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If you believe that you have the symptoms of ADHD, and your doctor says it’s all in your head, GET ANOTHER DOCTOR, AND GET PROPERLY TESTED!
Many doctors today have failed to keep up with the latest information. As a result, they believe (wrongly) that ADHD is a childhood condition, which people outgrow; therefore, adults can’t have it—a belief which has now been completely discredited. Pigheadedness like your doctor is displaying, is responsible for so much suffering. And it violates a few parts of the Hippocratic Oath, pertaining to not doing any harm, and not failing to take action when one sees a person who is ill.
As one specialist said, in the “ADD and Loving It” documentary, “Most of what I was taught about ADHD in medical school, we’d consider malpractice today.”
The day-to-day struggles to function with ADHD cause so much depression and anxiety, not to mention the psychological and economic effects on the patient and those around him/her, that it is absolutely unconscionable for a doctor to refuse to even consider that a patient might have it. You shouldn’t have to spend your life struggling to function properly, to do things that most people find very easy.
As for the difficulty with sleeping, the lack of proper sleep, caused by the racing thoughts, makes ADHD symptoms even worse. And lack of sleep contributes to major health problems like depression, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. If no over-the-counter sleep aid or natural supplement has helped you, then you need to treat the root cause (i.e., your ADHD), with meditation and possibly a prescription medication that treats mood disorders.
To do that, you’ll need a proper diagnosis, and that means getting a referral to a psychiatrist or psychologist, for proper testing. A psychiatrist can diagnose ADHD or any other mental condition, and can prescribe medications to improve your brain’s functioning. A psychologist can diagnose ADHD, and can give you cognitive behavioural therapy, to help you put the structures in place to enable you to function better, but can’t prescribe medications.
If your doctor won’t give you a referral, then get another doctor who will. You’ll sleep much better once you’ve been diagnosed (even if you’re diagnosed with something other than ADHD), and are being properly treated.
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