Diagnosis of Adult ADHD in Females

Yule Walters shares her story of adult ADHD assessment and diagnosis

I thought I’d give a run down on my ADHD assessment.

My GP referred me to the Ellerslie Clinic in Auckland, I live in Lower Hutt. He mentioned it would take a long time to go public in the Wellington region – and I needed help quick! My doctor thought I might have Bipolar 1, although privately I disagreed, so did most of my family.

Importantly, I’d previously been diagnosed with (in order and over the years):

• GAD
• PTSD
• Social Anxiety
• Depression
• Panic Disorder
• Agoraphobia

I’ve been on a lot of different antidepressants and anti anxiety medication and nothing seemed to have helped. In my mid thirties I crashed and burned. Leaving a high paying, well respected job – burning bridges on the way out. As I was getting close to 40 we discovered my daughter has ADHD. And I started investigating Adult ADHD. The first video that I watched left me in tears, I finally felt like I might have found the ‘solution’.

It took 4 months to be seen by the Ellerslie Clinic and I did no tests prior. I was a Foster kid, so I moved around a lot as a young person. Due to this I did not have any school reports from when I was young, nor did I have anyone to bring that could prove what I was like before 12.

The apppointment

On the day of the zoom meeting, my Foster Mum from when I was 15yo was able to join. The psychiatrist was immediately hesitant to go forward, and quickly dismissed the idea that I could get a diagnosis. But he said we could get started, although we may need to finish this at another point when I can return with extra info. Well, 2 hours and 15 minutes later, after a very, very thorough questionnaire session I was diagnosed with adult ADHD. Luckily my Foster mum was able to answer questions from when I was young as she had spoken to my father when I was younger.

This dude was so thorough, and when he diagnosed me at the end, it wasn’t a surprise for either of us. And not ONCE since I left have I felt imposter syndrome.

I started a very low dose of ritalin last week. It’s working already. I can’t believe the differences it’s made already.

GAD? Almost non existent. Social Anxiety? Almost non existent. Depression? What depression. Agoraphobia? Massively reducing. The conditions above have heavily affected my life both physically and mentally and now they look like issues I may not even suffer from anymore. They were apparent side effects of undiagnosed Adult ADHD. So I’m obviously pretty happy. And I hope this list helps someone else! 😊

Bonus pic of one of my therapy plants 💚🌵💚