Adult ADHD Diagnosis - what is the process like?

For those of you who weren’t diagnosed until adulthood (I’m in my late 40s), what was the diagnosis process like? Are you just given a written test, or does someone evaluate you more thoroughly? Do they try to understand your symptoms, or is it more of a checklist? If anyone has personal stories they’d be willing to share, I’d love to hear them. I’m also just curious about what to expect during the appointment. Who do I make it with? A psychiatrist?

I also wonder if there are other related conditions or learning disabilities that I might have, such as dyslexia. Do I need to be proactive in asking for multiple diagnoses? Or will they be able to evaluate me for anything/everything?

PostingInPublic,

I got the questionnaire and an interview and the psychiatrists said, yeah that’s probably ADHD.

The real epiphany I had when I went into a group therapy setting and suddenly I was somewhere where everyone fucking understood me! That’s how I came to actually believe, yeah, it’s probably ADHD.

However the diagnosis turned out to be somewhat irrelevant, what’s relevant is to change yourself so that you can live with yourself.

nyar,

I just got a confirmation diagnosis and prescription and I seemed to have the easiest time out of anyone here. It definitely helped that I was aware of a prior diagnosis and had discussed various symptoms and behaviors that I expressed with my partner who also has adhd prior to the visit.

Once I discussed my desire for an assessment to my PCP he had me fill out a survey of symptoms based on severity, all of which I had in significant or extreme amounts.

From there he provided me with a script for Adderall with the requirement to return in three months for a follow-up.

tubabandit,

Diagnosed at 43-44. Went to psychologist, talked about why I wanted an assessment, did a questionnaire. Had a second appointment, asked questions based on first questionnaire, did another one while also assessing for other co-morbidities. Wound up doing at least two more questionnaires, plus my spouse and wife did one each. Received ~10 page report that several aspects of the ADHD “spectrum”, as well as other common co-diagnoses such as anxiety, depression, autism. We discussed to ensure I was ok with it and understood it, she suggested other resources and tools, and I took that to my PCP to start trialling medications.

Mohkia, (edited )

Not op bit just wanted to thank you all for your responses. I have a Dr appointment in a couple weeks and want to ask them about an assessment. Likely just going to ask for a referral but want to be prepared. Kinda stressing but reading your experiences has helped a bit. So once again thank you. Been putting this off for way too long.

improvisedbuttplug,

It depends on the medical professional involved in the process. No matter what test they may or may not use, at the end of the day diagnosis is always up to the subjective opinion of the provider.

This was my process that started at age 28 while I was in graduate school. (I’m 30 now)

It started with a friend getting diagnosed. Talking to her about her symptoms, I kinda just thought all that was just normal existence. It then lead me to suspect that maybe my struggles weren’t exactly “normal”. So I dug into it and starting learning about ADHD through various online resources. Eventually became entirely convinced and self-diagnosed. I so cleanly fit the pattern ever since early childhood and while I had developed some decent coping strategies, things were always on the verge or in the process of falling apart.

I started with Cerebral which has the well-earned reputation of being a pill-mill company. I didn’t even finish explaining my symtomology and background before the prescribing NP said “sounds like ADHD, here’s an Adderall prescription”. It took like 30 minutes.

Adderall was life-changing and helped a ton, but after a while I started getting some weird emails from people not associated with the “treatment team” at Cerebral asking me to make an appointment with a doctor to get drug tested. This was because they were getting heat from the DEA. I saw the writing on the wall and decided that the best move would be to find a new provider that was local to me.

So I got an appointment with a local place that mentioned Adult-ADHD. The process with them was supposed to consist of 2 separate 2 hour screenings. In the first meeting with them, I answered questions and explained my personal and family history, symptomology, and what medication treatment had been doing for me. That meeting ended up only lasting an hour, the Doctor thought my analysis of things was legit and she offered to continue treatment without needing the other 2 hour followup. I’ve been seeing that provider ever since and she’s been great, eventually switched to vyvanse.

So yeah, I basically self-diagnosed, got treatment through a pill-mill. Jumped ship when it seemed like the company was going down, switched to a legit provider and used the effectiveness of previous treatment as a solid piece of evidence for why it should continue. No weird test needed.

d4rknusw1ld,

“There’s no way you have ADHD since you didn’t have symptoms as a kid” … instead I have bipolar. I believe it’s ADHD, can’t get anyone to listen. I’m not hunting for god damn stimulants. Im 36 with 3 kids… I just want help.

improvisedbuttplug,

Have you tried Welbutrin? It’s not a highly controlled substance and doctors are pretty willing to prescribe it. It acts on dopamine and many people have found it helpful for ADHD.

One of the problems explained to me by my doctor is that executive dysfunction is the key symptom of ADHD, and it’s not hard to diagnose executive dysfunction. The problem is that executive dysfunction can also be caused by other conditions like MDD or Bipolar, and in those cases, ADHD treatment may not actually help.

