In Tribute to Myron Smith

Myron Smith was more than the accomplishments people saw from the outside. He was a husband, a father, a man of faith, and a person whose life demonstrated that a human being is never limited to the earliest version of himself.

Myron was driven, intelligent, deeply determined, and capable of achieving at a high level. His personal philosophy—“If it is to be, it is up to me”—captured the responsibility and persistence with which he approached life. He believed that change required action, and his life reflected a willingness to keep moving forward rather than allowing his past to write his final chapter.

But Myron’s story was not simply one of achievement. It was also a story of growth.

He was a man who examined himself, confronted areas of his life that needed to change, and made intentional choices to become better. Those changes were not merely visible in what he accomplished; they were experienced by the people closest to him. They could be seen in the husband, father, friend, and man he continued becoming.

Like many neurodivergent people, Myron possessed strengths that could make him exceptional while also carrying challenges that others may not have fully understood. His intensity, ambition, unique way of thinking, and determination were not separate from who he was—they were woven into the man people knew and loved.

To Angel, he was her husband and life partner. To Dallas and Skyler, he was their father. To those who knew him personally, he was not an abstract success story. He was Myron: genuine, complex, evolving, faithful, and deeply human.

Myron’s life reminds us not to reduce a person to their struggles, their mistakes, their diagnosis, or even their achievements. A person’s truest legacy is often found in the changes they fought to make, the people they loved, the lives they influenced, and the evidence they left behind that transformation is possible.

Although Myron is no longer physically present, his influence remains—in his family, in the people who carry his lessons, and in the conversations his life continues to inspire.

This episode is offered in honor of Myron Smith: the man he was, the man he worked to become, and the legacy that continues through those who loved him.

There's a Point Past the Pain

-Myron Smith ~aka Brother Pain

Chris Steindorf

chris@adhdcasefiles.com

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For more information, go check out the ADHD Case Files website

https://adhdcasefiles.com

In this episode of ADHD Case Files, Chris Steindorf sits down with Chris Stewart for a candid conversation about ADHD, identity, self-understanding, and what happens when the labels we carry for years don't tell the whole story.

Chris Stewart brings his own experiences and perspective into the conversation, offering an honest look at how ADHD can affect far more than attention or productivity. Together, Chris and Chris explore the impact of living without answers, the beliefs we develop about ourselves, and what can happen when we finally begin examining those beliefs instead of simply accepting them.

• Chris Stewart’s experience with ADHD and understanding himself differently
  Chris shares his perspective on recognizing ADHD-related patterns and how gaining greater understanding can change the way someone interprets their past.
• The labels we carry long before we understand the reason behind our struggles
  Chris discusses the impact of feeling misunderstood and how repeated experiences can gradually become beliefs about intelligence, capability, and personal worth.
• How ADHD reaches beyond focus and attention
  The conversation explores how ADHD can influence relationships, emotions, confidence, decision-making, work, and the way a person sees themselves.
• Moving from explanation to personal responsibility
  Chris and Chris discuss an important distinction: understanding ADHD isn't about creating an excuse for the past. It's about gaining information that allows you to make different choices in the future.
• Reexamining your story after discovering new evidence
  Chris Stewart’s contribution reinforces one of the central ideas behind ADHD Case Files: sometimes you have to go back and reconsider the conclusions you made about yourself before you had all the evidence.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Understanding ADHD can change the meaning you assigned to your past.
   The events don't change, but the interpretation can. Behaviors once viewed as personal failures may look very different when you finally understand what was happening underneath them.
2. Self-awareness creates an opportunity—but what you do with it still matters.
   A diagnosis or realization can provide answers, but growth begins when those answers are turned into intentional action.
3. You may need to question conclusions you've believed about yourself for years.
   Chris Stewart's story demonstrates why discovering ADHD isn't simply about receiving a label. It can become an opportunity to investigate your identity with better information.

“Sometimes the hardest thing isn't finding out you have ADHD. It's realizing how long you've been judging yourself without knowing the whole story.”

