Oh zen, what a nasty dream to have to deal with. Your kitties love you, one of the best ways to make them happy is to take care of yourself. If you are not up to calling your doctor's office to remind/bug them about the referral, perhaps you can farm that out to someone? (I am volunteering to be your designated representative.)

Thank you, Andi. I can contact my doctor's office through the university hospital system and ask about the referral. And........ there, I just did it. They'll probably get back to me on Monday. Sometimes all I need is a prompt. I think I don't have good executive function in the ol' brain matter. I wonder if it's worth bringing up to the hypothetical shrink whether I might have ADD. It probably says "hysterical hypochondriac neurotic" in my medical chart.

I'm glad you contacted them, Zenkitty. I find that the phrasing that might be useful in a situation like that is, "I would like to be evaluated for ADD". You might mention some of the symptoms you perceive as prominent. The doctors I have been to don't respond well to me telling them I have bronchitis, when I had bronchitis every winter of my life for the first eighteen years. It goes better for me to say, "I feel just like I did when I was a kid and had bronchitis."

ETA, one of the features of ADD/ADHD is that many of the symptoms overlap wiith other disorders, including depression. That makes diagnosis a challenge. To rule out depression as the source of those symptoms, one thing you can do is mention the ones that have been present throughout your lifespan, even when depression was not present.

Timelies all!

Quiet weekend here. Gary's running errands, while I try to keep the little guy from pulling all the books off the shelves.

ETA, one of the features of ADD/ADHD is that many of the symptoms overlap wiith other disorders, including depression.

Also ASD -- apparently issues with executive function aren't limited to people with ADD/ADHD; it's common in people with ASD as well.

I've been away for a bit, so let me add my congratulations to Dana and DH! Yay!

I'm sorry about the bad day, Zen

I just got lazy for a little too long, so I am listing to get my mojo back:

gym
breakfast
load of laundry
get coffee going for the week (brew and cold brew to fridge for daily iced coffee)
wash dishes
vacuum backroom
get busted up piece of furniture out of backroom
clean area where furniture was
dust backroom ceiling fans
partially dust backroom ceiling beam ledges
put clothes out to dry
finish dusting
address 3 things to mail
figure out plan for backroom furniture
lunch
fill 2 bags of things to toss in some way
set up sewing
do some sewing
steam dress for tomorrow
look for a birthday card in stash
menu plan for next week
cook something using something from pantry

To rule out depression as the source of those symptoms, one thing you can do is mention the ones that have been present throughout your lifespan, even when depression was not present.

Excellent advice, Andi, thanks. But I can't even remember a time in my life when I wasn't depressed. I don't want to come off to a doctor like, "ADD! ASD! Anxiety! Depression! PTSD! I read WebMD and omg I have everything!!1" I doubt I do, I'd just like an accurate diagnosis.

It's tough to find the line between advocating for yourself and pushing in a way that doctors push back. Leading off with "I can't remember a time when I wasn't struggling with depression, and it makes me wonder if there is more to it than that," might be a productive way to start the conversation. When I was first diagnosed with ADD, I took in a completed self-evaluation form from Sari Solden's book on women with ADD. This checklist was based on her work [link] .

I think we have Sari Solden's "Journeys Through ADDulthood."