I am a senior in college who has been diagnosed with ADD. Last year, I was seeing a therapist for help dealing with my passive aggressive personality (no longer recognized as a disorder). After I'd spent 12 weeks on her sofa, this therepist said to me that my symptoms seemed more like ADD than any personality disorder. So I decided to get tested. I took two or three on-line tests and they each confirmed the therapists suspicions. So I talked to my PCP who gave me a referral and some wellbutrine stepped up in I-forget-what increments to 300mg. There was no improvement on this regimen at all. My insurance co. authorized professional testing by a member psychologist and I found a shrink. It took over a month to get in to the shrink but when I did, she said that I could not be accurately tested because I was already on meds. She based her diagnosis on questions answered on a lengthy questionnaire. She prescribed straterra, which she stepped up gradually from 40 to eventually 120mg. It was useless and costly. At least the wellbutrine was mostly samples. Naturally, once I had a diagnosis, I applied for disability services at school. My application kept being denied for various omissions made by the shrink. Finally, the director of disability services told me that they cannot tell, based on my application, how the shrink came to her diagnosis. The application lists specific tests whose results will be deemed conclusive and official. The four page questionnaire isn't one of them.
Here's my question. Since the drugs don't seem to help anyway, shouldn't I have been tested so that the shrink could tell what drugs, if any, would be likely to help me? And even though I am now on Adderall, how does the shrink know that it is working (or that the straterra failed) without a test? Is she supposed to just take my word for whether or not my symptoms are improved or not? Its seems that there should have been an initial test and then tests before each medication change. At the very least, there should have been a test initially and one more after I reported improvement in my symptoms as proof of physiological improvement in adhd-type chemical imbalance. In fact, she actually showed me CAT scans of normal and adhd brains. Why weren't these done for me?
Last question: Am I being screwed by my shrink? I wouldn't mind the extra sex but shouldn't she have gotten my consent first?