ADHD assessment update - Part I
Nov. 5th, 2005 04:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beandelphikiOkay, okay, I changed my mind:
THERAPISTS CAN BE USEFUL SOMETIMES.
Yes, this is me, Mr. I'll-Keep-My-Own-Counsel-Thankyaverymuch, eating crow.
This week, I went twice to a psychologist through "Alberta's Attentional and Learning Services" or some such...can't remember. Saw a nice lady, Dr. Y, about an ADHD assessment. (Bizarrely, I've actually started calling it ADHD instead of ADD half the time since my meetings with her, even though SHE doesn't call it that.)
Our first meeting (1.5 hours) we went over my developmental and medical history, and my school chronology. We discussed my symptoms a little bit in the course of trying to determine if I have any signs of an LD, and although there was some issues I was definitely concerned about, I think it went fairly well. She said that I was straightforward and obviously very intelligent, and easy to get information out of. Whee!
Second meeting (2 hours) we went over my symptoms in depth, which was deeply interesting to me, because although I can think through my symptoms for myself, and although I can get little insights from other people and by listening to what they have to say on their own symptoms, it was totally different to hear some more in-depth stuff entirely about me. (Ha, damned if that didn't sound hopelessly self-absorbed.)
For example: I told her about my bizarre memory - how some customers think I'm magical because I will remember every detail about their long, complex order, while I can barely remember at all if someone just orders the most common burrito on the menu, with no complications. She said that actually makes SENSE, because of ADD arousal levels. Dude, why didn't I think of that? I have the knowledge base.
We concluded that it's highly unlikely that I have any learning disabilities, so she's probably cutting out the psychoeducational part of my assessment entirely. She did give me a LD screener, though...I think because she's slightly puzzled about my scores on the one my school counselor gave me, but she doesn't have a copy of my answers. (She seemed puzzled that my scores in reading speed, decoding, comprehension, spelling and written expression were all low or zeros - indicating strengths - but my visual-spatial score was rather high, approaching a serious area of weakness. So I made sure to include comments in that section to explain my answers.)
I think she also made a brief attempt to rule out Asperger's - she asked me if I get jokes. Sigh. She's happy that my answer is, "Yes, I usually find 3 or 4 things funny about jokes, not just one," which she says is another sign I'm smart. (Or just weird, maybe?) Still, I know that's not a good question to ask to rule out spectrum disorders.
(Also, the thought popped into my head that at least a third of the time, I take a long time to register what OTHER people find funny about the joke - I usually think I get it, and then eventually realize that I found something else funny from everyone else. I decided not to mention that. Did I make the right choice?)
Being smart masks your symptoms in multiple ways, oh yes.
She also thinks it makes sense that I can (mostly) easily disguise when I'm not paying attention, because I can pick up on and respond naturally and appropriately to facial expression, tone of voice, and other non-verbal cues easily, and in the moment. (That is, I don't have a delayed reaction at all, which I think is often something that tips people off to inattentiveness.) I'm not actually being attentive though, I'm running a shell program. There's minimal energy expended in that, but it's still draining.
This falls in line with my having a really hard time on the phone, because it is much harder to mask the fact that you're not listening in a form of communication where you can only listen. And online, in IM, because although I can communicate in text well, I have almost NO non-verbal cues to follow, and "Uh-huh...uh-huh..." really doesn't work well.
She asked me if teachers noticed me being inattentive, and I told her about my "tape recorder." When I was younger, teachers used to call on me all the time, and ask (in that demanding I-know-you-weren't-listening tone of voice) to repeat what they had said. I could almost always do it - after a long enough pause that they thought I wasn't going to be able to. The reason I could answer was that although I really WASN'T paying attention, I seemed to store the last several seconds of the lecture somehow, and could replay that "tape" when challenged. Then repeat off the tape.
(Sometimes, my tape even runs backwards, i.e. the teacher would say, "See Spot run," and my tape would play back, "run Spot See," and possibly even, "nur topS eeS," but I'm not sure - it's been a while since I had to use it. Then I had to flip it around, which really brought me close to the point where the teacher was about to say, "You weren't listening!" Confusing them even more when I suddenly burst out - at the last second - with the last several things they said, verbatim.)
Dr. Y says this is "double processing," and is yet another sign of intelligence. I've been Googling "double processing" but can't find a damn thing useful, so I may just have to ask her.
And blah, blah about my pulling off tests with last-second studying and stuff.
She obviously doesn't want to be too careless and assume my intelligence makes the criteria of the diagnosis moot - we're picking carefully around the whole issue of establishing clinical impairment over the years.
Anyway. I meant to cover a bunch of stuff about what she said in regards to my having anxiety issues (!!) and our discussion of the way I've internalized my impulsive-hyperactive symptoms...
But maybe I'll save that. This is long and boring enough already and whew, I need to go to bed.
THERAPISTS CAN BE USEFUL SOMETIMES.
Yes, this is me, Mr. I'll-Keep-My-Own-Counsel-Thankyaverymuch, eating crow.
