After years of wondering, going back and forth, and putting it off, I’ve finally got an appointment set up to get evaluated. I set the appointment about two weeks ago and it’s tomorrow, I even did all the paperwork already! Is there anything I should know, or consider going in?
My advice is you’re not broken, or dysfunctional. Take the meds if they help you, and if they don’t, that’s also fine.
I took the meds and went to therapy. The meds helped but caused other undesirable side effects as well as anxiety. I tried all of them with same results. My therapy ended up focused on making me understand I’m not broken or worse than other people.
Now I’m off the meds and doing better than ever because I finally understood my forgetfulness and other adhd symptoms are only a problem to others. I’m a functional adult, remember the important things, make effort when I can and I’m allowed to make mistakes. Others need to adjust and understand more than I do.
I am not saying that I don’t care about others, or how my adhd affects them, because I do. I make so much effort to mask and to please, that it causes me pain and anxiety. I had to learn to be nicer with myself, to allow mistakes and see that others make mistakes too. Now that I have accepted that, the forgetfulness got better too, because my confidence is higher and my anxiety is almost gone.
Hope this helps
My wife described part of the test as:
Doc: do you struggle with <simple task>?
Pt: No, not at all because I have <overly complicated system> that makes <simple task> easy for me! <explains in great detail>
Doc: congratulations, you have ADHD
P00ptart for every question that you want to answer “no, because <specialized system that took years to figure out>”, instead answer “yes, which is why I have to <specialised system that took years to figure out> just to manage”.
My version:
Doc: do you struggle with
<simple task> ?
Pt: No, not at all because I have
<overly complicated system> that makes
<simple task> easy for me!
<explains in great detail>
Doc: congratulations, you do not have ADHD, have you tried setting phone reminders?
Me and my 4 nested to do list system both agree.
everything inside the angle brackets is not displaying for me, just FYI
Keep us updated!
I will, I don’t know how long it takes after the evaluation to be fully diagnosed and on meds or anything, but I’ll put up any information I get tomorrow.
@P00ptart don’t mask.
Exactly this. I did mine a few months ago and was one point off being officially diagnosed. In the follow with the doctor (who luckily is a great guy and my GP who I’ve known for a few years now) it would seem my masking and steps I learned to mitigate the issue were the reason I didn’t make it.
For one example, out of many, I couldn’t say I routinely lose things like my keys - I talked openly about my natural tendancy to but because I had mitigated it, it was not impacting my life. My keys, walker etc, always go straight in a certain pot as soon as im home, my computer stuff goes into one place, which even though it’s a mess of a pile, means I can find them, my phone is always left pocket and keys/wallet right pocket, and before leaving anywhere I have learned to naturally tap them (by the way, the amount of times Ive shat myself because ive been on a call when leaving them tapped my now empty left pocket before realising is insane!).
Luckily, he is willing to try the medication regardless and said to retry the diagnosis in 6 months.
That will be tough. I’ve been doing it so long.
Maybe rehearse some of your difficulties/oddities. Being too fast to reply and omitting too much details cost me.
Make a list, especially if you can think of any “why do you do that” things that other people (or you) have said to you. Talk to the doc about the things you hate and love about yourself and others. Be honest, and realize that things that seem normal to you could all be symptoms you’ve just gotten used to. The older you are, the more likely it is.
Sometimes I stop eating something not because I’m satiated, but because I’m tired of chewing. I randomly mentioned that once and my doc said “That might be one of the most ADHD things I’ve heard.” Of course there’s a laundry list of other things.
Ha! I do that too! “It’s not good enough and I’m bored with this food.” Fuck, maybe I should’ve started a list a while ago.
Realizing now that you should’ve started then? Sounds like another thing to write down. Especially if you’ve been telling yourself you need to do it every couple of hours.
For some reason I thought this was in the Dull Men’s Club community and had no idea what this was about
Lol it certainly could go there as well if I elaborated more.
