Re: Worst advice – and from a therapist, no less.

[Anonymous]

I took my son to our GP recently, just for a referral to a paediatrician so we could discuss medication for my son’s ADHD, which had already been diagnosed by a psychologist. I took the psychological assessment report with us for the GP to read, and told him why we were there. He then said, in front of my son, “I think you’ll find he’s just a normal teenage boy”. Grrr. My reply was very nearly “Well you don’t have to live with him!!” but I couldn’t say that with my son there, so I said that normal teenage boys don’t fail subjects they are good at and find easy, and left it at that. He will get the paediatrician’s report in the next week or so and that’ll give him food for thought. Needless to say, I will be looking for a more suitable GP. But the paediatrician was lovely and I was most impressed. He treated my son like a human being, and gave the psychologist’s report the recognition it deserved – after all, the psychologist spent two hours assessing my son, and another two hours discussing my son with my hubby and I, so she was certainly very thorough. My only complaint with her was that she believed that all could be solved with therapy and said he should do well without medication, and that he just needed “consequences” to help him learn. Ugh! Many doctors believe that medication is the answer to everything, and many psychologists believe that medication doesn’t solve anything and therapy is the way to go. I like to think a happy medium is the best.

I have given up trying to discuss with anyone my belief that I also have ADHD. I just get “Oh, I do that too!” or “I am like that too!”. I really, really hate those sort of comments. So I am just going to quietly go to a psychiatrist and hope I don’t cop a dodgy one.

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