ADHD Diagnosis in New York – Expert Psychiatric Evaluation for Adults in Manhattan & Beyond
New York City is the one place in the world where ADHD is out there and in plain sight.If this is your experience, you’re not falling behind. You are undiagnosed. But it is easily correctable.
There is a particular paradox about living with ADHD in New York City.
It’s everywhere a matter of urgency, stimulation, and high stakes – and that’s the kind of environment that the ADHD brain is designed for. Deadlines create focus. Crisis creates clarity. The trading floor, the editing meeting, the start-up pitch – these spaces kind of allow for ADHD to creep in while it quietly causes harm in all other spaces.
The lawyer who is great in court and misses court deadlines. The big idea man or woman who doesn’t have the creative chops. The analyst who monitors 18 hours and, then, has a difficult time with concentration, during a quiet afternoon on a Tuesday. These are not failures of performance. They are clear, identifiable fingerprints of untreated adult ADHD and that’s why it often goes undiagnosed for years, because New York stuffs itself with enough stimulation that it’s easier to ignore what is going on neurologically.
If this is your experience, you’re not falling behind. You are undiagnosed. But it is easily correctable.
Dr. John C. Shershow, M.D. is a Manhattan board-certified psychiatrist who has been providing psychiatric evaluation and diagnosis in NYC for decades. If you are looking for a formal evaluation for the first time or if you’re not sure a previous diagnosis was thorough, Dr. Shershow provides the personalized psychiatric assessment that your Adult ADHD diagnosis in NYC truly needs.
What Adult ADHD Looks Like in a New York City
In real life in New York, ADHD in adults is much different from the classroom hyperactivity that many envision. Most adults come to their doctors with compensation strategies in place that have been refined over years, which have made them very efficient, and very fatiguing.
What Dr. Shershow sees more than anything else in his Manhattan adult practice:
The competence gap. Failure to perform at level commensurate with easily demonstrated intelligence. Projects stall not as a result of lack of ability, but as a result of the inability of the ADHD brain to launch an internal initiating sign when the brain is typically accustomed to doing so.
The energy asymmetry. Significant capacity for working with novel, urgent or high-stakes tasks. Limited capacity to attend to routine, administrative or repetitive activity without significant difficulty, irrespective of the significance of the activity. It is not incomplete. Its architecture of the brain.
The relationship toll. It’s not that people don’t care when they forget. Not consistent is not committed. However, undiagnosed ADHD adults describe this for years to people who see the outputs but don’t understand that ADHD is a condition of the brain.
The compensatory exhaustion. The adult who has developed sophisticated strategies to manage symptoms of ADHD may seem very functional on the surface, but empty on the inside. Once the scaffolding is lost, the symptoms appear in full force when it happens (with a job change, a move or a new relationship).
Each of these presentations is clinically identifiable by a skilled ADHD psychiatrist in New York and treatable, if diagnosed and treated appropriately.
The ADHD Diagnostic Process With Dr. Shershow
Adult ADHD diagnosis will not be a simple test or a checkmark on a form; it is rather a legitimate psychiatric evaluation. A clinical process with a structure that is designed to provide a conclusion that is sufficiently accurate to allow the development of a treatment plan based on that.
Your evaluation with Dr. Shershow includes:
Developmental and Life History Review
ADHD know its origins in childhood, even if it is evaluated in adulthood. Dr. Shershow looks at how your attention and executive functioning have influenced your life experiences, not just your symptoms.
Functional Impairment Assessment Across All Life Domains
The evaluation looks at the way your symptoms are impacting your work, your relationships, the finances and your internal experience – ADHD affects us in our workplaces as well as in our lives outside work.
Full Differential Diagnosis
One of the most pressing challenges in psychiatry in a city full of anxiety, burnout, and sleep deprivation is the need to differentiate these from ADHD, and the question of whether more than one is present. This action will decide if your treatment is effective or not.
Prior Psychiatric and Medication History Review
How your system has responded to prior treatments is clinical data. Dr. Shershow reviews this on a specific note, since everything that follows is based on this.
Direct Results Discussion and Treatment Planning
Dr. Shershow gives you a breakdown of his clinical findings in plain English. Out of the door you go with clear diagnoses, the rationale for the diagnosis and an immediate discussion about evidence-based treatments and not a paper form and a referral.
In-Person in Manhattan. Telehealth Across New York State.
Dr. Shershow treats adults at his Midtown NYC, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Chelsea, West Village and Tribeca offices and treats patients statewide via telemedicine, including Westchester, Long Island and beyond.
In New York State, telehealth is a legal and clinically proven option for online ADHD diagnosis. Dr. Shershow treats all telehealth visits as he does with all in-person visits.
