Welcom aboard. I'm a recent member here (though I've now hit groupie status!) I am like you, in that I am self diagnoses - at this point - but seeking diagnosis, just trying to find the right dr.
My advice to you is, even though you don't have insurance yet, start looking for drs that specialize in this thing and get maybe get ready to set up your appointments or set them up if you can. A couple of specialists in my area don't have any openings until december. You may find the same thing.
Keep reading the boards, you may find (like me and others) that just reading about other people's experiences trigger that "holy cow, that is me" syndrome. I have found some good articles that people are posting and plan to print them out for when I go to the dr in two weeks as proof.
Welcome again. I find I enjoy the company here. Talk to you soon.
Wow, the notebook thing -- I did that too. I'm not sure how it fits in, but I feel melancholy remembering it -- that hopeful feeling that came along with a brand new notebook. Later, it would end up disorganized or abandoned, but oh, the promise of a clean slate. Ouch.I'm 28 years old, and I think that I've finally realized over the last couple days that I'm ADD or ADHD. I know people say that it's dangerous to self-diagnose, but I've done a lot of research, and reading the criteria for ADHD was a eureka moment for me. I had thought that maybe I had avoidant or borderline personality disorder, but neither quite fit.
I never thought that I had ADD just because I'm a voracious reader and a big baseball fan, which is supposed to be such a slow-paced game that would never appeal to ADHD people. But everything else fit completely.
Now I'm trying to think back to my childhood for clues. I think back to the fact that I always had to use a brand new notebook every time I started even the tiniest project. I think back to how badly I wanted to turn in very, very neatly organized projects in school, but was never able to get it together. I think back to all the checks and permission slips I lost and got an angry lecture from my parents, then got frustrated as it all happened again.
Part of me is angry that I was never diagnosed when I was younger -- I wonder what my quality of life might have been like up to now had I been able to control things like my inability to organize, my out-of-control impatience (if I have a line at the gas station for example, I feel like I'm going to explode), my poor time management, etc., etc.
Even now, I can't fold a laundry basket all at once. I do like three items, then do another task, then do another task, then do three more items. Even the smallest household tasks are done in pieces because I'm so scared of spending too much time on something.
Anyway, I recently got a new job and I forgot to sign up for health insurance -- well, basically I avoided it because I couldn't get myself to concentrate on the task. I'll be able to do so in November, and I plan on getting help immediately.
Until then, I was wondering what sort of advice you guys might have.
I was also wondering if my experiences sound similar to yours at all.
I'm very happy that I finally seem to understand why I snap at my wife, why my mind wanders when someone gives me instructions on something with more than one step, etc., etc.
[QUOTE=Wordwoman] You won't find many people here who will say that they are exceptionally patient with mandatory tasks.
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That's very interesting, and I hadn't even thought to separate the two. It's funny. I was an English major in college. I love to read. Yet the books I had to read for class, I dreaded taking on. Yet I would see the classic section at Borders and something that would seem dry to anybody else would appeal to me. If it was handed out in class, though, I would lose interest.
welcome Carolina