Starting ADHD evaluation for the second time next week. I am really stressed out because this is basically my last shot. I am pretty confident that I have ADHD, but since I also have bipolar, they are just assuming that whatever symptom I am experiencing must be that.
I’ve been through public healthcare where they discharged me after the intake conversation, because they regard me as too high functioning (did good in school and have a job) and they don’t have the capacity. So no help there unless I run my life into the ground. Got declined by my health insurance because they have a clause in fine print saying they don’t cover ADHD. So now I am paying out of pocket, blasting most of my savings. The price tag is around $2700. If they discharge me because they think I don’t have it, it will “only” be $1900 though.
So now I am stressed out, worried I am just throwing my money out the window. And that I am just wrong. If this doesn’t pan out, I don’t know what I’ll do.
Not really looking for any advice (but they are welcome), just wanted to vent a little.
Interesting insight! I travelled the same road in the other direction. As someone who loves science, I always saw my role as a patient to just report symptoms and let the doctors do their thing. And I’m sure this would be the ideal approach if everybody had the House M.D. team on their case.
But after decades of this failing, I realised that this method does not work with a real-world medical system where doctors have more bias than they should, work with methods from their studying days that assumed they had more time and resources per case, and wrong monetary incentives.
So Method 1: I say I have X, and make it clear that I’ll be a PITA if their test doesn’t confirm it. If there were no bias, there would be no harm to this, but if there is, it’s working to my advantage now.
Method 2: Just think of them as the idiot who is clueless but gatekeeper of the much wanted prescription.
Nobody wants to hear this, but a layman’s web research, LLM and 1000 hours of thinking often beats 10 years of medical training if the doctor interrupts the patient after 20 seconds and only thinks about the case for 5 minutes. (With 30 minutes, my money would be back on the trained professional, but nobody has 30 minutes.) A patient can also fixate on a premature assumption just like a doctor can, but my very subjective experience is that doctors are more prone to that.