What did your ADD testing consist of? | ADHD Information
I am curious to know what other peoples testing consisted of. Mine seemed very childish. I'm not sure if the psychologist I went to specialized in children w/ ADD and tested for adults sometimes. I know that was stupid on my part to not research it to begin with....I walked into my regular doctors office told him I thought I had add and he gave me meds took about 10 mins. I had to take this stupid test that was hung up on his wall. He said that his niece had it and I had the exact same symptoms going on. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, considering one of my friends had to go to 4 or 5 appointments with a psychiatrist and take a battery of tests and ended up paying close to 500 dollars because he had no health insurance. I went to a psychological testing center. I had to go to 3 appointments to get my rfinal results. I took the following tests:
A computerized test, A series of white letters popped up on a black screen and I was supposed to hit the space bar on everyy letter EXCEPT the letter X. The would flah at various speeds.
She gave me a book with pictures in lines across each page. The pictures would be of like a sneaker, spoon, tree, high heel shoe, & a car. I was supposed to circle the ones that were the most alike. That was a timed test.
There was another test where I had to look at a lot of images and state what they were like an example is a picture of a lock or a picture of a vice.
She would say 1, apple, tire, 4, 6 and I was supposed to sort out the numbers and the things and say the things first in the same order she said them in and the the same with the numbers. The answer to the example I gave you would be: apple, tire, 1, 4, 6.
I had to listen to a tape and on it was a guy saying words broken into parts very, very, very slowly. Like p.......... o..........t. The word I would say would be pot.
Then I took another computerized test that I had to answer a lot of questions either true or false. The questions were very vague and I could have given a certain true and a certain false depending on what I was referring to. This seemed to be the test that she put the most emphasis on.
Did your friend have anything similar?
I'm not exactly sure what the tests he took were like becasue I never asked hehe, but he said that he had to explain what he felt like and his doc also made him show his grades from school so that he could believe everything he was telling him. He dropped out of college, because he couldn't pass any of his classes, that is why he went and got tested. He said that he knew he could do the work but something was keeping him from it. That was his main reasoning with the doc. Since a lot of ADD meds are also abused by college students, the doc made him show his semester grades. He also had to fill out a bunch of tests that were like those typical psychological questionaires. I'm pretty sure the doctor was convinced that he had add after the first one or two appointments, but he kept making him come back, either to make sure that his diagnoses was correct, or to mooch more money.
His sypmtoms seem are very similar to mine (I guess to all with ADD)
Isn't it funny how some people have to jump through hoops to get
medication and some people, like you, can just walk in and walk out
with a prescription.... My MD did want to see my written results from
the testing but, I had never seen him before. I did walk out with a
prescrption even though my tests were "inconclusive". But I am 29 with
two kids, not the typical age & situation of someone who intends to
abuse it....
hehe, yeah but it was kind of messed up because I was hoping he would refer me to a psychiatrist or something, but instead he just said yeah you have add here is the medication have a nice day. I think deep down I wanted to jump through hoops just so that I could get a proper diagnoses, but I guess I got lucky because the medication actually worked. So I guess my self-diagnosis was correct.
Btw, I've seen ritalin being sold at my school for 2 dollars a pill before. People are messed up.
dieburnbot38234.6100925926I know what you mean about the diagnosis. i was so excited to find out what I had been dealing with all my life and be able to work towards some kind of healing... Then.... my tests turned out inconclusive... so, now I am trying Adderall, 20 mg 2xs a day. I still have a feeling of uncertainty because of my inconclusiveness... Have you ever taken adderall? I would like to know the difference between the two.Nope never taken adderall, my friend is taking adderall and he says that it works for him. I want to try adderall someday because I want to find out if a stimulant drug will work better for me than a non-stimulant, but right now I can't complain about strattera because it is working for me. From what I have read though, a lot of people seem to have a lot of negative side effects with strattera. I haven't experienced any, but people said that the benefits of the drug weren't worth the side effects. I guess it reacts to everyone differently. I don't see as many complaints about side effects with adderall though.
Here is a webpage that lists some advantages and disadvantages of strattera.
http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/newsletters/stratera_ben efits_disadvantages.htm
http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/newsletters/adderall_vs_ strattera.htm
dieburnbot38234.6253009259