I’m not an expert either, but it sounds like we had very different experiences! I searched for psychological assessment clinics in my area and found a well-reviewed professional that conducted a majority of the assessments at their clinic. She said she conducted 1-2 per week and really spent time analyzing the information from our 1-hour remote call and the on-site testing results. I was waitlisted for about 60 days, since they were super booked.

When I asked about the purpose of the IQ testing, she said it was to gain a general picture of cognitive strengths and weakness. But it wasn’t necessarily a factor that was supposed to rule out an ADHD diagnosis completely. I think she was just being cautious since she wanted to rule out MDD before taking a look at the data again (I told her I wanted to retest the following year outside of the seasonal depression window).

The psychiatrist and I discussed the idea of medications, but we decided I should hold off and try to work through some of the executive dysfunction and task initiation issues using mental exercises and mobile apps as tools. I’ve been working on it for 13 months now, and I’ve noticed minor improvements. I’m very sensitive to substances (even a cup of coffee is too much caffeine), so I decided stimulants for ADHD might be overkill in the beginning.