The lighter side of ADHD
This/I do not feel fine, but at least there's troll coping to fill the void.
Edit: after venting to a friend about this during an anxiety attack, she gave me contact information to an office that was able to schedule me for next month. I feel very fortunate and relieved. I'm also extremely appreciative of not just her, but all of you! This is a wonderfully supportive community, you're all amazing people
My daughter got an assessment for free after only a 2 month wait by participating in an academic study. They paid us $150 and our eval was MUCH more comprehensive than what we would have gotten from our insurance provider.
So my advice is to look into local universities and see if there are any ongoing studies related to ADHD.
While venting about it to a friend, they gave me the info for where th y go for treatment. I gave them a call, asked and ADHD evaluations are the only evaluations they do. I lucked out hard and was able to get an appointment in mid March, now I just got to make sure I get there on time lol
Yep totally did this route myself. Of course the medication trial sent my BP through the roof and got cut pretty early but I had my diagnosis.
Sounds like me on buspirone. Went great until my heart started racing for zero reason. I'm very jealous of my friend who's able to take it without issue
Same! That one did not end well for me at all. I got hallucinations and random blackouts too. Told the crazy lady that was a no go. These days I am on low dose mirtazapine to help me sleep. Low dose propranolol for anxiety, which also kind of evens out the BP spike from the Adderall. Throw in some lamotrigine to make the bipolar disorder bearable...
It could be worse. Like the time they gave me celexa at university, which pushed me into a constant state of mania, for months. Nobody explained what mania was and nobody bothered to check in with me. Just prescribe meds, see you never. I didn't learn until many years later that things like celexa and bipolar do not mix.
Oh celexa... I don't miss you
I hope your current care plan is working out better! That sounds like it was fucking terrible.
That was the basic Aetna scam university health insurance if you didn't have any. It was "required" to have something. The health center was great for the most part, but it was basically one psychiatrist for the entire school. He prescribed meds, that was it. If you wanted to see him for more than 5 minutes, you had to go to his private practice. If you wanted to talk to someone, you had to go to the counseling center next door. That visit really didn't go well. I wanted to see the male counselor, but he was overbooked. Strangely enough, he ended up being my best friend's father in law.
The next year, they doubled the price of the "insurance" and I couldn't afford it. Thankfully, it wasn't enforced. Health wise, they were more worried about vaccinations and international students. Today, I have corpo insurance provided by the American machine.
Oh the joys of American healthcare 🙃
Do it anyway. Or you'll sit there 2 years from now regretting that you didn't.
The diagnosis can potentially change your entire life for the better.
In my case, even if the wait time had been 10 years and it had cost 10000€, it still would have been worth it (but don't tell that to your healthcare provider).
I definitely am! I already know, but I'd like to have it professionally verified so my psychiatrist and I can try some new medications for me. I really need to slow my brain down to start tempering my anxiety and depression. I've already noticed that's the pecking order. I can't stop thinking > get anxious > get depressed. I'm tired of that chain destroying myself and any meaningful relationships I try to pursue
As someone who had a similar experience and recently went through this process (although mine was over a year of waiting), I can say it's pretty life changing. However, even in my case of now being on ADHD medication, it's not a magical cure-all. Sometimes you focus too hard on the wrong tasks, or you forget to take your meds, or you feel completely ready to focus but for some reason you're still not doing the task so you beat yourself up and second guess if you actually have ADHD or are just a lazy piece of shit. So it's great and I hope you find what you're looking for, but in my experience the medication is like being handed a heavy sword. It has the ability to defend you, but you still need to actively learn how to use it and put the effort into wielding it. A sword won't defend you all on its own.
I agree with you. I don't want to set myself up to rely strictly on medication, I want to utilize it like a tool and try to find what works best for me. I'll still have work I have to do regardless to maintain myself. Medication can only do so much. My goals do include reevaluating my current medication, but what I want most is a more defined direction in which I can look to better understand myself. I feel that will ultimately help me more than any medication.
Oh hey that sounds like me
I checked one doctor in Jan. May is the earliest date for an evaluation, no physical or anything
I called another and they told the earliest is november
What a great system we have
Isn't it just the best? I hope you're able to find a place that can get you in sooner than those 2
It's worth it. Get on the list. The time will go faster than you think it will.
It certainly will since I found a place with normal business hours, someone that answered the phone, and an opening for next month!
Ah yes. Waiting and being expected to REMEMBER to follow up independently. The one thing ADHD brains are good at!
we're almost a fraction as good at it as slugs and snails are at tolerating salt -_-
It's a good thing im never late to anything!
