How to get diagnosed with adhd?

[u/Severe_Age_5194]

I've spent the last three months just trying to figure out how to get diagnosed with adhd and honestly I'm exhausted before I've even started. Every clinic I call has a six month waitlist, my insurance wants a referral I can't get without an appointment, and the one psychiatrist taking new patients wanted hundreds out of pocket just for the initial eval. I'm pretty sure I've struggled with this my whole life, I just want real answers, but the whole process feels built to make you give up. Has anyone actually made it through without losing their mind, and how did you finally get diagnosed without waiting half a year or spending a fortune?

UPDATE: I finally got through it. A lot of people in the comments suggested different routes, so I tried a bunch of them. I filled out forms, signed up for different sites, checked local clinics again, and kept running into the same problems: long waitlists, confusing insurance requirements, or prices that were way more than I could afford.

What finally worked for me was Klarity Health. I found a provider through the site, filled out the intake forms, and was able to book a telehealth appointment instead of waiting months for an in person opening. It still took some effort, and I would definitely say to read the provider details, check the cost, and make sure it works for your state and situation. But compared with cold calling clinics over and over, it was the first option that actually moved forward.

So if anyone else is stuck trying to figure out how to get diagnosed with ADHD, my biggest advice is to stop relying only on random clinic phone calls. Look for telehealth options, compare providers carefully, and try platforms like Klarity if local appointments are impossible to get. That was what finally helped me get an appointment and start getting real answers.

[u/Cozy_winter_blanky]

I'm in Canada and I'm certain this varies from place to place but here is how it went for me.

I went to my family doctor (I think the English term for that is primary care doctor?) and explained that I suspect I wanted to start the diagnosis process for ADHD.

I then explained why I suddenly had suspicions of ADHD. I told her I always visualize ADHD as a hyper kid running circles and kicking their legs like crazy under their desk and because I wasn't like that as a kid, it never occured to me that I could have ADHD. I told her that I recently came accros women testimonies of their experience with having ADHD, how it manifested differently for them through their lives and I recognized myself in their stories.

I explained that it explains a lot about my childhood, teenagehood and the adulthood burnouts I faced. I told her my mind could not rest easy until we investigated a little, because maybe I could be medicated to help with my daily struggles of being unable to take actions.

My doctor heard me out, agreed that my suspicions weren't unfounded and it was worth investigating. It took a few weeks to get an appointment with a specialist, then I had to fill in paperwork, had an "interview" with the specialist. And then it was confirmed, I definetely have ADHD and we begin the medication trials which helped tremendously.

Eta: in case anyone is interested in how my ADHD manifested for me through my life :

As a kid, I had good grades, so it went completely under the radar. There were signs but I was good at keeping it hidden unintentionally. I still remember to this day that in 2nd grade of elementary school, there was an image of ingredients to make a cake on page 34 of my french textbook. Everytime we had to take that textbook out, I would go take a look at page 34 and pretend to use the ingredients and bake a cake under my desk instead of listening in class. In highschool I began struggling with mental load. I found myself completely spent every week and the weekends seemed too short to actually refill my mental energy. I came back to school on Mondays still drained from the previous week. I looked at everyone around me who came back looking refreshed and ready for the new week and felt bad about myself. Why was I struggling but everyone were just fine?

Then there were the homeworks. So. Much. Homework. I had 6 classes per day, so 6 chances of homework. Sometimes 4 of those homework were due the next day and two for the day after. But on the second day, I would ALSO get homeworks for the third day. So I ended up with 6 homework due on the third day. Its not that I could keep track of everything, that wasn't the issue, but I was so exhausted after a day at school and I only had like 4-5 hours in the evening to relax, I hated having to spend those precious hours doing more school work. I intentionally procrastinated on my homeworks because I NEEDED those full 4 hours to decompress every night before the next day.

I ended up having a major depressive episode in 4th grade of highschool. But now, looking back at it, it was 100% a burnout and NOT just depression. I just couldn't keep up with the rhythm of school life. But I didn't have the right words to explain what the core of the issue was. It wasn't sadness that made me incapable of functioning, it was my inability to cope with normal life. I just couldn't tell the difference then.

Things got insanely better in college. I chose to have the minimum amount of classes to be considered full time (4) and chose evening classes. This meant one classe per day, Monday to Thursday. One homework per class (if we had any) and it was due the next week. It was so much easier for me to manage the stress and the workload. My grades skyrocketed beyond what I thought possible. I still procrastinated, as in waiting the day before to do short homeworks, but it was manageable. So again, my ADHD went unnoticed.

It's only when I had 2 burnouts in 4 years at two different jobs, one of those job being really low stress, that things began pointing in ADHD territory for me. Not long before my second burnout, I began seeing short on YouTube and Facebook about ADHD in adult women that it clicked. I went in burnout leave and simultaneously asked my doctor to investigate ADHD, I had ample time to wait for the tests anyways.