During a couples session, my T said something about another couple's son, and described a certain behavior, and said he had ADHD. I just kind of froze inside and suddenly thought, "I wonder?" because I felt like he was describing me. After a number of months I brought this up with my T, he asked me a few questions about symptoms, and said I might have ADHD but he wasn't qualified to diagnose it. He gave me the name of a PNP, I went to her, and she seemed pretty certain after an interview and doing her diagnostics. I don't really like to admit to myself I may have this, but once in a while, I look at a diagnostic and I am off the scale. I guess I always associated ADHD with children and symptoms of hyperactivity, which I do not have. My PNP told me ADHD often presents differently in girls. She said it is also hard to diagnose sometimes because you need to tease out what might be depression symptoms, what might be anxiety, etc. There is some overlap. Plus adults with ADHD often have more than one thing going on. My PNP first gave me Wellbutrin for it, then added Vyvanse later as we didn't get good enough symptom management with just W. She told me that there is not going to be one magic drug that can help with all of a person's concerns. I was having some anxiety and she told me the drugs she prescribed would not help with that, but that we would have to manage the anxiety with a different drug or with non-medication methods (which is what I did).

ADHD is probably something I would never mention to my regular doctor. I am glad my T could recognize it and refer me to someone who works with it on a frequent basis. I am actually not sure my regular doc is qualified to diagnose it. I did mention to my doc at some point that I was taking ADHD medication and she commented that if I got more sleep, I might not need the medication. I told that to my PNP who told me that getting a good night's sleep is not going to treat my ADHD. (I think she was secretly rolling her eyes a little at my doc's comment.)

Good luck, Luce.