Sometimes Doctors are Wrong

AuDHD with comorbid chronic illnesses/disabilities. Misdiagnosed as Bipolar for over a decade

[goldcrescent]

and not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but another reason I hate the return of 2000’s th*nspo shit is bc starving does make women frail and has longer term consequences like early osteoporosis, brittle bones/teeth, insomnia, ect. Your muscles will start eating themselves. It also makes you extremely emotional and severely lowers your capacity for critical thinking not bc you’re a girl but because your brain isn’t getting any fucking nutrients so idk I just feel like its very convenient that every time there’s an uptick in fascist rhetoric and women’s rights are being stripped suddenly it’s peak fashion for women to be starving, weak, and exhausted

[userfish]

who else up for the #challenge

[konoko]

[thepromiscuousfinger]

[missgreeneyartz]

No one discovers “a secret third thing” better than people with ADHD

[autistic-af]

Source ~ Neurodivergent_Lou

Alt Text added to each image.

Note: these are different ways these can show up. They can also show up in a stereotypical way. If you've met one autistic, you've met one autistic.

[teaboot]

REALLY

FUCKING ALL OF THEM??!?!?!!

[it-was-audhd-not-bipolar]

Ever had a period so bad that you considered medically transitioning?

[whyenn-reader]

Not to go "if you have ADHD just go for a run" or anything, but I am so serious if you have ADHD you should regularly go outside, no headphones no phone no nothing and just stand and observe for a while until you've had enough. Not until you get bored, until you've had enough. Drink your coffee without watching tiktok. Have a bath without music. Turn down the volume in your headphones. I cannot overstate how much learning to be bored is cruicial with ADHD. Life is not just about pleasure, no matter what your dysregulated dopamine system thinks, and when you teach your brain to be okay with being bored, then boring tasks stop feeling like torture. By letting yourself be bored you are yoinking your system out of the high/low binary and allow for the highs to feel like actual highs and not just anything that isn't low. I am so serious go literally touch grass. Listen to the sounds in your flat. Stimulate your body the way it was designed. It lowers anxiety and makes you feel like you're real and best of all it's completely free

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

I really wish more ADHD mental health care told you WHY things like this matter to our quality of life.

The Hyperactivity in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is NOT about being physically hyperactive, it's about having a "hyperactive central nervous system" because it's a form of inheritable dysautonomia. The problem with disautonomia, especially the ADHD kind, is that it makes boredom flag to your nervous system as a THREAT, triggering hyperactive and maladaptive central nervous system processes like fight or flight.

But dysautonomia kills you that way. Literally, part of the reason our average life spand increase on stimulents is that it helps manage risk-taking impulsivity that can get us killed by accident, but the other part is that stimulents can regulate a hyperactive CNS such that it is functionally (while impacted by the stimulent) NOT dysregulated anymore. And PHYSIOLOGICALLY that is essential because the physical outcomes of dysautonomia can reduce your life span by YEARS if not decades through self-perpetuating hypervigelence, endocrine disruption, and adrenal fatigue.

So when the ADHD brain goes stimulation-seeking and a doctor tells you to practice mindfulness, it feels like being told "hey go stand in a functioning boiler until you can stop thinking" rather than WHAT IT IS which is the process of re-teaching your body what is and isn't safe.

Standing outside making mindful, non-interpretive/moralized observation of the world helps your brain and body re-acclimate to the idea that absence of that frantic "busy" feeling isn't a threat or a risk to your safety, and gradually reduces the level of distress that just hanging out somewhere triggers for you.

Learning WHY this stuff was being suggested and understanding what it was actually supposed to do went a long way towards changing my relationship with my ADHD. I am FAR more functional now, far less prone to shame spirals and rejection sensitivity, hell, I can **sit physically still for near on an hour at a time** now without feeling like I'm going to crawl out of my skin.

So yeah. Go outside. Let the world narrow around you and take deep breaths until it stops feeling claustrophobic or like you need to climb walls. Learn how to let little sensations become big ones like the way the heat of the sun on your skin starts as a gentle warming and be omes a unique collection of sensory moments depending on how it lands on you. Listen for sounds under sounds and let them fade in and out as you move your focus from one sound to the next. Enjoy. Move on. Rinse and repeat.

When you no longer feel like the world is actively killing you, it's a lot easier to navigate it.

[whyenn-reader]

S++ tier addition to the post, thank you tumblr user butts bouncing on the beltway

[it-was-audhd-not-bipolar]

A lot of this is true. However, I would like to clarify that ADHD is NOT a form of dysautonomia. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder. There is a higher incidence of dysautonomia in people with ADHD, but ADHD itself, as we currently understand it, is NOT a form of dysautonomia.

If you are getting frequent episodes of tachycardia (fast heart rate), dizziness, fatigue, nausea, headaches, vision changes, fainting, brain fog, or anything else that concerns you, don't assume it's "just ADHD", see a doctor! These symptoms are not inherent to ADHD and ADHD has several very common comorbidities, some of which are dysautonomia, and there are treatments for them.

