Comment by a2dam
7 hours ago
> At the end, she told me she would review my exam and have the results ready in a few days.
Yeah man I can go ahead and let you know early if you want.
7 hours ago
> At the end, she told me she would review my exam and have the results ready in a few days.
Yeah man I can go ahead and let you know early if you want.
This comment is so funny to me, because I imagine you being distracted to make the comment before making it to the end where the psych did indeed review the new results.
Well I only know that because I skipped to the end. Then, while scrolling up I realised I missed the whole side-quest about promising to not cheat the test again, taking the test again, but then "accidentally" finding an exploit the system, and then cheating the test again, but this time cheating even more to see the results.
Then, scrolling up more I see that this whole thing started with seeing stars and then buying a telescope on amazon (probably at 3am).
And here I am commenting on HN instead of replying to an email...
Brother the test is quick, easy, and painless, and the results can be lifechanging.
The other thing is, ADHD in my mind is really a syndrome that starts with a symptom - inattention - that can be caused by so, so many things.
I have both, because of course I do, I had a medical problem that exacerbated my ADHD to a significant, significant degree (it's amazing I was able to be a software engineer for so long without treatment). So don't just tunnel vision in... as we tend to be prone to do. Get the whole workup with an experienced clinician, it's so lifechanging it's hard to describe.
I want to add that the comment is also funny to me because it and the blog post are very relatable to me. I don't mean to dismiss it at all. It's really important to get a good diagnosis for anything like this and not dismiss it or lock into the wrong diagnosis because of your own tunnel vision.
You wrote "the test is quick, easy, and painless" but I also want to note that it's not always. Depending on your country, parents, specific doctor, etc it can be very difficult to get a proper diagnosis and help. In some places a big criteria is diagnosis during childhood so if you're 30 or 40 you might have no chance. Or a chance but it depends on your parents retroactively answering a questionnaire, or finding an old report card with the right words.
As you said it's life changing to get the right help and I encourage everyone to pursue this.
7 replies →
I know this is a joke, but I'd be careful about assuming: I had a trained therapist diagnose me with ADHD ... incorrectly.
It turns out, there are other conditions out there that can appear to be be ADHD. If a trained therapist can confuse them, outside observers certainly can too, so it is possible that "very ADHD-acting" person you know might not have it.
(Or, especially for females, the reverse can be true, as not everyone with ADHD manifests with the same trademark hyperactivity.)
I understand this is your personal medical info, but could you drop any hints as to the nature of the misdiagnosis? I've learned late in life that I am neurospicy and learning from other's experiences in this domain has been quite helpful.
I listen to a lot of psychiatry podcasts, and they generally think that ADHD is being seriously overdiagnosed at this point.
Executive dysfunction, especially that which was not impairing as a child, has a lot of potential causes. Anxiety, depression (yes, ADHD can cause these, but these can also cause executive dysfunction in people without ADHD), OCD, Bipolar (manic people in particular often attribute worsening of hyperactivity and distractability to ADHD instead of mania), Schizophrenia pretty much universally is related to cognitive symptoms and lowered motivation even when not psychotic, and borderline personality disorder can cause changes in interests and identity.
For many of these conditions, stimulants can act as a band aid on something else. It can superficially make people feel better (of course, it's speed), but it can distract from other symptoms that are impairing functioning, and prevent people from seeking long term solutions.
2 replies →