The pain of being ADHD "like"

[Flory]

&yes i would tell him you've been seeing someone regarding depression etc, but i would leave it at that...its not misleading but it leaves his slate clean to thoroughly analyse your impairments without the overshadow of another persons conclusions etc xx

[PoppnNSailinMan]

Fuzzy12:

The second one said that I have enough symptoms for a diagnosis of adult ADHD but that he can't diagnose me with ADHD because he can't establish enough impairment before the age of 7.

I think that the second psychiatrist is being overly strict in trying to prove impairment by the age of 7 when diagnosing an adult. The DSM-IV criteria were originally targeted towards diagnosing children, not adults.

For adults who were not diagnosed as children, it is often difficult to establish proof of ADHD symptoms before the age of 7. There is also evidence, now, that ADHD symptoms often appear much later than that, too.

If there is no collateral source such as a parent or old report cards, the psychiatrist should probably just accept the patient's word that they had symptoms as a child. In the book "ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says" (Guilford Press, 2008) by Russell A. Barkley, Kevin R. Murphy, and Mariellen Fischer, it says (p. 129):

"Clinicians should also ignore the currently recommended age of onset before 7 years, instead requiring the symptoms have developed and produced impairment at some time in childhood or early adolescence prior to 16 years of age."

This problem in diagnosing adults will probably be rectified to some extent in the DSM-5 which is coming out next year. The proposed revision is that symptoms should have been present by the age of 12. The wording in the draft as it now stands is as follows:

"B. Several inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were present prior to age 12."

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevision...n.aspx?rid=383

[Subtract81]

In response to the video:

I do not count myself an expert but the thing about people without a certain perspective who are trying to analyze that perspective (say adhd), is no matter how well qualified they might be, any analysis of results or observations will be skewed as it is seen through that persons own preconceptions and patterns of thinking and stimuli and responses cannot be totally unambiguous. It is easy to explain physical brain observations but i don't think the technology is there to discover a persons true conscious or subconscious thought patterns, conclusions have to be drawn on limited data. The only truly useful information is what actually helps people who find themselves with similar symptoms and how these are affectively alleviated in the long term. I agree that adhd labelling is unfortunate as it gives the wrong impression, but labelling people in general is over simplistic, but we all have a need to abstract in order that we can feel like we understand better, anyway my point is nice video but i think a lot is speculative and over simplified. ( i was playing guitar while i was watching it but this was my impression )

[Flory]

dr barkley is at the height of his game subtract, he is one of the most knowledgeable people in the field of ADHD, have a look at some more of his works, you'll soon see

[Subtract81]

He did seem to be very knowledgeable on the subject and i think intention deficit disorder is far more apt, i will look into more of his stuff!

[SquarePeg]

Hi Fuzzy, don´t be scared about being assertive, you are not a fake seeking drugs. I don´t think you are particularly bothered about what label docs give you, you just want to feel better.

What exactly does impairment mean, that you have to be down and out, living on the street, unemployable, addicted to drugs or what. Just because you are managing to hang on your doc says is an adhd personality!! incredible.

You deserve to be well, I hope someone can recommend a good doc in your area.

[parliate]

Well i was thought same like you because i changed 6 doc included neurologist .i got 4 diagnosis depression,anxiety,lack of b12 and ADHD also some of them told me i can't treat you with ADHD pills because you are overage! So i just ***** them and continue to find truth.My last doc said to me your symptom shows me you will be ADHD and finally asked my childhood life,my school life,my family etc.Consulted her doc friends about my symptoms and put diagnosis on me .Because of that idiots i just hate myself while i was taking wrong medicine.

Just go and see doc and tell your whole story.If doc decided to put diagnosis in 5 min show your finger.Switch another doc.

[Zevispaz]

Well, I thought I was on the high functioning end or didn't have bad adhd. The only real impairment is my driving, I just can't drive unmedicated. Other than that though, I haven't lost any jobs or had relationship difficulties. So I figured it was probably mild at best.

