Bass Ackwards Diagnosis?

[Anonymous]

I was diagnosed 13 years ago. After several years of CBT, my therapist (a social worker) suggested that I might have ADD, because I was showing a lot of symptoms. She referred me to a psychiatrist for diagnosis/ meds. This psychiatrist turned out to be a wierdo,; his method was “if the meds work, you have it.” I was so anxious for help that I ignored everything I had read about full workup diagnoses.

Lo and behold, the ADD meds worked. I started out with Ritalin, and ended up with generic Adderal. It took a long time ( and four psychiatrists, for various reasons, mostly because they were crazier or more ADD than I was) to come up with the right ADD/Antidepressant/anxiety cocktail, but there was definitely an immediate improvement. I have 7-8/9 for the inattentive subtype.

Unfortunately, the diagnosis came too late to avoid a major employment crash and burn.

Anyone else have this experience? I am in the US, and not familiar with the Canadian health care structure, but is my experience even possible in Canada?

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[Tiddler]

Sorry to hear about all the palavar, Scattrd. Once I found out about ADD I got diagnosed pretty quickly by 1 psychiatrist, though I had to pay privately as I couldn’t get it on the NHS (in England.)

However, I was 39 before I got diagnosed and had been treated for ‘anxiety’, ‘stress’ and ‘depression’ since I was 14.

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[Anonymous]

Oh yes, your experience is possible here in Canada. Maybe psychiatry attracts the crazy types. No offense to you, Dr. J! 😆 I ran into one of those types on my own quest to get a diagnosis. He made me so angry I honestly think I could have spit nails!!! I`m usually a pretty cool laid back type.

As much as people up here complain about our health care system I personally am in love with it. Ive had a few bumps with it over the years but I also know about the system down south of the border. My husband is American and all of his family is living down there and Ive spent many hours over the years talking with that side of the family about the two systems. His family are all in professional fields so money has never been an issue with access to care.

As ADHDers, one of our biggest problems in accessing care is that many of us are soooooo impatient with waiting for a diagnosis. We want it NOW (no, make that YESTERDAY) and don`t put a nutty psychiatrist in our way!

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[Anonymous]

I am from Canada and it can be tricky here too in its own ways. I am very grateful that here in alberta a huge chunk of our medical is paid for… but when it comes to specialist if you don’t have work coverage it can get hard. Med testing can also be hard because most of those drugs I find aren’t covered. But I agree with zsazsa, I am still very grateful for our health system here, especially because I do have to see dr’s quiet a bit.

I have had an experience with a psychiatrist that was a major FAIL! I seriously think the guy had ADD worse then I did! I felt like not much was really done during our sessions and I felt like he was just bumping me from one med to another most of the time instead of really researching what parts of my disorder I was most struggling with. In fact I am sad to say he ended up being my last psychiatrist I have gone to. I think the experience was so stressful and over whelming that I gave up and figured Ill just keep taking my dexidrine and keep taking the same dosages I did in high school. 10 years later I am kicking myself because I feel like I could have probably avoided a lot of stresses and failures if I had just looked into working with a different specialist.

Having that said, I have also had AMAZING experiences with psychiatrists. The one I had growing up was perfect!!! Sadly she retired and I started going to a different one who I mentioned earlier wasn’t the right one for me

It has just been recently I have realized that I do need help and am going to start taking the right steps to get the proper help and meds I need.

I am a firm believer that when it comes to counsellors if you do not feel that trust or “chemistry” so to speak… nothing much will come from your time with them. Also having that said I do realize that it is probably a lot harder to shop around for a psychiatrist when health care options are different in every country.

I actually started out on ritalin as well… and then moved on to dexidrine… and am not sure now if I should be still taking it. I feel that I am not improving from the meds as much as I am battling the side effects. This is why I am going back in. I do remember trying adderal and wanting soooo badly for it to work… but sadly it was not the med for me. I loved the idea that it didn’t have a “peaking” period like my ritalin did. I was told it would help because it was a slow release med unlike ritalin and dexidrine.

Hearing that you were able to find a cocktail that helped with the ADD and was an antidepressant and helped for anxiety gives me hope! I am largely struggling in those areas. I would love to think I can find a similar cocktail for myself! I also have had to see different specialists for different things and it can get annoying. Here is to hoping I can find a med that can help me in those areas as well!

That is sad that your first Dr worked under the impression that if the meds worked you must have ADD. That would frustrate me as well. I am sad that it came too late to help you avoid the employment crash you mentioned. I have felt that way with my depression and ADD. I feel like if I could have only gotten help earlier I would have been saved from so much heartache and loss.

I also agree with zsazsa that us ADHDers are sooo impatient with waiting for a diagnosis, we do want it now! It is hard enough that we live with brains that are in over drive… the idea of having to wait to know what it is termed as and what can be done for it adds to the already crazy we call our lives! hahaha

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