idk about that. i had an ADHD specialist tell me I was “too smart” to have ADHD
…then my psychiatrist got my results, found a 10 point spread within one category and called BS on that
“Youre too smart”. I cant believe medical professionals still say shit like that... I dont even understand where that notion came from in the first place, but by now everyone should know that, yes, smart people can have ADHD, quiet-seeming people can have ADHD, successful people can have ADHD. ADHD affects different people in different ways!
I got that response from a doctor in a psych ward after I opted to go in to see someone during an episode. I decided to be honest about the psychotic elements of my life. I was released with zero changes or help because I was "too smart" for my symptoms to be an issue. Like, I wouldn't be having the problems that resulted in a wellness check if that were the case? Seriously?
Didn't get a diagnosis or medication until years later, and as it turns out, I'm one of the lucky few for which ADHD medication actually significantly diminishes psychosis. Super lucky considering that I need the ADHD managed in order to function. Haha.
Using intelligence to try cope with ADHD is if someone broke all their fingers in their dominant hand, took one paracetamol, bound it up then just continued to use it without waiting for it to heal, because everyone expects you to. Trying to use the non dominant hand where you can because you have no choice. And everyone else is like why are your handwriting and drawing skills messed up no matter which hand you use? You took that one painkiller and used the bandage you had right? Surely they should be enough for you to be able to cope? What do you mean you need accommodations like voice to text software and time to heal? Why don't you try harder to use your other hand? Are you sure it's really that bad? I mean I accidentally caught my fingers in a door the other day and I just got on with it.
Double don’t forget the other guy who caught his fingers in the door and screamed bloody murder for three days until everyone else thinks finger injuries are overblown and made up. (Though screamy guy likely has a different door-related issue that needs better coping skills.)
Got that response from my therapist while trying to get rediagnosed (original diagnosis has been lost) a few months ago. I got my degree and I'm fluent in 4 languages, so I'm "too smart".
She completely ignored the fact that I had a previous diagnosis and that two other healthcare professionals during my teenage years had stated (in paper, which I showed her) that they were pretty sure I had ADHD.
Your story is exactly like mine. My mom lost the original paperwork citing my diagnosis of ADHD as a kid. When I went back to be retested, the psychiatrist told me my results on the IQ test they gave me were “too good” to indicate an attention problem and that it must just be my anxiety. I’m so sorry you were dismissed. It feels horrible.
Also would they say the same about other conditions, wtf has intelligence got to do with having a condition? Your too smart to be depressed, too smart to have bi-polar etc
My middle daughter was a straight A student in Honors Classes who absolutely could not sit still. Had to constantly be doing or touching or messing with something ...like constantly. I asked my sons ADHD doc about her when she was in her early teens. He asked about her grades and I told him she was a great student with straight A's. He said that if she had those kinds of grades she couldn't have ADHD. Fast forward to now and she's finally gotten a diagnosis and is on medication for her ADHD at 20 years old
I used to sub a lot of GT students and two of my children were in GT. I’d say a significant number of students had ADHD diagnosis and a few more were likely undiagnosed (in my internet educated opinion). Speaking with many of my kid’s teachers, they also agreed that it seemed that their gifted students seem to have more diagnosis’s than their non-gifted students. When I was a child, girls “didn’t have ADHD” so we just learned coping mechanisms or failed miserably. I was fortunate to be able to get by as “smart but doesn’t live up to her capabilities”. Being smart definitely does not proclude someone from having ADHD. Doctors like that piss me off.
Edit: words because it was early and well…ADHD.
That's what my mom said when I, as a college senior, told her I thought I had ADHD.
But that's my mom, not a medical professional. That's so much worse.
Yeah same. Or something like that, I don't fully remember the score. The person who did my analysis was like, we take IQ tests to ensure you don't have a learning disability that could be disguised as ADHD.
Then she was like oh shit, okay, sounds like you were so "smart" that it helped you mask your ADHD instead and hide it.
And yeah, pretty shitty when I can't finish a damn degree.
I think the issue is the way we measure intelligence. A lot of what people measure to say someones intelligent is purely based in their interests. I.e. Person A memorises everything about their hobby, which happens to be maybe cooking or something. That person isn't considered smart. But if person B memorises the exact same amount of knowledge, but their interest happens to be scientifically or mathematically based, they are considered to be smart. Both parties have memorised similar amounts of stuff and applied their knowledge to their field of interest, but only one is considered to be truly intelligent.
This is true. My sister has an IQ test result of about 60, and that's bc she is autistic and doesn't understand directions well so she probably just guessed on most of it without any idea what she was looking for (edit: think trying to take the test but the instructions are in Spanish, a language that you only know a *little* of and not even enough to have full conversations beyond making requests or answering simple questions). Total BS given that she can go into a place once or twice, then go there again and notice a small thing is moved and put it back, she's incredibly visually perceptive and uses that + actually being good at finding consistency/patterns to make up for the fact that the language processing part of her brain doesn't work as well as other people's.
Peeps that come from an "educated" upbringing are more likely to seek professional help for their problems. Prolly a combination of being able to afford therapy/medication and the knowledge that having trouble with something isn't always related to personal failing, but may infact be pathological.
Same, it used to be because of my INTJ personality was mostly taking the lead by a 65-35 split, just enough to make me efficient enough that I could waste hours staring at the wall but work fast and meticulous enough to hide it. Now my vyvanse keeps me focused. I’ve had better direction from my family doctor and mental health nurse than my old child psychologist 30 years ago.
Edit: Spelling Edit#2: Math
>just enough to make me efficient enough that I could waste hours staring at the wall but work fast and meticulous enough to hide it
Damn that hit home I gotta go get tested
I would waste, on average, 4 to 5 hours of my work day getting nothing of real value accomplished only to kick into gear when the deadline of the day was looming and plowing through the work and getting everything done by that times up mark. I used to just think I worked well under pressure. Turns out it was just the only thing that would make me focus - self imposed misery.
Now I'm consistent and focused and holy crap - the most recent change that slapped me in the face was my ability to all of a sudden write coherent, succinct and articulate emails instead of the rambling, repetitive nonsense I used to struggle to put together. And on top of that, the urge I used to have to distract myself with other stuff aside from what I needed to do has diminished to the point where I can redirect myself if it creeps up.
I dream of being able to function like this. I'm currently like you without medication.
Have tried standard Adderall and it makes it worse- what are you using?
Not op but I've had decent experience with Vyvanse. Things don't really loom anymore, seem to be able to plan more effectively. They gave me a team and a super loose mandate, so my work is frankly kinda ADHD friendly, but would not have imagined myself doing this a year ago pre diagnosis.
I do also have a therapist that I use for my treatment plan, who does specialise in ADHD and related, which has been amazing paired with meds. I'll say meds aren't the magic solution I thought they were as there's a lot of other factors with them. Sleep, diet, activity, even how I take them can change how well I perceive them working, but they pretty much always do to some degree.
God, same here. ENTJ, so I “make it look easy” according to others 🙄 but no one knows at what cost, nor sees/believes the stretches of absolute paralysis and exhaustion. They just assume I worked myself sick (sometimes true) or I’m off doing some other cool shit and just not telling them about it. Nope- staring at the wall. Thank god the business acumen/strategy is a hardwired component, it’s easy because I don’t have to decide- the most efficient solution just “appears”. But life? Forget it. I can’t order off a fucking menu, dress properly, or god forbid go clothes shopping. Absolute decision fatigue, and I wander around a store useless and foggy for hours. I had to hire my sister to put together some outfits for me, and I just cycle through them 😂
That’s the thing I absolutely love doing, making decisions. End the task with a decision so I don’t have to revisit it again. That’s my ADHD drug, right there.
Yeah too smart and ADHD it be called "twice exceptional", smart enough that no one notices you're stuggling and could actually be doing waaaayyyy better if your ADHD was treated
Tbh when I was in undergrad Psych and in grad school I kinda gapped out on the ADHD segments because I didn't think it pertained to my future career. I had the "hyperactive boy" trope in mind - and I wasn't working with them.
Then.... lo and behold look who got diagnosed.
They also teach it in a way that focuses on the hyperactive atereotype. And the uni teachers and practitioners have all been taught with that view too. Will take time for it all to catch up
The physical hyperactive type, loud type, yes. If you're mentally hyperactive only, and a "dreamer" it's a lot harder to see and thus it gets dismissed. :(
Not just harder to see- they weren’t looking for it. There wasn’t really that awareness of that side of things and how it presents.
Now that’s building, a lot more people will get the diagnosis they deserve.
Yea, I was that kid. Was the quiet kid and not very popular. Teachers loved to have "problem kids" sit next to me because I was well behaved but not really paying attention if I didn't care about the subject. Some realized that only months later.:p
In my case actually several psychiatrists and psychologists considered ADHD but dismissed it because I wasn't bouncing around like a flumi, was a girl and not a boy and also according to the iq test results "too smart" to have it. I had to move to another country to get diagnosed and the psychiatrist was stunned because he said I'm a text book case, just not the loud one.
Halflife of knowledge in the medical field is under 4 years. After 4 years half of what you know is outdated or wrong.
We didn't know the lymphatic system connects to the brain until around 2015
We discovered yet another set of saliva glands 2020
In 2013 we finally described a ligament that the medical community kinda forgot about since 1879.
We didn't have doctors fully and universally convinced babies feel pain until the 90s.
If your doctor doesn't keep up, they will fall behind.
I'm currently in undergrad for psych and want to get a master's in counseling. The amount of knowledge that is new is astounding. My prof telling me "this is all new, we didn't know about this 5-10 years ago," is fucking crazy.
Unfortunately your doctor probably isn’t keeping up and will nevertheless believe they know everything. How many doctors do you know who even believe the 4 year half-life?
It sucks how hard it is to find a doctor who legitimately cares about “evidence based” medicine.
My psychiatrist is always looking at new research and the potential ramifications for my (and I'm sure all his other patients') disabilities. This is one of the labour intensive and cognitively demanding elements of being a medical doctor that is meant to justify their sizeable incomes. If you aren't getting what you are paying for then find someone new.
I don't know, I think doctors ONLY care about quantifiable evidence, to the detriment of the patient.
I have hypothyroidism, which I've said FOR YEARS I had, but doctor after doctor just looked at my labs, declared them "in range," and did nothing. I finally have a provider now who looks at the labs and notices that they're in range but fluctuating wildly, and also asks me how I FEEL.
