#adhd assessment

[escapism-from-the-real-world]

Honestly, it’s so frustrating taking any kind of autism/adhd/neurodivergent test/assessment/quiz. It’s especially frustrating since I’m taking a research methods class that talks about how to make surveys and questionnaires and so many of these assessments break basic rules on how to make good surveys.

For one, the way they set up the questions are either way too vague or way too specific or combine two different questions together that makes it hard to answer. For example, one autism assessment I took asked whether you think and talk a lot about your special interests. Thinking and talking are different things and the frequency of what I talk about completely depends on who I’m with but the only answers I could pick were “true now and when I was young, only true now, only true when I was young (16 and under), and never true”.

Which brings me to my next point. The way a lot of professional and certified surveys are set up usually have either a five point or seven point system (example: disagree, somewhat disagree, neither agree or disagree, somewhat agree, agree. Seven point systems would add definitely agree or disagree). For the survey mentioned, adding another option that doesn’t land in the extreme of either “always” or “never” allows for better and more realistic answers (like a “I exhibit this behavior sometimes under certain circumstances” or something).

Also these assessments sometimes add in why you exhibit these behaviors like “I spend a lot of time at home. This is because I hate people and don’t like going out”. I do spend a lot of time at home. It is not because I hate people or don’t like going out so it’s hard to answer that question.

Assessments for mental health or neurodivergence like this make it really hard for people to answer in a way that gives an honest assessment of their mental state and it’s really frustrating taking quizzes over and over again just to have the same issues come up again and again and I feel like I’m being robbed of an actual answer to my question.

Someone fix this before I take things into my own hands. This is a threat. I will do it.

#autism #adhd #neurodivergent #neurodivergence #autism assessment #adhd assessment #surveys #questionnaires #proper research conductment #like this is survey making 101 #the first thing I learned about surveys and questionnaires in my research methods class #i am judging you #feel judged

[local-kneecap-dealer]

The most disorienting thing about learning about ADHD is realizing just how much of my personality is undiagnosed symptoms. My high stress levels, my impatience, my eccentricities, my hyperfocus, my lack of focus, my emotional intensity, my high energy, my low energy, my constant need for mental stimulation or I feel like I'm dying inside. Why I forget things, why I can't sleep, why everything just feels too much and it always seems like I'm running on fumes. On one hand its freeing, to have a name, an answer for these things, but it's unsettling to think that most of me is just symptoms

#adhd post #adhd stuff #adhd #living with adhd #adhd adventures #adhd inattentive #adhd assessment #self diagnosed adhd

[urlocalsupermarketofendocrinosis]

my therapist wants me to bring up seeking an adhd diagnosis with my parents

i’ve exhibited symptoms of adhd my whole life, and my therapist has said a few times that she suspects i have it. Friends i’ve known my whole life with diagnosis say that i probably have it. I’ve looked up criteria, read articles, and educated myself on symptoms and all the jazz that normally comes with researching a neurodivergence that could be affecting you.

so what’s the problem

i don’t know how to bring it up to my parents

i’ve talked to them before about feeling frustration and disconnect from peers and difficulty focusing and getting to start on things i like and need to do but they always play it off as me being dramatic attention seeking or looking for excuses.

i have sever time blindness and the symptoms of rejection sensitivity disorder put words on a type of emotional disregulation that i’ve struggled my whole life.

i’ve interrupted people in conversation been unable to not fidget unable to be quiet to be normal to be the kid i was supposed to be since day one. my good grades and so called gifted status kept me just as the annoying kid that was doing fine.

but i’m breaking and it’s affecting my school and social life and that’s why my therapist thinks seeking diagnosis is the right route.

how do i bring up seeking an evaluation with my parents in a way that doesn’t come off to them as me just trying to be ✨qUiRkY✨ (i don’t fucking agree with saying people are just trying to be that being different and weird is isolating and heartbreaking so much of the time)

also i’m terrified i don’t. what if i am just lazy. what if i am just weak or stupid. what if this is just me and i’m normal and i can’t figure it out right. what if i am lying for attention. what if i am making excuses. what if this is how it is for everyone and i’m just unable to handle it. what if i’m lying for attention. what if i’m just failing.

