Re: Living in Quebec and trying to get access to dr/psychiatrist to get a diagnosis

[Anonymous]

Sorry to ressurect an old thread like this, but I wanted to share my experience on this topic.

I have a lot in common with the OP – Im 27, living in Montreal, and about a year ago read a piece in the New York Times about people living with adult ADHD. For my entire life prior to that, Id always known that I was different, but could never really define how. I chalked up my disorganization and distractability to character flaws. Anyway, I think this story is familiar to all of us, so I won`t re-hash it here. A lot of what I read in that article resonated with incredible specificity, so I decided to seek help.

The best resource I found was a private psychologists practice called the Applied Learning Center. They offered an ADHD eval for $1800. I dont have a family doctor (obviously), and I’d called around to local CLSC’s for information of being diagnosed and got a lot of useless/conflicting information. So I bit the bullet, and went in for the private evaluation.

Not surprisingly, I’m someone who struggles to manage their finances, and the cost was a huge sacrifice. But I finally thought I’d found something that could actually change my life permanently for the better. I didn’t realise going in (and no one bothered to explain to me) that the psychologist could only provide a diagnosis, not prescribe any treatment.

After about 6 hours of tests spread over a month, I received my diagnosis. It’s a relief that this invisible Thing that’s been sabotaging me my entire life finally has a name. On the other hand, the battle is only half-fought, and I’m apprehensive about what’s ahead. I still haven’t received the final report by mail. After waiting three weeks, I called the office, and they realized that the report had been filed away instead of mailed. I was told it would arrive yesterday at the latest. Hopefully I don’t have to call again.

The challenge ahead is finding someone to take on my case, and at least begin treatment. I’ve spent a lot of time watching the videos on TotallyADD, and I’m highly motivated to put together a plan for getting my life back on track. After all, I’ve been doing that for my entire adult life – I’ve just never been able to stick with it for very long, or I forget parts of it, and end up discouraged and depressed.

Once I have my assessment in hand, I’ll head to the local CLSC and see if that goes anywhere. I’ll try to report back. The health system here has worked reasonably well for me when, say, I got hit by a drunk driver while riding my bicycle, or when I needed antibiotics for a sinus infection. But now that I’m trying to tackle a condition that, from the perspective of an entire lifetime, has been far more damaging, I’m finding it very difficult to get real help.

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