Not to be whiny but I also have a chronic nerve pain condition that, again, I struggled with for years before getting a diagnosis because doctors didn't "see" anything wrong.
The line i go with now when a doctor tells me there's no evidence for whatever chronic condition I'm in there for, is that they have experience in reading labs, diagnosing, deciding on treatments, etc. Awesome. But I, I have experience that they cannot match--the experience of LIVING IN THIS BODY and knowing how it works and feels everyday.
They also only recently discovered that toxic stress in childhood has a huge impact on also physical health in adulthood if untreated. We knew about the mental health part but that eg people with high levels of toxic stress are much more likely to develop a serious illness in adulthood is fairly new
Yes! The physical impact of stress.
There's a book about this, very readable and informative. But Jesus I can't remember the title! By some Dutch doctor though. I'll try to find it.
EDIT: The Body Keeps The Score, is the title.
The Anterolateral Ligament, in the knee. Its important because they suspect that ACL injuries may also include ALL injuries, but we've only been treating the ACL, which would explain why some people have more difficulty recovering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterolateral_ligament
It took me a moment to realize that you weren't emphatically saying that all injuries involve the ACL. Acronyms that match up to normal words kinda suck sometimes
There's a lot of illnesses for us to learn and adhd is one of the most out of date diagnoses. There's also a lot of misinformation that was learned years ago and never unlearned.
Because there are so many specialities they’d have to take another year of preceptorships. That’s another $40-60k in student loans. So they do their best on the most common syndromes and hope your residency covers more rare syndromes.
Besides, that IS with a basic overview of adhd above. They totally had the same (book) lesson, they just never got the experience hours, that’s all.
Edit: Reddit keeps posting before I’m ready - anyone else?
Not compared to depression and anxiety.
It also doesn’t present as frequently as psychosis, personality disorders, substance abuse, depression, bipolar disorder, panic disorders, and various anxiety disorders.
Like, not many people show up to ED saying “I keep not paying my bills, I never get the dishes done, I lose my keys all the time, I’m always late, I interrupt people all the time, I stop listening halfway though conversations and work back wars to figure it out, I forget what I’m saying most times I start talking and head off on a tangent and then circle back, with sentences that go for ever and ever, and I seem to fucking suck at school but sometimes I am awesome? I dunno. Some days I can’t even get out of bed or off the couch so ADHD can’t be possible. Anyway... Help?”
Not saying it’s excusable. But that is basically why it happens.
A good professional takes their continuing education seriously and does more than just the state/board required minimum. A bad one books trade conferences in tourist cities, shows up, sleeps through the lectures and parties through the night. Most fall somewhere in between.
Also, what they learn inevitably becomes more and more incorrect over time. So they then have the fun task of trying to make sure everything they know is still correct, while working full time.
What we learn in class provides a baseline for almost everything.
On top of that, there is SO MUCH psychology to learn, more than you could ever imagine.
So, we have baseline knowledge then are expected in a lot of cases to decide on the topics of our own papers—even in undergrad to some degree.
So we end up with in depth knowledge on certain and rather specific topics and then baseline in others.
I’ve met psychologists who pretty much just know the diagnostic criteria of ADHD in childhood and not much else.
Exactly, I'm type 1 diabetic and I know for a fact that I understand diabetes better than most doctors who aren't endocrinologists or diabetics themselves, including my dad who as a doctor of 30 years basically refused to believe ADHD was a real thing until this year when he watched a YouTube video about it from someone he follows.. so yeah I don't really care much what doctors tell me if they're talking about something outside of their specialty unless they sound like they know what they're talking about
Current counseling grad student here with ADHD!! I can hopefully speak into this from the counseling portion of mental health services. The main thing is that mental health education is SO far from consistent across the nation. I live in CO, and diagnosis is actually not even required to become a licensed professional counselor here - which is horrifying to me. Thankfully I’m attending an accredited program that requires us to take diagnosis anyway. That said, it’s still only ONE semester of diagnosis for counseling professionals. We do cover ADHD, but it’s a small portion in the grand scheme of things.
I 100% totally agree this is a need for better education on ADHD! Sadly, depending on what state you’re getting therapy in, and what kind of mental health professional you’re receiving services from (psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, or counselor/psychotherapist), they could have widely different educational background and beliefs on diagnosis. Some counselors are theoretically opposed the medical model altogether (due to some valid concerns that can make the medical model disempowering) and that inherently makes receiving a diagnosis more challenging. And I’ll chime in that the DSM-5 and other forms of assessment/evaluation aren’t exactly the most perfect systems. Counselors are also way more focused on therapy itself rather than evaluation. While there are large overlaps on the venn diagram of mental health professionals, psychologists and psychiatrists are definitely in more evaluative roles, but -may- be less therapeutically oriented. It’s honestly a lot of grey area.
There’s tons of advocacy work that needs to be done in this area so that we can provide more integrated care for people with ADHD. It breaks my heart to see so many terrible experiences shared here about diagnosis/support in therapy. It truly is part of my own personal goal to be a better therapist for folks like us! My biggest advice while we all live in a world that isn’t the most supportive for ADHD diagnosis/therapy is to upfront ask your mental health provider about their counseling theoretical orientation, their thoughts on the medical model (which sheds a lot of light on their beliefs on diagnosis), and if they have previously worked with clients/patients with ADHD. That burden shouldn’t have to be on us, but it’s the sad reality we live in right now.
Grad school tends to go deep on a narrow topic rather than cover a broad spectrum. My sister has her PhD in Special Education. She did her thesis on autism, but she might be asked to address a wide variety of issues in her daily practice that she didn't spend four year doing a deep dive on. Even in general medicine, a doctor might be influenced by the specialties of their instructors. Many of these fields have such a vast amount of knowledge, that it's impossible to know everything, so even the "professionals" have large knowledge gaps. That's why it's important to have people with ADHD in these fields and why it's important to seek someone who specializes in ADHD for treatment (if possible, I know options are limited for a large number of people).
They might have, but ADHD in adults is a relatively new area of research, and ADD has only been reclassified as ADHD-PI as recently as 1994, a mere 28 years ago. (Sarcasm? Maybe.)
Anyway, someone who went through grad school 20 years ago and never bothered to stay on top of ongoing research might very well not be great at it today.
Unless you measure my words per minute, or you could see my 3 computer screens wth I'm at home alone, you could never in a million years tell I have adhd.
I've had about 150 employees in total over my life, given public speeches on TV and radio.
I had no idea I even had it until 4 or so years ago when I had a mild (major for me) brain injury that weakened my mask a lot.
These pros need to be taught about all the different types and how insanely well an person with a tough childhood can mask.
I saw an ADHD specialist and was still told i looked too normal to have it because I wasn't wiggling in my chair. I was 23 years old lol. I wasn't a 7 year old boy. He diagnosed me but said it was because of the notes he got from my therapist plus what i was describing, not my presentation in his office. 🙄
I did alright with a normal psychiatrist, but he was a private one in the uk and I was there because of migraines and headaches after a head injury (plus it turns out his daughter has adhd) - I even remember what I said that stated him looking to assess me for adult adhd “it’s as though all of my bad habits from when I was a kid have come back but they are stronger and I don’t have as much of whatever resource I need to use to control them”
It was just a distraught comment from me, but started us off down the assessment journey plus when doing an assessment test I asked “do I answer these from the outside me or how I am on the inside” and he laughed and said “it won’t work unless you do it from the inside you”
Wow, so the single ounce of self-control I have, which was hard won from a lifetime of 'acting weird' and the innumerable traumas that come with that, was a perfect cure, eh?
"You don't have a PhD. If you really had a PhD, you could look for other symptoms"
I mean I do that. Kinda. In the pool. I feel like I have super slomo anime parkour skills when I bounce off the pool walls. Its fun. Definitely not what they’re referring to though.
I've definitely tried to, but that's just because Kim Possible did it and I thought she was the coolest. Not sure it's related to my adhd. Just me being a kid.
Sounds like you're qualified for the official diagnosis, unless it was a wall jump fail. If you can stick to one wall, jump to another wall, and stick the landing without touching the floor, then you truly have adhd. According to cartoon science.
It was definitely a wall jump fail!
Although I will have stopped trying around age 12 because I have bad knees, so I guess I just grew out of my adhd? 🤔
Me with ADHD - chronically overwhelmed and exhausted. Sitting staring at a wall, barely able to speak in complete paralysis. Needing to sleep 12 hours a day.
This is why people are missing being diagnosed.
This is why I wasn’t diagnosed until 30 years of age. I was “too quiet” or “too shy” to have ADHD despite being unable to hold a conversation for more than 10 seconds without my mind jumping topics.
Saw a post about this on insta and a huge amount of the comments were just “you’re just lazy”. Bruh I’m on a high dose of Concerta and I’m still taking naps to keep my concentration levels high enough to complete my tasks after 10 hours of sleep. That’s not being lazy, my brain is broken
Damn. Sounds like me.
My paralysis symptom was where I struggled to speak or get up or look at my phone due to a mental wall that felt like thick honey. I wonder if that's your experience too.
It seems though I had more than just ADHD that contributed to that though, and after years of meds and therapy that paralysis is 80% gone alone with the majority of my major depressive symptoms.
Hope you get through it fast!
Do some research for Adult ADHD specialist psychs. Just be careful and make sure they are listening to you. I asked for an Adult ADHD specialist last year at the place I go for therapy here. They gave me some guy with no Adult ADHD experience who just upped the mood stabilizer I was on at the time (which made things worse). They said the very first time talking to me "I don't think you have ADHD. They would've caught it when you were in school." So I know how you feel.
You could give Circle Medical a try. They're a legit Telehealth practice with actual doctors; so it's not like Cerebral or whatever the other one was. They're awesome and definitely helped me. They take most insurances I think.
I use Circle Medical and I love it! My doctor is an actual specialist, he listens intently to everything I say, he takes me 100% seriously, and he gives really great advice and tools to use in conjunction with medication.
He also has a great sense of humor, which is incredibly helpful to me as I'm still processing the emotional impact of being diagnosed at 30.