-Chris Stewart

Chris Steindorf

chris@adhdcasefiles.com

Connect with Chris on your favorite social media platform

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.steindorf.2025

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-steindorf-89a5363a6/

For more information, go check out the ADHD Case Files website

https://adhdcasefiles.com

A son’s lifelong struggle to understand his father — The episode begins with the emotional absence you experienced and the childhood conclusion that followed: “I will not become my father.”

How your ADHD diagnosis changed the evidence — Being diagnosed at 46 caused you to investigate not only yourself, but your father’s history, trauma, behavior, and what you believe was his undiagnosed ADHD.

The two conversations at your father’s deathbed — First, the hurt teenager finally confronts his father. Then you return as the grown man who can see both what his father failed to give you and what your father himself never received.

Breaking generational patterns instead of inheriting them — Your promise that “when you die, poverty dies with you” expands beyond money into identity, shame, silence, emotional disconnection, and generations of people believing they are defective.

Why ADHD Case Files is dedicated to your father — His unopened case becomes part of the mission: investigate behavior rather than simply judge it, give people language for what they're experiencing, and help others understand themselves while there is still time.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Understanding someone doesn't excuse what they did—it changes how you interpret the evidence.
One of the strongest ideas in the episode is your shift from asking “Why wouldn't you?” to “What if he didn't know how?” You preserve accountability while making room for understanding.

2. Patterns that aren't investigated can become identities that get passed down.
Pain, shame, silence, beliefs, and coping behaviors can travel through generations until somebody becomes willing to examine them. Your message is that inheritance doesn't have to determine continuation: “It can change with you.”

3. Your father's closed case became part of the purpose behind yours.
You can't give your father the understanding he never received, but you can use what his life taught you to help another father, son, daughter, or late-diagnosed adult understand themselves before their own case closes.

“Patterns that aren't investigated get inherited. Pain that isn't understood gets transferred. Beliefs that aren't questioned become identity.”

-Chris Steindorf

Chris Steindorf

chris@adhdcasefiles.com

Connect with Chris on your favorite social media platform

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.steindorf.2025

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-steindorf-89a5363a6/

For more information, go check out the ADHD Case Files website

https://adhdcasefiles.com

• Rewriting 46 years of a false identity — How being diagnosed with ADHD forced you to question the belief that you were dumb, lazy, incapable, or somehow less than everyone else.
• Investigating the voice inside your own head — Recognizing that years of mistakes, forgotten appointments, unfinished projects, and struggles had become “evidence” for a verdict that was never actually true.
• Learning who you are after a late ADHD diagnosis — Your deep dive into ADHD, psychology, CBT, NLP, trauma, habits, brain function, performance, and learning—not simply to understand ADHD, but to finally understand yourself.
• Discovering your value was there all along — Leaving a 19-year career and realizing that while you questioned your own worth, the people around you already recognized your ability to solve difficult problems quickly and accurately.
• Moving from masking to investigation — Why ADHD Case Files exists: to challenge assumptions about ADHD, imposter syndrome, masking, biology, nutrition, psychology, and identity by following the evidence instead of accepting old labels.

1. A diagnosis can explain your past without defining your future.
   Understanding ADHD can give new context to decades of struggles, but the more important question becomes: “What do I do now?”
2. The story you've been telling yourself may be based on incomplete evidence.
   When you repeatedly focus on mistakes and shortcomings, you can miss the abilities and strengths that other people have seen in you for years.
3. Understanding yourself requires investigation, not judgment.
   ADHD is only one piece of the case. Identity, learned beliefs, masking, environment, psychology, biology, and other factors deserve to be examined before reaching a verdict about who you are.

“I was reading because… I was trying to meet myself… for the very first time.”

-Chris Steindorf

Chris Steindorf

chris@adhdcasefiles.com

Connect with Chris on your favorite social media platform

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.steindorf.2025

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-steindorf-89a5363a6/

For more information, go check out the ADHD Case Files website

https://adhdcasefiles.com

The Mental Health Crisis That Changed Everything — The emotional collapse that ultimately led to a three-day inpatient stay and the decision to seek help.

