Adult Diagnosis process - asking the parents

Post Reply New Topic

I had a psychiatrist a couple of years ago ask for input from my family. I was dx'd with ADD back when it became a thing in the 70's (I'm in my early 40's). This psych wanted input from family for ADD dx as an adult. My sister wrote a letter stating I'd been on medication for ADD back in the day.... The specialist psychologist who dx'd my son and said she would see me for an ASD dx ($900 I don't have at present) didn't ask for parental input. She said it would be "helpful", but I am estranged from one set of parents and the other set have died, they also are all either dead or alive on the other side of the planet from me.

Plenty of adults get diagnoses without parental input. I'd keep looking.

I asked the same question to the nurse who tested me for AS, as my mother asked why she was needed to be invoked & why don't they look at past medical records. Basicly the answer was if a childhood caregiver is unstable to be interviewed then they base the tests from past childhood medical records.

i spoke with a pdoc today and he said if a parent couldnt make it, it wouldnt hamper the assessment but he did want a parent there if possible.

I will have to point out my mothers "golden" memory beforehand I think. e.g. she tells a story about a dog when it was really about a cat and that wasnt even that long ago yet she argues blind it was about a dog and that I'm wrong. It worries me then that she has this golden memory where everything is shiny and bright when it wasnt.

I think whoever suggested writing stuff down is right and I shall definitely do that beforehand.

thank you

I was old enough and had enough detailed memories going way back, including both my own and oft-repeated ones my mother had told me, that nobody asked to see my parents, who are quite the senior citizens. When I first mentioned AS and cited my traits x/y/z, Mom at first said, Oh but x and y and z are traits that I had too-- they run in the family.
Well, after she read part of a book I gave her, she said, Oh, I have AS too. So! Funny how things work out...

People of a certain age come from a generation where you pretended everything was fine no matter what.
An age where going to a psychiatrist/psychologist was a shameful family secret.

A few years ago I found out my father once had some kind of psychotic break. He came home from work in the middle of the day saying people were after him, and basically held the family (I wasn't born yet, thank god) hostage in their house for a few days. He was having hallucinations of people hiding behind trees and everything.
I guess after a while he went back to normal, although my mother says his personality changed after that. At any rate, he never saw a doctor about it. I don't think anyone outside the immediate family even knows the incident happened.
I also have an aunt (dad's sister) who has apparantly been institutionalized her whole adult life. I've never met her, and no one's ever told me what's wrong with her apart from "she's crazy".

Sorry that went so off-topic.
My point was that maybe moopant's mom is choosing to look through rose-tinted glasses.
Not about the dog/cat, though....