#adhd creature #adhd #adhd diagnosis #adhd advice #adhd assessment #kinda a vent or rant

[achilleswins]

aaaaaaa [enter more lowercase screaming]

I finally got my ADHD assessment (last Saturday, 30th of December). Not sure how it's gonna come out at all. I just hope I have it because while it would be nice not having it I don't want to have faked everything. I don't care if they call me "high-functioning" or "low-functioning" (unlikely) but I'm just soo nervous.

Also, for anyone who wants to have an assessment for ADHD be sure to not have anything else for that day. Or, be ready to cancel because it's fucking taxing. I was exhausted and the woman who did my test/assessment or whatever knew it. She's obviously used to it (as she's been doing it for a while) because she was like, let's take a break after this phase. (There were 10 "phases")

It truly was taxing that I had to rest the rest of the day (had it at 13:00 and finished at around 14:30 or 15:00 [not sure] so it was a little long) and didn't get up for anything other than dinner (was pretty hard to do so) and then didn't get up the next day until 13:45 or something.

(Also some people I know told me that autism's assessments were also very tiring.)

#adhd post #adhd assessment #adhd stuff #attention deficit hyperactivity disorder #adhd #mental health #mental illness #actually neurodiverse #actually neurodivergent #actually adhd #adhd things #test #adhd test #mental health assessment #mental illness assessment

[etherealspacejelly]

MY ADHD ASSESSMENT REFERRAL WENT THROUGH 🥳🥳🥳🥳

now i just have to fill in a Shit Ton of details and then i should be able to book an appointment :)

#audhd #adhd #adhd assessment #diagnosis

[pixel-with-wings]

The diagnosis results are coming in tmw!! Idk how to feel about it, but wish me luck maybe?? On what I don’t know but ig I just wanted to post about it.

#autism #undiagnosed autism #autism assessment #low support needs #adhd #undiagnosed adhd #adhd assessment #✏️🪽 #🩺🪽

[beneaththegildedmoon]

Just got a letter from my local adhd service to say that they have changed their procedure and I now need to get a parent/family member to fill out a questionnaire about my behaviour as a child and collect my old primary school report cards and send all of that back to the adhd service within 12 weeks or my referral will be dismissed 🙃 That won't even guarantee me an assessment! This information will be passed to a "senior clinician" who will decide without ever meeting me whether or not I "meet the clinical threshold for assessment."

I could have my referral rejected solely on the basis of whether my mum paints a convincing enough picture of how obvious my symptoms were in childhood... despite them obviously being missed by everyone the first time around, or I wouldn't need a referral to the adult adhd service...

Not to get all tin-foil-hat about this, but it strikes me as quite interesting that the response to having a massive waiting list that prevents them meeting their legal responsibilities for how long people can be left waiting is not to request more staff funding, but to implement a system that seems entirely designed to let the people most in need of help fall through the gaps.

Bear in mind this is for an ADHD assessment, one of common pitfalls of adhd being struggling with organisation and an inability to keep to deadlines. How many people are going to get their referrals dismissed as a direct result of their symptoms???

#im so pissed #this entire thing is such fucking bullshit #ive already had to do multiple phone appointments and fill out a bunch of questionnaires just to get the stupid referral in the first place #why is it so difficult to just get some fucking help #meanwhile im completely incapable of working a job or making progress with my phd #im literally falling apart at the seams here and they want me to go beg my mum to not downplay my symptoms like she always fucking does #screaming #crying #throwing up #tw medical system incompetance #tw mental health #adhd assessment #god this whole system fucking sucks

[lofibeanie]

I have my first initial ADHD assessment appointment tomorrow, wish me luck everyone!!! :D

#adhd assessment #adhd #rambles

[duck-in-a-thrift-store]

Personal rant bc we haven't gotten my official results yet but we did get a very stressful phone call about it, and because adhd has been kicking my ass lately. This is going to be long and rambly and all over the place, and if you're anti self-dx, I wouldn't suggest reading further (or interacting with me in general). It also sort of becomes just me psychoanalyzing my own behavior and infodumping about it

-------------------------------------------------------

For context, I'm autistic and adhd, and I went and talked to a psychologist a couple weeks ago and had some testing done

Personally, I don't really feel the need to have an official diagnosis for autism. I'm confident in my informed self-diagnosis (technically it was actually my parents who first suggested I might be autistic but I've learned a lot about it since then and now I'm pretty sure I'm more convinced than they are) and I just don't think a doctor's note will do much for me (totally understand and support anyone who does want to get diagnosed tho). Adhd however is another story. If I want meds that will actually work and accommodations with my school, they need proof, and as things are I am desperate for some help.

