Reply To: Options for diagnosis – psychiatrist recommended further psychological testing

[tallgrl212]

@kc5jck Absolutely! When I’ve extra time I try to read anything I can get my hands about the subject, I actually found this site via tumblr.  A lot of the strategies that have been suggested I’ve already employed at one time or another. For instance for studying I have a hard time sitting still for periods longer than 45 minutes without drifting off or getting ideas and abandoning my studies, so I’ve been using the Pomodoro method when I study, although sometimes my five minute breaks seem to turn into 20 or 30 lol. I’ve always tried to keep an agenda but they get lost and become out of sight out of mind, so I started using apps on phone to track appointments & homework. I have a to do list app that reminds me to plan the next day at 10:30 at night.  I started strength training last year, at first because I got obsessed with bodybuilding/kinesiology, but I realized that working out was just a really good way for me to blow off steam and keep me sane. So now I try and workout 3 or 4 times a week and usually before I study or before a long class.  My mom’s works with kids with LDs & special needs so I also get a fair bit of support from her.

The diagnosis would just help a lot at school when I’m killing myself to meet deadlines or just missing them because I can’t keep pace, or being able to write in the quiet accessibility room rather than a lecture hall or the gym. That and being able to take a smaller course load rather than a full time and dropping two courses in the middle of the semester would have been a great help.

As far as medication goes the idea of prescription MEDs scares me, from the side effects to the possibility of addiction to the fact that I would have to take it for the rest of my life maybe. I’ve always been healthy I’ve never had to take anything more than an antibiotic a couple times in my life. I live in a really crappy part of town where the products of drug addiction are all around; my next door neighbors sell drugs and I see their customers, they’re so worn and in such bad shape and so dependent that it just scares me.

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