Hello! I’m Megan and have ADHD and OCD. It drives me crazy when people think I “couldn’t possibly” have ADHD because…XYZ reason. First this happened when I was getting re-assessed because I moved to a new state. The psychiatrist (a person with a medical degree) said since I was in a PhD program there was no way I could have ADHD. I was way too polite in my response to be honest, but I did challenge her very wrong opinion.
I sometimes get weird looks too when people who know I have ADHD see me crocheting, knitting, or spinning (I always crochet at work meetings lol-it’s the best thing ever because I HATE meetings). They think someone with ADHD wouldn’t have the patience or whatever for a slower craft.
I ALSO get told all the time that you can’t have OCD with ADHD even though it’s a really common co-diagnosis. It’s like y’all OCD isn’t just being clean and organized (things I’m definitely not lol). OCD stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder, it’s not just compulsions (the actions people physically do with OCD). I’m actually super glad I was diagnosed with ADHD because I read about the OCD comorbidity and finally knew I wasn’t completely out of my mind with my recurring thoughts (they’re also like super dark thoughts…violent, etc. it sucks and is super invalidating when people don’t recognize this part of OCD).
Side note: I just found out there’s a slight difference between reoccur and recur lol - reoccur means to happen again while recur means happening again with greater frequency. The more you know.
16 Likes
I’m sorry, I personally don’t have any experience with this kind of thing, so I can’t really help
5 Likes
That is absolutely awful to hear. I myself have anxiety (At least, we’re all sorta sure- I’m a bit… 
SpOiCaL I’ve never had someone not really believe me (as far as I know.) Maybe just shove medical records in their face and flounce away? (Or don’t, in hindsight very bad idea, DO NOT DO, sure way to get fired)
5 Likes
Honestly doctors just suck. Their information is pretty much never up to date, and they’re usually more concerned with their own egos and getting you in and out as fast as possible.
About 3 years ago I was physically at the fittest/strongest point of my life. I was playing 2 sports and I spent all of my time outside.
Until one random day where suddenly doing a push up hurt so bad I started sobbing (I could do 75 easily the day before).
And my world came crashing down.
Pretty soon I was completely unable to walk, and it was so bad my parents thought I was literally dying (hell, I thought I probably was as well). After about 6 months I could finally start taking a couple steps. It hurt so bad it felt like I was dying.
This is when we started going to doctors.
I’ve completely lost count of how many tests I’ve done and how many doctors I’ve seen.
But from what I can guess I’ve seen at least 80 doctors in the last 3 years.
You wanna know how many of them have actually believed me/haven’t accused me of faking it or just having anxiety?
T W O
There have only been 2 doctors who didn’t immediately accuse me of faking or suggest that I just have anxiety (or schizophrenia? Idk what’s up with that)
One was a sports doctor so she couldn’t help me very much other than the amount of support she gave me. She sat me down and held my hand and said something like “I know they don’t believe you, but I do. This is real and I want you to keep fighting until you get an actual answer” Needless to say I sobbed
The second was a psychologist. I was seeing her because the team of doctors I was seeing at the time accused me of: just having anxiety, faking it, having schizophrenia, over exaggerating my pain, etc.
The psychologist honestly seemed pretty pissed with them
She did something similar to the sports doctor and just told me that they were wrong and that I need to keep fighting for an actual answer.
(This was a really long hospital day so I’ll try to explain it.
First I went and talked with the team for about 2 hours. They left the room while they deliberated for about 30 minutes. They came back and started accusing me of stuff and then sent me to the “pain psychologist” down the hall. I talked with her for about an hour and then got sent to the waiting room while she talked to the team. I was then taken back to the original room)
Mannnn, the looks on those doctors faces when I came back into the room with zero mental diagnosis and they had to scramble to find a different answer honestly made me smile even though I was having a shitty day.
My mom has had similar experiences with doctors.
There was a couple months in 2019 where she could not lay down without screaming and when she got up she could barely walk.
Every. Single. Night. She would go to the er and they would ignore her because “she’s just stressed” “oh it’s just a headache” “no you’re just dehydrated”.
What was actually going on? She was going into complete organ failure. There just happened to be a specialist that recognized her symptoms and immediately started helping her.
Overall, this is just a really long post to say,
if you can feel that there is something not right with you, fight the doctors. Do not let them tell you there is nothing wrong when something clearly is. Fight to find those one in a million doctors who will take you seriously and maybe even save your life.
This isn’t even close to all the terrible experiences my family has had with doctors ://
5 Likes
I know this experience well too as I have an autoimmune disease that isn’t 100% diagnosed (I either have mg or me) and it isn’t diagnosed because over the eight months of me trying to get tested they said they no longer accepted my insurance twice and I had to keep rescheduling. Then I moved and am single so I can’t afford to go see any specialists and haven’t been able to for a year. It’s been going on since 2020. The number of people that said you’re just a woman with depression is ludicrous. If it were any other industry they’d never get away with you getting such crappy service and still having to pay for it. I fear everything I also about to get much worse. I just want to move out of the US but it’s also hard to immigrate to a country bc many of them won’t accept you if you need ongoing expensive treatment. It feels so hopeless sometimes that your life and quality of life matters to only you and your loved ones. I’m extremely lucky to have a sister who’s a nurse otherwise I’d be even more in the dark.
2 Likes
Sorry to hear about your situation!
I hope it gets better
I’m also very lucky because my mom went to med school so she fights those doctors hard
2 Likes
Hey, I also have ADHD and OCD. Everything you say - from the “how can you do slower crafts” to the “nah, you don’t have OCD, you’re not clean and orderly!” to having to fight doctors to believe you to also navigating it while having other medical conditions underlying everything - it’s all stuff I’m intimately familiar with. Ironically, I’m not feeling well enough rn to share a lot but when I’m feeling better I want to share more. I just wanted to quickly say that you’re not alone and that I, specifically, understand your struggle.
3 Likes
Thank you for sharing! Hope you feel better soon :) (although if you have a chronic illness as we’ve been discussing a bit here too-I know that’s kind of an empty statement bc you know you’re just gonna be sick again soon 
).
3 Likes
Best of luck getting that diagnosis for your daughter!!
I hope you can get one too if that’s what you desire
3 Likes
Sorry this is a struggle you are dealing with. I suppose the first thing I’d recommend is to not doubt what you know about yourself and try to find a provider who specializes and listens. Print out/write down info you strongly relate to so you can address specific concerns if the provider goes too far in the wrong direction. Let them know you are exhausted from masking to fit in and function and it hasn’t been helpful to not actually get the treatment you need. It is awful to be dismissed. Do your best not to absorb a negative disbeliever’s energy and dismiss the things they project on you. Unfortunately, it can take time. I was 40-ish before having official diagnosis. Was told by a PhD psychologist many psychiatrists are now hesitant to Dx it because they go on a register for prescribing narcotics Rxs. Keep trying if you are able.
3 Likes