Some of these conditions include autism, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and hypermobile EDS or Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD).

Some people with ADHD in addition to dysautonomia will not do well on stimulants because it will increase their heart rate too much. You need to take both conditions into account. They are not one and the same.

[bipolarmango]

My doctor and therapist: now with this autism + ADHD diagnosis you need to learn to unmask because masking all the time will make you burn out again and feel like shit

Other people: well it's just interesting how after getting the diagnosis you suddenly start behaving like that I mean I'm not saying you're faking it's just funny how you suddenly cannot be normal like you were before

[regionalpancake]

THIS IS SO TRUE!

bUt yOu nEveR hAd a pRoBLem wiTH this bEfOre?!

BITCH I have spent 35 years thinking I was just inherently bad at being a person, now I find out I have a disability? That it’s actually (checks notes) NOT THIS HARD FOR EVERYONE?! What the fuck do you mean other people aren’t getting distracted because they can hear the electricity?! Yeah I think I’m gonna give myself a break actually. The microwave IS too loud, now fuck off.

[it-was-audhd-not-bipolar]

After months of psych evaluations and assessments...

@lesbianpolar -> @it-was-audhd-not-bipolar 🤗

[polyamorouspunk]

Are you going to let trump out live you

…

[polyamorouspunk]

Happy Suicide Awareness Day. Let’s Not Let Trump Outlive Us.

[polyamorouspunk]

Hey this had like 30 notes when I went to bed what happened-

[giragirameganedan]

its crazy how lolcow culture is mainstream to the point where people in my life will look at me like im the weird one for being like ‘no i actually dont want to watch compilations of random disabled people being stalked and tormented by neonazis with you i dont find that funny’

[giragirameganedan]

“but you dont get it, this time the impoverished schizophrenic in active psychosis with a severe learning disability and zero competent support… did something BAD” oh no way i never would have guessed. thats hilarious man

[solidwater05]

Pros of hyperfixiation:

Happy!

Art ideas

Life is good

Cons of hyperfixiation:

I am going to blow up

All my art is of the same guy

If I don't think about this 24/7 I get violent

[xioryo]

Basically

[it-was-audhd-not-bipolar]

I see so many people wondering why adults don't just get an autism diagnosis when they suspect that they are autistic. Let me share my experience with seeking an autism diagnosis thus far, and maybe you can begin to understand why an official diagnosis is FAR more difficult to get than people assume it should be:

- First, I went to my PCP to get a referral. He agreed that it was likely I have autism and ADHD and should be assessed.

- I then went on to my insurance provider's website to find someone who was capable of diagnosing autism. You can't just get diagnosed by any psychological specialist or therapist. Most doctors qualified to diagnose autism only work with children. Many psychologists will say that they can help to TREAT autism in adults, but they will not diagnose the condition.

- Out of all of the results, only two would diagnose autism in adults, and only one didn't exclusively practice ABA (I have zero interest in ABA therapy and don't feel like I can trust an ABA practitioner). This psychologist was over an hour away. I have good insurance from a large insurance company. I live in a major metropolitan area with one of the largest populations in the US, and this was all I could find.

- I made an appointment with the psychologist and went through pages of paperwork documenting my social and medical history. This process took hours to complete. The soonest they could get me in was in 3 months.

- Without insurance coverage, the assessment would cost $4,000 for autism, and an additional $2,000 for ADHD assessment. Many insurance providers do not consider assessments (only treatment) to be necessary and will not cover them at all. I was told my insurance would cover at least some of the cost, but was told me to figure out with my insurance provider how much I would owe on my own prior to my appointment.

- Less than a month before my appointment, they called to tell me that insurance would not approve the doctor that they had assigned me to (they were a new doctor who had never worked with my insurance before. They already had doctors in the office who do work with my insurance and chose to pass me off to someone who MIGHT be able to take my insurance), and getting an appeal would be a lengthy and difficult process. Rather than go through that, they told me they would refer me out... to a psychologist who was even farther away and only diagnosed children

- The only other psychologist who does autism assessments in adults within three hours of my home, and solely practices ABA, is not accepting new patients.

These are only some of the barriers that face adults seeking an autism diagnosis. I agree that we definitely need a better system for diagnosing the many adults who slipped through the cracks, but we have GOT to stop being so shitty to adults who suspect autism but do not have an official diagnosis in the meantime.

[geekandmisandry]

An autistic friend of mine just said this to me “The harder I work at communication the more people expect from me and the less they are willing to compromise.” and it is the most fucking heartbreaking thing I’ve heard.

[wetwareproblem]

This is very much a thing, though - and I’m sure people across the board with other disabilities can verify that it happens to them, too. People will turn any progress you make toward being “normal” - no matter how straining or difficult it is for you, no matter how little it actually helps you - as either inspiration porn, or proof that you don’t really need accommodations, you just need to “apply yourself! :)))))”

[chiisana-lion]

[daily-spooky]

[it-was-audhd-not-bipolar]

The Late-Diagnosed Autistic experience of wanting to return to your childhood - not to be a child again, but rather to be the adult that your child self needed