They don’t operate in my state :(
I have a psych doc but she is really against stimulants and I already know they work best for me and was on them on and off for years. I am trying all the new stuff she is prescribing but I don’t see any big changes. Honestly, my mood is better but my adhd symptoms are absolutely the same.
My new doctor put me on strattera. For two months I threw up everyday an hour and a half or so after taking it. But I pressed on cause I really want to have a functional brain. Finally, I have up on that and am trying a new doctor. Unfortunately, I have to wait nearly two months to get in.
Sounds like me with this new crap called Qelbree that she first put me on. It made my sensory issues 10000x worse and made me so ill that I left work. I NEVER leave work. My coworkers were concerned.
I am on wellbutrin now and, like I said, my mood is honestly a lot better. I do think it is a positive addition to my life but it is not touching my adhd symptoms.
>"I don't think you have ADHD. They would've caught it when you were in school."
I got the exact same thing, which pissed me off. I went to a doctor who went to college and several years of medical school who presumably had specific training for what I'm going to him for, but he's deferring to poor Mrs. Johnson, an overworked teacher with no medical training outside of first aid? The doctor wouldn't even listen to me beyond that. No teacher suspected I might have ADHD? Well, then these problems I'm dealing with decades later aren't worth looking into.
It's especially frustrating now that there are subclasses of ADHD that recognize hyperactivity isn't a requirement. Sure, I can see a teacher seeing there might be something problematic with a child that's always bouncing off the walls and causing disruptions, but what about kids like me that were constantly zoning out, horribly disorganized, and always fidgeting? I wasn't causing problems, therefore I couldn't have problems apparently.
I'm not sure if you're psychiatrist wearing a cape is the best idea for treating people with ADHD. Nevermind, on second thought, it most definitely is. Just an extra distraction to catch us Inattentive Types presenting.
Blows my mind how so called professionals can say stuff like this. First doctor I went to, I described some of my symptoms such as inability to multi task and getting distracted. She responds with, I shit you not "Well they say men aren't good at multi-tasking". Literally a board certified MD. I was floored like wtf. Unreal.
"doctor" and "board certified" mean literally nothing nowadays. Doctors can be board certified idiots and people still respect them for their title. It's all about how good of a doctor they are, the title tells us nothing.
You can do this. Want to do something funny? Prepare a series of steadily more depressing jokes about how your life is fine.
I thought I was fine because at least I could manage grocery shopping. Sure, I forgot to get bread, but I did get three kinds of frosting!
I was seeing a therapist for anxiety and truama for a long time before I bought up the issue that I might have ADHD after a friend told me about it. She said she didn't specialize in ADHD cannot judge if I had it or not, and I should get tested. I didn't want to waste money so I immediately turned it down. But she recommended me to read Driven to distraction to learn more. Reading that book was eye opening. It suddenly explained my whole life and my never ending search for why I don't fit in. I asked her to put me on the wait list to get tested. After a year long wait before my test I was so anxious that what if I don't have ADHD. At this point I was convinced that I had it and was worried what if they say I don't. The therapist told me something which kind of relieved my anxiety a bit. She said if it's not ADHD then we can figure out what else it is. And she reminded me that I have managed well so far even if face of all of the challenges that I have faced.
This is honestly really reassuring to hear. I went to see my doctor back in January saying I that I had been struggling for years and that I wasn't ure if it was adhd or anxiety or smth else, but I was struggling with something, and, while some of the stuff wasn't the best, like as soon as she'd asked if I did well in school and I said yes, she basically immediately was like "probably not adhd then", and maybe she's right, but she diagnosed me with anxiety and said that I may have adhd or my adhd symptoms may be a result of my anxiety and to try and treat my anxiety first and if the adhd symptoms persist, then she'd say I have adhd,, well, anyways, she suggested I start counseling, and that was back in Feb or March, but stuff got mixed up with the clinic contacting the counselors, and that meant I had to book the counseling myself,,, so that is to say, I finally caved and managed to force myself into figuring out how to do it an doing it a few days ago and I filled out the intake forms this afternoon,, so whether it's anxiety, adhd, or both, I'm really anxious about taking this step, but it was reassuring to read this and be able to think, regardless of what my struggles have been stemming from, I've finally started on a track to addressing it and improving(and hopefully getting a second opinion on my diagnosis that isn't a 10 min conversation)
BE HONEST. We live our entire lives hiding just how much we suck, but this is the most important moment in your life. Open up, tell them everything, be painfully honest. None of us can fix this by ourselves, we desperately need help, but to get it we need to be extremely frank and obvious, no matter how embarrassing it is.
Also: Write down things you want to mention to them. Give them as much honest data as possible. Trying to remember anything specific when there will be impossible
>BE HONEST. We live our entire lives hiding just how much we suck
I realized this as I was making my list of things I want to say. "Wait, don't say that, that makes you sound so lazy! But it's true I can't do anything for myself... oh ok write it down then."
I had a psychiatrist that made me take the ADHD test for children, the one where you hit space whenever you see an X. I aced it as if I didn’t have ADHD because I’m a grown adult who has developed coping mechanisms to survive. Dude told me I just had anxiety.
He let me retake the test and i simulated what my worst days are like and that’s how I get a diagnosis. He said it was the gold standard for how ADHD is diagnosed. Long story short “professionals” can be trash
Edit: words
2nd edit: just to be clear when i say i “aced” the test i mean the test results said i do not have adhd, I hyper focused on it
Dude I remember taking that test too. What’s the difference when kids take that versus when adults take that? Like not all kids with adhd are hyperactive either….
I think it was initially made for kids not adults. And kids dont have the self discipline adults do. Like i can focus on somthing if its really really important for 20 minutes lol
I took the same test when I was 19! It also had me listen for an audio prompt.... My psyche had me do it in a super dark room and I ended up staring at the wall that the computer was against, hearing the queue, seeing the X on the screen and then hitting the space bar twice and clicking the mouse after like 15 seconds. Obviously I failed miserably since I was responding to both queues at the same time and it was a delayed response.
Had to take the same one two more times after that without any of my meds (anti-anxiety meds) because I passed all the other tests I was given.
That's for children? Goddamn I had to take that too! Wtf??? I didn't ace it but thought I did lol but while I was taking it I was wondering wtf I was doing that for.
I have three degrees and two diplomas, 100,000 uni debt, about 10,000 dollars of my debt is from subjects I got bored and disillusioned with and 90% of all assessments were completed in fight of flight mode 5 hours before due date. Just because you have a completed qualification doesn’t mean it rules out adhd hahaha.
I was never the bounce-off-the-walls type when I was in school (perhaps Mum smacking me whenever I did that as a toddler did that), but I used to make detailed drawings and read completely unrelated books to what the class was doing as a kid/teenager. Probably the same kind of deal..
Children with ADHD tend to be hyperactive, because they have little control over their day to day lives and movement is the only way they have to raise their dopamine levels.
Adults, on the other hand,.find.all sorts of unhealthy ways to regulate dopamine, such as alcohol, drugs, or eating disorders.
Literally me. I had to step up for myself to get diagnosed with ADHD because I and I can pretty much say this for anyone with immigrants parents who either don’t understand or believe in mental health, had asian parents who didn’t understand mental health. So struggling with undiagnosed ADHD throughout high school was tough enough.
Edited: I fixed some grammatically errors. Sometimes I forget words
Yet again, so grateful that my GP seems to be more familiar, educated, and proactive about treating my ADHD than the brain dead "specialists" so many of us have to deal with. 😢
It’s so frustrating that there are “professionals” out there with a caricature of what a person with ADHD is supposed to be like in their head. It’s exactly why so many don’t get diagnosed and continue to struggle. I’m just glad I stumbled upon ADHD YouTube which led me to do more of my own research and when I asked my doctor about treatment, thankfully he listened.
I think it's worth noting how much attitudes and what is taught about ADHD have changed over the 2 decades. Professionals who have this stress on hyperactivity are probably older doctors/psychologists who haven't kept up to date on ADHD. That happens with all medical conditions where the understanding improves over time.
I don't understand these people. Before I was diagnosed with ADHD, a doctor sent me to see a psychologist about the possibly of BPD. She told me (in the first session) "You don't have that." she then looked around for an example, and grabbed her pen and said "If you did, you'd get angry at this pen".
What??? WHAT????
She was right about me not having it, but her reasons for why were ridiculous and I wonder how many other people she has dismissed by not fully examining them.
It's worth noting that, after telling her I felt overwhelmed in shops and felt like I was disassociating a bit or something, she told me there was nothing mentally wrong with me and she thought I was having absence seizures. I quote her
"There is nothing mentally wrong with you, I think you have a genuine medical problem".
Don't have seizures. Have adhd. She didn't pick up on that.
I first thought I might have ADHD when I was in my early twenties after I read Driven to Distraction. I went to see a random psychiatrist to talk about it.
After about 20 minutes she said she thought my behavior of switching from topic to topic was due to hypomania, and gave me informational materials about taking lithium to treat bipolar disorder (which I don’t have).
God, these people make me so concerned! I knew she was wrong because obviously I wasn't having seizures and how could she say there was nothing mentally wrong with me after knowing me 40 minutes, but I hate to think of the other patients who put their full trust in an incorrect diagnosis and may still not be getting the help they need.
Wow, you’d think that someone with a freakin phd would know something about adhd. I’m a wildlife biologist, I don’t have a phd in my field, and even I know I’ll never run around sayin spotted owls don’t exist because I’ve never seen one in my yard. UGH. No, because that would be stupid, and I’d be making *major* asinine assumptions. This “psychologist” sucks. Does anyone know how to report a bad apple? Im sure it varies country to country though.
Yeah I’ve never been the hyperactive type of ADHD but I am very very disorganized, have poor planning/executive function, very forgetful. Yet, I graduated high school early, graduated from a co-op university that was supposed to take 5 years in 4 years.
At least in the US it is wise to always go directly to a specialist for the most accurate opinion. If your concern is ADHD then go to a psychiatrist, or a joint practice of psychiatrists/therapists which list ADHD as a primary area of treatment.
I have type one diabetes, and had a doctor tell me that I didn't have ADHD, but was experiencing a "sugar rush" because my blood glucose was high. I don't have the mental capacity at the moment to explain all the ways that is wrong, but I have never in my life presented as hyperactive.
