Well... I didn't even really GET a diagnosis. Let me explain:

8:30a this morning - met with the Psychiatrist [who is also a child psychiatrist] at my HMO.

She asked me why I was there. I took out a list of my symptoms I typed out the night before, along with a list of meds I am currently taking for unrelated things. (An idea I got from this forum) I handed her a copy and had one to myself to look at if my mind went blank. So I went thru everything...
These are the points I touched on:
-=-History of difficulty focusing in school and work environments
-=-Constant forgetfulness
-=-Disorganization
-=-Distraction & Boredom
-=-Lack of Follow-Through
-=-Procrastination

I FOR SURE, thought it was a done deal - and that she could finally see that I do experience a lot of the symptoms consistent with ADHD Inattentive.

Not so.

Back in June of this year, I visited with another psych/therapist or whatever there to talk to her about my touch of social anxiety. She offered me meds, I declined, but did recommend I read a book and show up for counseling. She also diagnosed me with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Well the psychiatrist TODAY tells me that I was "in quite a bit of distress" in June based upon the notes, and that the psych I met with back then only sees emergencies so I must have been having quite a bit of anxiety. I told her it wasn't that serious as I don't recall ever having full blown panic attacks.

Then she asked about my family history - I told her I have a first cousin who's a devil-worshipping, suicidal, straitjacket-wearing bipolar... but besides that and a couple of drunk uncles my family is pretty normal.

You will never believe what she says then. She tells me I have strong symptoms of Anxiety (once again bringing up my prior visit), but that I also have symptoms of bipolar mania... and a few symptoms consistent with ADHD... but that she is not sure what I have until I get my anxiety under control. She ALSO mentioned that since I had drawn up that nice organized list of symptoms... that someone with true ADHD would NEVER have been able to do that... and that my procrastination is NOT a symptom of ADHD because people with ADHD just wouldn't do it at all... much less think about it and put it off. ???

It never occurred to her that my anxiety MAY be due to my ADHD symptoms, as she suggested she thinks the anxiety was there first.

So she gives me this drug called Klonopin/Clonazepam for people with PANIC attacks. I had never heard of it but I just died laughing when I read about it on Wikipedia.

Common side effects include:
Drowsiness
Lack of motivation (gotta love this one!!)
Impairment of cognition and judgment
Impaired motor function
Cognitive Impairments

SWEET!


... I took one today to see what would happen. Absolutely nothing.

My HMO expires the end of this year... so in 09 it's off to a find a new psychiatrist as I will officially be on PPO and won't be required to see crappy HMO's anymore. Thank God.

Please be careful if you drive. I almost lost my life from Klonopin. It stays in the system more than 24 hrs.

DYK that there is ADD testing (memory testing done by psychologists)? It costs but colleges often cover the fees thru their disability offices.

I suggest testing b/c lots of MDs miss ADD. Some even claim to 'not believe in it'.

Testing produces fast results (in 2 weeks you often have a written report!) -- and saves you a lot of BS.

See a new psych: that one's a t***.

yeah i wont say everything I want to say here but basically I agree with Driver. You've got yourself an idiot for a psychiatrist especially since she wants to diagnose you with bipolar right off the bat. That crap ****es me off. You are probably on a low dose of klonopin which will help if the anxiety gets bad but if you dont need it I wouldnt take it. Benzos are really addictive. Good luck with finding a new psych.

Ahh, the sort of nonsense I love to hate!
Of course people with ADHD can make a list. Especially if you are meeting up with your doctor and know that it will be hard for you to remember all the points. Personally I showed up with a seven page script on my visit to the doctor after I tried Ritalin to prove how much it helped (points, not full pages). So what does the doctor do? Not read it certainly. No, no, but write about it in my report he did, making it sound sound very odd, "the patient brings with her a seven page document" bla bla. I worked so hard on that! I only did it because I thought he would not understand how important the drug was, since he wanted to take me off it due to side effects. In the end I felt that whatever I did, he would just interpret it the way he wanted to. Did I mention that he also wanted to send me to a psychiatrist after that? Ahhhh.

