Adult ADD/ADHD

[SkeletonSkins]

Didn’t want to hijack another thread but I’ve been thinking for a while now I may have adult ADD and a few people posted and said diagnosis had helped them. How did it help? How did you go about getting diagnosed?

Reasons I think I might have it - I lose EVERYTHING all the time. I dont even notice I’ve put something down. I also drop things and knock things over a lot, I just dont seem to notice they’re there.

When studying I need music on in the background or my mind wanders. Sometimes I feel I have to ‘occupy my brain’ in order to let another part of my brain learn.

I don’t realise when people are talking to me if I’m concentrating on something. I just honeslty don’t realise they’ve spoken. Everyone who knows me well notices this about me.

I zone out in long conversations and realise I’m not actually listening. I fidget and always find myself chewing a pen lid etc which is gross but I don’t realise im doing it.

But then I’m not sure if I do have it as I’ve always managed well at school and was a high achiever suggesting I could concentrate enough to pass exams etc. I’m not ‘hyper’ in that I always need to be doing things or active although I do like be busy. These things aren’t having any massive impact on my life - the losing things thing is annoying but the rest either people just accept as ‘me’ or I’ve come up with methods of dealing with.

Any advice would be appreciated.

You can ask for a referral but be prepared for a fight, I have it acknowledged that my issues are borderline autism but with traits of ADHD and Dysoraxia. I have never been assessed for ADHD and it seems locally (Essex) that’s I would have a fight to get a referral to the nearest clinic as it’s out of area.

I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. It was easy for me because my therapist was the one that suspected it and gave me a referral to a great psychiatrist.

I'd tell you to get an assessment (not necessarily easy) and see what happens. You may have ADHD, you may have something entirely different of nothing at all. But that way you'll know.

(Btw, an assessment and one experts conclusion is obviously not always correct. In my case the results made sense. Therapy and medication helped and improved my life drastically so I have no doubt that it was correct. But not everyone is that lucky...)

But then I’m not sure if I do have it as I’ve always managed well at school and was a high achiever suggesting I could concentrate enough to pass exams etc. I’m not ‘hyper’ in that I always need to be doing things or active although I do like be busy

Same. University (so much less structured) was however my own personal hell. (Before getting diagnosed, that is...)

(also, my experience is based on private healthcare outside the UK. So idk how you would go about getting diagnosed)

Do you have any specific questions?

I was privately diagnosed as an adult, helped massively as I understood the whys after reading lots of books on adhd and put in place strategies to combat the forgetfulness etc, also started taking medicine (Ritalin) which has massively helped with concentration, but it’s not for everyone and took several different types of medicine/doses from the doc to get it right so I didn’t feel like I was swinging from the chandeliers.