That being said, I’m sorry you’re being denied the opportunity to try treatments that might help. Although I can understand providers being hesitant to give stimulants with abuse potential to someone with manic tendencies. Hopefully you can try some of the non-stimulant options and see if they help

d4rknusw1ld,

Yeah, they think Wellbutrin is what caused my high spike in anxiety and suicidal thoughts and ended up in the hospital.

sndj,

I was diagnosed approx a year ago. Late 40’s. I saw my GP for a referral to a specialist. The wait was about 9 months. GP and specialist asked why I thought I might have adhd. They asked about how school went, work habits, etc. I filled out a long questionnaire that really helped me to see how obvious it was that I have adhd. I did a zoom call with the specialist and his partner. It was pretty cut and dry which really floored me. He faxed an Rx to my pharmacy, but said to start at a low dose, but move up quickly as I likely need a higher dose. Parts of it were embarrassing. I’d tried to hide it for so long and I guess I thought I had? But nope. My life is clear evidence of adhd. I started vyvanse and I still have adhd, but getting work done isn’t impossible for me. I should probably be on a higher dose, but it’s a fine balance. If i was diagnosed and treated as a kid, im positive my entire life would be different. Anyhoo. Thanks for reading.

Kyrgizion,

The wait was about 9 months.

I’m currently waiting for one (appointment is made) but I’m honestly not sure I’ll survive that long.

YourHuckleberry,

P.S. I have dysgraphia, which was diagnosed when I was a child. To my knowledge, no professional ever diagnosed me with ADHD. I’ve tried to ask my mom about this, but she’s being cagey. She says, “we all knew you had ADHD.” I was never given medication for ADHD. The only help I got was for the dysgraphia. All this is to say, if you want to get help for another disability you will absolutely need to be proactive.

YourHuckleberry,

This answer is for the USA.

A health care professional is going to ask you questions from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). There are 9 symptoms for each kind of ADHD. If you have five of one or the other, you have ADHD. The difficult part is, everyone does these things sometimes. The question is, do you do them often, and does it have a negative impact on your life. A mental health provider is going to have more training on evaluating you than a general practitioner. When it comes down to it though, anybody can ask the questions, you have to give the answers.

I scheduled a physical with my GP and figured I’d get to take care of everything at once. Unfortunately that’s not how the helthcare system works. The doctors don’t like to combine multiple ailments into a single visit, because they can’t bill them that way. So I left with a referral to psych. I haven’t gone yet and still don’t have a diagnosis. If you’re going to go the GP route, make a specific appointment for an ADHD diagnosis. Make sure to ask beforehand if your GP feels comfortable giving the diagnosis and, if you’re interested, prescribing meds. If you don’t ask, your GP is likely to wait til after you’ve paid your copay to tell you that you’ll need to see a psych specialist.

socksonic,

I’ve seen many online self-assessments that use some version of the DSM questionnaire that you’ve mentioned. I have a hard time committing to a binary answer to an open question so these are always a nightmare for me. My answer is usually something more like “sort of” or “depends” and I get very stressed out that I’m not being truthful or accurate. I’ve found ways to manage my symptoms out of necessity over the years and I think that might skew my answer to some of the questions also. I still usually end up answering “yes” to five of them, but that seems like I’m on the cusp. I just feel like a list of 9 written questions lacks nuance and that’s why I was hoping to hear that a more holistic approach would be part of the diagnosis process.

YourHuckleberry,

They may ask you to get other people, who are close to you but can be more objective, to answer the questions.

Have you seen Lucky Number Slevin? There’s a great scene where Ben Kingsley says, “The first time someone calls you a horse you punch him on the nose, the second time someone calls you a horse you call him a jerk but the third time someone calls you a horse, well then perhaps it’s time to go shopping for a saddle.”

I’m saddle shopping. I have an evaluation scheduled tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

GxC,
GxC avatar

I was diagnosed 10 years ago via a neuro-psych assessment. It wasn’t cheap but I wanted to assess for other areas of needs, such as short term memory retention. The assessment included an interview followed by several hours of structured testing.

These days, I believe there are quicker ways to test specifically for ADHD via a limited set of questions. A psychiatrist can certainly do this but most primary care physicians should also be able to as well. Depending on where you live, access to psychiatry might be limited and your primary care physician may be the one to manage your meds (if warranted) in any event. A psychologist may be able to diagnose ADHD but can’t offer medication options.

Re: learning disability/dyslexia, the neuro-psych testing can identify these issues. There may be simpler, more cost effective methods to identify these or other deficits. If you potentially need accommodations in the workplace, they may require some proof of assessment.

Hope that helps.

green_light_stop,
green_light_stop avatar

I was recently diagnosed from a neuro-psych. Similar process of many hours of testing (~5h). My friend was also diagnosed recently from a psychiatrist through question answer, but no formal cognitive evaluation measure. The amount of clarity I got from the neuro-psych in terms of cognitive function and my specific circumstances was significantly more helpful than what my friend got from the psychiatrist.

After all the formal testing, I was given a thorough 17 page report including a breakdown of each aspect of cognitive functioning, any applicable disorders (with recommendation for therapy to investigate further and confirm), next steps, and treatment and coping mechanism recommendations. My friend was given a broad diagnosis of unspecified ADHD with no additional information.

