My Diagnosis Story, Part 2

Things became really difficult the past 6 months or so. Obviously I've always had the same general issues, but it's different when you're working and when you're taking classes you're actually interested in. And of course there's that whole pesky matter of me never staying in the same position for more than a year. But suddenly I had a great job with a good company and three years flew by.

Once I was comfortable, that was when things changed. When I realized that I couldn't focus on tasks for more than 15 minutes. That I didn't even want to bother with hobbies I'd picked up because I knew I'd never spend enough time on them to make them worthwhile. This poison spread from my work life to my personal life like wildfire and I was unable to stop it...but I also didn't know what to do about it.

In September I decided to change doctors. I'd never liked my current physician and figured it was about time for a change. This meant going through the usual "meet and greet" where I'm charged $30 to tell the new doc that I'm perfectly healthy, thank you, I just needed a change. But then at the end of the appointment she asked, "Do you have any concerns?"

At first I opened my mouth to say "No," but then I thought, Why not say something? So I did. I told her that I'd been having trouble concentrating. That I never finished, well, anything. That it was affecting both my job and my home life in a negative manner. I didn't expect her to offer some immediate, perfect solution, but I also didn't expect her to be so questioning. Was I sure I wasn't depressed? Was I sure it wasn't an anxiety issue? I explained that I definitely wasn't depressed, and that I was pretty sure any anxiety I had stemmed from the fact that, well, I never finished anything and had been catching flak at work for not getting things done in a timely manner. Blah blah blah.

"I'm loathe to prescribe you anything," she admitted. "That's a big first step. I think you should see a psychologist." Now, I had expected that she wouldn't immediately be able to prescribe some magic medicine that would fix me, but I know people with ADHD and I was taking an educated guess that my issues stemmed from that. Still, seeing a psychologist certainly couldn't hurt, so I agreed to let her refer me...and then I sat back and waited.