ADD testing report: Sorry, this is going to sound a little arrogant, but I don’t know how to talk about this properly without it, so, brace yourselves, I guess.
As discussed in earlier posts, my psychiatrist confirms it’s hard testing someone like me, as an adult, a woman (socialized to work hard at getting along well with people), and as someone who is bright and who tests well on standardized tests (typically testing around 98-99% on intelligence tests like the analytical GRE). The ADD tests aren’t really designed for my situation, so a lot of diagnosis ends up relying on personal history and self-reporting as well.
I did test poorly on memory — 25-50% of general population. I knew I had a terrible memory as compared to my friends, but the question is whether that signals a memory issue or a inattentiveness issue, and it’s sort of hard to resolve that with the current tests.
She’d like to try me on a trial of the meds, and I’d like to try that too, so that’s what we’re going to do. They typically have minimal side effects, although obviously, if they make me feel bad, I’m just going to stop. I don’t need them to function reasonably; I just don’t feel like I’m functioning to my full capacity, which is deeply frustrating. They’re stimulants, so if anxiety were an issue for me, that’d be something to watch for, but I’m not typically prone to anxiety, so I’m not super-concerned about that.
And that’s it, I guess? More when I’ve actually gotten the meds (may be a bit, as it has to go back to primary care doc, get prescription filled, etc.) and have had a chance to try them for a few weeks.
I’ve scheduled Anand for a similar test in a few weeks, and what the heck, probably we’ll test Kavi too. She does well in school, but the one thing she does have trouble with is organization and staying on task, so perhaps that’s related, and her gender and brightness are masking what’s happening with her.
I’m even more hesitant to have the kids take meds than to have me taking them, but the clearer picture we have of what’s going on, the better, I think — for Kavi, developing good cognitive strategies and habits at this age may be all she needs.