I have an appointment with a doctor on Monday. It's really running havoc on my brain.

On one side, if it turns out I have ADD, then I have a disorder, no real reason to get excited.

If I don't have ADD, then I'm just lazy and scatterbrained. Either way I'm getting bad news.

I would just like to be prepared for the meeting. In Canada, do doctors make the diagnoses or is it via referal? I've done some searching but can't really find any information.

Right now I feel like a giant fraud looking for a scapegoat for my innattention and have put off getting an official diagnoses to spare myself bad news for years now.

From reading on her the past couple days I now found out that the drugs used to treat it are controlled substances, so now I feel I need to justify, not only my laziness, but also the fact that I am not a drug user.

I can't wait for this whole thing to be over, any tips from other Canadians on what to expect would be appreciated.

In my experience, I was just given a name (from my counselling office at school) of a Dr. who specializes in ADHD and he diagnosed me.

It might be helpful to get a hold of your academic records, as far back as you can. So transcripts from university, college, high school, etc. That's one of the requirements my Dr. had.

As for the medications, its understandable that you are nervous about them but you should bring your concerns to the doctor. Bear in mind, medication is not the only form of managing your ADHD. I think you owe it to yourself to read up on alternative solutions. Depending on the doc, you may or may not get support for this route.

Finally, diagnosis is only the first step to living with ADHD. It's just about giving your symptoms a name, but the hard work comes after.

Good luck

I was refered to a psych who provided me with my diagnosis. I'm not sure if there are specialists for Adult Ad(h)d in your area.

Bear in mind, medication is not the only form of managing your ADHD. I think you owe it to yourself to read up on alternative solutions. Depending on the doc, you may or may not get support for this route.You don't have to tell me. I don't drink coffee or smoke. I take vitamins and try to stay away from medication, but I'm at my wits end. I've read up alot over the past few years and tried to implement many different plans to manage my distraction but they've all failed.

At work I sit down, with the day planned out and then it's 2 hours later and I realize I'm surfing the internet, so I close the browser window and start working only to find that I'm resorting my files an hour later.

I have the desire to work and wish I had the self control to implement it. At this point diagnosis is my last resort. It's not that I have difficulty focusing, it's that I cannot do it at all and can't will myself into being focused on my own. I'd rather not lose my job, but I'm nervous that this is all in my head and that I'm just lazy or actually losing my mind.

Thank you for the tips

How did it go? I'm in the same boat as your except I haven't been to a doctor yet.