[helenboll]

I’ll take option a, please. 🙂

i’ve been through the “oh god, why me?!?” phase already. Not sure it won’t come back, though.

It all feels kind of surreal. The doctor was a bit evil for not getting to the important info for a freaking hour. He was all: Well, you are very difficult to diagnose, inconclusive, your mother’s answers bladiblah. I got upset a number of times but he was very clinical. Luckily Robert went with me.

Is Strattera the US name for the drug, as well?

The qb-test was inconclusive. My results were borderline adhd but for the most part in the normal range.

Does anyone know more about the NOS diagnosis? I’ve hardly heard anything about it before.

 

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[helenboll]

Hey!

I have ADHD NOS (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) according to the team!

That is fine with me. I will get medication and the same help as with the other disorders.

Actually started on Strattera right away, took the first 18 mg today.

I am so sickeningly relieved and happy now!

Thank you guys for your help, I’ll be reading about ADHD NOS a lot now. =)

 

<3

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[helenboll]

Hey guys!

Been doing other…stuff for a bit, like marathon-watch season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race and read a lot of dystopian novels on my Kindle.

I am going to meet one of the senior psychologists at the hospital tomorrow! Guess we’ll be talking about my QB-test and the diagnosis. I am kind of nervous, but my mom and sambo (A good Swedish word for partner you live with without being married) are coming with me.

I’ll let you know what happens!

Wish me luck if you wanna. 🙂

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[helenboll]

I took the QB test this morning. @kc5jck, I’ve read your retelling of the TOVA test now, and it sounds very similar. Either a blue circle, a red circle, a blue square or a red square would pop up on the screen. If one of them popped up two times in a row, I was to press the button in my hand.

Only got to do it once, though. No second attempt on medication.

I know nothing of the results yet. Reading about the test now, it seems it measures the test subject’s movements as well, which I did not know beforehand. I think I moved around some, and I know I was tapping my feet in my boots almost the whole time, but don’t know if that registered. Maybe the test administrator saw that, though. Hopefully.

A lot of the time, I kept thinking about how utterly boring it was and wondering how in the world I would survive 20 minutes of this boredom. I got kind of sleepy, too, just wanting to close my eyes, which made me miss some of the shapes. Weird thing was, that when the test stopped, I was really chocked and could not believe the 20 minutes had gone by. It felt a lot shorter.

What else to report? At the beginning I kept thinking that I should deliberately be a little slower in pressing the button, but halfway through I started to wonder if maybe I should be as quick as possible to show hyperactivity, and panicked a little bit. Haha! So many thoughts!

Oh well. We’ll see when I hear from the team again. I feel calmer about getting the diagnosis now, anyway. 🙂

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[helenboll]

I am a librarian! Or well, almost. Got a stupid master thesis type of stupid thing I need to write to get a diploma. And I am afraid that will not happen as long as I am undiagnosed and unmedicated.

Let’s say I’m a library assistant for the time being. Anyway, the environment of a library works well for me. Order makes me calm. My professional personality is bubbly, helpful and chatty, so that helps when I am at the counter. I also LOVE literature and read a lot, so that helps. My imagination and ability to think differently than non-add:ers also help.

Things that are hard for me are, for example, if the sound level gets too high, or having to do inefficient tasks that take a long time, like filling out forms for buying new books. I also find it difficult to work with, or under, people that treat me the wrong way or try to make me do things in a way I can’t or don’t want to.

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[helenboll]

Yes yes, I love playing video games. Nintendo has always been my favorite supplier, and I still play in this old age. (33 :)) I especially love all the Zelda games, but also most Mario games and a variety of RPG:s.

I have also played the Sims 2 and 3 A LOT. I am really looking forward to the Sims 4 that will be out in the fall!

And iphone/ipad games. I have also had the Candy Crush addiction, but am free now. Just suddenly lost interest. Started it now, and I quit at level 375. Jeez. 🙂

I got hooked on Hay Day instead. Stupid farm, how I love it. I also play Ruzzle, Where’s My Water 2 and the Sims free play atm. (Doodle God, Where’s my Perry and Scribblenauts are kind of fun too, if you have some time to waste/enjoy.)

Never liked Angry Birds. Not amused by Flappy Bird, which is all the rage right now.

We also have a Wii U, and play as a group activity, which is a lot of fun. Mario Kart, Mario Party, New SMB Wii and Wii U and so on and so forth.

