im up for an appointment next week and i really need to convince the guy that i need treatment but i cant put my thoughts together (ironic). i got an online exam in 3 hours and i cant focus on it, i think that might be related.

  • Shmyt [he/him,any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Idk what your experience has been, but make sure you emphasize this is a long term disorder you've struggled with. Make sure you understand what your issues were with some examples. Here's way too many of mine that might help you remember yours, or just copy some of them; I'm not your boss, do whatever.

    In my case, no one diagnoses an honours student with ADHD because apparently they're fine, but I was only fine because everything before uni was easy to me. I brought up much I might procrastinate on certain things, how I can get distracted on many assignments or tasks and be forced to finish them in a manic state at 3am, how many hobbies or projects I pick up and dive into and never manage to stay motivated or finish them, how I just forget to eat or clean or do important tasks because I'm too distracted by something that isn't time sensitive but I feel I need to finish before I move to anytjing else.

    What specifically got my doc to say ADD rather than "just bad at paying attention"/"doesn't quite fit ADHD" was that i had bad habits in school like reading novels under my desk, playing games, or doing homework for different classes during school, but since I had been specifically taught not to cause distractions to other students i never really acted out because my parents said that was rude. As an introverted kid I didn't want to be centre of attention and be singled out like the kids who wouldn't sit still in class, so I found ways to distract myself but I wasn't learning important things while i did things like counting tiles on the ceiling or resorting all my school supplies, or reading irrelevant parts of the textbook that I found neat. This translated into very poor study habits where I either knew the material because I had already learned it because it was an interest of mine, or I found it easy to just bullshit my way into the right answer, or I didnt understand it at all and had to churn out nonsense on tests, or teach myself the whole subject the night before. It didn't affect my grades until the material actually became somewhat difficult or dense or there were several things I needed to teach myself at once; math and science were my worst subjects because of my bad habits so I just never took those in high school so my grades stayed high, university made me take subjects I didn't already know so I did poorly.

    They might want to avoid giving you any of the more aabusable/resellable drugs like ritalin or adderal so I wouldn't request them by name because thats a bit of a red flag. My doc put me he on vyvanse (lysdexamphetamine) because he said there were less issues with it (there's still issues with the med, just not as abusable/addictive). If you're already being treated for anxiety or depression it could be harder to find a working medication because some docs prefer to treat different disorders first (mine focused on ADD but yours might want to sort out the anxiety first) and this might mean they do several trials of different meds before they give you something that fits.

    Best of luck comrade!

    • Des [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      holy shit this is me. i've been suspecting i have ADD for years now after long ago not believing it was "real". I self medicate with research chemical stims and they work amazingly but are obviously risky as shit being experimental.

    • Lil_Revolitionary [she/her,they/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      i think im in the same boat, i breezed through classes but could never get homework done (getting things signed by parents was the hardest because it couldn't get done during class) and then college kicked my ass. I was bouncing off the walls in elementary school but i was able to replace that with social anxiety to keep myself under the radar

      edit: it took me like 10 minutes to write this comment because i kept getting distracted, i think i might have an issue lol

    • cpfhornet [she/her,comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Oof this post is exactly my childhood. I've bought Adderall and it's various forms for work and school before, after trying it late in college and finding it so incredibly helpful. I've always thought my tendencies couldn't be serious enough to be diagnosed ADD/ADHD, and it was just the addictive nature of it that made me feel like it helped me and that I might benefit from it more than the downsides of taking it. Maybe it's something to look into.