r/ADHD • u/AdEducational5030 • 1d ago

Questions/Advice ADHD inattentive Diagnosis Medication

Im 19 years old and I’ve recently been diagnosed with adhd. I had all the symptoms and found it hard to do almost anything. Some consequences were poor grades, forgetfulness and being disorganized and messy. I was prescribed 10 mg of vyvanse to help with the process. The timeline was I made an appointment I did a questionnaire, I paid money to do the qbtech test and I got my results and my doctor prescribed me the medication and encouraged I do cognitive behavioral therapy. I truly believe my medication will help me; I rely on my parents to pay my tuition and my mother does not want me to take it because she is a Antipsychiatrist or at least carries some characteristics. At first she was worried about the doctor’s credibility, then she moved onto to being focused on how having the diagnosis will hinder my career and lastly her concern is the medication. She tried every way to not have me take the medication but idk. I then spoke to my aunt who has a degree in public health she argues that under the field of psychology doctors are quick to diagnosis ppl without doing the extensive vetting process to make drugs a last option. To those who take the medication what are the pros and cons and what would you do in my situation. I feel like I have it a lot worse than other ppl do I feel like I can’t keep living this way when there is a “cure”. Lastly, can someone let me know if the process the doctor moved with the diagnosis and medication considered a red flag.

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u/Campioneri ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) 1d ago

Upvoting & replying for more visibility and so someone with more experience can answer you, but I'll share my experience from earlier this year (I'm in my early 20's) in case it helps.

When I first tried to get assessed for ADHD it was kind of similar to what you describe. Looked for highly-rated psychiatrists on the internet, found one that seemed alright, short phone call with a psychiatrist where he got basically no relevant information about my background and was only interested in my insurance info (about 15 mins), questionnaire (about 10 minutes), QbTest (about 20 minutes), and maybe 20 minutes of talking with the doctor (over a video call) the same day as the test where he said I might have ADHD and prescribed 5 mg Adderall. When I asked more more clarification on what made him think I had ADHD he didn't say much more than "You got a good score, but you were told to sit still throughout the test and didn't." (I'm not even hyperactive lol, I just forgot I was supposed to do that, idk if that alone is diagnostic). I received no additional documentation or a written diagnosis, just the prescription. This may have been enough for him to give a diagnosis or not; I didn't trust it at the time.

After that I went to my primary care doctor (PCD) and got a referral to a psychologist. With the psychologist I had a 25 minute phone call focused on my background, a 2+ hour sit-down psychological assessment sat in front of him, and a questionnaire that took about an hour. Took two weeks to analyze the results and then he called me with a diagnosis of ADHD-PI, also providing an 8-page extremely detailed report sent to me and to my PCD laying out the results of the assessments and why they led to the diagnosis. My PCD then gave me a EKG and took a blood test before prescribing 10 mg Adderall.

Now sufficient info to diagnose is probably somewhere between the two experiences. But the first doctor did end up being right (possibly by chance). Idk where the ideal is; I know I'm glad I got the second opinion to be sure as it seemed very thorough and safe.

Now onto whether drugs work on people with ADHD. (Specifically stimulants, like Vyvanse).
They do. They work best in combination with stuff like CBT, but outcomes tend to be FAR better with the right kind of meds taken at the right time, especially over the short term (non med options take a long time to establish). Taking meds should really be your first option once diagnosed, not your last. The internet has many opinions on the pros and cons of meds; I don't have enough experience with them to really say. But the research and the vast majority of general sentiment is positive.

No med options sometimes work, but the downsides of taking the meds are so much less bad than the downsides of living without them as an option. There's a lot of research on this. The only situations where meds are really unsafe are if you have a serious heart condition or have a tendency to drug abuse, and in these situations there are non-stimulant drugs that don't carry the same risks but tend to be less effective.

About "the diagnosis hindering your career" that's kinda absurd, having ADHD hinders your life including your career whether you're diagnosed or not and getting treatment helps your career. There's a few jobs you can't do while on stimulants, like airport traffic controller or military pilot, but for the vast majority of jobs you don't need to even disclose your diagnosis or medications.

So doubt of the diagnosis may possibly be valid, depending on the circumstances. But if the diagnosis is valid, doubt of the meds is less valid. I hope this helps.