So the appointment I had a couple weeks ago was supposed to be for adhd testing, but apparently he also lowkey tested me for autism while we were there. Which like, fine, whatever, it would be sort of nice to have that validated I guess, but when we checked back in with him on the phone earlier this week he started using outdated and problematic terms like high-functioning and aspergers and I'll just say that it did not exactly inspire confidence

But that can of worms aside, let me get back to (mostly) adhd related ranting

I feel like there could be an essay about how the diagnostic process for adhd is flawed and doesn't work all that well for people who have an internalized notion that their worth as a person is dependent on their academic success and task performance and therefore spent their childhood and adolescence funneling all their efforts time and attention into school and generally being seen as a good well-behaved bright kid out of desperation to have value (and it worked- I've always made good grades, but what people don't see is the days, weeks, months of paralyzed procrastination, the anxiety-fueled mad rush in the end to get things done late, and the grace I'm inexplicably shown every time, without which my grades would be much worse)

I'm scared, that I'm going to be determined "too high functioning" to be diagnosed even though I'm currently doing basically nothing with my life outside of college and yet I'm technically failing like half of my classes right now, that they're going to say "well the signs weren't there when you were younger" even though there's a variety of explanations for why that might be, not the least of which being the fact that for some folks with both autism and adhd the traits of the two have a tendency to "hide" one another

Apparently he also ran an iq test on me, and he broke down the 5 scores to us; I scored in the upper average/above average bracket in all but the 4th, processing speed, in which I'm below average. And like yeah, I'm well aware that I'm slow, but I guess it's official now-

Anyway, my main point with the iq thing was that while he was telling us about my high scores in the first 3 areas, I'm sitting here getting more and more uneasy, bc I'm like yeah sure I'm intelligent or whatever but it isn't worth shit if I can't motivate myself to actually do anything with that potential, and the conditions under which I was tested just don't reflect my day to day life closely enough to give an accurate reading, in my opinion.

Basically I'm afraid this guy is going to look at the results of some tests- tests which I was really focused on bc of the intrinsic fear of failure that plagues my existence (even though rationally I know you can't fail a psychological evaluation) and bc I know it's a bitch of a process to even get tested in the first place and I wasn't going to waste the opportunity goddammit-

That he's going to look at them and decide that I'm "too smart" to have a learning disability, when, again, all the brains in the world wouldn't do me any good if I

1) don't have the ability to self-motivate and direct them at what I need to be working on, even if I've been beating myself up about that pile of homework or my disaster of a room for weeks or even months, and

2) have such a loose grasp on the concept of time and priorities that I have on multiple occasions found myself pulling all-nighters on personal projects or reading for pleasure or scrolling on my phone only to realize oh shit I have to get up for school in like two hours, oh fuck, I'm going to be exhausted all day, what happened to "let's go to sleep early this time, I'll just do this for like 5 more minutes and then call it a night"

or realize after one of those all-nighters that what was actually a period of about 10 hours feels more like 10 minutes to me ("man wasn't I literally just here to get dinner" the next morning, passing the caf on my way to class on exactly 0 hours of sleep and still having managed not to get any of my actual class work done in all that time)

And also just that tendency in itself is significant, to get so deeply hooked on something once it does manage to get my attention, that I often feel like I can't stop until outside forces demand it- staying up until 4am on a school night painting my phone case and texting my crush (14 or 15), making bracelet after bracelet at the kitchen table at ungodly hours of the night because I couldn't sleep and now that I'm on a roll I don't want to break the momentum (18, a few months ago), throwing horrific amounts of time at reading fanfiction of whatever series currently has my interest when I have so much work that needs to get done if I want to have a chance at passing my courses this semester (18, basically present), making a last minute birthday present for my aunt and being so caught up in the rush and the craft of what I was working on that I ignored my body's needs until I ended up pissing myself (12), etc

