ADHD Assessment – It Could End Up Being Like A Box Of Chocolates Not Knowing What To Expect
Deciding to pursue an ADHD assessment is a big decision whether you are the parent of an ADHD child or an ADHD adult who has waited far too long to find out whether the challenges you have been facing, for all these years, are indeed ADHD driven.
A big hurdle in the ADHD assessment process is determining whether what you are experienced is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, some other condition, or the combination of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder along with another condition. ADHD plus another condition accounts for approximately 70 percent of adult cases and is also commonly seen in teens.
Additionally, much will depend on your doctor or specialist personality, time he has to spend with you, personal view of the condition, and how to best go about treating it.
Since all diagnosis is subjective it will eventually come down to a judgment call based on a stack of information provided by you covering virtually every aspect of your life.
Most that have been through an ADHD assessment will tell you that the differential diagnosis was one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, part of the whole process. In more simple terms differential diagnosis means ferreting out conditions that may be more suitable for the person than the one they're currently fixated on. This part of the evaluation process will prove to be a big challenge for adults since most medical professional will go in with the attitude that there is only a 30 percent chance, or less, that ADHD is at the core of the problem. In other words you will have an uphill battle and must convince our doctor that this is indeed the case.
Your mental health professional will follow a series of six specific steps in making an ADHD assessment, ruling out conditions similar to ADHD, and arriving at a diagnosis. Let's look at these:
*Determining what symptoms is at the root of your complaint.
*Discovering secondary symptoms
*Exploring these symptoms in sufficient depth to evaluate their significance: when you first noticed them, how severe they are, and so on.
*Making a mental list of all the conditions your professional knows about that are characterized by these main symptoms. While this list can be quite long most experienced mental health professional can quickly whittle it down.
*Asking about other information – symptoms or past events – that may suggest support for one or more possible diagnoses.
*Narrowing the list down and prioritizing the related conditions according to the hierarchy of the symptoms and how they show up in different conditions. There is a very good chance there will be more than one condition on the list.
When it is finally all said and done brace yourself the diagnosis which has a very good chance of being multifaceted. You may even be told that you have only parts of various conditions and ultimately fail to receive a clear diagnosis.
What Next? There is no predicting what will happen after your ADHD assessment has been concluded. Your medical professional may write you a prescription, could tell you that more testing needs to be done, might determine it isn't ADHD after all but something more serious, refer you to another specialist, or might take the dreaded wait and see approach.
That said, you should know that there are a number of side effect free treatment methods that have been shown to very effective in managing ADHD symptoms such as inattention, impulsive behaviors, and hyperactivity/restlessness. Two of the most often mentioned are cognitive behavioral therapy and homeopathic ADHD remedies.
A big hurdle in the ADHD assessment process is determining whether what you are experienced is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, some other condition, or the combination of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder along with another condition. ADHD plus another condition accounts for approximately 70 percent of adult cases and is also commonly seen in teens.
Additionally, much will depend on your doctor or specialist personality, time he has to spend with you, personal view of the condition, and how to best go about treating it.
Since all diagnosis is subjective it will eventually come down to a judgment call based on a stack of information provided by you covering virtually every aspect of your life.
Most that have been through an ADHD assessment will tell you that the differential diagnosis was one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, part of the whole process. In more simple terms differential diagnosis means ferreting out conditions that may be more suitable for the person than the one they're currently fixated on. This part of the evaluation process will prove to be a big challenge for adults since most medical professional will go in with the attitude that there is only a 30 percent chance, or less, that ADHD is at the core of the problem. In other words you will have an uphill battle and must convince our doctor that this is indeed the case.
Your mental health professional will follow a series of six specific steps in making an ADHD assessment, ruling out conditions similar to ADHD, and arriving at a diagnosis. Let's look at these:
*Determining what symptoms is at the root of your complaint.
*Discovering secondary symptoms
*Exploring these symptoms in sufficient depth to evaluate their significance: when you first noticed them, how severe they are, and so on.
*Making a mental list of all the conditions your professional knows about that are characterized by these main symptoms. While this list can be quite long most experienced mental health professional can quickly whittle it down.
*Asking about other information – symptoms or past events – that may suggest support for one or more possible diagnoses.
*Narrowing the list down and prioritizing the related conditions according to the hierarchy of the symptoms and how they show up in different conditions. There is a very good chance there will be more than one condition on the list.
When it is finally all said and done brace yourself the diagnosis which has a very good chance of being multifaceted. You may even be told that you have only parts of various conditions and ultimately fail to receive a clear diagnosis.
What Next? There is no predicting what will happen after your ADHD assessment has been concluded. Your medical professional may write you a prescription, could tell you that more testing needs to be done, might determine it isn't ADHD after all but something more serious, refer you to another specialist, or might take the dreaded wait and see approach.
That said, you should know that there are a number of side effect free treatment methods that have been shown to very effective in managing ADHD symptoms such as inattention, impulsive behaviors, and hyperactivity/restlessness. Two of the most often mentioned are cognitive behavioral therapy and homeopathic ADHD remedies.
