I’m an ADHD assessor that has ADHD - AMA

[DisabledNurseofTiktok]

This topic was incredibly popular on another social media site so I thought I would open it up here!

Im an Advanved Nurse Practitioner that assesses, diagnoses and treats ADHD. I have ADHD, and my daughter has ADHD.

if you have any questions about right to choose, assessments, treatments, or just ADHD in general ask away!

Please understand that there is a huge difference between a nurse practitioner and an advanced nurse practitioner.

i don’t understand why 5 professionals would need to be involved in an adhd assessment. The direct observation can be carried out during the assessment. That just seems like wasted resources to me!

No it shouldn’t, sometimes adults cannot gather physical evidence from childhood and that’s absolutely fine, your assessor can go on reported symptoms especially if they observe the symptoms during assessment.

I am a social worker and the more I understand about ASC and ADHD the more I can see that huge numbers of our children who come into care due to family breakdown are undiagnosed ND. Children who grow up with both unsupported/undiagnosed ND conditions AND in poverty/with parents who have deficits in parenting capacity due to their own difficulties (again, often undiagnosed ND conditions themselves) are more likely to struggle at home as they come into adolescence and end up in care. In my professional opinion if children were assessed and diagnosed at an appropriate age and supported properly (and their parents also supported) this would assist in preventing a lot of children from coming into care.

I don’t think you meant to quote me, but you don’t have to homeschool if you don’t want to. Have you requested alternative provision from the LA? Does DS have an EHCP?

I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 35. People with ADHD can achieve great things, however it takes us more effort to do so!

Oops, I didn’t mean to quote you - sorry! EHCP application has been done this week

If it’s someone that cares for your child regularly away from your home that can also be used as the second setting.

My son has adhd, he’s 6. He gets incredibly angry and says he wanted to kill himself so he is free of what is happening inside his brain. He has tried to cut himself. School can’t keep him safe so he’s only in a couple of hours a day, and I’m homeschooling him while working from home. He’s started medication (methylphenidate) and the dose is being increased next week. I can see it starting to make a difference - no question but maybe just a handhold…..I’m scared and lost. I’m so deep in it that I can’t imagine that medication (along with play therapies etc) will actually help. My 6 year old is self-harming, I am utterly broken but holding it together for my child.

No, it’s just likely that they are able to mask it better.

No problem. If you haven’t requested AP from the LA, do that. You can use one of IPSEA’s template letters.

If you consider the hereditary nature of ADHD and ASD in the population to be rapid and exponential, how do you see life changing in the future? What will parenting, schooling and the workplace look like with everybody needing support, medication, accommodations, financial assistance etc. Where will all the support come from? How will civilisation adapt and function? I’m not asking in a goady way but out of genuine concern for those needing help and those expected to provide it.

Can you have ADHD without hyper focus? My DD seems to display signs, but the one thing I don't think is present is hyper focus. Unless you count watching tv shows over and over again. Do you have to be able to concentrate for a specific amount of time?

This is the advice I was about to give until I saw your helpful comment! 🙂

This is a huge question, and after replying to the flurry of questions I don’t have the executive functioning left to address it now. However if I remember tomorrow I’ll come back to you!

I know it’s not my thread but when my Ds been assessed the school answers and mine were very different . They sent someone in to observe my Ds . They saw the fidgeting - re focusing needed .so may be worth asking .

It is possible to meet the diagnostic criteria without hyper focus. It’s one symptom, but only one of many.

Do you think it’s possible that adhd isn’t something “wrong” with a person, but rather just natural variation in brains & people? Ie genetically just some portion of the population have these characteristics?

BestIsWest you sound exactly like me - I was recently diagnosed at the age of 62. I used to hate school holidays and thought it was because me children were at home but it still happens now - I need that structure in my life. Also I was never late for anything but when I look back the effort it took to make sure everything was in place to survive at work, it's no wonder I feel like I've been tired all my life. GP's always had an excuse for it - I was working full-time, I had young children, etc. Since I was diagnosed I have been gentler on myself in terms of understanding what ADHD is and how it can affect me. Unfortunately, I have been told there is a 7 month waiting time for titration, so I'm going to have to be patient and hope when I do receive medication it helps me.

Are there any professions that come up particularly often in the women you diagnose?

I’m just thinking about how half my architects office is dyslexic (mostly because it plays to our strengths). I wonder if adhd has similar?

There's a school of thought in the ND community that ADHD and ASC are not deficits of functioning, but are essential adaptations that assisted social progress in varying ways. Think about the obsessive and narrowly focused expertise of an autistic person and how that way of thinking and working drives acquisition of knowledge. The hyper vigilance and creative drive of ADHDers who come up with endless new ideas. Medication can help people function better within a narrow set of expectations but if the expectations could be widened to accommodate neurodivergent minds, maybe people wouldn't need medication, financial assistance etc.

Why do you think so many ADHDers smoke a lot of cannabis? Anecdotally people often say it helps them to function. I do believe that - why do you think that might be?

It was a dual ADHD/ ASD assessment so perhaps that made a difference. Personally we felt it was extremely thorough. 5 different people have their professional opinion and we felt absolute certainty over the diagnosis. I don’t like the idea of just one person making the diagnosis at all and would expect it to be a psychologist at the very least.

A few years back, I mentioned to my GP that I thought I might have ADHD. I was referred for an assessment by an NHS psychiatrist. The psychiatrist advised that I may have ADHD, but my symptoms may also be caused by my depression. Until my depression was dealt with, they couldn’t tell either way. Unfortunately, my depression never really goes away, so I feel a bit stuck.

What a lovely and brilliant thought. So we need to adapt eduction in particular into allowing those strengths to be channelled and flourish rather than trying to cram every square peg into a round hole?