I feel that one of the worst things with this business is dealing with all the incompetent doctors.

http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u73/cyarena/comments/hugs/images/hugs1.gif

See a new psych: that one's a twãt.

Agreed. What really gets me is the comment about someone with ADD couldn't have drawn up a list like you did. This tells me she doesn't understand what this conditions is about at ALL.

When we're (hyper)focused on something (usually something that interests us, and what's more interesting than our own medical conditions) we can outshine most people when it comes to collecting and organizing information. I had a huge file folder full of research with me when I went to my appointments; they didn't think it was strange for someone with ADD to do at all.

Have gone through similar - in one hour, I talked for 10 minutes, then the shrink diagnosed me three different times, anxiety, depression and OCD - while telling me I just need to grow up - and prescribed an anti-anxiety/depression med that I was on before that made me more depressed - did tell her that, but guess she wasn't listening. Still haven't found a doctor that will listen and is fluent enough with ADHD to help. 28 male in north east pa

When we're (hyper)focused on something (usually something that interests us, and what's more interesting than our own medical conditions) we can outshine most people when it comes to collecting and organizing information. I had a huge file folder full of research with me when I went to my appointments; they didn't think it was strange for someone with ADD to do at all.

Exactly, procrastination is a symptom, like in school I would wait to the last minute but my work would still be better than everyone else.:cool:

This is almost exactly what happened to me when I went to see a child psychiatrist, while I was still waiting to be referred to my local centre for AD/HD in adults.

My aunt had suggested that since this man had been the one to diagnose my cousin, he might be able to do something for me. Problem was, of course, that I'm an adult female, not a male child. So the child psychologist clocked that I did not behave like a male child with AD/HD and decided it therefore had to be cyclothymic bipolar disorder, because unlike AD/HD, bipolar disorder is something adult females get diagnosed with.

I'm surprised he didn't throw in a borderline diagnosis for free while he was at it.

Thanks for the comments everyone - this forum has been great. It's sad that this field has much inconsistency and lack of expertise in adult ADHD. I left that psych's office feeling so frustrated.
I can't see a new doc until 2009... and I have a nice fat deductible... so I'm off to save $$$.

That's just ridiculous.
The person should be taken away her liscence.
It seems many psyciatrist really don't knwo what the **** they are doing in their own job.
I once went to a psychologist for my panic disorder and after i mentioned that my dad had spent a few weeks in a mental hospital due to METHAMPHETAMINE INDUCED PSYCHOSIS, the second I told him, you could see he immediately clinged onto that and started thinking I might be schizo, I was like WTF man, ever heard of METH INDUCED PSYCHOSIS before?

it's laughable, but at the same time horrible to think that people who need help, doesn't get it because of incompitent shrinks who chose the job cuz it's easy(when you don't even know your field) and you make a fortune of it.

It's a shame that many "mental health professionals" (phsychiatrist, phsycologists, GP's...etc) do not understand how it feels for someone to get to the point where they feel they need help. If they did, I believe they'd approach their patients differently. The first time I asked a psy for a diagnosis, he made me feel like I had to "prove" something to him, like I was almost wasting his time.

My new docter is great. He just listened, asked questions and didn't put me through any hoops.

If that first docter had been more understanding, I may have gotten my diagnosis several years ago.

I can understand this.. I am only 15, so not an adult ADHD person, but because of what my mother told my doctors I was diagnosed as OCD and ODD instead of ADHD for a while.. Later, after my foster parents started taking me to the appointments and let me do the talking, I was diagnosed with combined type ADHD, odd for a girl to have that, and only BORDERLINE OCD and ODD. Not the same, but it can be just as frustrating as a younger patient when the doctor gives in to the parent's lies.

I hope you get the accurate diagnosis, but you never know sometimes it could be something that's mimicking ADHD