I have ADHD, and my therapist has confirmed it, just like the results of ADHD tests. He isn’t bad, he greatly helps me with my depression. However, he doesn’t provide an official diagnosis nor prescribe pills.

He says it’s my trait and that I should learn to live with it. Like, take more breaks, find a motivation. Easy to say, hard to do. I can’t keep up with the strategies he suggests, and I feel like I’m not trying hard enough.

The world doesn’t wait for me. This trait is ruining my work and my routine, and it’s stealing my money and my time. I can’t start tasks, I can’t concentrate, and I can’t do anything boring or unpleasant.

For example, I can stare at a wall in the middle of a work task, with my hand over the keyboard, and lose myself in thoughts about my hobby. And I don’t give a damn at this moment about all my reminders, the absence of irritants, and so on.

Of course, sometimes I can force myself “just to do it”, but it costs a ton of energy (btw, because of my depression, I have a tiny amount of energy). It often requires a ton of luck, too.

Is this normal? Am I just complaining?

  • Swaus01@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    15 hours ago

    [2 small paragraph pre-amble. Skip to the number 1 if short on time]

    You know, I actively sought out an ADHD diagnosis (am now diagnosed) after my focus in college seemed to go into freefall.

    But I’ve also found out that depression can cause people to have the same symptoms (with some even claiming that depression causes brain damage, which I try and avoid thinking about).

    So I’m in a stage of wondering if I was just severely depressed, as it got worse the more that depressing things happened to me. I’m annoyed that the doctor I initially saw didn’t pry for that more

    1. In your case, by not even exploring the ADHD fully (with medication for instance) the therapist is not allowing you to fully explore these options and figure out which one it is. I do think that’s a bit negligent. Maybe he is waiting for your go-ahead or doesn’t want to involve other professionals (psychiatrists + pharmacists for instance)

    2. The zoning out thing def sounds like ADHD to me. If you forgive yourself for taking breaks and schedule in the time for them, you’ll be more productive. Zoning out like that would perhaps be considered a “little break” and that’s why it takes you longer to do tasks - but we just have to accept it will take us a bit longer to do many things.