Unless your seeking work accomodations, your employer has no right to that information. The only exception might be for some government jobs.

I personally have never disclosed my diagnosis to an employer. I’ve even gotten some level of accomodations just by telling them it works best for my work style.

Don’t believe they can’t fire you for a disability. If the job description says that the job requires “attention to detail” or a “self starter” they can argue that accomodations aren’t possible.

It’s always better to have more relevant data, in my book.

First off, how would anyone else ever find out? Second off, fuck anyone that judges you for it.

Diagnosis is a relative thing. What do you mean, should you get diagnosed? Are you sure that ADHD isn’t mentioned in your psychiatrist’s chart? It might be hard for them to justify prescribing controlled substances in case of an audit if it’s not. Right now most pharmacies and insurance don’t require a diagnosis code to be sent to justify prescriptions, but it is something that’s starting to get traction as the industry modernizes, even if slowly. But the diagnosis may already be there and may or may not be in your chart. If it is, it likely will get out as insurance companies often require large amounts of information to be sent to them as they tend to just deny claims and say, “we need more information”, so the doctors have no choice but to send entire charts. Also, a lot of the big medical records systems tend not to have good security as well as the intermediaries that transmit data to insurance companies. There was just a big hack last year that shut down a whole bunch of systems due to the consolidation of various systems recently. Anyway, the only way to keep your diagnosis private is to ensure that your doctor doesn’t use electronic records and you don’t use insurance. Otherwise, it’s going to get leaked eventually, somewhere.

Now as to whether that information will be used to discriminate against you, that’s another story. It might be if you intend to emigrate and you likely will be excluded from high security clearance work due to general mental health discrimination in those areas. But otherwise, an employer is unlikely to go looking for the info, at least for now. Usually jobs didn’t require disclosing medical conditions unless they require high physical labor, security clearance, or some other very specialized work that is very sensitive, so YMMV.

And, if you’re in the US at least, the full repeal of Obamacare/ACA has stalled as conservatives have realized how bad that would hurt them. So it’s being picked apart piece by piece instead, and the preexisting conditions part is low on the priority list as it would be high on impact and thus very unpopular if done alone without hiding it in a larger repeal of the ACA.

Anyway, I had similar concerns and decided it was well worth the risk. I may want to emigrate some day, so I have been avoiding an Autism diagnosis, but that has no treatment options for adults anyway, unlike the ADHD. And I no longer have a job with security clearance, so no concerns there.

For reference, I’ve worked in medical billing and charting technology for a couple of decades and I’m currently a software architect for a major health insurance company in the US.

Do you want/need medication? If so, an official diagnosis will help. If not, it’s probably not worth it, unless it’s going to put you at ease.

In my case, official diagnosis really fucked me up for a while, as I could no longer deny the things I’d spent a lifetime denying/ignoring/making excuses for. It made me feel broken in a way that can’t ever be fixed.

Eventually, I got over that, as I realised I and everyone else is “broken” in a thousand little ways, and I was placing way too much emphasis on one aspect. But, still, it took me a while to get to that point.

Given that I don’t really use ADHD meds (adult ADHD is very gatekept), I’m not sure formal diagnosis has done much to help me. But aside from the initial burst dam of negative feelings, it hasn’t done much to hurt me either.

I was diagnosed about as early as my childhood memories go. As far as i can tell there has been no negatives to getting diagnosed, and it was instrumental in finding the only medication that has ever helped, which is adderall. Without that diagnosis, it was impossible for me to get adderall. As soon as i mentioned i was diagnosed, the pathway became almost easy. And if you have serious adhd issues, i would highly recommend adderall. Its seriously like a cheat. Its unbelievably wild to decide something needs to be done and just be able to do it. It honestly makes me very confused that people without adhd arent more successful, because adderall turned life into easy mode straight from suicidal depression because my life was a mess.

Are you working a job where you being diagnosed could get you being fired? Are you in a country where that is legal? Being diagnosed can be an amazing but if ethier of those are true it’s likely that you should wait until you are not in that situation and work on getting out.

I was diagnosed as a child. I don’t… I don’t think I would have a lot of the coping strategies I do have or be as functional as I am if I weren’t (even though I’ve never been on meds). I suspected being medicated would be better (I am also in my 40’s), but at the same time it is very hard to get past my executive dysfunction in that regard. I think I also worry that being medicated will help very little/not at all and my expectations will be shot to hell.

I don’t know if this perspective helps at all.

But for what it’s worth, being diagnosed may afford you some other support systems that might help you at work and in your professional life.

Makes no sense to me avoid getting official recognition honestly, what are your specific worries? Thinking about something practical, if you want to get medicated you have to get a diagnosis, so it mainly depends on that I guess

I had/have a childhood diagnosis, and wish I had some record of it (parents destroyed their copy of my medical records at some point, it wasn’t malicious so I’m not too mad at them, but its still gone and that sucks) because it supposedly helps with adult diagnosis. Which i would very much like to get my life together.

Now that I’m thinking about it any privacy aspects are a moot point because the childhood diagnosis would have been from a DoD doctor, so the US government already has that data if they actually go the route of “wellness camps”… so i really should have been pursuing diagnosis this past year regardless of my own paranoia.

Edit: none of that actually answered a question! Sorry lol

Official diagnosis means (generally) not having to through a song and dance routine any time you get a new doctor or move to a different place, explaining why you should be given a controlled substance to function like a “normal” human being.

I’m assuming you’re in the US because odds are. Still it’s a good idea to mention where you are because my situation and the implications of an official diagnosis for me were very different from what they are for you.