So you think you have ADHD.
Maybe you’ve found yourself on the ADHD Tiktok or you’ve researched all the articles. Perhaps you’ve watched content creators with ADHD who are sooooo creepily similar to you. But you haven’t been officially tested and would like to know what’s up with your noggin. Well, friend, I’m here to help you out with this! I recently went through the process of getting diagnosed and I was able to receive my diagnosis completely free!
How? I’ll tell you.
How It Began
It started with Tiktok.
ADHD content creators on the app began to suddenly flood my FYP (For You Page). I was surprised since I never thought of myself having ADHD. But the more I watched, the more amazed I became. How were they so accurately describing my life? And apparently, all the thing that I thought of as normal, were not normal at all. Some examples being:
- getting out of the shower and lying on my bed in my towel for 30 minutes straight, staring off into space
- needing to turn on my GPS map even when I was in a town I was highly familiar with
- being overwhelmed and highly irritated by too much sensory stimulation (like loud cars, crying babies, loud talkers, etc)
- not being able to quickly differenciate between left and right
- my inability to handle any sort of scary movie or videogame (even ones that aren’t labeled as horror/thriller might still be too scary for me)
- my ping-pong cleaning methods that seem to catapult me from one task to another, completely different task
- my issues surrounding text messaging
- getting super emotional over small things that I know I shouldn’t be getting emotional about
- etc.
I should honestly write a whole other article just on how many things I discovered ADHD can be linked to. I went through a state government program that is available in all states called “DVR” or “Division of Vocational Rehabilitation”. I found the closest office to me and reached out. I was given two things:
- Application Information Packet
- DVR Services Handbook
The handbook gave a lot of information about what DVR is, what it can do for an individual, and a bunch of other stuff. If you’re interested in knowing more, leave a comment! But for now, I’ll just focus on my process with them.
The application information packet was 9 pages long and took me about 40 minutes to complete (mostly because it took extra time to find old employment and school records for the specific dates that they asked for). Once I was done, I sent that in and was contacted soon after.
I met with a counselor over Zoom and she briefly went over the handbook with me so that I understood what DVR was and what my rights were. She asked me why I was seeking them out and I told her about my long history with jobs I couldn’t keep despite how much I would have liked to. I told her that I had suspicions of having ADHD after a bunch of research I had done, but I just needed to be officially tested. She nodded, seeming satisfied with my answer.
So one thing that’s important to note! DVR is focused on finding employment for people with disabilities. This is their main goal. So if you can connect your experience with wanting to find/keep employment (or maybe even start your own business) then they will be more willing to take you on as a client.
The main thing I wanted to do was get tested, but I told the counselor that my goals were two-fold: to get tested for ADHD and, if I had it, to get help to retain my jobs. I had to do some more paperwork over Zoom (you’ll need access to a printer and scanner if you want to get it done right then and there). She asked me if there were any practitioners in the area that I had a preference for. I told her I would need to get back to her on that.
Finding a Therapist
After the Zoom call, I did some research and found a therapist that seemed promising. I emailed my counselor her information and she gave me the OK to book an appointment with her. PLEASE NOTE: check in with your DVR Counselor before taking action on things. They need to make sure that people are vendors with them before you book appointments. And if you decide to use them to help with other areas, they need to get approval for purchases before you buy anything.
I had a total of two appointments with the therapist. She also sent me paperwork before our first appointment to complete. This was mostly to collect information about me and what my experience was just living day-to-day. I brought this in with me to our first appointment which lasted about an hour. She took the time to sit with me, ask questions and just generally get to know me.
The second appointment was the long one and took around three hours for the entire testing process (I definitely recommend you take some water and snacks!). After the testing process in the second appointment, it took about three weeks for the therapist to get back to me. When she did contact me, she said she had my results but she would like to go over them in person so we set up our third and final appointment.
For some reason, this made me so nervous. I started coming up with all these stories in my head about her telling me that nothing was wrong with me. That I was just paranoid and delusional. Or that maybe I just had high anxiety and was making things up in my head. All sorts of thoughts started to bombard me. I had to call my mom and a close friend to help me get through that. They were wonderful and reasoned me down back to a calm place.
By the time my appointment came around, I was ready to finally get my results.
My Diagnosis
I remember sitting in the therapist’s office and talking to her about school and work. About how teachers and employers would always tell me how smart I was and why couldn’t I just dO ThE tHiNg. The counselor looked at me and said,
“Well, there’s a reason for that. You have ADHD girl.”
She began to go over my results of the test with me, showing all the indicators, and explaining that I predominantly showed the inattentive type of ADHD. In addition to that, I had something called “dyscalculia” which is basically dyslexia, but with numbers/math/arithmetic. Funny, because I had just gotten fired from one of my two jobs because I couldn’t keep track of my time in six minute increments and this caused me to suffer in all areas of my work.
I broke down in my therpist’s office. Not out of sadness, but just this immense feeling of relief and overwhelm. She assured me that I was smart and that I shouldn’t overthink or doubt myself (like I had the tendency to do).
I have my next appointment with my DVR counselor in December and I think I’m going to request some sessions with that therapist and possibly medication since they cover those costs (if it helps you stay employed).
Honestly though, it just feels so good to know for myself. I can move forward understanding my brain a little bit better and maybe not compare myself to others so much who simply don’t function the same way I do.
I hope this article helps you on your journey if you feel like you have ADHD but don’t know for sure. It certainly helped me.
Divergent Brain 