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How are you scared of “bombing it?” Be happy if you don’t have this condition. Now if you’re afraid of misrepresenting yourself, that’s fair. Just be yourself
Thank you, I love that idea. Thank you for the suggestion!
Rising Star
I’ve always thought the very best test for ADHD is to stick you in a room with someone who has it, and see how quickly it takes for you to bond.
Social media didn’t exist this prolifically and anonymously 20 years ago, so sharing of experiences (and relating to them) is still fairly new, but IMO a fairly good indicator.
As for doctors, it’s a crapshoot.
Some doctors think ADHD is essentially fake/over-diagnosed and that only the most severe symptoms count.
Others DNGAF and will give you meds if you ask and say the right magic words.
Some are actually good and test and diagnose.
You never know which it is, so plan for it to be the first type and prepare. You can also ask some questions in advance to try to gauge them. How many patients they’ve treated for it, do they typically see this in high-performing adult professionals, etc.
Personally, I’ve always been a fan of masking for this and playing skeptical and worried. E.g.
1) you always thought ADHD was fake, an excuse for bad parents who neglected their children and that were acting out, or a scam to get special accommodations. Maybe it exists but the symptoms are severe and debilitating, people drop out of high school due to inability to function.
2) You’ve met a few adults (professionals and otherwise) who are diagnosed, and they were talking about their condition (they couldn’t seem to stop…) And they’d tell you certain things they did/thought [insert some examples of egregious non-normal behavior], and you told them that wasn’t abnormal, everyone does that. You were told no, that isn’t normal.
3) You had never thought your thoughts/behavior were abnormal, so it never even occurred to you to ask others if they had certain thoughts or struggled.
4) you’re worried now (don’t oversell it too hard as a spiral), and started asking some non-diagnosed people and their experience is sometimes drastically different. The one non-diagnosed person who wasn’t, was just diagnosed…
5) Now list your symptoms and tell them in story format. Pick some good ones, and peel back the curtain just a little bit on your crazy. Stories about hyperfocus, overstimulation and shutting down, deadline mode, waiting mode, difficulty closing out projects once the hard part is done, forgetfulness of very important items, any weird games you play with yourself to make yourself do something boring, etc.
In preparing to craft the above narrative, use details from ADHD sources and your experiences, but DON’T use specific terms (masking, neurodivergent, executive dysfunction, infodumping, working memory, hyper focus). You want to come across as genuine, not as having googled what to say.
Rising Star
Freezing would actually be consistent, so if they know what they’re doing, you’re well on your way already.
Of note, if you haven’t come across it yet, meds are just one small part of the puzzle. You need to find the right dosage (including when to take it, when to hydrate, when to eat, when to caffeinate) but you’ll also need to start adapting your life to work WITH (instead of against) the way your brain works.
I’m 32 (also) female and was diagnosed when I was 28. I was already seeing a psychiatrist and brought up ADHD because I read an article about it in the ABA Journal that hit home. He was very dismissive and just told me it was my anxiety. I then switched to a different psychiatrist who took my concerns seriously and asked if I wanted to get tested. My test involved them strapping a ball on my head that tracked my movements. They then showed a series of shapes on the screen and they gave me a clicker which I was supposed to click if the shapes matched. I want to say the test was like 30 minutes. I think every place tests it slightly different and that some of the more lengthy evaluations are to also rule out other things. I was already diagnosed with several other things (anxiety, depression and panic disorder) and we had a pretty comprehensive discussion about my past and symptoms so I think that may be part of why mine was more streamlined.
I wouldn’t worry about bombing it. They should discuss your symptoms in the consultation portion and I would bring up how you mask it. More and more successful people especially females don’t get diagnosed until later in life because they are able to mask it and do well in school.
Sorry you went through that but glad that you are getting another evaluation. I doubt you undermined yourself. Unfortunately I think there is still a huge knowledge gap in diagnosing ADHD in highly functioning adults. It’s so frustrating because untreated ADHD often leads to anxiety, depression and burnout. And “seeming fine” should not be part of the equation. I often look fine and put together even when mentally I’m a mess. We were just forced to learn coping mechanisms that make it seem like we have it all together.
All the tests they are running as part of your next evaluation should give you some kind of diagnosis and help pinpoint your specific deficits. Just based on the length of the evaluation, it seems like this new place will be better equipped to make a diagnosis and take you seriously. Keep us updated!
