Have I always been this way?
What are some of the symptoms and characteristics you should be aware of when considering that you might have ADHD? And what should you do if you think you have the disorder? Dr. J. Faye Dixon discusses the first steps in getting a diagnosis.
Transcription follows this 2:29 minute video
Transcription Lightly Edited
ADHD Awareness Month
Reframing ADHD
Discovering New Perspectives
Certainly part of that I think could be looking at symptoms that were happening earlier, like have I always struggled with attention? Have I always been distractible? Have I always had a hard time being organized and, you know, sort of managing my time and being insensitive to, you know, time demands?
One of the first places I think to start for people is often, you know, with their family practitioner or their primary care provider and talking with them about symptoms. But really sort of being able to take that developmental perspective.
So sometimes, for adults, it may be speaking with their parents, speaking with older siblings, speaking with a teacher who knew them well who can say, yeah, you know I remember that developmental history. And so starting with one’s physician, and asking for a referral.
You know, might it be worth me speaking with a psychologist and someone who could do a thorough evaluation to see if the symptoms that I’m having are best accounted for by a diagnosis of ADHD?
About the Speaker
J. Faye Dixon, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UC Davis. She has a long history of work in child psychopathology, specifically the areas of depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD and learning differences in children. Currently, Dr. Dixon is the director of clinical management and community outreach for the AIR (Attention, Impulsivity & Regulation) Lab. She is responsible the clinical and diagnostic fidelity of the AIR Lab research. She also has spent many years educating and training psychology graduate students, interns, and post-doctoral fellows as well as medical students, residents and child psychiatry fellows.