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Stop me if this is too personal a question, but: As a fellow adult AD(H)D sufferer who is currently undiagnosed, how did you go about finding a diagnostic cente

Stop me if this is too personal a question, but: As a fellow adult AD(H)D sufferer who is currently undiagnosed, how did you go about finding a diagnostic center that accepted your insurance? I've been trying to find one, but the list provider by my insurance provider (United HealthCare) is less hopelessly inaccurate, and every online psychiatrist/psychologist directory I've found does not have up-to-date insurance information.

Rotten194 7y ago
It was awhile ago, but IIRC I just called around to a bunch of places. The best way to get information unfortunately ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mathnerd314 7y ago
Insurance providers are required to keep their directories up to date with roughly the past 30 days: https://www.ahip.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/The-Provider-Directory-Dilemma-Availity.pdf https://www.ahip.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/The-Provider... But there's not much you can do if it's inaccurate besides start looking for another provider. I've written a few scripts to massage my provider's directory into something usable, now lost unfortunately. UnitedHealth is apparently working on a blockchain for provider data: https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4801399/18-SYN-001-Synaptic-Website/downloads/Synaptic_Health_Alliance_Blockchain_White_Paper.pdf https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4801399/18-SYN-001-Synaptic-W... I guess making a web service is too hard? https://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/2019/7/how-blockchain-has-strange-bedfellows-singing-kumbaya https://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/2019/7/how-blockchai... suggests it's mostly about getting management to sign off.
letsmakeanewone 7y ago
I'm a mid-30s engineer in a tech hub and am ~45 days into my Adderall prescription. I decided to seek treatment for ADHD because my inability to focus was having a negative impact on my career and, indirectly, my well being. For context, I've lost more than one job where I've done good work on the interesting parts, but failed to carry my weight on the boring parts to the point where I simply wore out my welcome. I'm trying to start a family and I felt I was beginning to tread a familiar path with my otherwise very understanding and welcoming new boss. This probably varies per provider, per locale, etc, but for me the process was: - Used my insurers website to look up psychiatrists in my area. Had issues with less than great data here also and long appointment waiting times for some, just kept calling around - called and scheduled an appointment - told the psychiatrist that I believed I had ADHD - went through a verbal assessment with the psychiatrist - got blood work and an EKG done - had my psychiatrist look over these results - picked up prescription for first 30 days - come back in for assessments at 3 weeks, 7 weeks, 11 weeks. Can get prescriptions over the phone afterwards For me it has been life changing. There's a stigma within my family about mental health so for a long time I've suspected I had this problem but just tried to discipline myself and stick to a system instead of asking for help. AIUI I use a relatively small amount (10mg in the morning, then either 5mg or 10mg in the afternoon). The biggest differences for me have been a) I start the work that sounds boring in a timely manner instead of putting it off to the last minute, b) when I dig into these boring items, I find that the stuff I considered boring before actually can be interesting too sometimes - and at the very least solving them correctly gives me a little rush of dopamine, and c) I make fewer mistakes on the boring stuff because I'm not rushing through it under self-induced time pressure just trying to accept the first "looks right" explanation.
- yowlingcat 7y ago
  "I've lost more than one job where I've done good work on the interesting parts, but failed to carry my weight on the boring parts to the point where I simply wore out my welcome. " I experienced this quite a bit earlier on in my career (and still do, to a certain degree), but I eventually arrived at the realization that this had a lot more to do with anxiety for me than with ADHD. For me, the "boring stuff" was either 1) all the little details and maintenance work that needs to be done to bring a project from complete implementation to complete deployment and rollout and 2) things that someone else could probably do better than me, or that I could ask for help with. With respect to 1), I began to realized after working through multiple projects that the thing wasn't really done until it had been used in the wild for a while and I had gone through enough iteration cycles of gradual refinement to know it was in a stable state -- that let me launch things a lot more comfortably and be "okay" with the knowledge that it would never really be done, just good enough, and that I could always come back later and improve it more if needed. With the latter, I used to be a lot worse at asking for help. I found it embarrassing and seemingly a tacit admission of my incompetence. I've also gotten better at that by understanding that productivity gets done through teams, and the more that I ask for help, the more the team is growing and that I'm increasing my own mental context on all the things I otherwise wouldn't know. Asking questions wasn't a sign of my incompetence; it was a sign of my curiosity, and a desire to keep improving. I'm not sure if any of those strike a chord, but if so, these could be things to think through. As an aside, I found that when I worked in unhealthy work environments, these things came up a lot more because I reported to and worked with folks in a low trust environment. This meant that they'd simplify things to saying that I've done "good work on the interesting parts, but failed to carry my weight on the boring parts" when in all actuality, it was painful to do the parts I didn't do -- not just for me, but for everyone. I was just the squeaky wheel. I can't fully tell, but from the way you talk about it, it's possible this is the case with your work environments. It's miraculous how much less prevalent these kinds of issues are in a supportive environment where you're working with not just competent but caring and kind team members and leaders.
  - letsmakeanewone 7y ago
    This sounds similar but not quite the same. Specifically: > I experienced this quite a bit earlier on in my career (and still do, to a certain degree), but I eventually arrived at the realization that this had a lot more to do with anxiety for me than with ADHD. I was pretty anxious about work, the quality of work I was doing, etc. As I've been improving at execution of the boring parts, this anxiety has evaporated for me. My psychiatrist touched on this briefly - it can be tricky diagnosing people who have characteristics of ADHD and anxiety, because ADHD medication can exacerbate anxiety. You have to try to understand if anxiety is the root of the problem (your anxiety is preventing you from being effective day to day, which sounds like might have been your case) or ancillary (being ineffective day to day is a problem for you, which is also causing you anxiety). > With the latter, I used to be a lot worse at asking for help. I found it embarrassing and seemingly a tacit admission of my incompetence. I've also gotten better at that by understanding that productivity gets done through teams, and the more that I ask for help, the more the team is growing and that I'm increasing my own context on all the things I otherwise wouldn't know. This is a good lesson to learn. I tend too much toward trying to understand everything in a system and preferring to understand it from first principles rather than blackboxing it and being satisfied with a high level explanation from someone else. What you say about low trust environments also resonates for some roles I've had in the past, but isn't core to my case imo. My downfall has usually been stuff like this: - receive client ticket on thing I know. Work on more interesting tasks until SLA period is almost over, then look into client issue too quickly and give first plausible answer which later comes back wrong (and trivially so) - rush through a modification to the system I made because it's the end of the sprint and I spent the whole time noodling around with interesting, low priority thing <x> instead. See bug occur in testing on client site, dismiss it as "it's a really bad site though, probably unrelated" because I see it isn't everywhere on their site and I don't take the time to try to understand what is happening. Bug is real, client fires us for money the bug causes them to lose. "Bad at the boring stuff" isn't the assessment I've been given from HR people or bosses. It's me looking back on where I make mistakes, acknowledging that I have a tendency to be sloppy on the grind work that everybody on a team needs to do but that nobody wants to, and that the extent to which I was sloppy on these sorts of tasks has had serious effects on my career.
yowlingcat 7y ago
I've tried in the past to find a provider that accepted my insurance and then given up and just bitten the bullet on paying the out of network premium. To this day, I haven't found a plan (even with expensive, top of the line insurance like I had at a previous job) that had great in-network options.

