The Road To ADHD Diagnosis. With Dr Kieran Kennedy

If you're like me and you've seen a list of symptoms of ADHD and mentally said 'tick' to every one of them, you might be wondering what you're meant to do next. The actual process of seeking out a diagnosis and support can be confusing and it seems to vary depending on where you are in the country!

Joining the pod again today is the wonderful Dr Kieran Kennedy! Kieran previously joined us for an episode about late age diagnosis, how that seems to shift your sense of identity, and the crossover of ADHD and conditions like anxiety and depression. Dr Kieran Kennedy is a psychiatrist who specialises in adult ADHD. Kieran focuses on a holistic approach in managing ADHD.

Today we wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the causes of ADHD, whether medication is the direction some people with ADHD may like to investigate and what those options are and how the process of being diagnosed actually works in Australia.

In today’s episode we speak about:

• What causes ADHD and what’s going on in our brains
• The genetic links of ADHD
• The wives' tale of ‘just try the medication and if it works, you’ve got ADHD!’

• What’s the role of medication, and are there alternative approaches?
• Side effects of medication to look out for
• Flow on effects - changes like reducing alcohol and focussing on sleep as management
• For someone wondering if they have ADHD, what’s the next step?
• Some of the necessary hoops to jump through

Time stamps:

0:00 - Intro

1:53 - What causes ADHD and what’s going on in our brains

4:25 - The genetic links of ADHD

5:30 - What's going on in the prefrontal cortex?

7:00 - Blame or brain

9:15 - History of medication

12:50 - The wives' tale of ‘just try the medication and if it works, you’ve got ADHD!’

14:30 - What’s the role of medication, and are there alternative approaches?

21:00 - Side effects of medication to look out for

29:00 - Flow on effects - changes like reducing alcohol and focussing on sleep

30:00 - The controversy of medicating children

31:50 - For someone wondering if they have ADHD, what’s the next step?

35:30 - Financial impacts of diagnosis

37:30 - Other tests you may need to have done

43:00 - Being honest in the diagnosis process

You can find more from Dr Kieran on his Instagram

Hosted and produced by Keeshia Pettit

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