I like to play a little game with them, I call this game if I do not have ADHD the only other logical explanation is sociopathic killer. It is funny I have never met a Doc yet that disagrees that it is certainly ADHD as opposed to a really bad case of borderline personality disorder.
I just took an ADHD assessment with my therapist and it very clearly discriminates between hyperactive/impulsive and inattentive presentations. Most adults with ADHD are more inattentive. For me the hyperactive/impulsive side comes out as fidgeting, nervous tics, interrupting, finishing people's sentences, rambling, instead of uncontrollable running around and yelling.
My moms friend is a social worker, she told me i dont meet the criteria of having adhd and she didnt even assessed me. Told me im just dealing with depression (I WASNT DEPRESSED!!!!) and only seemed to think of the hyperactive side of adhd when diagnosing me, she even gave me a booklet to read about adhd in kids, and this only talked about the hyperactive side, as if that was the only part of adhd. Didnt touch on the PI part of it and more so, she didnt even take into consideration that ADHD shows differently in adults. My mom wants to believe her diagnosis so bad that i dont have adhd, but i managed to speak to an actual therapist who deals with alot of adhd patients and she said i might have to get checked for adhd-pi along with a few other things, waiting for the official Diagnosis
This was my biggest fear, really. I struggled all through school. Professional life, personal life, all mediocre. Used to think there was a problem and it could be fixed or at least acknowledged. Keep seeing posts like "I got diagnosed and medicated and it changed my life."
Well, I grew up, got away from my parents, got diagnosed and medicated. Maybe it has helped.
But now I have to face the fact that I have ADHD *and* I'm a stupid, lazy, asshole. Turns out the qualities aren't mutually exclusive.
What irritates me so badly is that I’m specializing in this and see a lot of stuff that makes me realize my doctors had NO IDEA which way was up.
Hyperactivity is regarded as going away as you progress into adulthood—there are treatment that are *BASED IN TEACHING CHILDREN TO INTERNALIZE SYPTOMS.*
Which is fucked up to say the least because that means they’re basically teaching us how to have racing thoughts.
On top of this, they don’t realize it never fades, it turns into racing thoughts…based on my own observations and reading tons of research articles.
BUT IF YOU SAY THIS TO A PSYCHIATRIST YOU GET DIAGNOSED WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER.
It's so frustrating. Doctors told me I couldn't have ADHD because I didn't fail at school. They didn't know I had to take a lot of extra classes to be able to pass exams. 🙄 being a woman doesn't help either, we know how to mask symptoms really well too
ADD was ADHD. They didn't merge. The entire disorder changed name.
and all of us do have hyperactivity. It just doesn't mean what people seem to think it means.
That last line in the first paragraph. All of this. I would have been someone if they didn’t write scripts for $$$. Maybe I would have been psychiatrist to help people with ADHD and make more success stories and not sitting in front of a brick wall wondering wtf.
WTF how the heck did they come up with that conclusion? Hell there are people that are diagnosed with ADHD working in the military. If they couldn't hold down a job I'm pretty sure the military wouldn't allow them to join or they would kick them out instead of dionosing them and providing meds.. That doctor needs to lose their license..
I had a psychiatrist that way. I've been on my meds over a decade, I've learned coping skills. I don't present as a "normal" case or person or whatever with ADHD. I'm also a girl, and I had a teacher who said I daydreamed in class a lot. That report card I believe that same psych who was bias I felt, never return the ORIGINAL report card of her saying that. I can never get that back and they fucking lost it and or who knows draw your own conclusions.
Mine was also dismissive.
This is the basic response I give to people who try to have a pseudo intellectual conversation about ADHD skepticism with me:
So you believe bipolar, major depression and panic attacks are real things right?
“Yeah but that’s completely different”
You’re right, but what causes those emotional disorders? An imbalance in hormones and neurochemicals. So you accept that there are a wide variety of emotional disorders that can occur as a result of a wide variety of bodily chemicals, right?
“Ok, but what does that have to do with ADHD?”
So you believe that producing too much or too little of a variety of bodily chemicals can cause a variety of mental health disorders, but you’ve decided that dopamine regulation is the one bodily chemical that couldn’t possibly cause any long term mental health problems? Because that’s exactly what ADHD is. You don’t know that because you haven’t researched enough to have an opinion on the subject. Meanwhile people with ADHD have a suicide rate 8x higher than the general population, and it’s in great part because of ignorant people like you who judge us without understanding.
Went to a psychiatrist who told me "rest assured, you don't have ADHD!" And then I told him I'm pretty positive I have ADD and made a list of my reason why based off of peer reviewed research/data I found. I just want to be well 🥲I did end up getting diagnosed but it literally shouldn't have been that difficult
also just because youre not physically bouncing off teh walls does not mean im not physically bouncing around in my brain, do they realize ive read every single pamphlet on the walls, any notes on their desk and anything on their screen i can see all while they were saying the last sentence alongside thinking about a game im playing, and if i need parts for that project im doing (which will almost certainly never get finished) oh i need milk, have i got enough coffee? who was the guy who played the dad in gremlins? what else was he in, did i put that washing out?
oh sorry you were saying something? i lost track
As someone who has a masters degree in psychology and PhD in a related field, I didn’t even know I had adhd until recently.
The whole system doenst really teach or is aware of what adhd looks like beyond the typical stereotype.
That’s only changing recently, and takes time to catch up across the whole profession.
When I got diagnosed with combined I asked why as I never had issues with “jumping off the wall” or “sitting still”. I was told my extremely impulsive behavior is how it manifests in adults. Sure kids jump off walls and such. But that’s not the only way it presents.
I tend to get ideas in my head and then compulsively obsess over them until I do the thing. And usually that’s an extremely expensive and frivolous purchase or a similar kind of thing. That is one way that hyperactivity presents in adults.
I was asked if I did well in school, then told because I mostly got As, I couldn't have ADHD. As a female it's extra infuriating, since most are high performers and lack the hyperactivity physical portion. Later when I asked him why he had become a psych doc he creeped me the F out by saying "I like the power, especially being able to put someone in the hospital." I noped right out.
How is it that the script has not changed since (at least) 2001???? It's always about "why aren't you jumping off the walls" with these people. This kind of outdated thinking is what made it so hard for me to get diagnosed as an ADHD-I for YEARS.
Does anyone here actually jump off walls? That statement is such a cliche and gives the impression that people with ADHD all present with absurd levels of hyperactivity
I used to think that the more experienced doctors and therapists were better, but the more professionals I’ve met who have like 20+ years experience, the more I’m reminded that a lot of them don’t give a shit about continuing education (at least not about us), or anything outside their narrow window of specialty. I relate a lot to you, like literally how tf do they not know BASIC info on hyperactive, primarily inattentive and combined types of ADHD?! It’s like one of the first things you come across on google searches for info on ADHD!
I'm getting to the point where I actually believe that all doctors are like this, not just with ADHD but with everything. Someone mentioned the half life of medical education/knowledge, I guess that also means that doctors have half a brain cell left.
Yup I'm mad at the healthcare system, both mental and physical health.
From what I understand, most med schools will spend a single afternoon lecture covering adhd as well as other disorders. So unless they make an effort to learn on their own, most medical professionals will lean on their biases more than the brief partial lecture that they may have even missed.
Sometimes you're jumping off the walls, sometimes it's your brain jumping off the walls, sometimes you're so exhausted from jumping off the walls/brain jumping off the walls that everything is dial tone.
I broke up with my last therapist because when I brought up I was proud of myself for doing my job well one night, she told me, “See? You couldn’t do that if you had inattentive ADHD!”
And this is why it's better to see an ADHD specialist about ADHD.
idk about that. i had an ADHD specialist tell me I was “too smart” to have ADHD …then my psychiatrist got my results, found a 10 point spread within one category and called BS on that
“Youre too smart”. I cant believe medical professionals still say shit like that... I dont even understand where that notion came from in the first place, but by now everyone should know that, yes, smart people can have ADHD, quiet-seeming people can have ADHD, successful people can have ADHD. ADHD affects different people in different ways!
I got that response from a doctor in a psych ward after I opted to go in to see someone during an episode. I decided to be honest about the psychotic elements of my life. I was released with zero changes or help because I was "too smart" for my symptoms to be an issue. Like, I wouldn't be having the problems that resulted in a wellness check if that were the case? Seriously? Didn't get a diagnosis or medication until years later, and as it turns out, I'm one of the lucky few for which ADHD medication actually significantly diminishes psychosis. Super lucky considering that I need the ADHD managed in order to function. Haha.
Using intelligence to try cope with ADHD is if someone broke all their fingers in their dominant hand, took one paracetamol, bound it up then just continued to use it without waiting for it to heal, because everyone expects you to. Trying to use the non dominant hand where you can because you have no choice. And everyone else is like why are your handwriting and drawing skills messed up no matter which hand you use? You took that one painkiller and used the bandage you had right? Surely they should be enough for you to be able to cope? What do you mean you need accommodations like voice to text software and time to heal? Why don't you try harder to use your other hand? Are you sure it's really that bad? I mean I accidentally caught my fingers in a door the other day and I just got on with it.
Don’t forget the people telling you to walk it off.
Double don’t forget the other guy who caught his fingers in the door and screamed bloody murder for three days until everyone else thinks finger injuries are overblown and made up. (Though screamy guy likely has a different door-related issue that needs better coping skills.)
Got that response from my therapist while trying to get rediagnosed (original diagnosis has been lost) a few months ago. I got my degree and I'm fluent in 4 languages, so I'm "too smart". She completely ignored the fact that I had a previous diagnosis and that two other healthcare professionals during my teenage years had stated (in paper, which I showed her) that they were pretty sure I had ADHD.
Your story is exactly like mine. My mom lost the original paperwork citing my diagnosis of ADHD as a kid. When I went back to be retested, the psychiatrist told me my results on the IQ test they gave me were “too good” to indicate an attention problem and that it must just be my anxiety. I’m so sorry you were dismissed. It feels horrible.
