[throwaway657656]

Please make sure you put in the work before you start taking meds.

I'd like to share a personal story in the hope that it helps you. My brother turned me on to Dr. Amen. We both took his on-line test for ADHD[1] and both tested positive for multiple forms of ADHD. He agreed that my results were much worse.

My brother used that as an immediate excuse to take meds. I instead signed up for his on-line course and lost count of the number of times he said "this practice has been found to be just as effective as medication". I put in the work and it made a major lasting difference in my life. My brother didn't bother with the work, the course, or the recommendations and is still searching for that magic pill or mushroom that will "fix" him.

As an aside, the powerful realization while taking that test is how bad it made me feel. I had flashbacks to all the people I disappointed over the years. It's like every question was "are you also shitty in this way ?". It made me realize: 1) I didn't want to be shitty anymore, 2) with good practices and habits I can fix/mitigate my flaws, 3) and failing meant being dependent on big pharma and doctors who might not have my best intentions.

Please ask yourself sincerely: Have you put in the work ? Do you really care about improving ? Is there a single _simple_ new habit you know would improve your life ? Are you going to start right now working on that one simple habit and writing yourself an email daily/weekly to check your progress ? No one is coming to the rescue. Don't waste your money and a coach's time if you can't even do the bare minimum.

[1] I believe this is the test (I took it 5 years ago) https://theaddquiz.com/

[quesera]

> I believe this is the test

That test appears to be crappy lead gen for their online clinic. That's my expert opinion.

FWIW, I don't know if anyone in the world is truly neurotypical, but I am not aware of any suffering of a psychological nature, in my own life.

I answered the test questions to the best of my ability, and received a "diagnosis" of an ADHD type (not generally recognized by the medical community), which the clinic's own literature describes as exclusively having symptoms that I explicitly answered Never or Rarely to.

I know they didn't have much to work with, but an honest response would have been more along the lines of "You tabulated 11.3% on our scale of this ADHD type, you're probably not significantly impacted!"

[hirvi74]

> My brother turned me on to Dr. Amen.

Red flag detected.

Dr. Amen is basically the Dr. Oz of ADHD treatment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Amen#Reception_of_ideas

> "this practice has been found to be just as effective as medication".

No other research supports his conclusions. It's so fascinating that he can use brain-imaging to diagnosis 7 'types of ADHD', when no one else has ever discovered more than three subtypes of ADHD, and no other researchers have even been able to successfully diagnosis any mental disorder via brain imaging.

Let me put it this way, unless you are an exceptional individual, "putting in the work" and overcoming ADHD typically means one thing: You do not have ADHD.

> doctors who might not have my best intentions.

Do you not see the irony in this statement?

Please ask yourself sincerely: Do you truly think you have ADHD because an online test's results? Do you really think people with ADHD do not care about improving? Do you think people with ADHD have not tried habits they know would improve their lives?

Do you understand how many people with ADHD take medication, use behavioral interventions, and still struggle?

[BrianHenryIE]

I learned recently the "OHIO method" – Only Handle It Once.

If something is easy to deal with right now, just deal with it immediately.

For me, it's been dishes, trash, and organising (e.g. keys not in the key-bowl; cables not in the cable drawer) where it's helped most. I'd say it's a 30% improvement, which doesn't necessarily sound great, but it's all about things that require almost zero effort.

I'll take a look into your reference soon!

[arresin]

To someone else reading this who thinks they may have ADHD, I really implore you not to waste your time with non pharmacological routes. You can’t wish or think or really want your way out of this. You need a leg up, and it has to come from within yet also without you.

Speaking from experience. Advice like the kind I’m replying to wasted so much of my time. For some reason everyone is an expert on this particular topic. No, the experts are (ignore pop psych shysters also).

[taurath]

Dr. Amen can sometimes drive folks towards effective treatments, but many of his diagnostic methods are full on quackery. I'm glad he was able to give you some guidance that worked for you, but he has created a lot of harm and a lot of misdiagnoses at great personal inrichment.

Personal story: I have pretty severe ptsd, and was being abused at the time I visited. I had a full brain scan done as an adolescent using his nuclear imaging technique, and the results were that I should take X and Y and Z medication, none of which worked. They promised "a new life" on these, but they did not treat the underlying causes, nor did they screen for them. This is now 25 years later, but he is still pushing the same diagnostic techniques that ignored the underlying reasons for my issues. This was at a cost of some $13,000. I still have the brain scan and the recommendations - they are near-total bullshit.

He is a Dr. Oz style quack who is out for massive personal enrichment, and nobody has been able to replicate any of his own developed techniques because they are not real.

More sources:

https://quackwatch.org/research-projects/amen/

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Daniel_Amen