The fact that I've been meaning to catch up with my high school friends for weeks or months, literally something as simple as a "how have yall been" in the group chat, yet for some reason I still haven't gotten around to it

The fact that for all my alleged intelligence I still haven't learned to ride a bike or drive a car or apply for a job or develop a work-life balance or play any of the instruments I want to or have a thriving social life or feel like a person (I think these are more autism-related but I'm throwing them in anyway)

The fact that minor (or even just mistakenly perceived) disapproval or judgment or teasing or having a text left on read can send me spiraling into anxiety and convinced that everyone hates me and that I'm worthless or obnoxious or stupid (rejection sensitivity is a bitch)

The fact that when I try to read I have to make a constant conscious effort not to jump ahead and all over the place and I often have to reread the same passage multiple times to understand it because I realize that I wasn't actually paying attention the first couple of times, my mind elsewhere and my eyes wandering

I know even if I do get diagnosed they'll say it's inattentive, not hyperactive or combined, because the majority of my hyperactivity is either fairly subtle movements (because I'm socially anxious and clumsy and don't want to draw attention to myself or run the risk of breaking or disturbing something) or just straight up in my head. Like sure I'm not a nine year old boy who can't sit still in class and is constantly bouncing around all over the place and getting into trouble and driving his parents and teachers crazy (bc being seen as annoying and unruly by authority figures would have broken me), but there's always so much noise in my brain, it's always talking or playing music in the background or thinking about the 47 different projects I need to be working on and the media it wants to be engaging with instead and the 1000s of things there are to worry about in a day; sometimes I'll get stuck in a loop where I'm mentally repeating a word or phrase over and over and over again until I feel like I'm going crazy

All of this is stuff that this guy doesn't see, and that worries me when it comes to the validity of his assessment

But basically, what I'm trying to say is, I swear to god if the people around me don't believe that there's clearly something not neurotypical going on here I'm going to fucking riot

And, ranting aside, I want to end this post with a note to all my fellow neurodiverse folks who are waiting for answers or treatment or validation or support or whatever.

I feel you. Hang in there. You have my well wishes in your endeavors. And remember, it's ok to be happy with or proud of who you are and what makes you different, it's ok to embrace your neurodiversity while also acknowledging how difficult it can be to live with and the fact that you might need extra time or support with things that seem to come easily to other people. It's ok to admit that it's fucking hard sometimes, and it's ok to ask for help. Take care, mates

#please feel free to peer review me #duck rants #duck's thoughts #adhd #autism #neurodiversity #adhd test #adhd assessment #gifted kid burnout #neurodivergent #psychoanalysis #psychology #brains are weird #executive dysfunction #rejection sensitive dysphoria #time blindness #hyperfixation #anxiety #info dump #<- about myself

[spongejuice]

Can’t wait to have my brain validated by professionals

#text post #autism #adhd #let me empty my brain real quick #is this enough tags #nurodivergent #nurodiversity #adhd assessment #autism assessment #juice things

[nerdnag]

Hi! I really love your writing and art. You seem like a super awesome person!

I have a probably way too personal question below, so obviously feel free not to answer if you don't feel like it.

I'm in the beginning of the (long, expensive, scary, full of waiting) process of seeking a diagnosis as an adult for whatever my flavor of neurodivergance turns out to be (or not be). If you are comfortable answering, could I ask if you have experience in the diagnosis process (for autism or ADHD)? I'm really nervous about it, and hearing other people's experiences sometimes helps me emotionally prepare.

Sorry for the long ask, and please do not feel obligated to answer at all!

Hi! Thank you so much for your kind words 💕🙏

I'd love to talk about my experiences with seeking a diagnosis! I have had my autism diagnosis for 6 years and my ADHD diagnosis for 6 months, meaning I got both of them as an adult. I'm from Sweden so the process may differ somewhat from other countries, but I can share how it was for me at least.

(This turned into a massive post, so I'll leave it under a cut.)

