Getting Ready for the Appointment:

1. If you made the doctor’s appointment before seeing the office, read Part One,  Preparing for Your First Visit to Your ADHD Doctor.  Make every effort to visit the doctor’s office before the appointment, if you are the anxious type, or if the appointment is for your child. ADDers do best when they are prepared and know what to expect. If all you have time to do is drive by the office before your child’s appointment, do it! Just being able to picture exactly where she is going, when told “the doctor’s office”, can reduce a child’s anxiety, making a difference between a positive experience and a negative one.

2. If your doctor wants some of your child’s  records, don’t wait until the morning of the appointment to begin gathering them! Collecting the records will likely require several phone calls, maybe a trip to pick records up from another doctor, and/or the school, and time to go through your files and find records you hold. You will be less stressed if you plan to leave enough time to do this between when you call to make the appointment and the actual day of the appointment.

3. If the doctor sends intake forms for you to complete before your appointment, do it as soon as you can after receiving them. If you are told to come to the appointment early, so you can complete forms beforehand, enter the appointment in your planner for half an hour before the actual time.

Read: Preparing for Your First Visit to Your ADHD Doctor – Part IV: Getting Organized