How Lifelong Coping Patterns Affected My Relationships — How low self-worth, freezing under emotional pressure, and difficulty communicating followed from childhood into marriage and adulthood.

The Nurse Who Helped Me Start Asking Different Questions — Meeting Lilly and experiencing what happened when someone finally gave me the time, space, and questions needed to examine what was happening internally.

Discovering ADHD Behind My Communication Struggles — Realizing that what looked like not listening, avoidance, or shutting down could actually be difficulty processing communication in real time.

The Diagnosis That Opened the Case — Receiving an ADHD diagnosis and realizing it wasn't the end of the investigation—it was the first real clue toward understanding decades of unexplained struggles

3 Key Takeaways

1. A behavior and the reason behind that behavior are not necessarily the same thing.
What appeared externally as not listening, not caring, or avoiding communication felt internally like desperately trying to process and hold onto information. Understanding the mechanism doesn't erase responsibility—but it gives you somewhere productive to look.

2. Sometimes the breakthrough begins when someone gives you enough room to investigate.
Lilly didn't diagnose ADHD. She listened, asked questions, provided resources, and created enough space for the clues to start becoming visible.

3. A diagnosis can be an explanation without becoming the final answer.
The ADHD diagnosis changed the meaning of decades of struggles, but it didn't explain everything Chris was experiencing. Instead of closing the case, the diagnosis became the first real clue.

“I thought getting diagnosed was the end of the investigation. I had no idea… it was only the first real clue.”

-Chris Steindorf

Chris Steindorf

chris@adhdcasefiles.com

Connect with Chris on your favorite social media platform

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.steindorf.2025

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-steindorf-89a5363a6/

For more information, go check out the ADHD Case Files website

https://adhdcasefiles.com

• How childhood labels become lifelong beliefs — and how one person’s words can become a “verdict” we spend decades trying to prove.
• Living with undiagnosed ADHD and feelings of inadequacy — struggling with learning, confidence, imposter syndrome, and constantly wondering, “What’s wrong with me?”
• Being diagnosed with ADHD at 46 — the relief of finally having language, context, and understanding for struggles that had existed for decades.
• Why an ADHD diagnosis can be the beginning—not the end—of the investigation — recognizing that ADHD explained a lot, but didn’t necessarily explain everything contributing to how Chris felt and experienced life.
• Separating your diagnosis from your identity — questioning old conclusions, following the evidence, and refusing to close the case on your worth, capability, or potential before all the evidence has been examined.

3 Key Takeaways

1. A belief can feel like truth simply because you’ve spent years collecting evidence for it.
When a label becomes part of your identity, you can begin filtering everything through it—even dismissing evidence that contradicts what you believe about yourself.

2. An ADHD diagnosis can provide an explanation without becoming your entire identity.
A diagnosis can bring enormous relief, context, and compassion while still leaving room to investigate other influences on your experiences, behaviors, and struggles.

3. Don’t close the case on yourself too soon.
Instead of beginning with “What’s wrong with me?” begin with curiosity. Examine the evidence, question old conclusions, and remain willing to discover that the verdict you’ve been living under may have been incomplete.

3 Powerful Quotes From Episode 1

Chris Steindorf

chris@adhdcasefiles.com

Connect with Chris on your favorite social media platform

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.steindorf.2025

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-steindorf-89a5363a6/

For more information, go check out the ADHD Case Files website

https://adhdcasefiles.com

Welcome to ADHD Case Files.

Hosted by Chris Steindorf, The ADHD Detective, this podcast investigates the patterns, questions, research, experiences, and stories surrounding ADHD—especially for adults trying to better understand themselves.

Through conversations with experts, real-life experiences, and a willingness to follow the evidence wherever it leads, ADHD Case Files is about asking better questions before reaching conclusions.

Bring your questions. Bring your experiences. Bring the things about yourself that have never quite made sense.

The investigation is just beginning. Follow ADHD Case Files so you don't miss a case.

Chris Steindorf

chris@adhdcasefiles.com

Connect with Chris on your favorite social media platform

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.steindorf.2025

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-steindorf-89a5363a6/

For more information, go check out the ADHD Case Files website

https://adhdcasefiles.com