The path to the two diagnoses were somewhat different for me. For the first one, i.e. autism, I was referred by a therapist I'd been going to for stress-related issues. She happened to specialize in young women with autism and ADHD and saw similar signs in me, so after maybe five or six appointments, she asked if I would be OK with her referring me for an assessment. I was pretty shocked at first, because I'd never even had the thought that I might be autistic, but when she told me more it seemed immediately likely, so I asked her to refer me.

I don't remember exactly how long it took after that, but maybe a couple of months later I was scheduled for an initial phone interview with a therapist for a first brief evaluation of whether or not I should get an assessment. During this interview they asked me to tell them about various parts of my everyday life and how my symptoms had impacted me throughout my life. I also received some forms in the mail to fill in, with lots of questions about my symptoms (standardised tests basically, which they would later refer to during the assessment). A week later or so I was informed that they would go ahead with the assessment and that I'd been placed in line to get one.

I had to wait for over a year until the actual assessment, during which I read up on autism a lot in my own time. The more I read, the more likely it seemed, but I didn't dare to hope too much in case I wouldn't actually get a diagnosis - I was cautiously hopeful. After all, even though I hadn't suspected autism before, that didn't mean I hadn't struggled a lot throughout my entire life. Getting answers would be such a relief.

So when a year had passed, I was super excited to get my first appointment for the assessment. (The very first appointment turned out to be a very negative experience, because I was forced to go through a monitored drug test, which I experienced as very violating and which I've later learned is actually illegal. I won't go into details here though since it doesn't really concern the assessment itself, but if anyone's curious I can talk more about it.)

The assessment itself consisted of a handful of appointments with a psychologist. The first appointment, we talked through my entire life from birth until the present day. This included questions about my mother's pregnancy too, as well as a lot of questions about how I acted as a child and what I struggled with throughout my life. (Needless to say, I was exhausted for the rest of that day. But my psychologist was very kind and good at asking questions.)

The following appointments, they performed some tests on me, like various IQ tests, in order to rule out other possible disorders, and we also talked more in depth about how my symptoms impact my everyday life. Also, the psychologist interviewed both my mother and my partner, without me present. I don't remember a lot of details, but as I recall, there wasn't ever really a question of whether or not I would get a diagnosis, although I was very nervous during the last appointment that they would not give me one. What I appreciate is that they offered me the diagnosis rather than simply declared it, meaning I could argue against their reasoning and also refuse the diagnosis itself if I didn't want it. But of course, I had been hoping for one, so I was very happy.

After that I got an appointment at the autism center in my city, where they offer various courses, groups and other kinds of support. All in all my experience with the assessment was mostly pleasant, and they were very kind to me thoroughout the process (excepting the drug test).

As for my path towards an ADHD assessment, it was a bit more turbulent.

The therapist that had referred me years earlier had actually written that she saw signs of both autism and ADHD in me, but for some reason, the psychologist who did the actual assessment discarded the idea of ADHD during the very first minutes of my first appointment. However, as the years passed, I felt that autism did not explain all the struggles I had, and so I started thinking that there might still be things uncovered. For example, I realized that my tendency to jump from subject to subject both in my thoughts and aloud and thus struggle not to interrupt others and to remember things, as well as my constant ticks like ripping off finger nails, chewing the inside of my cheek or twirling my hair almost obsessively weren't very well explained by the autism diagnosis.

I read up a lot on ADHD and realized that the symptoms of autism and ADHD can sometimes conceal each other, and I also talked to some people I knew who either had an ADHD diagnosis themselves or were in the process of getting one. I could relate to a lot of their issues. Problem was, none of them seemed to see the same thing I did in me, and they came with kind of strange arguments for why they didn't think I could have ADHD. I wasn't very confident at that point, so I didn't try to get a referral immediately.

In January of 2021 though, I had finally pumped myself up to call a health advisor through my work insurance, because I knew a friend of mine had gotten her assessment quickly through that very insurance. However, I had apparently called a week too late, because they'd removed that option from the insurance as of Jan 1st. I was so discouraged by this that I basically just trashed the entire idea for a while, until later that same year.

