So I went to a psychiatrist two times now and the first time-diagnosing me with mild depression when I read him all my symptoms of innattentive ADD, he prescribed welbutrin for about a week, but unfortunately, he prescribed me 50mg and pharmacies only hand out either 75mg or 100mg so I had to wait a week until i would see my psychiatrist again. Instead, he prescribes me Lexapro(primarily for my depression and anxiety -note this is an antidepressant), which helped me a bit, especially with anxiety, but mostly made me space out even more.

About a week later, my mom gets a visit from our insurance with people from Blue Choice Health Care who convince her that a psychiatrist is really bad to go to and a psychologist would be better to go to. Is this seriously true?

Instead they prescribe me some bullcrap medicine named Stress-Eez which is not doing anything at all. They convinced my mom that anti depressants are horrible to take and should never be taken,but isn't it true that they can have more benefits than negatives? Is it just me or is the insurance company trying to save money for themselves to try to convince us not to go to the psychiatrist where the insurance ends up wasting money? Could someone please clarify this?

I am just really ticked off that even when I mention my 492473753937543583 symptoms of inattentive ADD, each doctor I go to mislabels me or misdiagnoses me for something completely different that seems irrelevant for my conditions. Worst of all, my mom just ignores my problems and just tells me to deal with it. And she doesnt want to send me back to the psychiatrist now.

Should I go back to the psychiatrist and ask if he could prescribe me an ADD medicine like Adderall?

Psychiatrists do not diagnose ADD based on "interview' ALONE.

I don't even think the DSM has a "Structured Interview" for "Adult ADD". LOL

You need to get testing with a Testing Psychologist.

(NOT all Psychologists are do Testing. There are about 100 kinds of psychologists.)

Find an "Educational Psychologist" or a Neuropsychologist.

NB Most INATTENTIVES are missed. (Commonly they are diagnosed with "chronic anxiety" or "Chronic depression". Some folks on here were treated for 'treatment resistant depression or anxiety" for DECADES before finding out they had ADD.)

Testing is the way to overcome this. (e.g. tests for your Executive Function; Auditory Memory (a headphones test called the "PASAT"); Tower of Hanoi; Trails A and B tests; working memory tests.)

Insurance companies have no business prescriibing treatment. I beleive that Stress-Ease is a vitamin suppliment. It won't do much for ADHD or depression.

Stick with a doctor for treatment.


The usual route is to go to a neuropsychologist for testing, evaluation and diagnosis, then go to a psychiatrist for treatment. Some people go to a psychiatrist for diagnosis AND treatment.

Me :D


So I went to a psychiatrist two times now and the first time-diagnosing me with mild depression when I read him all my symptoms of innattentive ADD, he prescribed welbutrin for about a week, but unfortunately, he prescribed me 50mg and pharmacies only hand out either 75mg or 100mg so I had to wait a week until i would see my psychiatrist again. Instead, he prescribes me Lexapro(primarily for my depression and anxiety -note this is an antidepressant), which helped me a bit, especially with anxiety, but mostly made me space out even more.

About a week later, my mom gets a visit from our insurance with people from Blue Choice Health Care who convince her that a psychiatrist is really bad to go to and a psychologist would be better to go to. Is this seriously true?

Instead they prescribe me some bullcrap medicine named Stress-Eez which is not doing anything at all. They convinced my mom that anti depressants are horrible to take and should never be taken,but isn't it true that they can have more benefits than negatives? Is it just me or is the insurance company trying to save money for themselves to try to convince us not to go to the psychiatrist where the insurance ends up wasting money? Could someone please clarify this?

I am just really ticked off that even when I mention my 492473753937543583 symptoms of inattentive ADD, each doctor I go to mislabels me or misdiagnoses me for something completely different that seems irrelevant for my conditions. Worst of all, my mom just ignores my problems and just tells me to deal with it. And she doesnt want to send me back to the psychiatrist now.

Should I go back to the psychiatrist and ask if he could prescribe me an ADD medicine like Adderall?

What if I don't have the funding to do testing? Isn't it like $1200? What do i do with my inattentive ADD then?

If your insurance won't pay for the testing you can go straight to your MD who is allowed to diagnose and treat ADHD. In my opinion you are probably better off to have your adhd treated by a psychiatrist than the typical md, but in a pinch an MD will do just fine. Don't be surprised if your MD simply refers you to a psychiatrist for treatment.

Me :D

The ingredients listed for Stress-Eez on the "Nature Made" website (they make the stuff) says:

• 9 mg of Vitamin B1 (600% of Daily Value)
• 12 mg of Vitamin B6 (600% of Daily Value)
• 300 mg of Bacopa extract
• 200 mg of Valerian root extract
• 133.2 mg of Gotu Kola extract

Wikipedia tells us: Bacopa -- Clinical Studies---In two studies, approx. 80 middle-aged and older adults took 300 mg of bacopa per day for four to six weeks. The results of the studies showed that bacopa did little or nothing for their memories.

