Haven't posted in a while, but I talked about this on tumblr and immediately got the "You're not sick, you just want drugs" reaction from some rando which, while I dealt with pretty easily publicly, has been making me lowkey feel like shit, so I am posting about it here! Lil background: I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 15/16, and I was on meds for it for a good long while before my insurance under my parents ended. And now that I have my own insurance since January of last year, I have been desperately trying to get treated for my ADD. I know I have it, it's a very prevalent thing in my life, it's not psychosomatic, right now as I'm typing this I am doing it to actively avoid digging into work that I have to do and know I will not be able to focus on. ANYWAY, I've been struggling to get back on medication for this condition for a good long while, and unfortunately, I have an HMO. I don't know what the big deal is between HMO and PPO doctors, but PPO psychs seem to just toss medication at just about anyone who says they need it, which, admittedly, would be ideal for my situation. My roommate is also diagnosed ADD, but didn't go through any clinical testing for it, and was just given adderall without question. I've been begging my psych for a year now for some sort of med to help me with my ADHD. I don't care if it's adderall, I know the implications of taking that drug. I've also suggested Strattera which seems to not have the same "party drug" reputation as adderall, but she refuses to put me on anything that will help me because she says that I need to have a clinical diagnosis first. Also yes, I've tried contacting the psych I previously was diagnosed by, and he 1. No longer works at the practice at which I was diagnosed, and 2. They only keep records for 7 years (????????? what??) so no luck there. ANOTHER problem I'd been having is that literally no one in my network at all was doing neuropsych testing. So, if I wanted to get that clinical diagnosis, I'd have to shell out about $3,000. I have that money, but... on principal, I shouldn't have to spend it! I have health care, I should be able to have that covered. Anyway, I am stubborn about this so I said NO to that option for a long time. Now, FINALLY after about a year of calling around obsessively and trying to find literally anyone at all to take me and test me, I got an appointment! It's 8 hours long and I'll be there all day, but phew, I got it. Now my main concern, and what my brain is telling me, is that I won't get diagnosed and it'll all have been for nowt. I'm worrying a lot about... I guess, getting a negative or inconclusive diagnosis, despite what I know about myself and my past, and how I (barely) function day-to-day. There's no real solution to this, I just have to go and get the stupid testing done and see what they have to say about it. Anyway, dunno what else to say, just sort of chucking out feelers and wondering if anyone else has had to do clinical testing to get an ADHD/ADD diagnosis. Thanks friends!
That's not all that weird, actually. Probably that's the amount of time they have to keep records for according to the law. For patients who are not seeing a doctor in that specific practice anymore it's just no feasible to keep records for longer, as you'd end up with warehouses full of records otherwise. Anyway, good luck with your testing. I hope you can get it worked out :)