If you are able to afford the neuropsych eval, it is well worth it.

An important distinction is that a neuropsych eval focuses on cognitive function. It works for ADHD because it is a cognitive function disorder and will show directly in testing as a deficiency in executive function (plus possibly other stuff, I'm not an expert). They also do the psych eval tests but they can normally point to broad things that you will need therapy to dig into.

Cipher22,

I’ve was in my late 30’s on active duty in the military. As someone who has been in more than a decade, I still couldn’t remember all my uniform pieces on workout days.

When I spoke to my doctor, he referred me of base for testing. There testing was fairly straight forward. There was some testing for learning disabilities and IQ. Mostly written work, but half was doing a rather long computer questionnaire. When I took the test for the ADHD it was a particularly bad day. Apparently the psychiatrist had seen 3rd graders with worse scores. I think she thought I threw the test. When the testing concluded I got the results and went back to base for the rest of the treatment.

I don’t know your circumstances, but I would advise simply asking your doctor for a referral. They did check for other disabilities, and also other contributing conditions, like depression. Getting treatment started with a few different drugs in very small doses. My biochemistry muddy be off because I had significant reactions to those small doses, but just communicating was able to solve it all. There was even one that made me not want sleep anymore. On day 2, I called and they made me stop immediately (given that is pushing deadly if it continued). So definitely don’t think it’s all smooth sailing.

On the far side of that wall now it’s amazing though. I can read again and play video games again for longer than a simple phone game. Once you figure out the right balance for your body chemistry, you’ll be amazed you managed without it.

d4rknusw1ld,

Surprised you got the service to help you. I’m trying to get the VA to help me. The neuro sent out a questionnaire to my mom; but because I didn’t show symptoms as a kid as she put it in her questionnaire they just auto assumed I didn’t have it. Then I told my mother all the symptoms I did have and hid. She just refused to believe me.

Now the VA won’t take the time to help me because of my mother’s questionnaire. The neuro said I have symptoms of ADHD and showing inattentive type. But the psychs refuse to go off the neuros DX. It’s annoying.

I’m almost certain I have ADHD; but can’t find help. I’m not seeking adderall damn it.

Cipher22,

Honestly, my experience almost feels unique when looking online. However, after almost 30 years I have only experienced negative interactions on par with what my brother reports from civilian care.

Also, I wouldn’t be certain on your diagnosis without getting a professional involved. We thought my kiddo had ADHD. She had all my symptoms, but upon better scrutiny, she actually had a visual processing disorder that presents almost identically.

essjay24,

I was diagnosed about a year ago. I’m mid-60s. I was given a preliminary inventory to complete and then met with a psychiatrist for further evaluation. She asked me questions and we dug into some topics more than others. Most were about challenges I’ve had in life. At the end she prescribed a medication. I followed up monthly, had a med adjustment and now follow up every 3 months.

As far as other symptoms, I’ve dealt with low thyroid, low testosterone as well as depression. When my child was noted in school to have dysgraphia (poor or illegible handwriting) it brought into focus that I had the same learning disability. This was previous to my adhd diagnosis so I can’t comment on that issue. I work in IT so I’m not bothered by disgraphia as I type everything anyway.

murrman,

I was diagnosed about 7-8 years ago, and I was in my early/mid 30s at the time. I was referred to a specialist by my pcp, and they started out by asking me some questions about my symptoms and whatnot. The final thing I had to do was take this computerized test thing that involved looking at a screen while doing some simple stuff. There were cameras that tracked my eye movement to determine how long I was appearing to focus on what I was supposed to be looking at (versus anywhere else on the screen or in the room). Afterwards, we talked about what meds/dosage to start out with. For the first 6 months or so I was going in almost monthly to adjust my dosage and/or switch meds entirely. Once we found something that worked, I started going in every 2-3 months to check in. Overall, not an unpleasant experience.

d4rknusw1ld,

Mind if I asked what meds you received in the end? I’m 36 and was put on Lamictal for bipolar… I’m almost certain it’s ADHD but I guess the VA refuses to listen or help me.

murrman,

Vyvanse is what I ended up on, and it worked wonders. I actually had to stop cold turkey a week ago while my doctor figures out why I have high blood pressure, and it’s been a pretty rough week. I kind of forgot how much of a help the Vyvanse was for my daily quality of life.

THErealJarvis,

@murrman vyvanse is a pretty good med.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • adhd@lemmy.world
  • PowerRangers
  • DreamBathrooms
  • mdbf
  • magazineikmin
  • khanakhh
  • Youngstown
  • everett
  • slotface
  • tacticalgear
  • rosin
  • thenastyranch
  • kavyap
  • tsrsr
  • ethstaker
  • Leos
  • vwfavf
  • GTA5RPClips
  • Durango
  • osvaldo12
  • cisconetworking
  • hgfsjryuu7
  • InstantRegret
  • cubers
  • modclub
  • normalnudes
  • ngwrru68w68
  • tester
  • anitta
  • All magazines
    •