I don’t DISTRUST my doctor, but…

My psychiatrist has made me pretty confused and conflicted about my situation multiple times, so I really just want to hear people’s opinions about the situation so I can understand.

For context: I’m 15, born female. I started seeing a psychiatrist 2 years ago for depression, which I’m still on medication for. I also started going to therapy around this same time.

At this point in 2022, I have actually seen my psychiatrist in person only once, which is very irritating because I’m the kind of person who can’t talk to someone properly from home across a screen. Suffice to say, we haven’t exactly “connected” or gotten comfortable.

For the record, I’m not someone who saw an ADHD meme on tiktok and self-diagnosed (not that self diagnosis is bad in every situation, but a lot of the tiktoks people are using to diagnose themselves with are… not the best). It actually came up by my therapist. One of her specialties is working with kids and teens with ADHD, and she said that my experience is pretty much identical. We’ve been talking it over for months, and a lot of the strategies and things she’s been working on with me have been the same things she uses for her ADHD patients. All the obvious symptoms aside, my family has also always joked about my dad “being ADHD” all the time (he even agrees about having it), so me having it would also make sense from a genetic standpoint.

Whenever me or my therapist would bring that up to my doctor, though, he was pretty dismissive of it and said he was “not convinced.” Now, I’m not complaining because he disagreed; HE is the doctor and we could be reading the situation all wrong. I want to just trust his word, but the things he’s said have just made me doubtful and confused, and his reasoning hasn’t cleared much up for me at all. I’m on here just for some second opinions to clear things up for myself.

For one, sensory issues. I’ve heard from multiple different sources over the years that ADHD can often be paired with sensory issues. Even if you don’t consider it a direct symptom, it’s at the very least not unheard of for people to have ADHD and sensory issues at the same time. However, my doctor told me sensory issues are actually something that need to be RULED OUT before you can diagnose ADHD, and given that I very much have sensory issues, I can’t have ADHD too. Is it true that that’s something you need to rule out??

Secondly, age. This is a pretty common argument. He says I’m 15, and that’s too old for an ADHD diagnosis. Obviously I can see where he’s coming from with this. Does that negate the whole conversation though? That goes without considering the circumstances of my childhood. During the early years of my life, which is usually when people get diagnosed, I lived in a country where mental health awareness wasn’t exactly… a thing. So I don’t think that was really possible. Second, when we did immigrate, my little childhood self was overwhelmed by very intense anxiety that I swear I’m still recovering from, and I practically shut down. I was really quiet and reserved, so I see how that doesn’t exactly scream ADHD. I don’t think a young diagnosis was even possible.

I also took the TOVA test and passed so that really solidified it for him and ADHD’s probably off the table entirely now. I heard TOVA isn’t that reliable especially if you play video games (which I do. A lot.) but I don’t know, whatever he says I guess.

He’s basically used these arguments to justify why he’s “not convinced,” and as I just described, I’m very confused about them. It’s just that he seemed very sure and against ADHD from the start, like before even hearing me and my therapist out, and I don’t see how that’s… logical? For someone who’s only talked to me in person once. And I don’t feel comfortable trying to “convince” a doctor of anything, so I didn’t push it and just tried to take his word for it even though I didn’t feel reassured myself.

Thoughts?