Self-diagnosis is valid if it helps you

Is it me that finds it weird signing off her own tweets with her name, when her username is literally right there?

It's just a shame the (presumably US-based) healthcare system is a clusterfuck, because that bit of expensive paper with a diagnosis on it would likely open up a whole host of avenues for exploration of the condition.

Self-diagnosis doesn't help me get meds.

On one hand, sure just a meme. On the other, it may not be ADHD that’s causing these symptoms and getting a professional diagnosis will help with treatment regardless of what’s going on.

I understand why people might not want to do it, but personally getting diagnosed and starting treatment has been life changing.

Yeah you don't need a doctor to tell you your arm is broken, but raw dogging a broken arm is hardly ideal.

I'm so tired of this dumb trope. No, your self-diagnosis is not helpful. And yes, you can get diagnosed if you're poor. There are many ways to do so, you dont have to go through a fancy psychiatrist, and the US public Healthcare system will actually pay for it.

Are people having that many hurdles for official diagnosis? Genuinely asking. Mine was with my primary care doc, $100 out of pocket for the visit, and whatever the meds cost. There was one questionnaire and total took about 30min from start of visit to prescription. That said, first meds aren't helping at all so I'll need to go back and see what other options there are, if any.

Oh good, another doctor who thinks her own book, website, blog and youtube channel are an adequate substitute for professional, personalized care and diagnosis.

"It's really hard to get a diagnosis, so why even bother trying? Just like the video and hit the bell for notifications!"

Nah, I can't even do that because every place in my area will straight up say that they will never diagnose an adult with adhd.

I self diagnosed fifteen years ago but in the last two years I've been getting real help for it. I regret not doing so when I first came the conclusion I have ADHD. I can't take stimulants and the first time I was given a non stimulant ADHD drug I had a severe reaction. This caused me to avoid getting real treatment and that was a huge mistake.

Okay but it isn't always that difficult, I talked to my PCP, who made an appointment for me with the right type of dr person and then I went to that one and did whatever at that appointment

Self-diagnosis is not valid. By definition. Not even a psychiatrist can diagnose themselves. What you're talking about is either 1) advocating for your own diagnosis or 2) self-treatment.

Both of these things are valid.

Advocate for yourself for a diagnosis from a health professional if it will unlock new treatment options. But also just look into how others with similar problems have successfully managed their problems. Consider how you could implement similar things. That's what's at the heart of therapy for ADHD anyway.

But diagnosis itself is only useful as a tool for describing symptoms and informing treatment. If a collection of symptoms speaks to your experience, then the only point in putting a diagnostic label on it is to say "Maybe these things that helped others with similar symptoms will also help you." But in order to do that effectively, there also needs to be a differential diagnosis to ascertain what it is not. This is why healthcare providers need to be involved in the process. Two different things can look very similar but have very different etiologies and different treatments.

Social media needs to quit putting so much emphasis on diagnosis and more emphasis on treatment. This post should be removed for medical misinfo, but I hope people at least read the comments to see why this person seems to be such a snakeoil influencer.

Considering how much medication can help, uh, yeah, do those things. Its a trivial inconvenience compared to living unmedicated.

Also 5k is a lot, maybe if you're uninsured? Hell, getting an uninsured MRI is cheaper than that. And health insurance is kind of a must for living with a disability.

Don't like sentiments like this. I feel like it prevents people from getting the help they need.

Man, even knowing how fucked 'murica is it still keeps surprising you with more fucked stuff. It just never crossed my mind that getting a diagnosis could cost money for someone.

The doctor I see for adhd set themselves up as a PCP for insurance purposes, so each visit is just a copay. You can find co-pays from free to $20 on the ACA Marketplace (Obamacare). Just find an insurance salesperson to help you, they are paid by the insurance companies so you don't pay for their help!

Testing cost me a little more and it wasn't as laborious as this makes it sound. One test was video-recorded while you clicked the mouse whenever something happened on the screen and the other was some questions about your history.

it's even funnier when you might have any given variety of mental disorders.

Could be ADHD, could be autism, hell might be both or neither! Could be SzPD, could be a variant of that, could be any other generic personality disorder. Hell maybe i'm just shitposting and i'm perfectly normal!