In November of 2021, I had the chance to see a psychology student at the autism center about some anxiety issues I had. At the end of a session, I mentioned to her that I thought I might have ADHD. So the next session, she gave me some forms to fill in (more standardised tests). She looked them through and handed them over to her supervisor - but her supervisor didn't think there were enough signs of ADHD for a referral. Once again, I was extremely discouraged. It felt so strange that I could see all these symptoms so clearly yet no one else seemed to believe me. I was offered a meeting with her supervisor if I wanted to ask questions about her decision, but I said no because I was just so devastated.

I remember coming home to my partner and telling him about it, and how he encouraged me to take the offer and talk to the supervisor. It took quite a bit of pep talk on his part, but finally I agreed that I shouldn't give up just yet. So the next session, I asked to speak to the supervisor.

The supervisor, who was an expert in autism but not so much in ADHD, was very kind and attentive as I explained to her why I thought I might have ADHD. She in turn told me that the results on the tests I had filled in were not very strong indicators, but that the things I told her during our meeting now had changed her mind - she did see the possibility that I might have ADHD, and she was willing to refer me.

I was so incredibly relieved, and of course I thanked her and said that I would love to get a referral. (I think I could have sent in a referral of my own, but it always weighs heavier if it comes from a therapist/psychologist etc.)

So she referred me, and just like with the autism assessment process, I had an initial phone interview. However, this time, the person I spoke to had already decided to place me in line for an assessment, and simply wanted to talk to me to get an idea of what I struggled with in my everyday life.

Next, I waited...

And waited...

And waited.

Every time I received official mail from the municipality, both my partner and I held our breaths as I opened it. I swear I have never received as many completely irrelevant letters from the municipality as I received in that year and a half.

But then finally... It came. The letter announcing that it was my turn to get an ADHD assessment. This was in July of 2022, 1.5 years after my referral. This time, they informed me in the letter itself that I would have to go through a monitored drug test. So this time I was prepared, and although I knew at this point that it's illegal to force patients to go through monitored drug tests unless there is a reason to suspect substance abuse, I went through it just so I could finally get my assessment. After that test, I got all my appointments for the assessment itself.

My first appointment was in September, and within the first minutes, I knew that the psychologist was a good one. She was very kind, clear, attentive and caring. She made clear that she was aware of the way in which autism might conceal ADHD and vice versa. And she told me I didn't have to go through the IQ tests etc again since the first set from my autism assessment was still recorded in my patient journal. So this process would go faster than the autism one. We still had the in depth interviews though, some more standardised tests in the shape of various forms to fill in, and then the psychologist interviewed my mother again (although not my partner this time; she said she'd only do so if she felt towards the end that she needed more to base her decision on). I also actually brought some books about ADHD and autism, as well as about 2E (Twice Exceptional, meaning high IQ + neurodivergence) that I had in my bookcase, and she borrowed them for a few weeks and told me afterward that she'd at least skimmed them (which is probably more than I could ask for, seeing how busy I assume she has to be). The assessment was generally very similar to the first one I went through, although they of course had somewhat different focus areas.

Throughout the assessment, it became clear that apart from my autism which compensates for some of my ADHD symptoms, the fact that I have such a good support system in the shape of a supportive partner and flexible work situation, as well as the fact that I have a high IQ, have also been huge factors in why it's been so hard for me to get an assessment/diagnosis. My life is pretty functional from an outside perspective, but that's because I have all these support systems in place and because I've tailored my life around my struggles. For example, I barely have a social life irl, because I so easily get drained if I'm not on a perfect energy level that particular day, and that energy level can swing massively from day to day. So I never know whether I'll be able to make it when the day comes. I also struggle with relationships because I suck at remembering things that people have told me about themselves, and I tend to shift between being very intense or barely present in the relationship at all. Also, even though there are many reasons why I don't want to have kids, I don't believe I would be able to take care of a kid even if I wanted, because I can only just manage to take care of myself. There are more examples, but basically, I look functional because I'm an expert at compensating and I have incredibly supportive circumstances beyond that, but it's a different story behind the veil.

