The Danger of Misdiagnosis

Where do I get support for a diagnosis or find out treatment options?

Since ADHD in women is still very misunderstood, these women are at risk of being misdiagnosed or treated for comorbidities while their underlying ADHD symptoms are not taken into account. This is a sad state of affairs and the realization of all that they have lost while their ADHD symptoms were diagnosed as something else, is the most difficult emotion they have to deal with post diagnosis.

Girls with ADHD are not identified because their symptoms are not well understood so many are never referred to mental health services and those who are referred are very often misdiagnosed with:

• Depression
• Anxiety disorder
• Sleep Apnea or Insomnia
• Mood Disorders

In adulthood, if left undiagnosed, their anxiety levels increasingly get worse and many spend years taking different types of anxiety and/or depression medication with no improvement to be seen in their underlying symptoms.

When referred to a psychiatrist, women who have unidentified ADHD are often misdiagnosed with anxiety disorder and/or depression and given the appropriate medication for these conditions. When they discover that this has not helped them, they look for other practitioners and if they do not meet one who recognizes their symptoms to indicate ADHD, their lives can very well spiral out of control. To this day, there are hundreds of women in this situation.

Those women who get diagnosed with burnout are treated more often than not in the same way unless they meet a specialist who links their burnout to ADHD and refers them for testing. More often than not, they find out by accident that ADHD ist he root of all their difficulties and this needs to be changed.

Where do I get support for a diagnosis or find out treatment options?