How does your ADHD diagnosis help?

[LaMadrilena]

Afternoon everyone.

I suspect I have some kind of attention deficit disorder and am starting to go about getting assessed.

I just wondered, if you have a diagnosis and treatment (of any kind), how has it helped you? What difference has it made to your day-to-day or your long-term outlook?

If it helps to know, my principal symptoms are an inability to concentrate even when a task is urgent and important; ending up utterly paralysed when there are too many thoughts/tasks to process at once; starting and never finishing projects; anxiety and depression (diagnosed and treated); socially awkward, just drifting off in conversation or even when someone is talking directly to me about something important; zoning out from group conversations as they're just overwhelming; finding the smallest decisions overwhelming (for example, when I have to take various plates, cups etc out to the kitchen - what do I pick up first? with which hand? what do I put down first? stupid stuff).

Thanks in advance

Personally, my adhd diagnosis hasn't made any difference to me apart from confirming what I suspected. I can't take the medication and I'm not in employment so it doesn't have any practical application.

Many people find a diagnosis helpful because it enables them to understand their responses better, helps them to formulate coping mechanisms and provides legal protections in work etc. It's personal to each individual I guess.

It’s a tough one, OP. For me, I had a deep sense of shame and self-loathing before diagnosis, which the diagnosis took away. Unfortunately, it took with it my previous doggedness about getting stuff done ‘because there’s no reason why I can’t do it if everyone else manages to’ (albeit with a lot of faffing, tears and frustration involved). It sounds daft but for me, I’ve won and lost in equal measure.

Now, if you respond to medication (which 70-80% do when it comes to stimulants - though there are non-stimulant options that are considered less effective too), it’ll change your life. Unfortunately, I have physical health problems that are exacerbated by the stimulants so that didn’t work out for me.

In theory, it should also help other people to understand why you are the way you are. However, for me, it would be useful for my parents to understand and they have no desire to make any effort to read anything and a limited interest in anything I say about it…so it doesn’t help me there either.

It all just depends in the end as we all have different symptoms, issues and responses to medication (some people have coaching so it’s worth mentioning that too).

Thanks for your honest replies. I'm sorry the treatments didn't work out for either of you. I guess I want it to be like a magic wand that'll make me reliable and organised and happier with myself, even though I know perfectly well it doesn't work like that.

@ABitOfAShitShow It's interesting you should mention coaching, it's something I've thought about a lot. I did inquire about it, but ended up it straight up therapy!

It’s specialist ADHD coaching, OP. You wouldn’t usually do it without a diagnosis.

Is that available on the NHS @ABitOfAShitShow?

OMG it was INCREDIBLY helpful and validating for me.

I went from flip flopping between "Should I try this ADHD method? But maybe I don't have it after all. Oh it's not that bad for me. Why can't I just DO THE THING?!" to going "This is me, this is my brain, this is what I'm working with." I bought books. I subscribed to youtube channels. I started living as a person with ADHD instead of dipping my toe in the water and feeling like a huge fraud and an imposter.

I was supposed to start medication but then I had a miscarriage and was honest about TTC following the miscarriage and they wouldn't give it to me. So I started CBT instead, it was... okay. It was quite helpful in that it helped me establish some routines but the therapist clearly wasn't that experienced or knowledgable about ADHD, I could literally see him watching the clock some sessions trying to fill up the time, and it started to get circular like every counselling/therapy I've ever tried to do, so he suggested we didn't renew it at the next quarter (I live abroad and that's how the health insurance is billed) and I accepted that.

Several years later I finally had DS2 and went and saw a doctor 3 months later. He prescribed medication, although not a typical ADHD medication, and it was fairly helpful (DH reckons it was amazingly helpful for me, but I don't think it was). I was about to change medication when I got pregnant with DS3, who is now 6 months old, and now I am looking for another doctor, because my previous one wouldn't go through the proper titration process and would only prescribe medication based on how well I performed on a computer test, which I find a bit annoying, I would rather live with the medication for a few days and see how helpful or not it is in the real world.

But yes the most helpful thing to me is the "permission" to engage with ADHD specific materials. I don't think everyone would need the diagnosis to do that but it was apparently important to me.

@Imissmoominmama

Is that available on the NHS *@ABitOfAShitShow*?

There’s a way to access it through the NHS but the coaches are independent.

Ah, I hadn't heard of that @ABitOfAShitShow, I'll look into it, thanks.

@BertieBotts, I'm glad it helped you.

Thanks again for your replies. I'll see if I can summon up the courage to go and talk to someone.