h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Help and reassurance from a very personal perspective is here if you want it. I've done a lot of research about it, my son has it, and at age 40 I found out I have it. I don't know how I survived the first four decades of my life without medication!

It can take me a few days to respond, but I always will.

How were you diagnosed?

I was the General Manager of a large family restaurant at the time of my diagnasis. One of the cooks was frequently laughing at my behaviors (eg. I was constantly asking where my coffe cup had gone). He eventually told me that I was the personification of ADHD and gave me the name of a doctor who specialzed in Adult ADHD. It was an easy diagnosis. The rest is history.

My son has ADHD, and we share a great many of the symptoms that he was diagnosed for - although my attention span is now longer than his, because I've had to learn to concentrate. Sort of...

What did they do to diagnose you?

The first visit to the Doc took about 45 minutes and was primarily a question/answer session. As time wore on it turned into mostly talk from me. I am a textbook example of ADHD and 40 years of unmedicated coping "skills". Beware of anyone who believes you grow out of it. Adult ADD/ADHD is real. There are some Phd.s in the fields of cooperative learning and education/behavior who do a great disservice to those of us with ADHD by asserting that it doesn't exist. I take Ritalin (40mg every 4 hours) unless I am alone and have nothing to do (I tend to lack the motivation to start anything) or am looking for a major, relationship-ending, high intensity, high volume, utterly disasterous arguement with my wife over something trivial. Since that is the LAST thing I want to happen, I take my meds. [I was married for 5 years before I started meds. A week later I forgot to take the pills and later decided that I'd made it 40 years without them so I didn't take them for the rest of the day. The next morning, I apologized. She told me if I ever intentionally skipped my medication again it would be the last time she'd be there when I came home. We had been married for 5 years by that time and we had a good relationship despite my sporadic "irrational" behaviors. Her comment was "True, but I did not know that I didn't have to put up that bull twaddle!" (She didn't actually say "twaddle")]

I could fill the next several hours writing, but it would get tedious for anyone reading, so I'll stop here.

Hello, I know this is a late one but we think my son has ADHD and also dyslexia (I have it so I know the signs) and we are wondering if you know of any good testers for ADHD. We watch a program on ADHD (sorry can't remember its title) but it gave no ref to the tester/s. We think it would be a good thing to get him checked out and see what to do from there.

Cheers
Nik

Your best bet is to go to your gp and ask for a referral.