I am 34 and I was diagnosed with Adult ADD when I was 21, but have had trouble all my life. I have not had any medication of treatment for years due to lack of insurance, and I have suffered for the lack of treatment in my relationships and in jobs. I recently decided that my life could be so much better and I could really accomplish so much if I actually bit the bullet and sought help.

I went for an intake appt yesterday so that I could finally get some medication to treat the raging case of adult ADD I have, and I am sure had as a child. And just so you know intake appt's are the WORST things. In under an hour your every move and word will be scrutinized and judged ...your own statements will be questioned within an inch of their lives and you will leave feeling wrung out and essentially neurotic!

when I arrived the person who was to do the intake started asking a series of questions, which were inititially bland and understandable....like "why are you here" etc. But as I explained my problem, racing thoughts, inability to concentrate or pay attention, feelings of restlessness etc. He began to second guess what I was saying.....trying to insert some evil alter diagnosis into a pretty standard case of ADD. He said "do you ever feel like you have TOO much energy?" to which I said...."uh, no". Because I DO NOT HAVE BI-POLAR DISORDER you giant jerk! And when he read that I had studied opera he said "Do you ever have grandiose ideas....like one day becoming an opera star?" To which I said, "no, frankly I just like opera and I like to sing". But you know between you and me.....that was RUDE as hell, I am glad the Cecilia Bartoli's and Renee Fleming's of the world never had to suffer questions like that. WHAT AN ***! I will leave out the other horrible bi-polar slanted accusations he asserted...like asking if I went on shopping sprees, and did I buy expensive things I did not need with no ability to pay for them. I will tell you that I just looked at him like he was a moron....and said "No, my household runs on a pretty tight budget."

And here's the question I loved most of all....."DO you always talk this fast?" I wanted soooo badly to say, "And have you always been this old and totally out of it?" But instead I said, "I had no idea I was talking too fast". I mean it's okay that he thinks that I guess, because it's typical ADD behavior but I was also a highschool and college debater and in Forensics....so I have a LONG LONG history of talking fast to get a point across, which I THOUGHT was the point of our tedious little interview, to give him as much information as I could knowing we did not have much time.

Essentially it really burns me that someone could try and place a diagnosis on you based on talking to you for less than an hour. Even after the interview he looked at me like he was not too sure I did not have some HORRIBLE disorder....and he said "We will try to treat you for ADD" the unspoken part of his sentence being, "even though I have already made up my mind that you are rabid." I think when your job is to evaluate crazy people all day you tend to view the world as a bunch of crazy people. No matter how benign some of their problems might actually be.

ADD is really a terrible problem for an adult, it has kept me from serious career opportunities, because I have a profound inability to concentrate, when my superior or coworkers are talking or giving instructions to me I tend to zone totally out, and my mind is racing with internal dialogue. I want to get to step 5 before I ever attempt step one....which is why my house is a series of unfinished remodeling projects. The problem is pretty comprehensive in scope.

I was treated for ADD while I was in college, I took a drug called Cylert and I thought it was pretty useful.

I am not sure what I will end up doing, I hope my actual visit with a Doctor will be far more useful than my intake appt. I really would like to write an anonymous letter to the facility asking what they really hope to glean from such appointments. Unless you are truly foaming at the mouth I think an hour is FAR too short a time to get any real information and it's an IMPOSSIBLE amount of time in which to make a diagnosis and you should never use that time to insult someone else with slanted questions about serious mental disorders when they have explained to you what problems they are having and they are text book ADD.

So with that said I will wipe the foam off my mouth and go outside an attack someone. (He never did ask me if I had recently had contact with a rabid animal)


Has anyone else had similar experiences with initial appointments?