Comment by LeafItAlone

I am surprised you are having any problem getting diagnosed. ADHD is one of the easiest conditions to fake: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173757/

I got diagnosed and then got medication. Ritalin/medikinet is the default here.

It felt like a really strong coffee. It did not really help as I could just focus intensely on the wrong things for hours then crash. The comedown was not fun. The side effects were not fun. The benefits were questionable.

Above all, my lifestyle is built around ADHD. My work is structured to accomodate my quirks. I was happier riding the waves as there were almost no consequences for doing so.

Perhaps another type of medication would have worked better, but no medication at all is good enough.

One thing I appreciated is that they titrated the medication safely. I hear that American doctors start people with a much stronger dose. German doctors seem more moderate, and more willing to try therapy first.

Your mileage may vary.

If you live in the US - go to Zoom care - talk to a doctor, fill out a survey - walk out with a prescription. I don’t use medication anymore but when I first discovered it, it changed my life for a time - and in the US it is incredibly easy to get prescribed from my experience.

Not me, but my BFF managed to get diagnosed in her mid-30s. She was killing her heart with all the stimulants she was taking and her other ways to cope. I don't k own hoe she got diagnosed, but she definitely didn't do it for thousands of dollars. She couldn't have afforded that.

I do know that therapy and medication made it night and day for her. She immediately dropped all caffeine. Her sleep and general mood was so much better and she wad way less flakey. She doesn't dismiss therapy although I know she hasn't gone every week for a while not and mostly goes when she's feeling like she needs it. Medication was a trip and error, but she's much happier with this steady state.

Every now and again a certain disorder becomes more culturally prominent and psychiatrists get a wave of patients interested in being screened. The unfortunate part is this is what's happening with ADHD at the moment. Mostly outside of America it was always hard to get a diagnosis because ADHD is treated by 'drugs of abuse' (which really sketches doctors out.) It's a very common experience for people to try get a diagnosis only to have a doctor that either believes ADHD is BS or that the patient is just after getting high. But now there's a new stigma too: doctors who believe the condition is being massively over-diagnosed.

I think in America you should still be able to get access to meds fast. But trying to chase local doctors means all the slowness that comes from a local economy (you really want an ADHD specialist because of stigma.) I would be trying to find telehealth options if they're there. I do agree with you about the behavioral approaches. The best option IMO is pharmaceutical. Stimulants are ~70-80% effective for people with ADHD.

If you're in the US, talk to your GP, family Dr or w/e. They can prescribe but they cannot diagnose. They'll refer you to someone. You probably want to be referred to a counselor rather than a psychologist.

You should _really_ consider therapy in addition to any medication. The meds will be amazing for a month and then useful for a year. After that you're going to have to make a decision about how you want to continue treatment. Keep bumping the dose and adjust to the side effects or 'typical therapy'. By then, that therapy is going to be much harder to apply to your life than it would have been in the first few months when you started the meds.

Hard to say without some idea where you are, but it was not hard for me. It did cost me a few hundred $ overall, but the process was fairly simple. It did take a few months to get a spot for a remote appointment (if I lived in the city it would be faster in person) And I just knew the clinic knew who they're dealing with (reminder sent a week and a day before, reminder sent about payment, reminder about a followup, etc.) Maybe try finding some group which may have experience / specific contacts in the area? There's bound to be a country/state-specific group online where you can ask.

you will need to tell us your location; it will vary greatly across the world.

In the UK, for me, diagnosis wasn't too hard via BUPA - my phsychiatrist seeing me for my other mental health problems recommended me and it was relatively quick to get an ADHD diagnosis; now, however, I am stuck - there's a UK shorage of medication so my psychiatrist is unwilling to proscribe for a new patient whilst existing ones aren't getting what they need. Until that gets unblocked I'm in limbo; additionally BUPA do not cover any ADHD costs (except the diagnosis) - after that you're on your own and you either need to self-fund or go via the NHS; the NHS won't "just" prescibe; for me they want that to come from the psychiatrist and they'll then pick up the medication part of it - but see above about BUPA not funding ADHD costs.

If you go NHS all the way then you'll be on long waiting lists and, presumably, some sort of post-code lottery as to your experience.

I'm willing to self-fund to get to the point where the NHS will take over (and apparently that's a dice-roll too; my GP says he will prescribe once the shrink gets me on a stable dose, but not before - apparently some GPs refuse and require that you go via the NHS for everything, so you're on long waiting lists again); but am currently unable to progress due to the shortage of medication, as mentioned. I am also expecting relatively large bills as I will need to self fund both the psychiatrist and the initial medication prior to the NHS picking it up.

Anecdotally (reading ADHD forums on reddit) experiences in the US sound much more random.

Self reporting for adhd tests is notoriously unreliable to the point of being useless. It requires interviewing people close to the patient.