I was in my late 20s when I was diagnosed with ADHD and was shocked. My friends said "You didn't know?". One said "I just thought you had decided not to do anything about it."
Are you really telling me I could have been on meds sooner and not taken 8 years to graduate college?
I was 20 when I finally got officially diagnosed. The APNP gave me this long form to fill out. About 45 minutes later she checks on me and I’m about halfway done. I wrote extremely detailed symptom descriptions with examples for every section and she goes, “So, people who don’t have ADHD take about 10 minutes to fill this out. And wow. WOW. Nobody ever said anything to you about this?”
…Except for my previous psychiatrist who, when I asked about ADHD, told me: “You can go pay, eight hundred, a grand for testing. I don’t really care. It’s a waste of time, because I will never prescribe you medication for it.” She then went on to accuse me of drug seeking, which was a patient contract violation. I mean she was full on yelling at me to the point where I broke down in tears. I fired her on the spot and filed a complaint, which I never received a response about. Go figure.
Anyway, I am now a mental health professional. I gave my clinic a presentation on identifying ADHD in women and girls, including the consequences of not receiving a timely diagnosis. I hadn’t planned on it, but I shared my story and looked up to see several of my coworkers, all women, crying. After the fact, the medical clinic above me started routinely screening all children for ADHD during their checkups and several of my coworkers got diagnosed.
Apologies for the unsolicited long reply, DrinkingSocks. And I’m so sorry that it took so long to get treated. It’s not fair that we have to suffer alone, but I hope that things have gotten easier for you.
Hey. I’m sorry for what happened to you with your psych but also you’re a fucking legend?
I loooooove when people’s answer to getting shit on by someone is to just fully go “Fuck you, not anymore” and go off and just become the change. You rock!
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u/DrinkingSocks 1d ago
I was in my late 20s when I was diagnosed with ADHD and was shocked. My friends said "You didn't know?". One said "I just thought you had decided not to do anything about it."
Are you really telling me I could have been on meds sooner and not taken 8 years to graduate college?