I have my first appointment with a psychiatrist on Tuesday for medication adjustment and ADHD testing. Does anyone know what I can expect?

[rmsmi28]

I am a 44 year old doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. My therapist believes that I have ADHD but cannot make the diagnoses herself. I have an appointment with a psychiatrist on Tuesday and it is the first time that I have ever been to this type of doctor. I am not sure what to expect and am unsure as to what the outcome will be, although I suspect that they will find something as I have been on antidepressants for quite sometime now and while they have helped with the depression they have had no effect on my wandering brain, which as it comes closer to the moment of writing my dissertation, has only increased. Further compounding the issue is my family who firmly believes that I do not have neither depression nor ADHD and am simply doing this to garner attention for myself.

[Hidden]

In my experience, it's simply a conversation with very basic questions. I was asked how often I would feel a certain way, on a scale of never to very often. She was very adamant about finding out what symptoms I had as a child, and what others had noticed that led them to think I stood out or might have ADHD. Once we had the second meet up and she was convinced, we went over an outline of my life goals and what I was hoping to achieve so that treatment could help me meet that.

add.org/wp-content/uploads/...

This should give you a strong outline if you'd be more comfortable being prepared

As for the immediate dismissal as if it's for attention even though someone else has even suggested it, that is disappointing. I hope you disregard their sentiment and genuinely look into it so that you can be more confident in understanding yourself regardless of the outcome.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask, though I'm pretty new to it myself

[Bmint34_]

I felt a spurt of anger when I read the family thinks you are trying to get attention and do not have depression or possibly ADHD. That in itself would trigger depression for me. Also, they think you are not being hard enough on yourself!? What BS.

[Gettingittogether]

The psychiatrist is either going to hand you a sheet to fill out (do you have this symptom or that symptom?) or they're going to ask you the questions themselves. They're going to be able typical ADHD traits. Don't worry: unless you are paying for a high-level out-of-network psychiatrist, your appointment will be brief.

I guess the first appointment with a psychiatrist can be a bit strange because it might take you some time to accept that you are talking to a member of the one profession that totally gets ADHD. They get how it affects our brains, they get how it disrupts thinking and planning, how it disrupts getting started on tasks, prioritizing tasks, juggling responsibilities, paying attention to details, how it leads to bad decisions and how it corrodes esteem.

Psychiatrists get all of that! And so you're not going to be talking to a skeptic. And if you've struggled with accepting the diagnosis or explaining it to friends and family, then it's hard to relax at first because you cannot quite believe that this professional actually is taking seriously all the ADHD frustration I'm reporting.

So go for it! In some ways, meeting with a psychiatrist is part of the process of managing ADHD and overcoming the stigma attached to it. And I'm guessing you are seeking medication? If so, you'll be meeting with this person periodically to report on how you are doing on a med and whether a change in dose or med is recommended.

And OMG, my heart goes out to you about your family's denial. I'm going to tell you bluntly. Give yourself a year but you will have to get to a point where your family's skepticism means absolutely nothing. Your life, your ability live a good life, to follow through on that dissertation and to accomplish things--your life literally depends on you becoming your own authority. You cannot do the "kid" thing on ADHD, the kid thing being worrying about mommy and daddy's or society's approval or endorsement of your diagnosis. Even after you go through treatment and hopefully begin to make some significant improvements, people will still often be skeptical of the condition. Keep going to therapy to build strategies for that. (And since ADHD is highly inheritable, it's likely that if you're talking your family of origin, then some of the people not believing in such a condition likely suffer from the condition. )

BTW: I'm in education and didn't get diagnosed until after I began teaching. OMG, the diagnosis was the best thing that happened to me in some ways. There are lots of good strategies out there to plug into. Since you're in grad school, you are a good researcher, to research strategies on ADHD. There are tons of them out there on the web and probably on this sit. And some overlap with the strategies of neurotypical folks ... Keep going to therapy and realize the meds can help a lot but they cannot do it all.

Getting diagnosed is the start of a process, a great process, but the benefit is that you now know what the challenge is you're facing: that unruly ADHD brain that might seem normal to other people but which we know does not allow us to do things, sometimes simple things, that other people can do, without a great deal of effort.

[Jckss]

In my particular case, because I wanted my family medical doctor to handle my prescription, I had to go to a psychologist to be formally tested so that my family physician could have the diagnosis paperwork in my chart. That was a long, but fun, test of problem-solving and such. But when I had just gone to the psychiatrist, a psychologist in her office evaluated me by asking a few questions.

From what you've described in your post, I would be surprised if you're not diagnosed with ADHD. Mind-wandering has been my nemesis all of my life. Good luck!