You don’t “bomb” an eval. If you don’t have ADHD, then you won’t be diagnosed. That’s not a failure, that’s valuable information. My eval looked for other possible causes of my issues, they will tell you if it’s not ADHD what might actually be the issue.
I’m a 33 year old woman so the idea that I’m just now uncovering issues is a lot to wrap my mind around. Thank you for the reassurance!
I did it a few years ago. I never would have guessed I have ADHD because I was never hyperactive. But my therapist saw all the signs like task initiation and completion and recommended I get tested.
My test was significantly shorter than 4 hours. There’s no real way to prepare for it. I thought everything was basically testing your conscious-mind level of focus. When I got the results, it turned out I actually had no idea what they were testing for. It was testing very specific cognitive abilities rather than what you’d think of as focus. Things like audio and visual processing.
I was kind of worried I was trying too hard and doing so well that I would not be diagnosed with ADHD. Boy was a wrong. The psychologist told me had one of the biggest gaps between top end functioning and actual performance she had seen in 40 years of doing the test.
The funniest thing that happened was that the last test was to look at 8 little drawings and transcribe them onto a blank sheet of paper. I wanted to really pay attention to detail and make it very neat and tidy. Not only did I take about the longest anyone had ever taken, my drawing abilities were so bad she asked me if I’d ever been diagnosed with a tremor in my hands.
Thank you so much for sharing. This was super helpful! I’ll be getting evaluated for more than just ADHD, so I’m hoping I’ll have some sort of answer (ADHD or otherwise) as to what’s going on. It’s reassuring to hear about your testing experience. My worry is/was that since I know something’s up that I’ll try too hard and “ace” the test and be told there’s no diagnosis to give. It sounds like I should just show up and take the test as I think I should based on their instructions. It sounds like your test was very eye opening and helpful I assume! Maybe not the critique of your artistry haha :)!
I am a 29 year old woman and was diagnosed at 27. My eval was probably only about an hour and a half with a meeting before and after. The doctor who evaluated me made it clear to me after the fact that she made her diagnosis based on every interaction we had, not just the “evaluation” part where I did computer tests, etc.
I was worried too about “bombing” or but she made me feel comfortable about the fact that most women who feel like they are struggling with it do in fact have adhd.
I have an initial one hour 1 on 1 consult so this is super helpful and reassuring!! Thank you for sharing with me.
There is literally no downside to doing this other than cost. It was eye opening for me. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was in my 20s. I came out of it with skills to help me work with my disability rather than suffer from it.
This is the gold standard of testing and really should be an affordable option for anyone who needs it.
This is good to know. I’ve learned to mask but if you pull back the curtain it’s a hot mess! Thanks all for the comments, I appreciate it.
Testing is valuable but it’s not the end all be all. You need a provider to help you interpret. My results came back super weird bc I had high signs of it but because my brain is powerful I finished the full suite of testing in like 5 hours instead of the anticipated 8, so they were like IDK if you have ADHD. Took me finding a psych who specializes in high functioning ADHD cases (esp working with women) to help me parse results and see I needed support. (And see that I was self medicating with my incessant energy drinks and 9 cups of coffee a day, lol…) I didn’t get diagnosed till middle of law school so I feel your pain.
This is so interesting. I’ve been putting off testing partially because I’ve heard that legitimate testing will also involve the doctor contacting family and/or friends to ask about your behavior as a child. It sounds like that’s not something everyone does? My family are the type of people who’d likely say I was fine and had no problems because I was smart and ADHD isn’t real lol. So needless to say, I have no desire for any evaluation to include a doctor speaking to them. 😅
Mine did not do this. In part because my mom has adhd and wasn’t paying attention to my performance in school lol
I was recently diagnosed myself! I hated the testing and don’t feel like it was an actual read of what I feel. For example, I had to look at a set of shapes and guess which one would come next in sequence from another set. It was testing my short memory and focus. However, I could see the shapes and could refer back to check if I was right and was stared at by the psych the whole time and wanted to get it over. It looked like I was focused but I just wanted to get the hell outta there because I was so bored. lol I also found the questionaries to be subjective; my masking wouldn’t allow me to say I was suffering with the symptoms because compared to other people my life wasn’t that bad. Anyways, I found a psych who shared a similar background to me and I found myself much more comfortable opening up which I hadn’t been doing before; she understood why I masked, why I was so good at it, and why I had a hard time letting go of it. No testing done, it was just a conversation. She was the third psych I saw.