Rotten194 7y ago

It was awhile ago, but IIRC I just called around to a bunch of places. The best way to get information unfortunately ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mathnerd314 7y ago

Insurance providers are required to keep their directories up to date with roughly the past 30 days: https://www.ahip.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/The-Provider-Directory-Dilemma-Availity.pdf https://www.ahip.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/The-Provider... But there's not much you can do if it's inaccurate besides start looking for another provider. I've written a few scripts to massage my provider's directory into something usable, now lost unfortunately. UnitedHealth is apparently working on a blockchain for provider data: https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4801399/18-SYN-001-Synaptic-Website/downloads/Synaptic_Health_Alliance_Blockchain_White_Paper.pdf https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4801399/18-SYN-001-Synaptic-W... I guess making a web service is too hard? https://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/2019/7/how-blockchain-has-strange-bedfellows-singing-kumbaya https://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/2019/7/how-blockchai... suggests it's mostly about getting management to sign off.

letsmakeanewone 7y ago

I'm a mid-30s engineer in a tech hub and am ~45 days into my Adderall prescription. I decided to seek treatment for ADHD because my inability to focus was having a negative impact on my career and, indirectly, my well being. For context, I've lost more than one job where I've done good work on the interesting parts, but failed to carry my weight on the boring parts to the point where I simply wore out my welcome. I'm trying to start a family and I felt I was beginning to tread a familiar path with my otherwise very understanding and welcoming new boss. This probably varies per provider, per locale, etc, but for me the process was: - Used my insurers website to look up psychiatrists in my area. Had issues with less than great data here also and long appointment waiting times for some, just kept calling around - called and scheduled an appointment - told the psychiatrist that I believed I had ADHD - went through a verbal assessment with the psychiatrist - got blood work and an EKG done - had my psychiatrist look over these results - picked up prescription for first 30 days - come back in for assessments at 3 weeks, 7 weeks, 11 weeks. Can get prescriptions over the phone afterwards For me it has been life changing. There's a stigma within my family about mental health so for a long time I've suspected I had this problem but just tried to discipline myself and stick to a system instead of asking for help. AIUI I use a relatively small amount (10mg in the morning, then either 5mg or 10mg in the afternoon). The biggest differences for me have been a) I start the work that sounds boring in a timely manner instead of putting it off to the last minute, b) when I dig into these boring items, I find that the stuff I considered boring before actually can be interesting too sometimes - and at the very least solving them correctly gives me a little rush of dopamine, and c) I make fewer mistakes on the boring stuff because I'm not rushing through it under self-induced time pressure just trying to accept the first "looks right" explanation.

