roadakamelot replied to your post: Hi, Socks! I hope you're having a good day!
Its so good to finally have things make since when you figure out whats up with your brain. If you ever wanna talk Im always here for ND talks
Thank you! I might take you up on that sometime. ^_^
It’s so nice to be listened to and believed, too. Before this, the closest I came was a therapist who was like, “Eh, you might be mildly autistic, maybe? But you’re dealing with it well.” And that was The End of that conversation.
But today my psychiatrist is like, “Oh, I can absolutely see that,” when I brought up possibly being autistic. She started listing off things I do and seem to believe that would indicate being on the autism spectrum. She agreed that it’s mild and that I’m dealing with it pretty well, but she was just immediately like, “Oh yeah you’re almost certainly autistic.” And just that much meant SO MUCH TO ME.
She’s a little more on the fence about the ADHD, but I think that’s mostly because it entails medication like, well, Ritalin. But we’re going to start me on a small dose and see how I do - she wants me to call in a week and let her know how I’m doing.
If the Ritalin turns out to really be helping, she’ll probably refer me to a colleague that specializes in ADHD for a formal diagnosis.
The fun of mental illnesses, folks! Do I have depression and anxiety (as I was diagnosed several years back) or do I have ADHD that just looks like depression and anxiety OR do I have ALL OF THE ABOVE because comorbid conditions are a pain in the ass?!
My psychiatrist kind of has the opinion that the formal diagnosis is less important than finding out how to fix what’s wrong, which I can understand. If this particular combo of meds works for me and improves my life, then that’s good, right? AND IT IS! But knowing. THE KNOWING IS SO FUCKING IMPORTANT. And I don’t even intend to be like some sort of super, in-your-face advocate type? I don’t intend to build my entire identity around what’s wrong with me. >_< (Part of the reason I hate cancer ribbons and such. I get that it’s helpful for some people, but to me, it reduces me to my diagnosis and I am so much more than just a melanoma survivor, dammit.) I just really badly want a name for the face of my disorder(s).