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[helenboll]

I have decided to never ever go to therapy again, unless the therapist is an ADHD-expert of some kind.

In early 2012, I was diagnosed with depression. (This was before the ADD-realisation.) The first counselor (not sure how to translate the Swedish word “kurator”) I met told me to take a walk outside between 10-2 in the day and to immediately stop writing about my depression online.

Called her answering machine and asked to be transfered to someone else the same night.

Counselor number two was into codependency, and decided that that was my problem. It really wasn’t. I went a few times, but the last time I didn’t have the energy to engage, and he was kind of put off byt that. When the next appointment came I cancelled due to a migraine or something and never got a new one. Which was just as well.

After that, I was put into group counceling. That was kind of nice, but only because I got interested in some of the other participants’ problems. Some others bored me to death. This one man kept whining about how the roof of his house needed to be fixed, which drove me mad.

Right now in Sweden, CBT (Cognitive behavioral therapy) is the magical answer to every imaginable mental health issue. I don’t believe in it, and especially not for me. On my angrier days I think of CBT as therapy for the large masses who cannot think for themselves. (Hope I don’t offend anyone now!)

 

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[helenboll]

Foxy Swede! LOL!

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[helenboll]

Oh, good, blackdog, starting a lot of new threads are confusing.

So you are also a good add-girl? Nice to meet another one!  =)

 

 

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[helenboll]

Yes, they know about my brother, and I will bring that up again if necessary. He was diagnosed at the same clinic (if that is the right word) but not by the same team, I guess.

The understanding doctor I saw talked about the fact that since my brother’s add is more “severe” (if you can call it that,) all attention was on him and that is why my problems weren’t noticed. It also made me the “easier” child. I can go along with that theory it it helps me. 🙂

Should I start a new thread for every question that pops into my mind?

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[helenboll]

Thank you, Scattybird and kc5jck. Good answers. I feel a bit calmer about the whole thing now. I sure will continue fighting for myself! And kc5jck, cool that you have Scandinavian ancestry! Do you have a last name or something that goes back?

I’d love to keep you updated! This forum seems really good, I’ve tried facebook groups for adhd but they were not really to my liking. 🙂

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[helenboll]

Thank you for your answers!

I guess I need to explain a little bit more thoroughly, and not so briefly. 🙂

I am 33 years old, and growing up, nobody was familiar with adhd. The only thing close was DAMP, and that was only for hyperactive boys, who could not sit still and who interrupted in class.

I’ve had ADD symptoms all my life, but nobody saw them, or knew what they were or could interpret them! I was a clever, quiet girl who never disturbed anybody, but always felt different and as though I did not fit in. I’ve never had any trouble with reading or writing, and I got along fine in school until junior high. In Sweden there are no grades in school until kids are 12-13, and in those days they did not really keep track of you if you were not causing trouble.

So that is one factor: No academic troubles in childhood.

Factor number two is that although I did show symtoms at home, my parents did not hade any knowledge to interpret them, and they are also very ADD-ish, so for them my behaviour was not strange. I grew up in a family where having ADD was the norm. My older brother was diagnosed a few years ago, at age 32. My father could also get the diagnosis, I think.

I have suspected that I also have it for years, and read up about ADD and ADHD a lot in the last year. I know every symptom and thing that can cause suspicion. I am a textbook undiagnosed adult woman. Intelligent, yet failing to finish school or keep a job. Struggling with relationships, keeping things together, working extremely hard at seeming normal and hiding my problems. Have been on sick leave for depression because of this.

The team has spoken to my mother and made her fill out a questionnaire. They interpreted her answers as me not having adhd, or being bipolar, as that was also being checked. They were at least correct about the bipolar part. =)

When a doctor told me about this conclusion, I objected strongly, and then he really _listened_ to me. (The first time someone did in the process, I think.) He let me talk, and listened as I explained about my mother not seeing, or wanting to see the signs. About the nostalgic shimmer she puts on my childhood, going through a questionnaire and me explaining. He told me then that he believed me, and was now on my side. So after that they decided to re-do, or continue, with me.

But as so much is in the balance for me, I am very anxious that they will not give me my diagnosis. Maybe I am being overly pessimistic.

On thursday I am doing a QB test at the hospital. (https://www.qbtech.com/en/qbtest/) Hopefully that will give the results I am hoping for.

Well. That felt good, writing everything down. 🙂

Is there anything else you think I can do to make them able to diagnose me?

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