So now that balloons to the period of about 5 years, 20 tests, and many thousands of dollars, both spent and lost.

OH and how could i forget. It does precisely, almost nothing. Because disability is super fucked. And any other services that do exist are probably also a nightmare, so what's even the fucking point of having them!

Tell me you're American without telling me you're American.

Murica

Man. I hate to shill, but…

I faced many of those same issues, and after a year and a half of failing to set up testing, my doctor told me to go to adhdonline.com - they offer online testing for $180, and give you results back in like a week. She’d already given me an ADHD testing referral, and she suggested that my insurer would probably reimburse me for the cost, but I have ADHD, so I never bothered with it.

It took me about 4 hours to do the test (but I did it while I was sitting through a day-long virtual meeting where I had to be present, but not ‘present’. So like, it probably won’t take focused people that long.)

And - yeah. Morally, it sucks. It’s feeding into the commodification of someone’s job and is morally kind of like using Uber or AirBNB. It’s convenient and maybe cheaper. Maybe it upsets a system that could use a little upsetting, but will likely upset it too much and have unforeseen impacts.
But it worked for me.

$5k?! A doctor's visit is $250 for me (insurance doesn't cover anything until I never reach the deductible). Also there were only like 2 tests totalling 20-ish questions. The hardest part was making an appointment, which I never would have done if I wasn't also making appointments for other pressing health issues.

Public schools do free screenings in other to qualify for special education or 504 school accommodations. This may only cover students in the district home area and not private school students or adults.

The down side is that some school districts have quotas on how much of the school population can be considered SpEd or 504. But a pediatric psychiatrist can make that determination regardless of the school diagnostician findings to justify accommodations.

Yeah, but if you're disabled and broke you get free healthcare in America...

Source: That's why I'm not dead.

Ahhahhha... I'm trying for 3 years now to get the diagnostics done. I'm in europe with government regulated healthcare and still pay my medications out of pocket, because its only covered with a formal diagnosis which I can't get anywhere.

I'm 53 now and was considering getting an official diagnosis a few years ago, I even had the initial appointments set up.

I canceled it, because there was too much going on in my life at that moment (even got a notification I could reschedule for later)

All that made me think about what I was hoping for from diagnosis. In the end it was just having something in writing that would help me with self-acceptance.

Around that time I also was in a group psychotherapy so I talked about that and that part is now solved.

Regarding meds - I don't want to try them now as my other coping strategies are good enough at the moment and I'm a bit wary of side effects as I need to take a handful of. medicine every day, anyways.

In the end you need to decide why you want a diagnosis. If you want to try meds I'd go for it. (My son "inherited" it from me and had meds for a time, which really helped him).

In a case like mine where I didn't expect any new strategies out of it or didn't want meds - it was probably the right decision to skip it.

It's not necessarily going just to get confirmed, but you have to go to get medication which will improve your quality of life.

I had messaged my doctor's office sometime in Aug last year, they said to call and schedule an apt with my doc. So I went to my physical some months later, December maybe, and they brought it up. I confirmed, we talked, and they said they would refer me to a local place that does screenings, but it would probably be a few months wait. A few months later I go in to my doctor for a shoulder injury, and followed up about having never received contact from that other place. They looked into it and the referral never got made and sent. Not ideal, but I've been at it for 30+ years so what's another couple of months. It has also now been more than a few months and I still don't have a call back.

I enjoy my doctor and the office, but I think it's time to find a new doctor's office.

As someone who's due a diagnosis (hopefully) soon, what type of questions do they ask you?

I literally got my diagnosis in one day at my PCP as he went through the DSM 5 criteria and asked some questions about my childhood. It took 30 min and he was not a pill pusher. He does not ever prescribe stimulants. I tried his nonstimulant medication recommendations after feeling the need to have some intervention and they were terrible. When I asked to try a different treatment, he referred me to an in network psychiatrist and things were smooth sailing. The same was true for my two brothers who were also diagnosed as adults and one was diagnosed in another state also at his PCP.

All that being said, I think people make the jump to a psychiatrist too early when they can seek screening at a PCP first. I had to answer a few more questions for onboarding at my psychiatrist, but I never ran into any issues. I also did not have to pay for an ADHD screening because I had already been diagnosed at my PCP.

Or live in a country with universal health care and stop being a second world country.