Also /s
Yes! I am NEVER LATE because I put a HARD STOP ON DOING ANYTHING for the ENTIRE DAY leading up to The Important Thing x_x
(For those without ADHD who don't know: *this is literally the only way we can keep appointments sometimes)
I certainly shouldn't have a problem this time! By waking up earlier I'll definitely have an easy time getting ready and there on time 🙃
My PCP got me to do an online questionnaire through ADHD Online.
He thought it was quackery until the pandemic essentially forced him to try sending people down that route. He now trusts the results (and finds it way quicker + cheaper than a referral to an in-state specialist). Basically, your questionnaire takes the place of an in-person interview and gets assessed by a doctor in a low-population state. (I think mine was reviewed by a doctor in North Dakota or something.) I think it was about $90 (out of pocket).
Based on that I was diagnosed with ADHD, depression, and anxiety.
I followed up with my PCP, who got me on a low grade antidepressant. I don't feel depressed or anxious anymore, and it's helped me turn my ADHD into a superpower. (My brain is still all over the place, but I have the confidence to weaponize it.) I'm definitely one of the lucky ones, but that's the journey I took.
Too late for me now lol ive got something booked for mid March at a local mental health center, but hopefully this info can prove helpful for anyone else who finds this thread and doesn't know there's a virtual option. I'll keep this in mind in case I mess up and miss my very fortunate appointment, though!
I'm actually hoping to go the other way with my treatment. For decades I've treated my anxiety/depression but never felt like I was getting anywhere with the medications. I'm hoping once I'm evaluated my psychiatrist and I can start working on ways to slow down my overactive thinking.
I had to use ADHD Online too. I was in a waiting list for 8month. At 8months, they called to see if I wanted to keep waiting. I said yes but never heard back, until a friend recommended ADHD Online as well.
I've had two PCPs historically that were somehow licensed or at least able to diagnose and provide medication. That might be a route?
My PCP and I haven't been able to meet much. It takes just as long to see him. That's along my train of thought when I reached out to my psychiatrist to inquire if she could help. Luckily I found a place that can get me in sooner.
I got diagnosed via telehealth conference. Very quick, started me on medication right away, though we cycled through a few before we found one that worked.
That sounds concerning. Quick and easy are not necessarily attributes I want for medical evaluation. But maybe I'm just biased, because I missed out on the more efficient approach
Well crap! Wish I knew that was an option, my work already gives me teledoc. Oh well ~$200 out of pocket is still worth the peace of mind!
If you're in America I wouldn't get it at all.
The disruption to your life from ADHD won't seem that bad in RFK's work camps.
While I appreciate your recognition of our hellish political landscape, I'm choosing to completely disregard your "advice" as it's entirely unhelpful and unproductive. I'm pursuing this specifically bc it's already far beyond a disruption to my life right now. It's a fucking nightmare. Without evaluation I can't get the proper treatment I'd like to help me mitigate the disaster zone that is my mind.
I can’t even get a dentist appointment in less than six months right now where I live.
This is another type of appointment I know I need to make, badly, but fuck if I'm not scared shitless of it. It sure would be nice to at least feel like we can get timely care
This week I had an appointment with the Rheumatology department after waiting four and a half years. It did not go well.
That's insane! I can only imagine how you must have felt.
Are you seeing a counselor already? If not it can be a big help in the interim until you can get medication.
I do, I've even recently increased my sessions from every other week to once a week, but I can't always afford to call him when the anxiety kicks in and keeps me from being able to do anything but cry. We're definitely going to have a (seemingly)fast session next week.
My wife recently got an appointment after trying to reach the psychiatrist for nearly 2 months due to ridiculous phone hours (9-11am, once per week...like WTF!?)...it's in 72 weeks.
When I signed up with my psychiatrist the wait was 72 weeks.
I just looked it up, and the same psychiatrist now has a wait of 304 weeks! If I limit my search to psychiatrists within 50km, as the crow flies, basically about an hours drive, I have 6 psychiatrists "available. Their self reported wait periods ranges from 159 to 700 weeks. 700 fucking weeks! The 700 weeks is probably a case of "sorry, you'll have to wait 14 years, because I'm not allowed to take in more patients, or pay for the eval yourself", but the average for the 5 fastest is still 226 weeks.
I don't know where you're at, but my username gives me away - I just don't want to fuel the American "socialized health care is ineffective" bonfire by making it too obvious.
I kept running into that too. Every psychologist my psychiatrist referred me to had similar hardly accessible hours. I hope she's got an appointment now and the psychiatrist is a good one