help in los angeles | ADHD Information

I need to find a Doctor who will help me in Los Angeles. I'm 43 and they keep diagnosing me as bipolar, but I'm NOT. I'm so textbook ADD- disorganized, distracted garrulous, late for everything, make bigger messes out of what I'm cleaning up (and have been so all my life) -it's incredible. I don't have another side to me! It's ruining my life too. They won't listen, because one doctor ( who spoke to me for 10 minutes) said I'm bipolar and based on that so does the next one and the next one and I'm getting fed up! So far bipolar meds haven't worked on me, in fact they've been a nightmare! I need a doctor or practise who will at least give me a fair shake. It's a catch 22 because I'm sure I'm coming across as bipolar (or maybe even completely nuts at this point - who knows?) while trying to defend myself. But I'm really losing hope. I just don't to take one more of these antipsychotics !

Please help!

Isis

Hey Isis:

Let me bounce my bud in LA an e-mail find out what the name of her neuorologist is...I'll let you know as soon as I know. Keep your chin up there's help out there...

Maybe try to find an ADD coach or an ADD support group. they may be able to direct you to a doctor.

Thank you! THank you!

It's so good to know there's someone else. I was referred to this office by my doctor, but the psych he referred me to isn't taking new patients. My doctor found some swelling with my thyroid, but I guess the tests didn't find anything to treat. (I should call back and see if that was overlooked, shouldn't I?) On one of the ADD sites a different doctor at the same practise as my doctor *is* listed as an adult ADD specialist, but I'm afraid it's unlikely she will go against her colleague. This psych admits that I have the ADD symptoms, but he wants to try to treat me for bipolar *to rule it out.* I told him he's treating the tail, not the dog. He says 9 out of 10 doctors would see me as bipolar and it would be unlikely they'd just treat me for ADD. It's that sort of thing that does get me depressed.

So here I sit on these new meds feeling crappy and down and unmotivated. So now I have no emotions - I like my emotions, it's my brain I have trouble with. I suppose it's better than the last few they tried which either made me pass out or become a raving cranky mess. My reactions to the drugs confirm to them I'm bipolar. "See how your acting?" How did these people make it through med school?

A neurologist would be wonderful. I've been looking for one. But I haven't come up with any names. I will try to find a local ADD coach or a group. Does anyone have a name of either one?

I'm going to have my husband and sister call this doctor's office and not wait for him to call them. They are both FUNCTIONING Wink folks and more easily taken seriously than I. (class clown)

Bless You,

Isis

Oh Isis, how horrible...you are stuck in the same path I was in years ago...being told I was bi-polar, depressed went through the "drug wheel" like you are and the drugs had the direct opposite effect...my heart goes out to you... Have you talked to your family doctor about this? I was going to specialists as well and trust me it was a nightmare. Finally I just talked to my regular family doctor...told him the symptoms and had remembered that I'd been diagnosed ADHD when I was a kid. Next thing I knew he said well then, it's time to get you on Adderall...then we looked at the thyroid and sure enough it was out of whack..so now I take both. My very best friend lives in LA and I know she sees a neurologist there for some problems she has, I'd be glad to e-mail her and find out who she sees...she's said this doctor is open minded and listens. Let me know...

Keep your chin up...I know it's hard but one way or another it will work out...

isis, Part of your problem could be you have ADD and Bi-polar. My sister has both. They are very text book symptoms when looked at separately. What type of insurance do you carry? My health care provider is very good about all aspects of my ADD treatment. My psych lets me call in to get my Rx renewed. Never treat me like a crook when picking up meds etc..... I have Kaiser. When I first called to make an appointment the could only give me one 4 months away, so I called their other Psych office a few more miles away and was able to get in a week. Ask to take an ADD screening test.

Thanks to all of you! First, I feel some comeradery (sp?) and edification that I'm not just kidding myself. These psychs have really done a number on my *self esteem* (I hate that over-used term!! but it really fits here) Here I am at a critically low functioning point in my life and I'm so overwhelmed with what's going on in our lives right now with my husband handling most of it. I'm tired of being the one who always messes things up. I go to doctors to get help and not only do the meds make me 100xs worse, I can't be heard and I'm feeling very powerless over my life. Who wouldn't feel depressed? They call my normal personality a *severe disease* THANKS ALOT! My shrink just will not take responsibility for getting it wrong - again.

They cannot conceive of someone who is hyper and cries about legitimate problems as anything but bipolar. But right there they should see - I guess I'm being manic and depressive at the same time so how does that fit?

What is the harm of prescribing me with the meds that may very well work. If they don't we could try his way. The ones I'm on now are unbearable and he's dropped the dosage down because it's making me sooo cranky and depressed, not to mention confused. Duh. I told him that's what would happen. Anti-spychotics and anti-convulsants make me rage that's why they always ended up discontinuing them right away. I'm supposed to be taking 6 times this much. Oh sure.

Ok so I'll contact these folks you guys have suggested. One of these is bound to lead me in the right direction.(Direction? what's that?)

My husband asked his shrink can someone be manic all the time? For the 15 years he's known me - Always talking alot and fast and always in a tailspin. His shrink said no, but then qualified it that it *must* be *some* kind of bipolar illness...

Never say die.

What's that addage? - that the definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over and expect different results !!!

Isis

Hey Isis, we have the Amen Clinic down here in So. CA. They specialize in ADHD. There are more Amen drs. in LA than down here in the South end. I got my referral from their website and found a pretty good ADHD dr. (although I am actually suspecting him of being ADHD himself. - I have been on time for my appts., and HE has been late and full of apologies. LOLOL!! )

You described me to a T when you said that you create bigger messes than the ones you try to clean up. I could write a book of examples.

Yes, I have feared that I have come off being bi-polar too, but I know that I'm not. I have a relative who is and I definitely do not act like her. It's like I don't have enough energy to be that way. I am definitely prone to anxiety, insomnia, rage outbursts, etc. and depression, but it still just doesn't really fit. It's seems like a very fine line in the psychiatry world between ADHD and bi-polar and seems, in my exhausting search for an ADHD specialist, that most drs. are more interested in the latter diagnosis, unless they are quite familiar with ADHD.

I wrote out a HUGE, organized history for this dr. and he said it really helped him to help me. I sent it to him before we even had our first meeting. I included every possible symptom that has been problematic or different about me (from others). I listed the qualities of relatives that I have that are/were probably bonafied ADHDers. He had NO problem with my diagnosis, though he would really like me to have the SPECT brain imaging done to see the blood flow patterns in my brain. I'm still trying to find out if this is a respectable and valid test or not. I even have a very close friend who is a top radiologist in the country and he couldn't answer definitively on that one.

Here's the site: www.amenclinic.com

I would take the online test and subtyping test and take the results with you to your appointment as well.

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