Sometimes I wonder how my life would have turned out if my parents hadn't believed this so strongly. I didn't even know. I never could finish anything I started, never accomplished anything I set out to do, never achieved any of the things I wanted for myself. From outside it looks like laziness and lack of ambition and I internalized that. It predictably led to a lifetime of depression and shame. Would I have started drinking if I had been medicated properly the first time adults around me noticed I could benefit from it? Could it have prevented the years of homelessness, mental institutions, and jails?

We'll never know of course. But decades later now that I have access to these medications I can actually achieve my goals enough of the time to feel ok about myself.

But yeah, complacency in school, totally.