hopkins and got a Masters at Stanford. But have mostly felt that I am a fraud (since I don’t remember anything I learn or do), and I get stuck so easily with a lack of confidence. At 50, last year, I had a cognitive evaluation, and the psychologist insisted that I couldn’t have ADD because it was never caught when I was young, even though I gave him plenty of examples. My therapist and psychologist do see the ADD clearly though. I now take Vyvanse, along with meds for depression/anxiety, but I don’t feel the clarity and optimism that you both presented. I am wondering if I should give up, and take a job that doesn’t require intelligence, so that I can start to feel competent again, but I worry that if it’s not interesting, I’ll fail at that too, because I won’t be stimulated enough to try. I admire the guts it took Linda to sell everything and jump into a full degree program in her 40s. I dream of finding a job like Linda had – with the ability to draw on her various strengths. And I yearn for your self-confidence and optimism, Aron. I’m not sure if it will be a long journey to get to those places for me, and if I’ll believe it’s possible enough to stick to that journey and keep trying. Any words of wisdom?
Jen visit Dr amen 7 types of adhd. It has all the information including treatment. I followed him and I am now lot better.
Don’t rely just on medication. Exercise, diet, herbal medicine and supplement and some tips like time management, organized lifestyle and procrastination all work to gather.
My daughter is ADHD too. Ameen diagnosis is quite confirmed with her symptoms.
Try to study as much as possible about adhd. It will also help you greatly.
Stay optimistic and you will have magical life
Good luck
Sulman Ahmed