Not sure about Gotu Kola. It's promoted as an attention improver, but a cursory web search didn't find much but cheerleader sites, but maybe I missed the good stuff.

Valerian, not related to valium as I used to believe, "is used against sleeping disorders, restlessness and anxiety, and as a muscle relaxant....Some studies have demonstrated that valerian extracts interact with the GABA and benzodiazepine receptors. Valerian is also used traditionally to treat gastrointestinal pain and spastic colitis. Long term safety studies are missing." Thanks wikipedia.

This is the only one I have experience with. The root smells like a male cat (a FERTILE male cat) but a miniscule amount of the root, made into a tea, had the effect of getting rid of my anxiety by the simple expedient of making me not give a fuddle-duddle.

As you can imagine, it didn't boost my attentiveness, except for just long enough to get to bed.

So, do I understand you correctly? Your INSURANCE COMPANY told you to take this mix of vitamins and miscelaneous herbs? Yikes.

At the bottom of the manufacturer's page, here (http://www.naturemade.com/ProductDatabase/prd_prod.asp?tab=Products&productid=180), they add, "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."

Oh, goody.


Ducky

Yeah the label on the box of 'not intending to prevent/cure' was a give away that theres almost no effect. Its not helping at all for me and it smells like crud.

If I go to my main doctor again who said I do not have ADHD, to try to re-describe my symptoms that are primarily Innattentive ADD when I previously had trouble describing my symptoms, would he ignore my claims or would it be valid to listen to? What I mean is would he actually believe in my symptoms of ADD even though he marked me not having ADHD?

If he keeps giving you the runaround you probably want to go find another doc to treat your adhd. But as I said earlier the fact that he prescrinbed an antidepressant suggests that he is aware at least of depression. In the face of ADHD with depression many docs will treat the depression first and wait to see what happens. Sometimes depression can cause add-like symptoms tha twill improve or go away when the depression is treated.

If you don't want to wait on a trial and error diagnosis you probably need to go the route of testing and evaluation with a neuropsychologist, then head to a psych for treatment.

By all means TELL the doctor you think you have ADHD. Tell him that you have attention issues and that those issues are causing problems in your life.

ME :D


Yeah the label on the box of 'not intending to prevent/cure' was a give away that theres almost no effect. Its not helping at all for me and it smells like crud.

If I go to my main doctor again who said I do not have ADHD, to try to re-describe my symptoms that are primarily Innattentive ADD when I previously had trouble describing my symptoms, would he ignore my claims or would it be valid to listen to? What I mean is would he actually believe in my symptoms of ADD even though he marked me not having ADHD?

Sounds like the insurance company is trying to save a few bucks. Stick with the psychiatrist. They CAN diagnose you on interview and by filling out some paper work. A psycholigist can also test you, but cannot prescribe medications to treat you. That is why you are taking an over the county supplement that really doesn't work that well. I would go back to the psychiatrist.

Yeah the label on the box of 'not intending to prevent/cure' was a give away that theres almost no effect. Its not helping at all for me and it smells like crud.

If I go to my main doctor again who said I do not have ADHD, to try to re-describe my symptoms that are primarily Innattentive ADD when I previously had trouble describing my symptoms, would he ignore my claims or would it be valid to listen to? What I mean is would he actually believe in my symptoms of ADD even though he marked me not having ADHD?Write down what you want to say to him so you don't forget. Get some information for him and do one of those ADD questionnaires, print it out and take it to him. It's worth another try before getting another doctor I think.

I just hope my mom did not cancel my psychiatrist appointment wed. b/c she is really unsupportive of me. She believes only what she wants to believe herself. It seriously appears that the insurance is trying to trick us or something.

So suppose I go back to my psychiatrist, could I ask if I could try taking Adderall (As it appears to help Inattentive ADDers) and determine if it would help me or not even though I was not diagnosed as ADD? - Is this considered trial and error?

By the way, is Adderall considered a narcotic?

For the purpose of the federal drug laws in the USA it is a narcotic. It's really a stimulant, not a narcotic. Under the law it's a schedule2 drug. Which means you have to have a prescription to posess it and there are some restrictions that apply.

ME :D

For the purpose of the federal drug laws in the USA it is a narcotic. It's really a stimulant, not a narcotic. Under the law it's a schedule2 drug. Which means you have to have a prescription to posess it and there are some restrictions that apply.

ME :DDo u have to be diagnosed ADD to be precribed to take adderall though?

Do u have to be diagnosed ADD to be precribed to take adderall though?Yes you have to be diagnosed with ADD. The psychiatrist can do that and put you on a trial run of medication..keep in mind he might want to talk to your parents about what you were like as a child.

Adderall is like speed, some people try and get it so they can get high. Don't ask for it or the doctor might think you're after it for getting high.

Tell him you want treatment for ADD instead of asking for one specific drug. Again- don't ask for Adderall, tell him you'd like treatment. Your mum might have to be involved with this if you're under 18.

He will probably give you a test, some written stuff about your symptoms and maybe a few other activities. The main thing they look at is your history - the problems you've had with ADD all your life.