ADHD Psychologist Melbourne
ADHD is not simply a lack of attention but a different economy of attention, a struggle one faces in organising subjective experience.
Melbourne ADHD Psychologist: About impulsivity & inattention as core features
ADHD, as described in the DSM-5-TR, isn’t just about being easily distracted or having too much energy. It’s a structured set of difficulties that profoundly impact a person’s daily life. It involves inattention, where tasks feel impossible to organize, details slip through the cracks, or the mind drifts despite the best efforts to focus. Then there’s hyperactivity and impulsivity, the restless energy that makes sitting still unbearable, the urge to blurt out thoughts, or the difficulty in waiting for one’s turn. What’s essential in making a diagnosis isn’t just noticing these traits in isolation, but recognising how they persist over time, across different settings, and disrupt a person’s ability to function in relationships, work, or school. As an ADHD psychologist Melbourne we can explore what might be going on for you.
What an ADHD psychologist in Melbourne can help you process
A key point is that ADHD isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some experience it as a struggle with focus, others with restlessness, and many with both. The DSM highlights three types: predominantly inattentive, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, or combined presentation. The criteria also shift with age: children need six symptoms in a category, but for adults, five are enough, acknowledging how difficulties evolve over time. It’s not just about childhood mischief or being "bad at paying attention"; it’s a condition that impacts how one engages with their inner thoughts, feelings and the outside world (what Lacan called language). A proper diagnosis with an ADHD psychologist in Melbourne requires careful listening, considering both history and current functioning.
How an ADHD psychologist Melbourne might approach treatment
Psychoanalysis offers a particular way of thinking about ADHD treatment, beyond the medical or neurodevelopmental models. From a Lacanian therapeutic perspective, what is labeled as ADHD can be understood in terms of a person’s subjective experience, specifically, their relationship to desire and the symbolic order (i.e., others in society, law, family, etc.). Rather than seeing inattention or impulsivity solely as a neurological deficit, a Lacanian psychoanalyst takes a different approach, one that empowers the individual in therapy. For example, questions like: What function might these behaviors serve for the person? What do these features and symptoms mean at any given time? Do the behaviors appear with greater intensity at certain times with specific others, but not at other times? This approach opens a creative pathway, engaging with both impossibilities and possibilities to explore new ways of navigating freedoms and limitations with an ADHD psychologist in Melbourne.
For example, difficulties with attention might not stem from an inherent cognitive dysfunction but rather from a particular structuring of the person’s relationship to her objects of desire and her enjoyment of them. If the person cannot sustain focus, one reason may be because the object of their attention does not hold the promise of desire. Simply put, sometimes it does not interest the person to pay attention. However, there are times when we must attend to things regardless of our interest in them, in order to maintain jobs and function within society, family, and other social domains. The challenges associated with ADHD make this particularly difficult for the person.
Similarly, impulsivity could be understood as a breakdown in symbolic mediation, an excess of drive that is not sufficiently regulated by the symbolic structures necessary for focus, attention, self-regulation, and social engagement. ADHD, in this view, would not be a simple lack of attention but a different economy of attention, a struggle with the signifier’s role (something that anchors a person) in organizing personal experiences. Instead of focusing solely on symptom management, in therapy we might explore the unconscious dimension of these difficulties, the structural position of the person in relation to others, to reflect on something about how the person desires, and what the ADHD label itself means in a broader sense for the person.
FAQs
FAQs about ADHD Treatment in Melbourne
Do I need to have an ADHD diagnosis?
No, you do not need a diagnosis to be in treatment. While a diagnosis may have personal significance for you, I am happy to work with you to explore what the symptoms and behaviors mean and how they affect your life, decisions, relationships, work, interactions with colleagues, and even daily tasks. Sessions are weekly, and we’ll begin by talking about how things are going for you. If money is an issue, we can address it in the preliminary sessions.
Do you treat both childhood ADHD and adult ADHD?
Bita works with both children and adults who have difficulties related to ADHD. She takes a psychoanalytic approach to listening to your concerns and addressing them with you during sessions. A psychoanalytic approach is not a one-size-fits-all method; while the symptoms may resemble those of others, Bita listens carefully to understand how your suffering is particular and specific, and how it can be worked through or handled with interventions to reduce their adverse effects on you. This approach is collaborative, requires commitment, and involves regularly discussing a variety of topics, including family, work, pets, or whatever is on your mind, while working with what is present for you in the moment.