Topic Tuesday // ADHD // Tuesday 22nd February, 7:00- 8:30PM AEDT

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@greenspace wrote:

Hi @Paperdaisy @Jynx @Daisydreamer

I was only diagnosed with ADHD in January, though I self-diagnosed a few years ago, so I'm interested in other people's experiences of having ADHD, strategies for managing it, medication...

And, if you have ADHD plus other diagnoses or forms of mental distress, does managing the ADHD make a difference to your experiences of the other things?

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It couldn't hurt!! There's lot's of strategies, largely about getting greater understanding of how your neurochemistry works and working with it rather than against it. Stuff like taking lot's of breaks, understanding what gives you dopamine and incorporating that into your day, learning how to 'unmask'. I'll include a link to a handy youtube channel later 😁
Sometimes it's also just about practicing acceptance, knowing you function differently to others and learning to stop comparing yourself to them.

The process for me being diagnosed was a bit strange. After my sons diagnosis I started researching for me. I got a referral to see a psychiatrist who specialised in adhd. I saw her for the first visit and she said it was likely that I had it but I would need a psychological assessment that cost over $1000 first. That was out of the question. A few weeks after that I first attempted suicide (unrelated to that experience). I lucked in eventually years later when I started seeing my current psychiatrist (who had a keen interest in adhd) and she bought it up, thinking I had it. It has actually taken a couple of years to understand how it affects me.

Replying to Q1:

I had said to my clinical psychologist a couple of times over a year or two that I wanted to be assessed for ADHD, but she hadn't followed up on that, and there was slways other stuff to deal with.

A year or two after I switched to seeing a different psychotherapist, I googled Psychiatrist Assess ADHD Adults Australia and found a psychiatrist who does telehealth assessments.

She did a general patient history, and asked specific questions about my childhood, and then did a standard assessment questionnaire with so many scaled questions.

I was worried that my result might be inconclusive, but it wasn't. Based in what I've been aware of, and what people have told me, my answers added up to a very clear diagnosis.

Question 2: What are some common misconceptions and is there anything you wish more people understood about ADHD?

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@Paperdaisy wrote:

Question 2: What are some common misconceptions and is there anything you wish more people understood about ADHD?

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One of the reasons it took me until the age of 27 to get diagnosed is because I believed the stereotype – that ADHD is for young boys who are rowdy and disruptive in school. It is now very clear to me that ADHD was named for what it appears like to others, rather than how it is experienced. ADHD is not a deficit of attention – it is an inability to regulate attention…and emotion, and motivation. In fact, one experience that we in the community refer to as ‘hyperfocus’ is something that prevented one of my friends from seeking diagnosis for many years. How could she have attention deficit disorder when she was able to sit and focus on something for hours at a time, sometimes to the point where she’d forget to eat or go to the bathroom?

ADHD really isn’t an issue with knowing, but with doing, and this is primarily to do with our dopamine deficiency a.k.a. the rewards system in the brain. When ordinary tasks fail to produce dopamine release like they do for others, is it any wonder the ADHDer will be compelled to seek out (or be distracted by) things that do produce dopamine?

Here’s a few other features that make it oh so fun:

Time blindness - cannot conceptualise time, i.e. I don’t know what 5 minutes feels like, I struggle to plan ahead because 6 weeks away and 12 weeks away might as well be the same thing

Hyperfocus - so involved in something, it is to the exclusion of everything else including bodily signals to eat, drink water, and go to the toilet. Also influences things like becoming hyperfocused on a new project or hobby, spending lots of time and resources on it, only to lose interest after a month or so and maybe never picking it up again

rejection sensitive dysphoria - an intense emotional reaction to real OR perceived rejection – this one is complex, you can read more here.

Emotional Dysregulation – Many ADHDers will find their emotional responses can seem ‘out of proportion’ to the experience they’re responding to. It is also more difficult to self-soothe, and we can be seen as ‘having a short fuse’ because we are quick to anger. Sometimes, my experience is like ‘nothing wrong nothing wrong nothing wrong EXPLODE’. This can lead to meltdowns, outbursts, break downs, you name it.

Context & recall - I’m very forgetful, and it is largely to do with two factors - a) My working memory cannot hold as much as other people’s and b) I can access memories but need extra context cues and reminders because it is the process of recall that is challenging.

Tangential thinking - ever spoken to someone who can somehow manage to cram four different topics into one sentence? Someone who goes off on wild, semi-related thoughts or will suddenly start talking about something seemingly random (but on inquiry they will tell you about the series of thoughts that lead them there)? That person might just have ADHD!

Object permanence – in psychology this refers to a developing child’s ability to realise that objects persist in existence even when out of sight (which is why up to a certain age, peek-a-boo is so entertaining, babies literally think you cease to exist). In the ADHD community, it refers to a tendency to forget things exist when we aren’t able to see them. This is why we lose things so frequently, due to misplacing them or putting them somewhere not easily seen. It is also impactful to relationships, which I’ll talk about later.

Sensory processing issues - everything is LOUD and BRIGHT. Sometimes I will get distracted because I can’t tune out noise. Sometimes, someone will say something and I will take a moment to actually process it, so I might say ‘pardon?’ then before they actually repeat themself I will start responding to them because my brain caught up midway through. I can’t actually process sounds that well unless I’m also fidgeting – such as the incident that helped get me diagnosed. This is also why I need instructions to be written down! If you tell me a list of things to do, I might do the first two, but then forget what the rest are. This is extra important in new jobs! Information overload is a struggle!

ALWAYS MESS - I mean if I’m not getting dopamine for completion of tasks, why the heck would I ever be motivated to tidy up? 🤣

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@Jynx wrote:

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Question 1: When you were first diagnosed, what was that process like?

How did you feel about it?

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Most of us have spent the majority of our lives being told we’re just lazy and incompetent, so a part of me continued to believe that this was just some excuse to try to get medication to ‘cheat at life’ or some BS like that. Now, having professional psychiatric confirmation has been enough to dispel the notion of being 'weaker, lazier, and bad at life’ - and has also given context and understanding to a large majority of struggles across my life. It was in most ways, a huge relief.

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It sounds like diagnosis was really affirming for you @Jynx, and helped to dispel some of those really harmful stigmas around why you were feeling the way you were feeling! I'm hearing that relief 🙂

You mentioned going to a psychiatrist for a diagnosis, and I am hearing that many people here have had to go through multiple professionals or services to seek a diagnosis. Who can provide a diagnosis and what are some of the things you might need to be aware of when building a professional network? (eg: What are the differences in support a GP vs a psychiatrist can provide?)

Interesting @greenspace , I'm wondering if you felt a sense of relief after receiving the diagnosis? Sounds like it was a few years in the process.

@greenspace

if you have ADHD plus other diagnoses or forms of mental distress, does managing the ADHD make a difference to your experiences of the other things

I am going through much of this now. It appears that it’s the adhd that affects other MH diagnosis. My psychiatrist recently told me that if I didn’t have adhd I probably wouldn’t have the anxiety or depression or highly reactive emotions (all internalised) around many things. It was one of the reasons for my misdiagnosis of Borderline personality disorder.

Replying to Q2:

Oh my goodness yes! I wish people (now and in the past, though I know we can't change the past) were better at recognising ADHD in girls and women!

I wish there was less stigma about neurodiversity generally.

It would be great if teachers and GPs understood more about inattentive type ADD. And if psychologists and psychiatrists understood it better! I read recently that hyperfocus isn't in the DSM as a sign ir symptom of ADHD!