TraumaADHD Clarity: Patient Tool for Diagnosis Integration

my therapist said adhd is a way to cope?

my therapist said adhd is a way to cope?

As someone who works in the mental health field, this sounds to me like a classic case of two mental health professionals viewing the same symptoms through different lenses for understandable reasons. Although, I do think your therapist should’ve expanded on what she meant by that statement instead of just leaving it at that, as it’s understandable why you would feel weird about having your diagnosed condition labeled as a coping skill without further context. I would definitely ask her for clarification before just dipping, especially since you seem to have such a good relationship with her, and see how you feel and where it goes from there. The thing is, as we all know, psychiatrists are trained to focus on symptom management and prescribing medication. If your ADHD medication helps you feel better and function more effectively in your daily life, your psychiatrist is doing their job. A psychiatrist is generally a bit less concerned about giving you a super accurate diagnosis as they are making sure whatever meds you are taking are helping you feel and function better. I’m not saying your diagnosis is wrong and that’s also not to say psychs just toss any random diagnosis out there, but it is more within a therapist’s scope to explore the nuance, overlap, etc. when it comes to diagnosing a mental health disorder, as well as it’s underlying causes and ways to cope without/in addition to medication. Trauma/PTSD and ADHD do present veryyy similarly to each other to the point where their only significant difference is their origins. Many PTSD symptoms are known to function as maladaptive coping skills and can sometimes look nearly identical to ADHD. They also very oftentimes occur together, so it is possible your therapist suspects that either your trauma symptoms are “contributing” to your ADHD or, possibly, that you do not have ADHD, but rather symptoms of trauma. I’m not quite sure, but it does seem like she’s suggesting trauma has played a role in your executive dysfunction, which could be true. I mostly wonder why she is suggesting you won’t be medicated forever? But again, id definitely ask her for clarification and if her response only makes you feel more uncomfortable and invalidated, then you might have your answer as to what to do.