Any advice on what words an adult in the US might say to their primary care physician if are interested in trying pharmaceutical aids to ugh problems but don't really suspect an ADHD diagnosis?
I was just honest but if you read a symptom list and you can construct a convincing story around having some of those as a child and as an adult you will probably get diagnosed. Also, go to a provider who has an incentive to diagnose you. Google "ADHD online" and choose one of the ads.
Be enthusiastic and effusive. Be hyper talkative.
Here are the symptoms that I have:
- excessive talking, including over other people. This was a big issue for me.
- inability to pay attention. Also a big issue that I coped with.
- a weird one but I can't sit still. It takes sheer force of will to keep me in my seat in a professional meeting. I will want to get up and walk around and walk out (to do something dumb like get a snack) and back in.
Anyway, sorry I can't give you a cheat code. I don't know it. But perhaps replaying my experience will allow you to bypass the gate.
"There are whole websites for this: How To Convince Your Shrink You Have ADHD [0], How To Get Your Doctor To Prescribe You Adderall In Five Easy Steps [1], et cetera. But I can’t imagine most people need them. Just talk about all the times in your life that you had attention and concentration problems, and if your doctor asks you a more specific question (“Do you often lose things?”) you give the obvious right answer (“Wow, it’s like you’ve known me my whole life!”).
Aren’t psychiatrists creepy wizards who can see through your deceptions? There are people like that. They’re called forensicists, they have special training in dealing with patients who might be lying to them, and they tend to get brought in for things like evaluating a murderer pleading the insanity defense. They have a toolbox of fascinating and frequently hilarious techniques to ascertain the truth, and they’re really good at their jobs.
But me? At best, I can have a vague suspicion you’re not telling the truth. And how many patients genuinely in need of treatment do I want to risk accidentally rejecting just so I can be sure of thwarting you? A lot of 100% honest psychiatric patients’ stories are pretty unbelievable, really, and I don’t want to have to treat every patient like a convicted murderer. Unless you give me some specific reason to doubt you, I start with the assumption that you’re telling the truth.
Think about how wasteful all of this is. We throw people in jail for using Adderall without a prescription. We expel them from colleges. We fight an expensive and bloody War on Drugs to prevent non-prescription-holders from getting Adderall. We create a system in which poor people need to stretch their limited resources to make it to a psychiatrist so they can be prescribed Adderall, in which people without health insurance can never get it at all, in which DEA agents occasionally bust down the doors of medical practices giving out Adderall illegally. All to preserve a sham in which psychiatrists ask their patients “Do you have ADD symptoms?” and the patients say “Oh, yeah, definitely,” and then the psychiatrists give them Adderall. It’s like adding twenty layers of super-reinforced concrete to a bunker with a wide-open front door.
(Also, if by some chance a psychiatrist doesn’t give a patient Adderall, that patient practically always goes to another psychiatrist, and that next psychiatrist does. Trust me, no matter how unsuitable a candidate you are, no matter how bad a liar you are, somewhere there is a psychiatrist who will give you Adderall. And by “somewhere”, I mean it will take you three tries, tops.)"
