Many cases of ADHD are allergic reactions. When I get a dose of something I'm allergic to (molds, perfumes...) I'll end up being scatter-brained for the day.
My child was the same way due to a wheat allergy (U.S. wheat is heavier than European wheat, and the flour comes out differently. It's actually tougher to digest for many).
As for letting the doctor tell you... The last few decades, I find I've been making the diagnosis first. Chronic fatigue, adult chicken pox, whooping cough... In each case, the medical history I gave was a reasonable path for ordering tests to get the correct diagnosis, but in each case the doctors missed it.
The whooping cough one was particularly annoying. I had traveled to Amsterdam, which had an outbreak a couple of years ago. I told the doctors this, and they still diagnosed me as having an ordinary sinus infection and gave me the wrong antibiotics. My wife looked up the medical alerts in Amsterdam, I messaged the doctor asking for the correct antibiotics (just in time).
Doctors in the U.S. follow protocols. When they don't they have to file extra paperwork. The entire system is designed to punish deviation from protocol, and the protocols don't get adjusted based on evidence or circumstance. They're handed down from a committee that the insurance companies take as law. Insurance companies in particular are geared to denying payment for deviation from protocol without prior approval. So doctors adjust their behavior to go with the flow... unless you find a great doctor, who knows better.
These days, you really do need to take your health in your own hands. Doctors become a path to confirmation and treatment, at least on the illness side of things. Injury tends to be a little more cut-and-dried, but even there you have to find the right experts. For example for sports injuries, you likely want doctors that see many patients that play that particular sport because they have experience with how things can go wrong.
Sorry for the rant. I've just seen the need for shopping a lot more in recent years.
My child was the same way due to a wheat allergy (U.S. wheat is heavier than European wheat, and the flour comes out differently. It's actually tougher to digest for many).
As for letting the doctor tell you... The last few decades, I find I've been making the diagnosis first. Chronic fatigue, adult chicken pox, whooping cough... In each case, the medical history I gave was a reasonable path for ordering tests to get the correct diagnosis, but in each case the doctors missed it.
The whooping cough one was particularly annoying. I had traveled to Amsterdam, which had an outbreak a couple of years ago. I told the doctors this, and they still diagnosed me as having an ordinary sinus infection and gave me the wrong antibiotics. My wife looked up the medical alerts in Amsterdam, I messaged the doctor asking for the correct antibiotics (just in time).
Doctors in the U.S. follow protocols. When they don't they have to file extra paperwork. The entire system is designed to punish deviation from protocol, and the protocols don't get adjusted based on evidence or circumstance. They're handed down from a committee that the insurance companies take as law. Insurance companies in particular are geared to denying payment for deviation from protocol without prior approval. So doctors adjust their behavior to go with the flow... unless you find a great doctor, who knows better.
These days, you really do need to take your health in your own hands. Doctors become a path to confirmation and treatment, at least on the illness side of things. Injury tends to be a little more cut-and-dried, but even there you have to find the right experts. For example for sports injuries, you likely want doctors that see many patients that play that particular sport because they have experience with how things can go wrong.
Sorry for the rant. I've just seen the need for shopping a lot more in recent years.