This week, I went twice to a psychologist through "Alberta's Attentional and Learning Services" or some such...can't remember. Saw a nice lady, Dr. Y, about an ADHD assessment. (Bizarrely, I've actually started calling it ADHD instead of ADD half the time since my meetings with her, even though SHE doesn't call it that.)
Our first meeting (1.5 hours) we went over my developmental and medical history, and my school chronology. We discussed my symptoms a little bit in the course of trying to determine if I have any signs of an LD, and although there was some issues I was definitely concerned about, I think it went fairly well. She said that I was straightforward and obviously very intelligent, and easy to get information out of. Whee!
Second meeting (2 hours) we went over my symptoms in depth, which was deeply interesting to me, because although I can think through my symptoms for myself, and although I can get little insights from other people and by listening to what they have to say on their own symptoms, it was totally different to hear some more in-depth stuff entirely about me. (Ha, damned if that didn't sound hopelessly self-absorbed.)
For example: I told her about my bizarre memory - how some customers think I'm magical because I will remember every detail about their long, complex order, while I can barely remember at all if someone just orders the most common burrito on the menu, with no complications. She said that actually makes SENSE, because of ADD arousal levels. Dude, why didn't I think of that? I have the knowledge base.
We concluded that it's highly unlikely that I have any learning disabilities, so she's probably cutting out the psychoeducational part of my assessment entirely. She did give me a LD screener, though...I think because she's slightly puzzled about my scores on the one my school counselor gave me, but she doesn't have a copy of my answers. (She seemed puzzled that my scores in reading speed, decoding, comprehension, spelling and written expression were all low or zeros - indicating strengths - but my visual-spatial score was rather high, approaching a serious area of weakness. So I made sure to include comments in that section to explain my answers.)
I think she also made a brief attempt to rule out Asperger's - she asked me if I get jokes. Sigh. She's happy that my answer is, "Yes, I usually find 3 or 4 things funny about jokes, not just one," which she says is another sign I'm smart. (Or just weird, maybe?) Still, I know that's not a good question to ask to rule out spectrum disorders.
(Also, the thought popped into my head that at least a third of the time, I take a long time to register what OTHER people find funny about the joke - I usually think I get it, and then eventually realize that I found something else funny from everyone else. I decided not to mention that. Did I make the right choice?)
Being smart masks your symptoms in multiple ways, oh yes.
She also thinks it makes sense that I can (mostly) easily disguise when I'm not paying attention, because I can pick up on and respond naturally and appropriately to facial expression, tone of voice, and other non-verbal cues easily, and in the moment. (That is, I don't have a delayed reaction at all, which I think is often something that tips people off to inattentiveness.) I'm not actually being attentive though, I'm running a shell program. There's minimal energy expended in that, but it's still draining.
This falls in line with my having a really hard time on the phone, because it is much harder to mask the fact that you're not listening in a form of communication where you can only listen. And online, in IM, because although I can communicate in text well, I have almost NO non-verbal cues to follow, and "Uh-huh...uh-huh..." really doesn't work well.
She asked me if teachers noticed me being inattentive, and I told her about my "tape recorder." When I was younger, teachers used to call on me all the time, and ask (in that demanding I-know-you-weren't-listening tone of voice) to repeat what they had said. I could almost always do it - after a long enough pause that they thought I wasn't going to be able to. The reason I could answer was that although I really WASN'T paying attention, I seemed to store the last several seconds of the lecture somehow, and could replay that "tape" when challenged. Then repeat off the tape.
(Sometimes, my tape even runs backwards, i.e. the teacher would say, "See Spot run," and my tape would play back, "run Spot See," and possibly even, "nur topS eeS," but I'm not sure - it's been a while since I had to use it. Then I had to flip it around, which really brought me close to the point where the teacher was about to say, "You weren't listening!" Confusing them even more when I suddenly burst out - at the last second - with the last several things they said, verbatim.)
Dr. Y says this is "double processing," and is yet another sign of intelligence. I've been Googling "double processing" but can't find a damn thing useful, so I may just have to ask her.
And blah, blah about my pulling off tests with last-second studying and stuff.
She obviously doesn't want to be too careless and assume my intelligence makes the criteria of the diagnosis moot - we're picking carefully around the whole issue of establishing clinical impairment over the years.
Anyway. I meant to cover a bunch of stuff about what she said in regards to my having anxiety issues (!!) and our discussion of the way I've internalized my impulsive-hyperactive symptoms...
But maybe I'll save that. This is long and boring enough already and whew, I need to go to bed.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Okay.,
Date: 2005-11-05 04:13 pm (UTC)Duh!
THAT'S why I love to talk, but don't generally care for the phone. *facepalm*
I have that tape recorder, too. But it's less necessary now that I'm on medication.
Hey, if you find out anything about that double-processing thing, let me know.
Thanks so much for sharing this-- it sounds like you're getting a lot out of it.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-05 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-05 08:00 pm (UTC)Re: Okay.,
Date: 2005-11-05 08:02 pm (UTC)It's interesting that you have the tape recorder thing. I wondered if I was just very strange, or if she'd even believe me when I told her about it, but maybe it's common in intelligent people? It would be nice if my weirdness was not so weird.