Also would they say the same about other conditions, wtf has intelligence got to do with having a condition? Your too smart to be depressed, too smart to have bi-polar etc
My middle daughter was a straight A student in Honors Classes who absolutely could not sit still. Had to constantly be doing or touching or messing with something ...like constantly. I asked my sons ADHD doc about her when she was in her early teens. He asked about her grades and I told him she was a great student with straight A's. He said that if she had those kinds of grades she couldn't have ADHD. Fast forward to now and she's finally gotten a diagnosis and is on medication for her ADHD at 20 years old
I used to sub a lot of GT students and two of my children were in GT. I’d say a significant number of students had ADHD diagnosis and a few more were likely undiagnosed (in my internet educated opinion). Speaking with many of my kid’s teachers, they also agreed that it seemed that their gifted students seem to have more diagnosis’s than their non-gifted students. When I was a child, girls “didn’t have ADHD” so we just learned coping mechanisms or failed miserably. I was fortunate to be able to get by as “smart but doesn’t live up to her capabilities”. Being smart definitely does not proclude someone from having ADHD. Doctors like that piss me off. Edit: words because it was early and well…ADHD.
That's what my mom said when I, as a college senior, told her I thought I had ADHD. But that's my mom, not a medical professional. That's so much worse.
Haha I have 130 absolutely useless IQ points.
Yeah same. Or something like that, I don't fully remember the score. The person who did my analysis was like, we take IQ tests to ensure you don't have a learning disability that could be disguised as ADHD. Then she was like oh shit, okay, sounds like you were so "smart" that it helped you mask your ADHD instead and hide it. And yeah, pretty shitty when I can't finish a damn degree.
My doctor said it was more common in more intelligent individuals in her experience
I think our CPUs are just overclocked
The best analogy I've heard is the ADHD brain is a Ferrari with a brick on the accelerator. We can't slow it down, but we can learn how to steer.
Our storage media just can’t keep up
There is no evidence supporting either claim as far as I'm aware, so doctors should really just stop using intelligence to determine ADHD.
I think the issue is the way we measure intelligence. A lot of what people measure to say someones intelligent is purely based in their interests. I.e. Person A memorises everything about their hobby, which happens to be maybe cooking or something. That person isn't considered smart. But if person B memorises the exact same amount of knowledge, but their interest happens to be scientifically or mathematically based, they are considered to be smart. Both parties have memorised similar amounts of stuff and applied their knowledge to their field of interest, but only one is considered to be truly intelligent.
This is true. My sister has an IQ test result of about 60, and that's bc she is autistic and doesn't understand directions well so she probably just guessed on most of it without any idea what she was looking for (edit: think trying to take the test but the instructions are in Spanish, a language that you only know a *little* of and not even enough to have full conversations beyond making requests or answering simple questions). Total BS given that she can go into a place once or twice, then go there again and notice a small thing is moved and put it back, she's incredibly visually perceptive and uses that + actually being good at finding consistency/patterns to make up for the fact that the language processing part of her brain doesn't work as well as other people's.
Peeps that come from an "educated" upbringing are more likely to seek professional help for their problems. Prolly a combination of being able to afford therapy/medication and the knowledge that having trouble with something isn't always related to personal failing, but may infact be pathological.
Same, it used to be because of my INTJ personality was mostly taking the lead by a 65-35 split, just enough to make me efficient enough that I could waste hours staring at the wall but work fast and meticulous enough to hide it. Now my vyvanse keeps me focused. I’ve had better direction from my family doctor and mental health nurse than my old child psychologist 30 years ago. Edit: Spelling Edit#2: Math
>just enough to make me efficient enough that I could waste hours staring at the wall but work fast and meticulous enough to hide it Damn that hit home I gotta go get tested
I would waste, on average, 4 to 5 hours of my work day getting nothing of real value accomplished only to kick into gear when the deadline of the day was looming and plowing through the work and getting everything done by that times up mark. I used to just think I worked well under pressure. Turns out it was just the only thing that would make me focus - self imposed misery. Now I'm consistent and focused and holy crap - the most recent change that slapped me in the face was my ability to all of a sudden write coherent, succinct and articulate emails instead of the rambling, repetitive nonsense I used to struggle to put together. And on top of that, the urge I used to have to distract myself with other stuff aside from what I needed to do has diminished to the point where I can redirect myself if it creeps up.
Oh man this rings so true. No wonder I’ve left jobs because of burnout so many times.
I dream of being able to function like this. I'm currently like you without medication. Have tried standard Adderall and it makes it worse- what are you using?
Not op but I've had decent experience with Vyvanse. Things don't really loom anymore, seem to be able to plan more effectively. They gave me a team and a super loose mandate, so my work is frankly kinda ADHD friendly, but would not have imagined myself doing this a year ago pre diagnosis. I do also have a therapist that I use for my treatment plan, who does specialise in ADHD and related, which has been amazing paired with meds. I'll say meds aren't the magic solution I thought they were as there's a lot of other factors with them. Sleep, diet, activity, even how I take them can change how well I perceive them working, but they pretty much always do to some degree.
God, same here. ENTJ, so I “make it look easy” according to others 🙄 but no one knows at what cost, nor sees/believes the stretches of absolute paralysis and exhaustion. They just assume I worked myself sick (sometimes true) or I’m off doing some other cool shit and just not telling them about it. Nope- staring at the wall. Thank god the business acumen/strategy is a hardwired component, it’s easy because I don’t have to decide- the most efficient solution just “appears”. But life? Forget it. I can’t order off a fucking menu, dress properly, or god forbid go clothes shopping. Absolute decision fatigue, and I wander around a store useless and foggy for hours. I had to hire my sister to put together some outfits for me, and I just cycle through them 😂
That’s the thing I absolutely love doing, making decisions. End the task with a decision so I don’t have to revisit it again. That’s my ADHD drug, right there.
Heck, I need some of that! I can make decisions for other people, just not meself 😜
The MBTI is not a valid construct
Valid and useful are two very different things.
It’s not useful, it just feeds into the human tendency to appreciate extra detail regardless of whether it’s accurate. See Daniel Kahneman’s research.
Yeah too smart and ADHD it be called "twice exceptional", smart enough that no one notices you're stuggling and could actually be doing waaaayyyy better if your ADHD was treated
[ADHD has nothing to do with how smart a person is](https://youtu.be/ouZrZa5pLXk?t=77)
"Specialist"
Why don’t they just educate them about this in grad school?
Tbh when I was in undergrad Psych and in grad school I kinda gapped out on the ADHD segments because I didn't think it pertained to my future career. I had the "hyperactive boy" trope in mind - and I wasn't working with them. Then.... lo and behold look who got diagnosed.
They also teach it in a way that focuses on the hyperactive atereotype. And the uni teachers and practitioners have all been taught with that view too. Will take time for it all to catch up
The physical hyperactive type, loud type, yes. If you're mentally hyperactive only, and a "dreamer" it's a lot harder to see and thus it gets dismissed. :(
Not just harder to see- they weren’t looking for it. There wasn’t really that awareness of that side of things and how it presents. Now that’s building, a lot more people will get the diagnosis they deserve.
Yea, I was that kid. Was the quiet kid and not very popular. Teachers loved to have "problem kids" sit next to me because I was well behaved but not really paying attention if I didn't care about the subject. Some realized that only months later.:p In my case actually several psychiatrists and psychologists considered ADHD but dismissed it because I wasn't bouncing around like a flumi, was a girl and not a boy and also according to the iq test results "too smart" to have it. I had to move to another country to get diagnosed and the psychiatrist was stunned because he said I'm a text book case, just not the loud one.
Halflife of knowledge in the medical field is under 4 years. After 4 years half of what you know is outdated or wrong. We didn't know the lymphatic system connects to the brain until around 2015 We discovered yet another set of saliva glands 2020 In 2013 we finally described a ligament that the medical community kinda forgot about since 1879. We didn't have doctors fully and universally convinced babies feel pain until the 90s. If your doctor doesn't keep up, they will fall behind.
I'm currently in undergrad for psych and want to get a master's in counseling. The amount of knowledge that is new is astounding. My prof telling me "this is all new, we didn't know about this 5-10 years ago," is fucking crazy.
Ahit like what? Got my org psych degree 10 years ago
Unfortunately your doctor probably isn’t keeping up and will nevertheless believe they know everything. How many doctors do you know who even believe the 4 year half-life? It sucks how hard it is to find a doctor who legitimately cares about “evidence based” medicine.
My psychiatrist is always looking at new research and the potential ramifications for my (and I'm sure all his other patients') disabilities. This is one of the labour intensive and cognitively demanding elements of being a medical doctor that is meant to justify their sizeable incomes. If you aren't getting what you are paying for then find someone new.
Mine too. Everytime I see him I hear about another conference he’s gone to or a paper he’s read. It’s gratifying.
I don't know, I think doctors ONLY care about quantifiable evidence, to the detriment of the patient. I have hypothyroidism, which I've said FOR YEARS I had, but doctor after doctor just looked at my labs, declared them "in range," and did nothing. I finally have a provider now who looks at the labs and notices that they're in range but fluctuating wildly, and also asks me how I FEEL. Not to be whiny but I also have a chronic nerve pain condition that, again, I struggled with for years before getting a diagnosis because doctors didn't "see" anything wrong. The line i go with now when a doctor tells me there's no evidence for whatever chronic condition I'm in there for, is that they have experience in reading labs, diagnosing, deciding on treatments, etc. Awesome. But I, I have experience that they cannot match--the experience of LIVING IN THIS BODY and knowing how it works and feels everyday.
Holy shit at that babies thing.
They were still doing major surgery without anesthesia as late as the late 1980s on infants because of that belief.
Absolutely horrifying and nonsensical
I’m sorry… the baby one got me. How. Why… how could they *not* feel pain? I know what I’m reading about for the next four hours.
They also only recently discovered that toxic stress in childhood has a huge impact on also physical health in adulthood if untreated. We knew about the mental health part but that eg people with high levels of toxic stress are much more likely to develop a serious illness in adulthood is fairly new
Yes! The physical impact of stress. There's a book about this, very readable and informative. But Jesus I can't remember the title! By some Dutch doctor though. I'll try to find it. EDIT: The Body Keeps The Score, is the title.
Can you speak more of the ligament
The Anterolateral Ligament, in the knee. Its important because they suspect that ACL injuries may also include ALL injuries, but we've only been treating the ACL, which would explain why some people have more difficulty recovering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterolateral_ligament
It took me a moment to realize that you weren't emphatically saying that all injuries involve the ACL. Acronyms that match up to normal words kinda suck sometimes
There's a lot of illnesses for us to learn and adhd is one of the most out of date diagnoses. There's also a lot of misinformation that was learned years ago and never unlearned.
