i got my own ADHD diagnosis from my primary care doctor (depending on where you are in the world, they are able to diagnose and medicate you; a good primary care physician will still encourage you to see a psychiatrist, but they are also compassionate about how out of reach it may be and can be your continuous care) after i sought professional opinions for a short while with a therapist who also specialized in ADHD and noticed the signs and went through the diagnostic checklist with me to give to my primary.
i am in a place of privilege to have a primary care doctor who i have been able to see when insured and also continued to help me pro-bono when i wasn't, but even those kinds of visits can be more within the price range than psychiatric doctors.
depending on the way the practice is done, if your psychiatric doctor is part of a larger medical network or a non-profit medical network, they do sometimes offer specialty pricing (you MIGHT even find someone who works pro-bono for some form of community service outreach) for people with financial troubles. NOT ALL, but it's also something i've had to do in the past for an informed consent screenings to make sure i know, understand, and am mentally capable of receiving treatments i'm about to get. HOWEVER, private practice psychiatrists can be a NIGHTMARE to work with because they're not governed by a chief medical officer within their practice for their ethics and business methods, and also they have to rely on their income alone to keep their business going, as opposed to a larger practice being able to keep sustaining itself. they can be pretty damn greedy. i almost always recommend people go work with a large scale network where doctors have to answer to higher ups, so you have someone to report to in the event of a dissatisfying encounter.
also, depending on diagnostic tests and other complications that might need to be ruled out before ADHD, they can start to stack up. even if you may seem to be a clear case of ADHD, there could be an additional underlying aggravating factor that could be making your ADHD worse that may also need to be addressed, or it could be something else entirely. if you have hereditary history of psychological disorders, those need to be ruled out, too. for example, my doctor is treating me for anxiety and BPD, and the first things he needed to evaluate was to assess my current anxiety levels and therapeutic tools, then my BPD, and then check to see if i may have inherited my parent's bipolar diagnosis. only after examining all those factors did he feel comfortable with treating me for ADHD.
for a lot of people, going through all of this can be a HUGE HURDLE, even WITH insurance. it takes a lot of mental, physical, and emotional energy. it takes money. it takes time. it takes a support group that continues to encourage you through it all. it can be daunting! and maybe if someone doesn't have one of these resources needed to seek help, it could be almost impossible for them to rack up the ability to more forward.
i'm actually really surprised at that 150$ range for one visit to assess for ADHD, but if it is helping you and hasn't had adverse effects, that's really good news, and i'm proud of you for doing what you needed to in order to take care of yourself.
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Re: Unpopular Opinion...
(Anonymous) 2023-09-05 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)i got my own ADHD diagnosis from my primary care doctor (depending on where you are in the world, they are able to diagnose and medicate you; a good primary care physician will still encourage you to see a psychiatrist, but they are also compassionate about how out of reach it may be and can be your continuous care) after i sought professional opinions for a short while with a therapist who also specialized in ADHD and noticed the signs and went through the diagnostic checklist with me to give to my primary.
i am in a place of privilege to have a primary care doctor who i have been able to see when insured and also continued to help me pro-bono when i wasn't, but even those kinds of visits can be more within the price range than psychiatric doctors.
depending on the way the practice is done, if your psychiatric doctor is part of a larger medical network or a non-profit medical network, they do sometimes offer specialty pricing (you MIGHT even find someone who works pro-bono for some form of community service outreach) for people with financial troubles. NOT ALL, but it's also something i've had to do in the past for an informed consent screenings to make sure i know, understand, and am mentally capable of receiving treatments i'm about to get. HOWEVER, private practice psychiatrists can be a NIGHTMARE to work with because they're not governed by a chief medical officer within their practice for their ethics and business methods, and also they have to rely on their income alone to keep their business going, as opposed to a larger practice being able to keep sustaining itself. they can be pretty damn greedy. i almost always recommend people go work with a large scale network where doctors have to answer to higher ups, so you have someone to report to in the event of a dissatisfying encounter.
also, depending on diagnostic tests and other complications that might need to be ruled out before ADHD, they can start to stack up. even if you may seem to be a clear case of ADHD, there could be an additional underlying aggravating factor that could be making your ADHD worse that may also need to be addressed, or it could be something else entirely. if you have hereditary history of psychological disorders, those need to be ruled out, too. for example, my doctor is treating me for anxiety and BPD, and the first things he needed to evaluate was to assess my current anxiety levels and therapeutic tools, then my BPD, and then check to see if i may have inherited my parent's bipolar diagnosis. only after examining all those factors did he feel comfortable with treating me for ADHD.
for a lot of people, going through all of this can be a HUGE HURDLE, even WITH insurance. it takes a lot of mental, physical, and emotional energy. it takes money. it takes time. it takes a support group that continues to encourage you through it all. it can be daunting! and maybe if someone doesn't have one of these resources needed to seek help, it could be almost impossible for them to rack up the ability to more forward.
i'm actually really surprised at that 150$ range for one visit to assess for ADHD, but if it is helping you and hasn't had adverse effects, that's really good news, and i'm proud of you for doing what you needed to in order to take care of yourself.