”Damp- och bokstavstanter” - En narrativ analys av vuxna kvinnors upplevelser av att diagnostiseras med ADHD som vuxen

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to analyse how women describe their experiences of receiving an ADHD diagnosis as an adult. The study refers to adult women who are and received the diagnosis at an age over 18 years. The ambition is to discover if the women´s descriptions of themselves and their interactions with the surroundings differ before and after the diagnosis. The chosen method is a narrative analysis of adult women´s blogs where they retell their experiences of receiving a diagnosis as an adult. For the analysis we used the theoretical framework of Erving Goffman's theory of Stigma, George Herbert Mead's theory of social interactionism and Thomas J. Scheff's social/emotion theory. The results showed that the women with an ADHD diagnosis experienced a new understanding of themselves through knowledge about the diagnosis. This happened through the social interactions with professionals, as well as other people with ADHD who also are blogging about their experiences of having an ADHD diagnosis. The diagnosis therefore became a turning point in the women´s life. They received better self-confidence and learned new strategies for dealing with their challenges. Instead of seeing themselves as incapable of meeting other people’s expectations, they found the reason why and saw that their challenges were caused by their ADHD. The results also showed difficulties with being in different environments where ADHD is either accepted or not accepted. Depending on the environment, the women experienced either a sense of belonging and comfort, or stigma. This reflects the finding in previous research that there are conflicts in society if ADHD is an accepted or not accepted diagnosis. Therefore, the women diagnosed with ADHD must navigate these different opinions. Depending on the environment the women's understanding of themselves differentiates.