Forced to retest at new psych, now says not ADHD, even tho diagnosed as child

[Zensory]

Hi All,

I was diagnosed as a child, medicated for a few years, and then went off the medication because of the stigma from classmates - singled out for going to the nurse for meds. I went back on medication as an adult in graduate school. When my provider closed their location and I had to pick a new psychiatrist they made me redo all the tests and they came back saying i did not test gor ADHD but GAD and major depression. I know I experience anxiety and depression, but I also know these are tied to my adhd. I haven't been medicated for adhd now because of this change on diagnoses from this new provider. I know they're wrong. I want to go to another psychiatrist but I am in some way afraid that they're not going to work with me because of this change in diagnosis. Anyone had this issue before? Were you able to find someone who would assist you and redo your diagnosis?

[MTA-]

Almost.

As you probably know, anxiety causes ADHD-like symptoms. I bet you've heard that a lot, i heard it every time I told a medical professional that I thought I had ADHD. There was also the time in my early 20s when I thought I was on the autism spectrum (I had a very fuzzy understanding of autism). So, my medical records showed anxiety, and a history of self-diagnosing neurodivergent conditions (not exactly a history, since I'd done it once, and I didn't self-diagnose, I simply asked for an assessment. But it's still the thing that doctors zeroed in on to dismiss me). You think you can simply get a second opinion from another doctor, but in my country anyway, they're all working off the same records. Crazy that one diagnosis and one assessment in my early 20s meant noone would see me in my mid 30s.

So, two things I did to resolve that. I found out that in my country, they don't diagnose adult ADHD, unless it's causing serious issues such as criminal behavior, or making relationships difficult. I guess they don't like to spend resources on making life a little easier for people with only mild symptoms. So I wrote a letter specifically addressing how ADHD was seriously effecting my life why even though I'm a lay person, i was certain it was ADHD, and how a diagnosis would resolve those issues.

Secondly, i called up my old high school, and got them to send me my old school reports. I was amazed that they had kept them for 20 years. It was like 86 pages goibg back to kindergarten. They paint such a clear picture of someone with ADHD, it's not funny. Like, someone should have spotted it. If you were unmedicated at school, your records will probably tell that story.

[Gettingittogether]

Psychiatrists vary in how they diagnose. So go to a new psychiatrist if you don't like the diagnosis. You don't have to tell the new psychiatrist that the previous person didn't diagnose you with ADHD.

Not to dismiss your points, but quick questions:

Is your depression being aggressively treated?

Is your anxiety being aggressively treated?

Some depression derives from ADHD, but the thinking in the field is that the problem of depression is bigger than that. It's not just we get frustrated with ADHD and therefore we get depressed. The general thinking is yes this frustration happens, but also this: the brains of people with ADHD are brains that also vulnerable to depression and anxiety. The technical name for this is "comorbidity." And you can google and you'll see depression and adhd go together frequently. Again, the general consensus is that ADHD needs to be treated, but that with comorbidity, depression also needs to be treated--on its own. Directly.

And you've gotten diagnosed with Major Depression. That's beyond the depression "caused" by ADHD. That's my understanding of the science.

ADHD meds are sometimes used for treatment-resistant depression, depression that doesn't respond to traditional/official antidepressant medication. (They would call using stimulants for depression an "off label" use of med.) So the fact that your depression went away on ADHD meds doesn't mean your depression was caused by ADHD. ADHD meds can have an anti-depressive effect for some people. You might have just gotten lucky (nothing wrong with good luck!) I take Ritalin and it definitely is an anti-depressant for me (even though it's not approved for depression). I treat my depression directly with therapy and with Wellbutrin. And I've been on Adderall and Vyvanse without getting depressed.

I will share with you that I had anxiety and did not know it. But in working with my therapist, my anxiety just plunged. And it was only when it began to disappear that I noticed it. (I'd had it all my life--so seriously, I could NOT see it.) And lo and behold, the anxiety was causing lots of things that I would categorize as ADHD. You can't concentrate with anxiety. You get in fight-flight mode with anxiety. You're avoidant with anxiety. You can fear making the smallest mistake on a task. Your mind can get hijacked by fear of humiliation, what others think about us and on and on. Anxiety thinking contracts the brain. Can't do good thinking. Can't listen at a subtle level. Feel afraid of life, can get paralyzed by basic decisions. Can panic at everything. When my anxiety dropped, OMG, my ADHD symptoms became much more manageable. I was less worn out. I could focus now on the moment or the person in front of me rather than focus on this fearful chatter in my brain. There was a whole level of distraction that was anxiety and not ADHD.

With my anxiety low, I could actually take time to THINK (in the moment and later and ahead of time) how I can trick myself into getting around some ADHD barrier. Example, I now put appointments on my calendar 15 minutes earlier than they are. And I put on my calendar in bold, not just the appointment time, but the "I gotta be in my car" time in order to get to the appointment on time. That's something I came with after my anxiety declined.

Clearly you have a choice to try out this new person's recommendation or go to a new psychiatrist. Just keep in mind: this is all trial and error. So you don't lose anything by trying out the new doc's recommendation for 3 months. And you do need to treat that anxiety/depression directly, not via ADHD meds. Major Depression absolutely must be treated directed--in addition to ADHD.

Good luck. Just keep getting treated report honestly what you find. And yes, move on if you aren't satisfied.

[Rodster in reply to Gettingittogether]

How did your therapist help with your anxiety?

[Zensory in reply to Gettingittogether]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I was treated for about three years with anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds, after this psychiatrist diagnosed me for GAD and Major Depression. They did very much help me with my depression and anxious ruminations, but I still struggle with focus, planning, time management, and many other things that I think are related to ADHD over these last few years. So yes, I think you are right to say that it could be that these are comorbid mental health issues. I have been in therapy for 5 years and my therapist was really surprised when this new psychiatrist said the results of my test didn't show ADHD. She has also recommended that I go get seek a different psychiatrist for retesting recently since I have been struggling so much.

[Gettingittogether]

I was with him for years. It's hard for me to neatly summarize what he did--the work was so subtle--and I think that was deliberate on his part. I mean we rarely even mentioned "anxiety." I NEVER came to session saying "I have a lot of anxiety." But the effect of the therapy was to reduce my anxiety.

I think it was just the therapist's way of accepting me and putting my thoughts and reactions in context. There was a quiet, calm relaxed way he coached me away from thinking I had to do life perfectly.

I'd arrive with panic or feeling like I'd failed at something or was in trouble for some reason or experiencing a bad mood for no reason. We'd discuss (in his words "unpack" what was going on) and I'd come away not feeling panic. This happened often enough that over time something just flipped in my brain. I lowered the demand on myself for perfectionism, for doing something well, lowered the fear about making "mistakes" and on and on. And lo and behold the chatter in my brain died down.

[sharkticon]

I feel your pain. When I first went to get help with mental issues I was having they put me on depression medication. Nothing worked. After finally getting on ADHD medication, Boom, the depression lifted.

I've realized now that what I thought was depression was intense boredom, which was creating actual depression, and apathy for me. But getting to the root of the problem is what really helped.

Unfortunately doctors and Phsychiatrist's seem to get it wrong a lot. Especially if you have the non hyperactive ADHD. I think it's because the DSM does not do a good job of explaining the symptoms of ADHD, and it's based primarily on symptoms that you would see in kids and not adults. Also all the symptoms on the DSM for ADHD also apply to both Depression and Anxiety, so of course that's how they diagnosed you. I'm surprised that you found a medication that worked and they want to change things up.

On what criteria did they say that you were not ADHD and were actually anxious and depressed? Maybe we could help you sort through it.