What should I say or not say to the therapist for the first time? Should I come out and say I think I have ADHD or should I avoid my own self-diagnosis and ask them to evaluate my habits on their own? Anything I should say or not say in a first chat? Anything that may be a red flag or green flag with a new therapist?
Commenting on an old post, but hopefully still of use.
There are 2 main treatments for ADHD, drugs and CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). Both help a bit. However, when both are combined, the effectiveness is magnified massively.
Basically, most of the issues with ADHD aren’t the ADHD itself, but the maladaptations we’ve created to deal with it (or other maladaptations!). CBT can tell us what to change, along with how. Unfortunately, we know many of them, but can’t apply them, the ADHD mind is quite resistant to this sort of change. This is where meds come in. On their own, they counter some of the baseline problems of ADHD. Unfortunately, they don’t effect the maladaptations we already have. What they do do however is make adjusting our minds a LOT easier. When this is combined with CBT, the results are impressive.
Many of us choose to stay on the drugs, long term. They help with problems we don’t want to have, without significant side effects. If you choose not to however, that is also fine. Some people use the drugs to make changes, then come off them. Others brute force the CBT route to help, without drugs at all. None of us will (or at least shouldn’t) judge others for choosing a different path.