It turns out I scored extremely high in the inattention part of the test, 2 points from the maximum score. At first I thought it was because the test was sooo boring it just brought it out my adhd full blown, worse than what it is in my day to day life.

But the more I think about it, the only reason I haven't suffered serious consequences is because I figured out strange coping methods.

Can't cook? That's cool, I'd buy the groceries and my room mates would cook, or I'd get instant food.

Can't do dishes? Paper and plastic baby.

Can't manage finances? Cool, automatic payments.

Can't focus on anything for a long time except art? Got an art job.

Don't follow directions well? Call it my "creative twist" on the instructions, and make revisions without attitude if they don't like it.

Terrible at being on time? Get a job that's not uptight about that sort of thing.

Get bored of friends? Make new ones.

Can't listen in conversations or say blurt random ***** out? Get like minded or just really chill friends. No seriously, my friends are the most super chill people I know. High strung friends really don't last very long.

So, even though you may not feel like you have "bad" adhd, you still could. I know for a fact if I was not an artist or working at retail, I'd fail miserably. I really didn't do so well with my part time secretary type job in college. If I was still unmedicated with kids and piled on responsibilities, I'd flounder.

If I kept on the same path I was on, it would explode in my face eventually (if not crashing the car, it'd be something else drastic). I was already wearing myself thin by procrastinating and staying late to finish work that I could have gotten done earlier instead of browsing facebook.

So don't feel like you're a fraud. If you're having trouble it's probably because you've used up your coping strategies and worn yourself too thin.

[Crackpotdad]

Agree 100%

[ana futura]

Originally Posted by Zevispaz

Well, I thought I was on the high functioning end or didn't have bad adhd... I figured it was probably mild at best.

I also thought I was "mild", I guess I hide it pretty well. After my therapist first gave me the little checklist quiz he told me he shocked by how severe my self report answers were. I have no real idea how "impaired" I actually I am. I've managed by doing all the things you mention, including jettisoning friends who can't handle me.

While I don't need or want uptight jerks in my life, an ability to cope with the "real world" would be nice at times.

[Fuzzy12]

Originally Posted by SquarePeg

Hi Fuzzy, don´t be scared about being assertive, you are not a fake seeking drugs. I don´t think you are particularly bothered about what label docs give you, you just want to feel better.

What exactly does impairment mean, that you have to be down and out, living on the street, unemployable, addicted to drugs or what. Just because you are managing to hang on your doc says is an adhd personality!! incredible.

You deserve to be well, I hope someone can recommend a good doc in your area.

My first pdoc said "If you really had ADHD you would probably be broke and on the road or in prison and there's no way that you'd have managed to be in a relationship for 10 years (let alone two degrees)."

It didn't help that I explained to him my circumstances. My parents have always been overprotective and still try to stuff me with money. My primary school was a doodle where everything was learnt through play and games. And I loved learning. Surely, a love for learning has got nothing to do with ADHD? My husband has a good job and works incredibly hard to keep both our lives together. he is also the one that makes sure we stay together. I've tried breaking up a dozen times, he always convinces me not to. I've got two degrees because I wasn't able to get a job. Struggled with the first and the second was originally a PhD that I had to downgrade to a Master's.

The thing that really threw pdoc 2 was that I loved reading and was a voracious reader as a kid. But then many on ADDF have told me that they too loved reading. When reading fiction, I could escape for a few hours into a dream world, which I loved. And needed, I guess.

He said irrespective of the support I've had, if I really had ADHD, I'd be in a much worse situation. I wanted to tell him about the sucessful lawyers, doctors, PhDs, etc. on ADDF but thought that mentioning ADDF might not be a great idea.

Anyway, I'm planning to see Flo's pdoc when I've got a bit more time. But then what if he too says I don't have ADHD. I mean, maybe I don't. It's possible, isn't it? How many experts can be wrong about that? But what do I do then???

I feel like a duck. You know.. "I quack like a duck, I walk and talk like a duck" but apparently I'm not a duck. Just an ugly swan.