Your Body, Your Rules: A No-Nonsense Guide to medically advocate for yourself

As a black woman with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), it hasn’t always felt easy advocating for myself in medical environments.

I’ve been supported by a team of three Black women that include a psychiatrist, a therapist, and a OB/GYN. Each woman plays a specific and pivotal role in my symptom management and my comprehensive care plan.

But it wasn’t always this way.

When I was first diagnosed with ADHD, it seemed like a lightbulb moment. I had been working with my therapist for over a year and stumbled across a post on Twitter/X that alluded to most Black women having undiagnosed autism and ADHD, especially high performing adults that were once labeled “gifted and talkative” as a child. I felt exposed, triggered, overwhelmed, all of the emotions.

We began treating my ADHD holistically—diet, lifestyle habits, mindset, symptom tracking, and Adderall.

But, still I struggled with these cyclic periods that I would describe as “bipolar episodes”. I would become irritated beyond words, angry at minor inconveniences, impulsive, suicidal, or incapable of functioning, mirroring a depression.

After a year of studying my behavior, tracking my symptoms, and trying all type of medications, my OB/GYN reviewed my case file from my therapist and psychiatrist to determine that I had PMDD.

PMDD was becoming increasingly popular among women who found themselves in the same position as me: hopeless.

Throughout this process, I learned three ways to medically advocate for yourself.

Never Rely on One Opinion

My care team is amazing and they listen to my concerns, but other women aren’t as fortunate. Most women with PMDD are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder or under-diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Thankfully, I had a care team that put my health and wellbeing over their own egos.

My amazing therapist referred me to an amazing psychiatrist and together they worked on a care plan for my needs. Despite them being amazing and supportive, neither of them had heard of PMDD before. Yet, both of them were persistent in finding a way to treat my symptoms and discover my condition. 

It was ultimately their notes over 2 years and my OB/GYN’s knowledge of the disorder that discovered I was one of the 1 in 5 women with PMDD.

Remember Not to Assume You Know

I often find people, especially Black women, haven’t been afforded the luxury to actually learn about their bodies or get to know themselves intimately. From overworking, tending to children, looking after their communities and every other responsibility on the planet, many women truly don’t have the time or capacity to learn about their bodies. It’s radical to put yourself first. And you, my friend, must get radical about knowing what’s going on in your body. You won’t be able to rely on assumptions since most diagnoses have overlapping symptoms. 

Notice whenever a mom gets sick with symptoms of a cold or flu. She’ll likely lightly dismiss her symptoms as a cold and attribute them to her kid’s germs or her kid’s schoolmates. And more than not, she’s right. But, going forward, we can’t assume we know what’s wrong without fact-checking, and fact-checking again. After all— remember COVD-19 and all her variant friends?

Document, Document, Document

Document everything and I mean everything. I found it helpful to download a menstrual app with features like mood documentation, diary, lifestyle notes, and symptom tracking. It takes 2-3 minutes to document.

What’s 2-3 minutes? That’s a small section of your lunch break. An activity to replace doom-scrolling before bed. It’s the time it takes to sit down before binging your favorite show.

The more you document, the more data you’ll have to combat medical racism and inequities that can push larger problems under a rug for decades. Like sending you home from the ER, then calling you back to demand a blood transfusion. Or dismissing your pain and assuming your pain tolerance is higher just because you’re Black.

I hope these 3 tips have helped you begin to start putting your health first. Here’s to being healthy and around for a long, long time.

Connect with Jasmine Gibson:

@strategistjas on all platforms

www.miocoa.com/strategistjas