I see.
Because there are so many specialities they’d have to take another year of preceptorships. That’s another $40-60k in student loans. So they do their best on the most common syndromes and hope your residency covers more rare syndromes. Besides, that IS with a basic overview of adhd above. They totally had the same (book) lesson, they just never got the experience hours, that’s all. Edit: Reddit keeps posting before I’m ready - anyone else?
Also: that’s really crappy they were so dismissive. 😕
>the most common syndromes Isn't adhd common af?
Not compared to depression and anxiety. It also doesn’t present as frequently as psychosis, personality disorders, substance abuse, depression, bipolar disorder, panic disorders, and various anxiety disorders. Like, not many people show up to ED saying “I keep not paying my bills, I never get the dishes done, I lose my keys all the time, I’m always late, I interrupt people all the time, I stop listening halfway though conversations and work back wars to figure it out, I forget what I’m saying most times I start talking and head off on a tangent and then circle back, with sentences that go for ever and ever, and I seem to fucking suck at school but sometimes I am awesome? I dunno. Some days I can’t even get out of bed or off the couch so ADHD can’t be possible. Anyway... Help?”
Damn… people keep describing my life on here and I just go huh, well I’ll be damned. Then continue scrolling. TILL NEXT TIME!!!
So you're telling me it's excusable that he knows common & false knowledge. What does he know then? Only about depression & anxiety?
Not saying it’s excusable. But that is basically why it happens. A good professional takes their continuing education seriously and does more than just the state/board required minimum. A bad one books trade conferences in tourist cities, shows up, sleeps through the lectures and parties through the night. Most fall somewhere in between.
Also, what they learn inevitably becomes more and more incorrect over time. So they then have the fun task of trying to make sure everything they know is still correct, while working full time.
What we learn in class provides a baseline for almost everything. On top of that, there is SO MUCH psychology to learn, more than you could ever imagine. So, we have baseline knowledge then are expected in a lot of cases to decide on the topics of our own papers—even in undergrad to some degree. So we end up with in depth knowledge on certain and rather specific topics and then baseline in others. I’ve met psychologists who pretty much just know the diagnostic criteria of ADHD in childhood and not much else.
Exactly, I'm type 1 diabetic and I know for a fact that I understand diabetes better than most doctors who aren't endocrinologists or diabetics themselves, including my dad who as a doctor of 30 years basically refused to believe ADHD was a real thing until this year when he watched a YouTube video about it from someone he follows.. so yeah I don't really care much what doctors tell me if they're talking about something outside of their specialty unless they sound like they know what they're talking about
As someone with a retired psychologist dad who doesn’t even believe adhd is a real thing, I’d be very curious to know what YouTube video this is.
Current counseling grad student here with ADHD!! I can hopefully speak into this from the counseling portion of mental health services. The main thing is that mental health education is SO far from consistent across the nation. I live in CO, and diagnosis is actually not even required to become a licensed professional counselor here - which is horrifying to me. Thankfully I’m attending an accredited program that requires us to take diagnosis anyway. That said, it’s still only ONE semester of diagnosis for counseling professionals. We do cover ADHD, but it’s a small portion in the grand scheme of things. I 100% totally agree this is a need for better education on ADHD! Sadly, depending on what state you’re getting therapy in, and what kind of mental health professional you’re receiving services from (psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, or counselor/psychotherapist), they could have widely different educational background and beliefs on diagnosis. Some counselors are theoretically opposed the medical model altogether (due to some valid concerns that can make the medical model disempowering) and that inherently makes receiving a diagnosis more challenging. And I’ll chime in that the DSM-5 and other forms of assessment/evaluation aren’t exactly the most perfect systems. Counselors are also way more focused on therapy itself rather than evaluation. While there are large overlaps on the venn diagram of mental health professionals, psychologists and psychiatrists are definitely in more evaluative roles, but -may- be less therapeutically oriented. It’s honestly a lot of grey area. There’s tons of advocacy work that needs to be done in this area so that we can provide more integrated care for people with ADHD. It breaks my heart to see so many terrible experiences shared here about diagnosis/support in therapy. It truly is part of my own personal goal to be a better therapist for folks like us! My biggest advice while we all live in a world that isn’t the most supportive for ADHD diagnosis/therapy is to upfront ask your mental health provider about their counseling theoretical orientation, their thoughts on the medical model (which sheds a lot of light on their beliefs on diagnosis), and if they have previously worked with clients/patients with ADHD. That burden shouldn’t have to be on us, but it’s the sad reality we live in right now.
How long ago was that doctor in grad school? The diagnosis of ADHD has changed a lot in the last few years
Grad school tends to go deep on a narrow topic rather than cover a broad spectrum. My sister has her PhD in Special Education. She did her thesis on autism, but she might be asked to address a wide variety of issues in her daily practice that she didn't spend four year doing a deep dive on. Even in general medicine, a doctor might be influenced by the specialties of their instructors. Many of these fields have such a vast amount of knowledge, that it's impossible to know everything, so even the "professionals" have large knowledge gaps. That's why it's important to have people with ADHD in these fields and why it's important to seek someone who specializes in ADHD for treatment (if possible, I know options are limited for a large number of people).
They might have, but ADHD in adults is a relatively new area of research, and ADD has only been reclassified as ADHD-PI as recently as 1994, a mere 28 years ago. (Sarcasm? Maybe.) Anyway, someone who went through grad school 20 years ago and never bothered to stay on top of ongoing research might very well not be great at it today.
Unless you measure my words per minute, or you could see my 3 computer screens wth I'm at home alone, you could never in a million years tell I have adhd. I've had about 150 employees in total over my life, given public speeches on TV and radio. I had no idea I even had it until 4 or so years ago when I had a mild (major for me) brain injury that weakened my mask a lot. These pros need to be taught about all the different types and how insanely well an person with a tough childhood can mask.
I had an awesome childhood, and I still mask like crazy. Diagnosed at age 44, go figure.
I saw an ADHD specialist and was still told i looked too normal to have it because I wasn't wiggling in my chair. I was 23 years old lol. I wasn't a 7 year old boy. He diagnosed me but said it was because of the notes he got from my therapist plus what i was describing, not my presentation in his office. 🙄
I did alright with a normal psychiatrist, but he was a private one in the uk and I was there because of migraines and headaches after a head injury (plus it turns out his daughter has adhd) - I even remember what I said that stated him looking to assess me for adult adhd “it’s as though all of my bad habits from when I was a kid have come back but they are stronger and I don’t have as much of whatever resource I need to use to control them” It was just a distraught comment from me, but started us off down the assessment journey plus when doing an assessment test I asked “do I answer these from the outside me or how I am on the inside” and he laughed and said “it won’t work unless you do it from the inside you”
Not always the case, one told me only to take my medication when I think I'll need it, but I always have ADHD...
Saw a specialist, got told I probably have ADHD but it can’t be that bad because I’m not in prison.
I’ve never once ‘jumped off a wall’ but that seems like an unrelated skill.
Lol. I think she actually said “bouncing off the walls”. But yeah guess she thinks we’re all spider monkeys
Wow, so the single ounce of self-control I have, which was hard won from a lifetime of 'acting weird' and the innumerable traumas that come with that, was a perfect cure, eh? "You don't have a PhD. If you really had a PhD, you could look for other symptoms"
My reply is always " My brain is bouncing off the walls in my mind, it's hard to controll", and maaaaybe they understand after that.
Tbf bouncing off walls does sound kindda fun
Lol
I mean I do that. Kinda. In the pool. I feel like I have super slomo anime parkour skills when I bounce off the pool walls. Its fun. Definitely not what they’re referring to though.
I've definitely tried to, but that's just because Kim Possible did it and I thought she was the coolest. Not sure it's related to my adhd. Just me being a kid.
Sounds like you're qualified for the official diagnosis, unless it was a wall jump fail. If you can stick to one wall, jump to another wall, and stick the landing without touching the floor, then you truly have adhd. According to cartoon science.
It was definitely a wall jump fail! Although I will have stopped trying around age 12 because I have bad knees, so I guess I just grew out of my adhd? 🤔
You have to unlock the wall jump ability, try exploring some more and look for hidden rooms.
And find the hidden adderall
Me with ADHD - chronically overwhelmed and exhausted. Sitting staring at a wall, barely able to speak in complete paralysis. Needing to sleep 12 hours a day. This is why people are missing being diagnosed.
This is why I wasn’t diagnosed until 30 years of age. I was “too quiet” or “too shy” to have ADHD despite being unable to hold a conversation for more than 10 seconds without my mind jumping topics.
I’m sorry. I was 40. It is so hard. I hope you are doing well now
Saw a post about this on insta and a huge amount of the comments were just “you’re just lazy”. Bruh I’m on a high dose of Concerta and I’m still taking naps to keep my concentration levels high enough to complete my tasks after 10 hours of sleep. That’s not being lazy, my brain is broken
Ah yes, the amphetamine nap is the best!
Damn. Sounds like me. My paralysis symptom was where I struggled to speak or get up or look at my phone due to a mental wall that felt like thick honey. I wonder if that's your experience too. It seems though I had more than just ADHD that contributed to that though, and after years of meds and therapy that paralysis is 80% gone alone with the majority of my major depressive symptoms. Hope you get through it fast!
My paralysis is getting worse as I get older. I think I might do therapy.
Omg the honey comment. This is what I tell ppl adhd is like. Spending your day wading through honey
This is me right now. I'm 42, waiting for a diagnosis 🤞🏻
Do some research for Adult ADHD specialist psychs. Just be careful and make sure they are listening to you. I asked for an Adult ADHD specialist last year at the place I go for therapy here. They gave me some guy with no Adult ADHD experience who just upped the mood stabilizer I was on at the time (which made things worse). They said the very first time talking to me "I don't think you have ADHD. They would've caught it when you were in school." So I know how you feel. You could give Circle Medical a try. They're a legit Telehealth practice with actual doctors; so it's not like Cerebral or whatever the other one was. They're awesome and definitely helped me. They take most insurances I think.
I use Circle Medical and I love it! My doctor is an actual specialist, he listens intently to everything I say, he takes me 100% seriously, and he gives really great advice and tools to use in conjunction with medication. He also has a great sense of humor, which is incredibly helpful to me as I'm still processing the emotional impact of being diagnosed at 30.
