It’s all about the 4Ds with psychological disorders.
Deviance - how different are you from “normal” people? IE - is everyone else capable of sitting still? Is it normal to fear fresh water? Does everyone else find emailing extremely difficult?
Dysfunction - is it preventing you from doing things that you want to do? Need to do? Preventing you from being healthy? IE - not eating, not drinking water, unable to get out of bed.
Distress - is the symptom distressing to you? Does it affect your personal experience of your quality of life? - IE are you stressed that you can’t do the thing, do you want to be different and feel distressed by the symptom? Are you unhappy because of the thing?
Danger - are you a threat to yourself or others?
All of this is a range and depending how you fall on the range dictates the severity of your symptoms and your clinical diagnosis.
For my anxiety disorder and OCD, it’s mild (low on deviance) but I find it distressing (moderate on distress) and it, with my ADHD, greatly affects my functioning in my daily life though this is not severe (mild to moderate on dysfunction) but I’m not a threat to myself or others. Still, I have a clinical diagnosis. I have many. It works like that. You find that you have one, and usually you have more than one.
For women, ADHD is extremely comorbid with anxiety and depression. I don’t have depression but I have a family history of dysthimia (chronic low affect, most can still function but they just feel meh all the time). On the other side, I have a family history of anxiety disorders and OCD.
Our understanding, especially the common understanding of ADHD, is actually terrible. But that’s a different soapbox.
ALSO on getting a diagnosis.
If you have a decent doctor, they will look at family history and give you a few surveys on symptoms if you’re an adult. If you are a minor, they are likely to give you a full test battery that includes an IQ test. This won’t be done by a psychiatrist (they have an MD), but often a psychologist (PhD or PsyD, latter has greater focus on clinical work while former focuses on research) or licensed clinical social worker. The results of the test are then given to a psychiatrist, who then provides a diagnosis.
If your mental health clinician (in my ideal world, a psychiatrist but many clinical psychologists are good) is any good, they will get a family history. If they don’t ask for a family mental health history, they’re a shit doctor. Period.
If you are considering medication, in my opinion (as someone whose been in therapy, on meds, for over a decade and studied psych) this should only be provided, at least initially by a psychiatrist. Do not get psychoactive medication from a general practioner, especially for the first time. A GP specializes in the body and are likey less familiar with psychoactive meds than a psychiatrist.
It’s like how a GP can do a pap smear but doesn’t specialize in that stuff like a gynocologist. They can do mental health, but they don’t specialize in that. Find a specialist if at all possible, especially at the beginning of your mental health journey.
But that’s a privilege to see a psychiatrist. My bottom line is don’t trust a doctor who doesn’t demand a family mental health history before diagnosis or prescriptions. You can find information on local mental health providers on psychologytoday.com and you can sort by your insurance provider so you don’t pay out of pocket.
I emphasize a doctor that seeks family history because I watched my roommate get a poor diagnosis and treatment because she incorrectly gave her family history (your doctor doesn’t want to hear about the issues of your stepparent if you neglect the biological parent, for many disorders, the familial component is important).
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