My Diagnosis Story, Part 4

So, back to the subject at hand :)


After the disastrous appointment with the psychologist from here on in referred to as Dr. Shady, it literally took me weeks to decide that I was ready to try again. I still wasn't quite happy with my doctor, as immediately after that appointment we had played phone tag and there had been little to no effort on her part to explain the situation to me or help me find another psychologist. Finally, I took matters into my own hands - I called my insurance company and had them send me a list of local psychologists in my network. Thankfully, I got lucky - the first name I picked was a counselor just minutes from my house, she answered, she discussed how her office and insurance policies worked, and I was able to make an appointment for the following week. To be honest, if I'd known I could do that I would have done so from the start! But my general practitioner had in fact acted as if I'd need a referral. Hmph.

We'll call this second psychologist Dr. A. Though she seemed a bit confused as to why a possible patient was calling her directly, when I explained that I was having trouble getting my doctor's office to do the work for me she was really nice about, well, everything. I walked into my first appointment and she had me fill out the usual paperwork about mine and my immediate family's mental health history. I was very clear that I was having trouble concentrating, that I couldn't focus on anything (even hobbies I'd once found fun), and I even mentioned the one bit of decent information I'd received from Dr. Shady - my impulsive decisions and how they'd always been an issue but had lately become far worse.

So we talked about work, about the fact that I could tell my boss has been frustrated with me. We talked about my last-minute vacations and how they affected my finances and my relationship with my husband. We talked about the fact that I would obsess over a new hobby - playing the guitar, for instance, or knitting - for a few months and then drop it,  never to pick it up again. We talked about anxiety and whether I had trouble sleeping, and we talked about depression and how I've never really struggled with any long-term or debilitating symptoms of it.

And at the end of our conversation, she asked me how I'd never been assessed for ADHD before.

And suddenly - finally - it felt as if I was getting somewhere.