So back in 2005, I saved up my own money, dollar by dollar, scrimping and saving every nickel and quarter, to buy my very first "just for me" video game- Devil May Cry 3. It was the first game I ever finished by myself, on my own, never having watched anyone else play it before. It was tough, and SUPER frustrating at points, but I loved it. The whole thing was a very special experience for me and that game holds an important place in my heart,
A few years after finishing it, I was talking to a friend who had just played it. He was saying how he dumped all of his orbs (game currency) into upgrading his minimum health pool and how he wanted to start over with a different build.
I stared at him. "Wait, what?" He repeated- he dumped all his orbs into increasing his minimum HP and just tanked a bunch of stuff.
That was when I realized that you could upgrade your minimum health. I had not noticed that you could spend orbs to do that. I spent them on everything else OTHER than upgrading my health bar. I literally spent so so so frikkin long beating the game with MINIMUM. HP. I WOULD HAVE HAD SAVED SO MUCH TIME AND ENERGY IF I HAD JUST FRIKKIN NOTICED THAT INCREASING MY MINIMUM HEALTH WAS EVEN AN OPTION. NO WONDER I HAD TO REDO THE SAME FIGHTS 20 TIMES. NO WONDER EVERYTHING WAS SO. DIFFICULT. I COMPLETELY just missed a crucial element to gameplay and specs and I basically played the game entirely incorrectly, exerting WAY more effort to get the same results as anyone who actually took time to examine the obvious upgrade options.
Anyway, that's what discovering that I have ADHD in my 30s has been like.

























