the hoops you have to go through

[@rho_lall]

I first came to a realization I had ADHD sitting in a doctor's office reviewing the results of my son's testing for ADHD. I sat there listening to him and thought, "Oh sh*t. I have ADHD." He recommended the book Driven to Distraction. Towards the end I cried. It really gets into the human experience and it filled in pieces to a puzzle I couldn't even see were missing from the picture.

[@dusanknezevic9072]

As someone who had access to a very professional and great mental health specialist, just go for it. I thought it might be anxiety, ASD, ADHD, stress, too much work (very common in my country - 12hr/day for many professions). However, after a few months of therapy, root of everything was that I was bullied through my entire elementary school and a bit before. I was also a strong kid (waterpolo training) and relatively smart, so I was able to "fight back" in many ways. But all the bullying took the toll. Took quite some time to treat symptoms and to find root causes and to actually retrain myself. I cannot stress the importance of good mental health professional. Always seek the best for you. Don't accept blanket diagnosis (some doctors and specialists like to "jump the gun" and give diagnosis very fast). I suggest going to therapy and switching therapists if therapy doesn't help you. It may be expensive, but it's best spent money (from my experience).

[@marna_li]

I have ASD. Got the diagnosis at age 12. All these labels aside. I just wanted to be "normal" during my adolescence and pretty much lived like it was nothing. My realization of my diagnosis came in early adulthood, and now at 30+, I kind of know how hard it is. My last couple of jobs have been bad. Especially since I started de-masking, not pretending to be "normal", and being authentic to myself. Because now I know I notice my challenges. I know how I work, but I don't get the support needed. And as you might know developers generally aren't very clear when communicating. I get action paralysis when expected to take action but I'm not sure about how to handle it. Then I switch focus to something that I'd rather do. So I suspect some ADHD thing symptoms.

[@ZeeZeeNg]

Wow at how tedious the process is in the UK... Do the people in charge of the rules & policies realise that, by having all these procedures & screeners in place to filter out people, they are actually increasing the workload for themselves? All the best for the rest of the process!

[@anthonybeckford5608]

Thank you for sharing this and for being vulnerable. I'm hoping to get a diagnosis

[@EricLidiak]

Thank you for sharing. I'm ASD, not tried for an ADHD diagnosis