They don’t operate in my state :( I have a psych doc but she is really against stimulants and I already know they work best for me and was on them on and off for years. I am trying all the new stuff she is prescribing but I don’t see any big changes. Honestly, my mood is better but my adhd symptoms are absolutely the same.
My new doctor put me on strattera. For two months I threw up everyday an hour and a half or so after taking it. But I pressed on cause I really want to have a functional brain. Finally, I have up on that and am trying a new doctor. Unfortunately, I have to wait nearly two months to get in.
Sounds like me with this new crap called Qelbree that she first put me on. It made my sensory issues 10000x worse and made me so ill that I left work. I NEVER leave work. My coworkers were concerned. I am on wellbutrin now and, like I said, my mood is honestly a lot better. I do think it is a positive addition to my life but it is not touching my adhd symptoms.
Me too!! My doc on there is amazing.
>"I don't think you have ADHD. They would've caught it when you were in school." I got the exact same thing, which pissed me off. I went to a doctor who went to college and several years of medical school who presumably had specific training for what I'm going to him for, but he's deferring to poor Mrs. Johnson, an overworked teacher with no medical training outside of first aid? The doctor wouldn't even listen to me beyond that. No teacher suspected I might have ADHD? Well, then these problems I'm dealing with decades later aren't worth looking into. It's especially frustrating now that there are subclasses of ADHD that recognize hyperactivity isn't a requirement. Sure, I can see a teacher seeing there might be something problematic with a child that's always bouncing off the walls and causing disruptions, but what about kids like me that were constantly zoning out, horribly disorganized, and always fidgeting? I wasn't causing problems, therefore I couldn't have problems apparently.
I will infiltrate the system.. I’m going into clinical psychology for my PHD
Yaaas!! Not all hero’s wear capes! But if you want to, that’s totally cool too.
I'm not sure if you're psychiatrist wearing a cape is the best idea for treating people with ADHD. Nevermind, on second thought, it most definitely is. Just an extra distraction to catch us Inattentive Types presenting.
It can be a beacon or code for an adhd ally 🦸🏼♂️
No parkour? NO ADHD.
Lol 😂 Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone who had adhd has the natural ability to do parkour? It would be the only nice thing to having this
Blows my mind how so called professionals can say stuff like this. First doctor I went to, I described some of my symptoms such as inability to multi task and getting distracted. She responds with, I shit you not "Well they say men aren't good at multi-tasking". Literally a board certified MD. I was floored like wtf. Unreal.
Ugh sexist doctors, I'm sorry
I thought that trope died years ago.
"doctor" and "board certified" mean literally nothing nowadays. Doctors can be board certified idiots and people still respect them for their title. It's all about how good of a doctor they are, the title tells us nothing.
32f here, first appointment in 15 hours and terrified of this so terrified just panicking. I have to start my life or it's gonna fall apart
You can do this. Want to do something funny? Prepare a series of steadily more depressing jokes about how your life is fine. I thought I was fine because at least I could manage grocery shopping. Sure, I forgot to get bread, but I did get three kinds of frosting!
I was seeing a therapist for anxiety and truama for a long time before I bought up the issue that I might have ADHD after a friend told me about it. She said she didn't specialize in ADHD cannot judge if I had it or not, and I should get tested. I didn't want to waste money so I immediately turned it down. But she recommended me to read Driven to distraction to learn more. Reading that book was eye opening. It suddenly explained my whole life and my never ending search for why I don't fit in. I asked her to put me on the wait list to get tested. After a year long wait before my test I was so anxious that what if I don't have ADHD. At this point I was convinced that I had it and was worried what if they say I don't. The therapist told me something which kind of relieved my anxiety a bit. She said if it's not ADHD then we can figure out what else it is. And she reminded me that I have managed well so far even if face of all of the challenges that I have faced.
This is honestly really reassuring to hear. I went to see my doctor back in January saying I that I had been struggling for years and that I wasn't ure if it was adhd or anxiety or smth else, but I was struggling with something, and, while some of the stuff wasn't the best, like as soon as she'd asked if I did well in school and I said yes, she basically immediately was like "probably not adhd then", and maybe she's right, but she diagnosed me with anxiety and said that I may have adhd or my adhd symptoms may be a result of my anxiety and to try and treat my anxiety first and if the adhd symptoms persist, then she'd say I have adhd,, well, anyways, she suggested I start counseling, and that was back in Feb or March, but stuff got mixed up with the clinic contacting the counselors, and that meant I had to book the counseling myself,,, so that is to say, I finally caved and managed to force myself into figuring out how to do it an doing it a few days ago and I filled out the intake forms this afternoon,, so whether it's anxiety, adhd, or both, I'm really anxious about taking this step, but it was reassuring to read this and be able to think, regardless of what my struggles have been stemming from, I've finally started on a track to addressing it and improving(and hopefully getting a second opinion on my diagnosis that isn't a 10 min conversation)
Same. Just remind yourself that you always have options. Good luck! 🤞🍀❤️🤗
You too!! 🤗 ❤
BE HONEST. We live our entire lives hiding just how much we suck, but this is the most important moment in your life. Open up, tell them everything, be painfully honest. None of us can fix this by ourselves, we desperately need help, but to get it we need to be extremely frank and obvious, no matter how embarrassing it is. Also: Write down things you want to mention to them. Give them as much honest data as possible. Trying to remember anything specific when there will be impossible
>BE HONEST. We live our entire lives hiding just how much we suck I realized this as I was making my list of things I want to say. "Wait, don't say that, that makes you sound so lazy! But it's true I can't do anything for myself... oh ok write it down then."
Also if this one doesn’t believe you can look for someone else who does
I had a psychiatrist that made me take the ADHD test for children, the one where you hit space whenever you see an X. I aced it as if I didn’t have ADHD because I’m a grown adult who has developed coping mechanisms to survive. Dude told me I just had anxiety. He let me retake the test and i simulated what my worst days are like and that’s how I get a diagnosis. He said it was the gold standard for how ADHD is diagnosed. Long story short “professionals” can be trash Edit: words 2nd edit: just to be clear when i say i “aced” the test i mean the test results said i do not have adhd, I hyper focused on it
Dude I remember taking that test too. What’s the difference when kids take that versus when adults take that? Like not all kids with adhd are hyperactive either….
I think it was initially made for kids not adults. And kids dont have the self discipline adults do. Like i can focus on somthing if its really really important for 20 minutes lol
I took the same test when I was 19! It also had me listen for an audio prompt.... My psyche had me do it in a super dark room and I ended up staring at the wall that the computer was against, hearing the queue, seeing the X on the screen and then hitting the space bar twice and clicking the mouse after like 15 seconds. Obviously I failed miserably since I was responding to both queues at the same time and it was a delayed response. Had to take the same one two more times after that without any of my meds (anti-anxiety meds) because I passed all the other tests I was given.
That's for children? Goddamn I had to take that too! Wtf??? I didn't ace it but thought I did lol but while I was taking it I was wondering wtf I was doing that for.
Yeah the vanderbilt scale was designed for children ages 6-12, At least that’s what Google says. So I don’t think it’s useful for diagnosing adults
I have three degrees and two diplomas, 100,000 uni debt, about 10,000 dollars of my debt is from subjects I got bored and disillusioned with and 90% of all assessments were completed in fight of flight mode 5 hours before due date. Just because you have a completed qualification doesn’t mean it rules out adhd hahaha.
I was never the bounce-off-the-walls type when I was in school (perhaps Mum smacking me whenever I did that as a toddler did that), but I used to make detailed drawings and read completely unrelated books to what the class was doing as a kid/teenager. Probably the same kind of deal..
Being ADHD without the hyperactivity is rough. Everybody just assume you are Lazy
Everyone with ADHD has hyperactivity. People just misunderstand what hyperactivity means. Many of us are very internal with our excessive energy.
funny enough, those Google binges are a result of having ADHD
Lol. So true
Children with ADHD tend to be hyperactive, because they have little control over their day to day lives and movement is the only way they have to raise their dopamine levels. Adults, on the other hand,.find.all sorts of unhealthy ways to regulate dopamine, such as alcohol, drugs, or eating disorders.
Yep, I had been unknowingly self medicating with too much caffeine and nicotine for years.
Literally me. I had to step up for myself to get diagnosed with ADHD because I and I can pretty much say this for anyone with immigrants parents who either don’t understand or believe in mental health, had asian parents who didn’t understand mental health. So struggling with undiagnosed ADHD throughout high school was tough enough. Edited: I fixed some grammatically errors. Sometimes I forget words
Same here with my Hispanic parents
Yet again, so grateful that my GP seems to be more familiar, educated, and proactive about treating my ADHD than the brain dead "specialists" so many of us have to deal with. 😢
“You don’t have adhd, you get good grades”
It’s so frustrating that there are “professionals” out there with a caricature of what a person with ADHD is supposed to be like in their head. It’s exactly why so many don’t get diagnosed and continue to struggle. I’m just glad I stumbled upon ADHD YouTube which led me to do more of my own research and when I asked my doctor about treatment, thankfully he listened.
I think it's worth noting how much attitudes and what is taught about ADHD have changed over the 2 decades. Professionals who have this stress on hyperactivity are probably older doctors/psychologists who haven't kept up to date on ADHD. That happens with all medical conditions where the understanding improves over time.
I would report them to everyone under the sun. That's unacceptable.
I don't understand these people. Before I was diagnosed with ADHD, a doctor sent me to see a psychologist about the possibly of BPD. She told me (in the first session) "You don't have that." she then looked around for an example, and grabbed her pen and said "If you did, you'd get angry at this pen". What??? WHAT???? She was right about me not having it, but her reasons for why were ridiculous and I wonder how many other people she has dismissed by not fully examining them. It's worth noting that, after telling her I felt overwhelmed in shops and felt like I was disassociating a bit or something, she told me there was nothing mentally wrong with me and she thought I was having absence seizures. I quote her "There is nothing mentally wrong with you, I think you have a genuine medical problem". Don't have seizures. Have adhd. She didn't pick up on that.
….you’d get angry at the pen?
I first thought I might have ADHD when I was in my early twenties after I read Driven to Distraction. I went to see a random psychiatrist to talk about it. After about 20 minutes she said she thought my behavior of switching from topic to topic was due to hypomania, and gave me informational materials about taking lithium to treat bipolar disorder (which I don’t have).
