ADHD: Undiagnosed and Misdiagnosed in Black Women

 

Photo by Oladimeji Odunsi on Unsplash

As a Black Woman with ADHD, I was both misdiagnosed and undiagnosed as a teenager and as an adult. I was a busy child, but not busy enough to be considered hyperactive. I was considered to be busy, not bad because my Momma didn’t want me to have the concept that I was bad or had behavior issues.

Another symptom that I had when I was a kid was that I was a “chatterbox.” Well, that hasn’t changed much at all, and sometimes my mouth moves faster than my mind. I would talk for hours about different things, and I was just considered to be gifted.

I knew how to behave when in public and was just simply silly acting when at home. My parents did not look at me as if something was wrong with me because I was deemed to be so intelligent.

They thought this because, according to my teachers and how they observed me, I learned objectives faster than the average child my age and retained so much information. Now, I cannot say this in today’s day and time because I have more of a “scatterbrain.”

Fast forward to today’s time. As an adult, I was misdiagnosed as having ADD for years. The first psychiatrist and therapist that I saw stated that I had ADD because my attention span was very short during my sessions and I did not make eye contact for a long period.

Since they weren’t my boo thang, I didn’t realize that I had to look them in the eye, so why would I do so in the first place?

In my eyes, they were simply there to know my business and not to help with anything that I couldn’t help with myself.

Then I went to one psychiatrist, and she informed me that my diagnosis was incorrect.

I was appalled because I knew that I did, in fact, have attention issues. The psychiatrist based their diagnosis on what was observed and talked about in the office, as well as any notes that the therapist wrote in their sessions. I was then given the correct diagnosis of having ADHD. Both my therapist and psychiatrist explained to me the symptoms that I resonated with as to why I now have ADHD and not ADD.

'What's wrong with me?' ADHD undiagnosed in Black girls

A 2021 study also found that Black girls frequently go undiagnosed with ADHD due to misinterpretation of their…indianapolisrecorder.com

This type of misdiagnosis happens all the time to Black women specifically. Some psychiatric physicians will not look deeply into what is going on with the patient based on their symptoms, conversation, or how they are acting.

Instead, there are some physicians will just come up with something on their own or look it up online without really utilizing observation or testing. When the physicians do this, they will just prescribe a specific medication, which entails more issues than before.

Overall, there is no better teacher than you. It is important to understand your diagnosis and not self-diagnose but to know what is going on with your body and mind.

This will save a lot of misdiagnosing and underdiagnosing time for physicians if there is a clearer understanding to begin with. This all starts with recognizing symptoms and knowing when something isn’t quite right.

Have you ever been undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with a mental illness?

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