“Has a professional and thoughtful practice. Good listener. Wants to do the best for his patients.” — Patient Review
The ADHD Diagnostic Process With Dr. Shershow
Adult ADHD diagnosis will not be a simple test or a checkmark on a form; it is rather a legitimate psychiatric evaluation. A clinical process with a structure that is designed to provide a conclusion that is sufficiently accurate to allow the development of a treatment plan based on that.
Your evaluation with Dr. Shershow includes:
- Developmental and Life History Review ADHD know its origins in childhood, even if it is evaluated in adulthood. Dr. Shershow looks at how your attention and executive functioning have influenced your life experiences, not just your symptoms.
- Functional Impairment Assessment Across All Life Domains The evaluation looks at the way your symptoms are impacting your work, your relationships, the finances and your internal experience – ADHD affects us in our workplaces as well as in our lives outside work.
- Full Differential Diagnosis One of the most pressing challenges in psychiatry in a city full of anxiety, burnout, and sleep deprivation is the need to differentiate these from ADHD, and the question of whether more than one is present. This action will decide if your treatment is effective or not.
- Prior Psychiatric and Medication History Review How your system has responded to prior treatments is clinical data. Dr. Shershow reviews this on a specific note, since everything that follows is based on this.
- Direct Results Discussion and Treatment Planning Dr. Shershow gives you a breakdown of his clinical findings in plain English. Out of the door you go with clear diagnoses, the rationale for the diagnosis and an immediate discussion about evidence-based treatments and not a paper form and a referral.
Schedule an ADHD Evaluation With a Manhattan Psychiatrist
Dr. John C. Shershow, M.D. offers ADHD evaluation and diagnosis services in New York – face-to-face in Manhattan and via telehealth throughout the state.
United Healthcare is an in-network health plan. Licensed in both New York and New Jersey.
Frequently Asked Questions – ADHD Diagnosis New York
Q: What is the most accurate way to get an ADHD diagnosis in New York City?
The best choice is a detailed assessment performed by a Board-Certified Psychiatrist specializing in adult ADHD. This is in contrast to a brief screener that can be conducted virtually, and involves a complete clinical interview of your developmental history, ongoing functional impairment, and comprehensive differential diagnosis. Shortcuts in the diagnostic process lead to conclusions often unheld by treatment, in a city where anxiety, burnout and chronic sleep deprivation are near universal. Dr. Shershow’s evaluation is tailored specifically to tackle that complexity and come to sound and practical conclusion.
Q: I function well professionally in New York. Can I still have adult ADHD?
Yes – high functioning ADHD is common because New York’s working environments are exactly what the ADHD brain needs to function. A lot of adults in high-stress jobs in NYC have ADHD, but it’s completely suppressed in their work and drastically compromises their lives at home, relationship, financial, and internal experience of effort and exhaustiveness. ADHD may exist without being detected in functioning well in some contexts. It may simply be that the right evaluation hasn’t really been conducted.
Q: Can Dr. Shershow provide ADHD diagnosis documentation for workplace accommodations in New York?
Yes. A diagnosis of ADHD from a Board Certified Psychiatrist can be the basis for reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and New York State Human Rights Law. Modifications can include: flexible work schedules, alternative deadlines or quiet work spaces. Clinical documentation by a qualified psychiatrist is usually necessary for adults who are seeking accommodations in graduate programs or for a professional licensure exam. During your consultation, Dr. Shershow can discuss the appropriate documentation.
Q: What if I was evaluated for ADHD before and it came back negative?
A negative evaluation should not be the final clinical decision, but depends on the thoroughness of the original evaluation. Many adults are given short or incomplete evaluations that fail to detect ADHD, especially inattentive type of ADHD, which don’t generate any visible hyperactivity. When doing re-evaluations, Dr. Shershow works on the same level as the initial assessment, looks at the rationale behind prior evaluations and draws his own conclusions on the current presentation and a thorough life history.
Q: Is ADHD medication always required after diagnosis?
No, medication doesn’t always result from a diagnosis; it’s just one part of a treatment plan. In the hands of an appropriate physician with proper supervision, ADHD medication can make a huge difference for many adults. Some people need a combination of medication, behavioral strategies and structural changes. Dr. Shershow is honest about your treatment options and creates a treatment plan that’s tailored to your clinical picture and goals, rather than a one-size-fits-all prescribing pattern.
Q: Is telehealth ADHD diagnosis in New York clinically valid?
Yes. Qualified psychiatrists with an extensive clinical interview who provide telehealth-based evaluations for ADHD are just as accurate as face-to-face evaluations, and a valid and legally accepted method for evaluation in New York State. Dr. Shershow’s telehealth evaluations are conducted exactly as they are done in Manhattan. The format changes; the rigor does not.
Satisfied Patients
“Professional and thoughtful in his practice. Good listener. Genuinely wants the best for his patients..”
“I could not have asked for a better first visit with Dr. Shershow. He was kind, funny, intelligent and cared about my medications and what plan was best for me. “