Maybe ADD?

Hello everybody!

I just want to tell my story and maybe someone can tell me, if i have ADD.

It already began when I was a child. I couldn't focus on something for long and I was always absentminded. I also was very moody and had a lack of energy. I didn't enjoy much playing with other kids. I preferred to be left alone.

When I was 14, my issues got worse and worse. My lack of concentration increased. I often slept over 12 hours a day. Nevertheless I was incredibly tired and exhausted. I didn't talk to anybody anymore except for my parents. I wasn't very interested in talking to people, found it very difficult and I was also afraid of them. I got bullied because of the way I was and I couldn't do anything about it, because of my lack of energy. My grades got worse.

Then I have been diagnosed with depression. The doctor isn't sure if it's a bipolar disorder, because sometimes I was like a different person and had a lot of energy. I felt a little relief, cause I thought that there is something I can do about it. Since then I take pills: antidepressants and mood stabilizers. My depressions got better, but my focus and my energy didn't increase. I also feel a lack of motivation and I often just lie in bed doing nothing at all.

Maybe I have ADD ? Or am I still depressed?

Thank you for reading this

[DefinitionReclaimed]

Hi Hidden ,

I don't think anyone here can really tell you if you have ADHD or not. You'd have to talk to a licensed mental health professional to make that determination. I think the best you can hope to achieve here is to learn more about ADHD and perhaps determine if it's worth talking to a professional about it further.

With that said, it does sound like you had some symptoms that could be ADHD. Take a look here for a summary of how the DSM defines ADHD:

qandadhd.com/diagnostic-cri...

You mentioned a lot of inattention symptoms in particular, and that they occurred in childhood, so it seems plausible to me on that basis (since ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder). However, I don't know if there were a sufficient number of symptoms present for at least 6 months before age 12 that caused enough impairment across multiple domains of your life to warrant an ADHD diagnosis. The DSM also states that for an ADHD diagnosis, symptoms "are not better explained by another mental disorder," and it sounds like you have depression, which could also be causing inattentive symptoms. On the other hand, comorbidities like depression are rather common with ADHD, so it's possible for you to have both. The fact that the inattentive symptoms persisted after treating the depression suggests to me it could be more, but I admittedly haven't researched this combination as much as ADHD and anxiety, which I have more of a personal stake in. 😉

Have you talked to your doctor about ADHD in addition to depression and bipolar disorder? If so, what did your doctor say about it?

Welcome to the forum, by the way! I hope you start to find the answers you're looking for here (even if your journey can't reach a satisfactory conclusion here). 🙂

[Hidden in reply to DefinitionReclaimed]

Hello, thank you for your answer! Yes, I just went in contact with a specilized doctor for ADD. But I don't have an appointment yet.

I'm not so good at having patience, so I asked this forum 😁

[DefinitionReclaimed in reply to Hidden]

Have you tried any online self-tests? Again, it's no substitute for talking to a mental health professional about the possibility of an ADHD diagnosis, but it can add a little more weight to the evidence that this is a conversation worth having with your doctor. Here's one from ADDitude Magazine that says it "was adapted from the ASRS Screener developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Workgroup on Adult ADHD."

additudemag.com/adhd-sympto...

By the way, you said that when you were 14, your "issues got worse and worse." Were there any major changes in your life around that time? Did you move, change schools, lose someone, or go through anything else difficult or stressful like that?