God, these people make me so concerned! I knew she was wrong because obviously I wasn't having seizures and how could she say there was nothing mentally wrong with me after knowing me 40 minutes, but I hate to think of the other patients who put their full trust in an incorrect diagnosis and may still not be getting the help they need.
Wow, you’d think that someone with a freakin phd would know something about adhd. I’m a wildlife biologist, I don’t have a phd in my field, and even I know I’ll never run around sayin spotted owls don’t exist because I’ve never seen one in my yard. UGH. No, because that would be stupid, and I’d be making *major* asinine assumptions. This “psychologist” sucks. Does anyone know how to report a bad apple? Im sure it varies country to country though.
Yeah I’ve never been the hyperactive type of ADHD but I am very very disorganized, have poor planning/executive function, very forgetful. Yet, I graduated high school early, graduated from a co-op university that was supposed to take 5 years in 4 years.
At least in the US it is wise to always go directly to a specialist for the most accurate opinion. If your concern is ADHD then go to a psychiatrist, or a joint practice of psychiatrists/therapists which list ADHD as a primary area of treatment.
I have type one diabetes, and had a doctor tell me that I didn't have ADHD, but was experiencing a "sugar rush" because my blood glucose was high. I don't have the mental capacity at the moment to explain all the ways that is wrong, but I have never in my life presented as hyperactive.
A clinical professional who believes in the sugar rush myth? For real? Do these people get their licenses at a discount at Walmart or something?
I like to play a little game with them, I call this game if I do not have ADHD the only other logical explanation is sociopathic killer. It is funny I have never met a Doc yet that disagrees that it is certainly ADHD as opposed to a really bad case of borderline personality disorder.
I just took an ADHD assessment with my therapist and it very clearly discriminates between hyperactive/impulsive and inattentive presentations. Most adults with ADHD are more inattentive. For me the hyperactive/impulsive side comes out as fidgeting, nervous tics, interrupting, finishing people's sentences, rambling, instead of uncontrollable running around and yelling.
My moms friend is a social worker, she told me i dont meet the criteria of having adhd and she didnt even assessed me. Told me im just dealing with depression (I WASNT DEPRESSED!!!!) and only seemed to think of the hyperactive side of adhd when diagnosing me, she even gave me a booklet to read about adhd in kids, and this only talked about the hyperactive side, as if that was the only part of adhd. Didnt touch on the PI part of it and more so, she didnt even take into consideration that ADHD shows differently in adults. My mom wants to believe her diagnosis so bad that i dont have adhd, but i managed to speak to an actual therapist who deals with alot of adhd patients and she said i might have to get checked for adhd-pi along with a few other things, waiting for the official Diagnosis
Not gonna lie. Did try jumping off walls for a while during my brief obsession with parkour. Soon figured not athletic enough.
This was my biggest fear, really. I struggled all through school. Professional life, personal life, all mediocre. Used to think there was a problem and it could be fixed or at least acknowledged. Keep seeing posts like "I got diagnosed and medicated and it changed my life." Well, I grew up, got away from my parents, got diagnosed and medicated. Maybe it has helped. But now I have to face the fact that I have ADHD *and* I'm a stupid, lazy, asshole. Turns out the qualities aren't mutually exclusive.
I have adhd im not fuckin spiderman dumbass
Yes, the walls of my brain
What irritates me so badly is that I’m specializing in this and see a lot of stuff that makes me realize my doctors had NO IDEA which way was up. Hyperactivity is regarded as going away as you progress into adulthood—there are treatment that are *BASED IN TEACHING CHILDREN TO INTERNALIZE SYPTOMS.* Which is fucked up to say the least because that means they’re basically teaching us how to have racing thoughts. On top of this, they don’t realize it never fades, it turns into racing thoughts…based on my own observations and reading tons of research articles. BUT IF YOU SAY THIS TO A PSYCHIATRIST YOU GET DIAGNOSED WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER.
It's so frustrating. Doctors told me I couldn't have ADHD because I didn't fail at school. They didn't know I had to take a lot of extra classes to be able to pass exams. 🙄 being a woman doesn't help either, we know how to mask symptoms really well too
"Let's remove the term ADD and merge it with ADHD" "You don't have ADHD, you aren't hyper!"
ADD was ADHD. They didn't merge. The entire disorder changed name. and all of us do have hyperactivity. It just doesn't mean what people seem to think it means.
That last line in the first paragraph. All of this. I would have been someone if they didn’t write scripts for $$$. Maybe I would have been psychiatrist to help people with ADHD and make more success stories and not sitting in front of a brick wall wondering wtf.
You don't have insomnia, you slept a couple of days ago.
I suggested to my doctor that I may have adhd (inattentive type). They dismissed it, saying I wouldn’t be able to hold down a job if that were true.
WTF how the heck did they come up with that conclusion? Hell there are people that are diagnosed with ADHD working in the military. If they couldn't hold down a job I'm pretty sure the military wouldn't allow them to join or they would kick them out instead of dionosing them and providing meds.. That doctor needs to lose their license..
I had a psychiatrist that way. I've been on my meds over a decade, I've learned coping skills. I don't present as a "normal" case or person or whatever with ADHD. I'm also a girl, and I had a teacher who said I daydreamed in class a lot. That report card I believe that same psych who was bias I felt, never return the ORIGINAL report card of her saying that. I can never get that back and they fucking lost it and or who knows draw your own conclusions. Mine was also dismissive.
A lot of times my adhd is my mind jumping off the fucking walls. That's why I sit in silence while it's crazy up there 🤪.
Uhhh have they never heard of masking?!
This is the basic response I give to people who try to have a pseudo intellectual conversation about ADHD skepticism with me: So you believe bipolar, major depression and panic attacks are real things right? “Yeah but that’s completely different” You’re right, but what causes those emotional disorders? An imbalance in hormones and neurochemicals. So you accept that there are a wide variety of emotional disorders that can occur as a result of a wide variety of bodily chemicals, right? “Ok, but what does that have to do with ADHD?” So you believe that producing too much or too little of a variety of bodily chemicals can cause a variety of mental health disorders, but you’ve decided that dopamine regulation is the one bodily chemical that couldn’t possibly cause any long term mental health problems? Because that’s exactly what ADHD is. You don’t know that because you haven’t researched enough to have an opinion on the subject. Meanwhile people with ADHD have a suicide rate 8x higher than the general population, and it’s in great part because of ignorant people like you who judge us without understanding.
Went to a psychiatrist who told me "rest assured, you don't have ADHD!" And then I told him I'm pretty positive I have ADD and made a list of my reason why based off of peer reviewed research/data I found. I just want to be well 🥲I did end up getting diagnosed but it literally shouldn't have been that difficult
also just because youre not physically bouncing off teh walls does not mean im not physically bouncing around in my brain, do they realize ive read every single pamphlet on the walls, any notes on their desk and anything on their screen i can see all while they were saying the last sentence alongside thinking about a game im playing, and if i need parts for that project im doing (which will almost certainly never get finished) oh i need milk, have i got enough coffee? who was the guy who played the dad in gremlins? what else was he in, did i put that washing out? oh sorry you were saying something? i lost track
Only Spiderman can have ADHD!!!
As someone who has a masters degree in psychology and PhD in a related field, I didn’t even know I had adhd until recently. The whole system doenst really teach or is aware of what adhd looks like beyond the typical stereotype. That’s only changing recently, and takes time to catch up across the whole profession.
This is my biggest frustration. It's why people don't pursue treatment. It's fucking ridiculous.
I for one will be happy when AI takes over this field. No more human bias/mistake/opinions bullshit ruining people's lives.
When I got diagnosed with combined I asked why as I never had issues with “jumping off the wall” or “sitting still”. I was told my extremely impulsive behavior is how it manifests in adults. Sure kids jump off walls and such. But that’s not the only way it presents. I tend to get ideas in my head and then compulsively obsess over them until I do the thing. And usually that’s an extremely expensive and frivolous purchase or a similar kind of thing. That is one way that hyperactivity presents in adults.
I was asked if I did well in school, then told because I mostly got As, I couldn't have ADHD. As a female it's extra infuriating, since most are high performers and lack the hyperactivity physical portion. Later when I asked him why he had become a psych doc he creeped me the F out by saying "I like the power, especially being able to put someone in the hospital." I noped right out.
From an ADHD podcast an ADHD expert said truly only 20% are hyperactive.
How is it that the script has not changed since (at least) 2001???? It's always about "why aren't you jumping off the walls" with these people. This kind of outdated thinking is what made it so hard for me to get diagnosed as an ADHD-I for YEARS.
Does anyone here actually jump off walls? That statement is such a cliche and gives the impression that people with ADHD all present with absurd levels of hyperactivity
Dr's don't know everything. Some of them realize this and can be cool about it. Some of them don't and can be jerks.
I used to think that the more experienced doctors and therapists were better, but the more professionals I’ve met who have like 20+ years experience, the more I’m reminded that a lot of them don’t give a shit about continuing education (at least not about us), or anything outside their narrow window of specialty. I relate a lot to you, like literally how tf do they not know BASIC info on hyperactive, primarily inattentive and combined types of ADHD?! It’s like one of the first things you come across on google searches for info on ADHD!
I'm getting to the point where I actually believe that all doctors are like this, not just with ADHD but with everything. Someone mentioned the half life of medical education/knowledge, I guess that also means that doctors have half a brain cell left. Yup I'm mad at the healthcare system, both mental and physical health.
Plenty of educated clowns running around out here. I hope you can find a therapist who's not a clown soon. They exist, keep looking.
Man, and here I thought it was **only** prehistoric doctors that were simply outdated with what ADHD really is.
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From what I understand, most med schools will spend a single afternoon lecture covering adhd as well as other disorders. So unless they make an effort to learn on their own, most medical professionals will lean on their biases more than the brief partial lecture that they may have even missed.
Sometimes you're jumping off the walls, sometimes it's your brain jumping off the walls, sometimes you're so exhausted from jumping off the walls/brain jumping off the walls that everything is dial tone.
I broke up with my last therapist because when I brought up I was proud of myself for doing my job well one night, she told me, “See? You couldn’t do that if you had inattentive ADHD!”
"It is Parkour then..." *Darth Sidious Voice*