yowlingcat 7y ago
"I've lost more than one job where I've done good work on the interesting parts, but failed to carry my weight on the boring parts to the point where I simply wore out my welcome. " I experienced this quite a bit earlier on in my career (and still do, to a certain degree), but I eventually arrived at the realization that this had a lot more to do with anxiety for me than with ADHD. For me, the "boring stuff" was either 1) all the little details and maintenance work that needs to be done to bring a project from complete implementation to complete deployment and rollout and 2) things that someone else could probably do better than me, or that I could ask for help with. With respect to 1), I began to realized after working through multiple projects that the thing wasn't really done until it had been used in the wild for a while and I had gone through enough iteration cycles of gradual refinement to know it was in a stable state -- that let me launch things a lot more comfortably and be "okay" with the knowledge that it would never really be done, just good enough, and that I could always come back later and improve it more if needed. With the latter, I used to be a lot worse at asking for help. I found it embarrassing and seemingly a tacit admission of my incompetence. I've also gotten better at that by understanding that productivity gets done through teams, and the more that I ask for help, the more the team is growing and that I'm increasing my own mental context on all the things I otherwise wouldn't know. Asking questions wasn't a sign of my incompetence; it was a sign of my curiosity, and a desire to keep improving. I'm not sure if any of those strike a chord, but if so, these could be things to think through. As an aside, I found that when I worked in unhealthy work environments, these things came up a lot more because I reported to and worked with folks in a low trust environment. This meant that they'd simplify things to saying that I've done "good work on the interesting parts, but failed to carry my weight on the boring parts" when in all actuality, it was painful to do the parts I didn't do -- not just for me, but for everyone. I was just the squeaky wheel. I can't fully tell, but from the way you talk about it, it's possible this is the case with your work environments. It's miraculous how much less prevalent these kinds of issues are in a supportive environment where you're working with not just competent but caring and kind team members and leaders.
- letsmakeanewone 7y ago
  This sounds similar but not quite the same. Specifically: > I experienced this quite a bit earlier on in my career (and still do, to a certain degree), but I eventually arrived at the realization that this had a lot more to do with anxiety for me than with ADHD. I was pretty anxious about work, the quality of work I was doing, etc. As I've been improving at execution of the boring parts, this anxiety has evaporated for me. My psychiatrist touched on this briefly - it can be tricky diagnosing people who have characteristics of ADHD and anxiety, because ADHD medication can exacerbate anxiety. You have to try to understand if anxiety is the root of the problem (your anxiety is preventing you from being effective day to day, which sounds like might have been your case) or ancillary (being ineffective day to day is a problem for you, which is also causing you anxiety). > With the latter, I used to be a lot worse at asking for help. I found it embarrassing and seemingly a tacit admission of my incompetence. I've also gotten better at that by understanding that productivity gets done through teams, and the more that I ask for help, the more the team is growing and that I'm increasing my own context on all the things I otherwise wouldn't know. This is a good lesson to learn. I tend too much toward trying to understand everything in a system and preferring to understand it from first principles rather than blackboxing it and being satisfied with a high level explanation from someone else. What you say about low trust environments also resonates for some roles I've had in the past, but isn't core to my case imo. My downfall has usually been stuff like this: - receive client ticket on thing I know. Work on more interesting tasks until SLA period is almost over, then look into client issue too quickly and give first plausible answer which later comes back wrong (and trivially so) - rush through a modification to the system I made because it's the end of the sprint and I spent the whole time noodling around with interesting, low priority thing <x> instead. See bug occur in testing on client site, dismiss it as "it's a really bad site though, probably unrelated" because I see it isn't everywhere on their site and I don't take the time to try to understand what is happening. Bug is real, client fires us for money the bug causes them to lose. "Bad at the boring stuff" isn't the assessment I've been given from HR people or bosses. It's me looking back on where I make mistakes, acknowledging that I have a tendency to be sloppy on the grind work that everybody on a team needs to do but that nobody wants to, and that the extent to which I was sloppy on these sorts of tasks has had serious effects on my career.

yowlingcat 7y ago

I've tried in the past to find a provider that accepted my insurance and then given up and just bitten the bullet on paying the out of network premium. To this day, I haven't found a plan (even with expensive, top of the line insurance like I had at a previous job) that had great in-network options.