But even despite the compensation, I managed to check off all the criteria needed to get an ADHD diagnosis. Apparently what my mother had told the psychologist was in line with all the things I had said about my childhood as well. I was very nervous before my last appointment, but the psychologist was confident in her diagnosis, which was an immense relief. Like with my autism diagnosis, she asked me if I was OK with the diagnosis and her reasoning for it, and I said yes. She wrote up an opinion and set the diagnosis, and said that she would send it to me within a few weeks, and if I didn't contact her with any suggested adjustments afterward, then she'd make the diagnosis official a few weeks after that.

So I received the opinion via mail eventually, and it was pretty spot on, so I didn't contact her again. After that, not much has happened so far. I've been to an initial appointment with a therapist at the psych department to talk about what kind of support I might need from them, and that therapist placed me in line for a few things, including medication (which, knowing the long waiting times, might be a year or more in the future for me, which sucks).

So there you have it. It took 1.5 years for me to get an autism diagnosis, an additional 4 years for me to come to the realization that I might also have ADHD and get a referral for that assessment, and then almost 2 years more after that to get the actual ADHD diagnosis. I've had the fortune of getting in contact with the right people along the way, including two very competent psychologists, but hopefully that is more of a rule rather than an exception.

(I should add that I barely had to pay anything for my assessments, only $20 or so per appointment, which is incredibly cheap in comparison to many other countries where health care isn't universal and mainly government-funded. I'm aware this is a huge benefit.)

I hope your path towards a diagnosis will be relatively quick and easy. I know it can be incredibly rough to have to wait for the assessment, and it can also be stressful during the process to feel like you have to "prove" your symptoms or justify why you deserve a diagnosis. But if you feel confident that something is up, then don't take no for an answer - or at least be sure to ask for their arguments for why they don't think you have autism/ADHD, so you can properly face those arguments and possibly argue against them. And while you wait, Tumblr can be a pretty good place to hang out and interact with others in similar circumstances (and relate to memes lol). I found that helped me a lot :) Also, reading about the symptoms/diagnoses, and other people's experiencs with them, might be helpful.

Hope this answer was useful to you. I'm happy to answer any follow-up questions you may have!

#Ask a nerd #A nerd nags #Adhd #Autism #Adhd assessment #Autism assessment #Leave it to this nerd to babble for hours about one of her special interests ie her NPD diagnoses #long post

[squirrelbee]

ADHD assessment person: Do you ever find yourself fidgeti- *looks at my bouncing leg under the table* Uhm, never mind *makes a note*

#adhd memes #adhd assessment #neurodivergent

[audhd-space]

I can never get over same time last year when I went for online therapist. I specified that I needed a therapist who can assess me for ADHD and while she’s not trained for it, she still insisted that I should first explore my trauma with her.

Just say you need to make money instead of helping me then.

#bad experience #therapy #online #adhd assessment #adult adhd diagnosis

[pixel-with-wings]

ok so actually the “feedback”/diagnosis is at 6:00 pm and it’s only for my parents and it’s supposed to last an hour so I won’t actually get the “results” until 7:00 pm. Gonna try to fill my brain with bwu until then so it doesn’t go crazy (in a bad way).

#autism assessment #autism diagnosis #adhd assessment #adhd diagnosis #adhd #autism #undiagnosed adhd #undiagnosed autism #✏️🪽 #🩺🪽

[bekandrew]

Look at the bullshit I got sent for an adult ADHD test

Who has this information laying around? What if your parents are abusive and you can't safely talk to them (like me)? What if your parents wouldn't have kept those records for twenty-plus years and several moves (like me)? Why would a school keep this for twenty plus years???? Doctor you have set me up to fail, getting to this step was fucking hard enough. You've added impossible sidequests on top of the 'see if you have the Difficulty Finishing Shit' disease assessment. Good job, brilliant.

#adhd #broken medical system #gatekeeping #adhd assessment #adult adhd #american healthcare #I already hate this guy #I want to bite someone #I have enough shit to juggle I didn't need this #bek speaks #discrimination #ableism #disability

[thegayisveryreal]

took an adhd online assessment last week and I scored a 55 out of 58 💀💀 I think maybe perhaps I have adhd 😭

#adhd #adhd assessment #just me things