Same here. I was diagnosed at 38 and it was a relief. My whole life, I just thought I was quirky or something. I couldn’t understand why no one else thought the same way I do, bouncing between 5-6 independent discussions constantly rattling around in my brain at any given moment. Or why people didn’t have to mentally prepare and practice for routines in advance before everything they did. Or why they couldn’t focus solely on a task until it was 100% complete. (I have the hyperfocus type of ADHD, where nothing else appears to exist around me until my main task is completed)
Being able to put a definitive label to my “personality” helped me to understand my quirks and odd behaviors, and adjust to make myself more productive in my life and better at communicating with others. It was a relief to be able to finally know what’s going on with me and have options to improve myself.
In the end, I chose not to be medicated because my type of ADHD makes me highly productive. I’m afraid medication will just cloud my mind and make me only focus on one thing at a time instead of mentally multitasking. But knowing that I have ADHD makes me hypervigilant to my quirks and helps to ground me and pull me back when I notice I’m starting to lose myself in a project or discussion.
The common lingo originated from the movie The Matrix, where Neo was given the choice of taking the red pill and waking up in the real world, or taking the blue pill and staying in the fake fantasy that was his life.
4chan adopted the term and started calling themselves “redpilled,” claiming that they were removed from the happy fantasy promoted in popular culture (wife, kids, decent job, etc.) and could see life for the harsh, cruel reality it truly was.
The mindset spread to Reddit where a community popped up (r/theRedPill), espousing sexual strategies for men in a society where they felt sex was highly unattainable for their gender. It turned into a very misogynistic subreddit, hating on women who “could get laid anytime” and didn’t respect the plight of men who struggled for simple affection from the opposite gender.
Being “redpilled” took on a negative connotation, turning into a darker, conservative term to support men’s struggles in life while at the same putting down women. Its original meaning has been corrupted into a warped idealism for men. One could argue it’s promoting the opposite of its origin; fighting to create a fantasy world for men to flourish without effort instead of introducing them to the reality that their struggles are all self-inflicted and needed hard work, patience, and determination to overcome.
The term became well enough recognized that “_____-pilled” started introducing other concepts of being introduced to harsh truths in the world. In this case, blackpilled, meaning to give in to despair and depression in an uncaring, cruel world.