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!

My 17 year old daughter is pursuing an ADHD diagnosis on the recommendation of her specialist dietician (she suffered from anorexia a few years ago). I paid for a screening and it was considered she was more likely to have ADHD than autism. She is now waiting for assessment under right to choose. She is recovering from the eating disorder and is a healthy weight now but is not recovered. I think it is likely she does have ADHD but I am concerned about the appetite suppression caused by medication. Do you have any experience?

Thank you for this thread. Do you get many referrals from older people, by which I mean 75+? I have started to realise in recent years that my DM who is early 80s, is very likely AuDHD, it’s been staring me in the face all these years but because she has raised a family, had a successful career, been very busy in retirement etc no one ever thought of ND and it just wasn’t a thing when she was younger in any case. I can recount all sorts of things over my lifetime (obsessions, being constantly on the go physically and mentally, easily distracted, needing very little sleep, rigid thinking, extreme anxiety) that point to it and my DCs are both ND.

My other question would be do you think it is worth going through the process for someone like her? She would almost certainly reject medication as she is very anti big pharma, but it could bring peace of mind that there is nothing wrong with her perhaps.

Do you think it’s possible to be diagnosed with adhd (without actually having it) by knowing a lot about the “symptoms” and giving the correct answers that point towards having adhd, not sure if that makes sense… as in you think you have adhd so give the answers and behave the way you think you would behave with adhd.

In reality there aren't enough assessors as things stand now, if you insist on it being a psychologist then there would be barely any. There's no reason a highly qualified nurse practitioner shouldn't be trained to carry out the assessment.

Hi,

my son is 4 and in reception class. He's been suspended 4 times in the last 2 months.

This is due to meltdowns he had in school when he threw things or hit other children/adults.

The reasons where because he had great difficulty finishing one task and starting another. He also lashed out when the tower he built was knocked over by another child.

The school also says that routine and predictability is very important to him and he gets unsettled when things change unexpectedly.

I also noticed at home he sometimes has meltdowns when he accidently hurts himself (like running into something).

He has some sensory issues when it comes to certain sounds and he sometimes blinks excessively while talking and stuttering occasionally.

I think his problems started already between 12-18 months when he started eating carpet/fluff/dust and always walked off to play by himself when he was at his childminder.

He also sometimes pees himself during the day when he intently focuses on one activity and forgets to go to the toilet.

My friend who is a teaching assistant for special needs children thinks he's got ASD.

The manager at his old nursery thinks he's got ADHD, because her son was similar when younger and was later on diagnosed with ADHD.

The problem is that my son is actually very social now as opposed to when he was younger.

When he's calm, he plays beautifully with other children and is very considerate and gentle. Children also like spending time and playing with him. He also has no problem with eye contact and smiles a lot.So he doesn't fit the autistic profile perfectly.

We can't have him assessed for ADHD, because he's not 6 yet.

We're about to have him privately assessed for autism, but in the first consultation the psychologist said that she's 50/50 if he will get a diagnosis, because he is so social and good with other children when he's calm.

In your opinion, reading about my son's problems, would you lean more towards autism or ADHD?

Yes exactly! And as we understand more about neurodivergence and more people are diagnosed younger, that the world may change and adapt better to allow all people to thrive.

@Lallybroch I’m also 62 and yes, the tiredness! I honestly don’t know how I did it.

Thank you so much @DisabledNurseofTiktok, that’s really helped. I’m really grateful for this thread, my youngest son was diagnosed ADHD a few months ago, my eldest is ASD and possibly/probably ADHD, husband ASD. Navigating this has been different for us all!

This is a circular argument. Wordy, but meaningless.

Not really. Undiagnosed ADHD/ASC can be really difficult to live with and can impact functioning in a lot of ways. Add in additional stressors such as poverty and abuse, and you often have ND parents not able to care adequately for ND children hence they are more likely to end up in the care system.

@FortyElephantsagreed. Teacher for 30 years, this is my experience of children in care too.
My experience in Primary was being told by the SENDCO ‘I think all children are a bit on the spectrum’. Luckily, we pushed for assessment for my eldest, despite her, not with her support.

Hi,
Thanks for the thread ☺️
I'm waiting for an ADHD assessment on the NHS. It's taking years....
Is it worth changing to right to choose? If I do this and I'm diagnosed would I be able to access medication via the NHS? I would love to see if medication does have a positive effect. Thank you x

Thank you so much this is hugely helpful - the push o needed to seek formal diagnosis- you live for so long this way you think it’s normal… then you see friends who are neurotypical and realise… it’s not!

What kind of things in a person's physical presentation/behaviours/demeanour would indicate to you that they could be adhd? Beside the information provided from them. My assessor told me I was hyperverbal, I rambled and could not get to the point at all

Thank you interesting threat. Your information given will be both helpful and insightful for people seeking diagnosis and with children who have ADHD.

The answer to everything now is to place the problem within the child and give the child a diagnosis of something or other. External factors don’t seem to be considered anymore.

1000x this. Agree wholeheartedly

My DD was diagnosis with ADHD last year and we have always suspected it tbf. She is on meds but sometimes I almost feel as if they aren’t doing anything!? She can be incredibly combative, it’s almost like she will try and do anything to create a reaction from me and her Dad. Is this dopamine seeking behaviour? Is she looking for an argument due to her feeling bored/underwhelmed?! It’s so stressful trying to deal with her as I do think sometimes she truly doesn’t care.

I am also concerned her impulsivity will land her in much bigger trouble as she gets older!

a high percentage of the prison population is thought to have ADHD and that scares me for DD.

That would mean admitting there’s a fault within the environment and schools/education can be very very reluctant to do that..

I disagree. My experience of working with these children and families has led me to strongly believe that exposure to early trauma (DV, neglect, poor parental MH, the list goes on) affects the development of the brain, specifically the sensory system, cognitive functioning and the development of executive function skills. We do not have an education or health system that supports these children, or offer pathways specifically tailored to these needs, and so all these children and funnelled towards ASD/ADHD pathways. I think ADHD and autism are red herrings in most of these children. They are likely to respond to similar strategies, because fundamentally they crave order, containment and regulation, but I feel it does them a disservice to diagnose with ADHD and move on. Locating a difficulty within the child is not the right path when trauma is the clear underpinning factor.

(there will of course be exceptions of true ADHD presentation within this cohort of course, but when 80% of the children in care in my county are awaiting assessment, we need to start stepping back and looking at them differently)

Do you know if ADHD can have a remission/relapse type pattern (not sure how else to term it)? We’ve queried it with my DS, but he goes through periods of appearing more neurotypical, and then a sudden plunge into very difficult to manage behaviour/many symptoms. This was particularly noticeable in toddler/preschool age with difficulty switching off to sleep and long periods of insomnia overnight, followed by weeks of more normal sleep.

Don’t you think it’s more likely that the neglect/poverty/other background issues are driving the developmental difficulties? I work in the same arena, and could count on one hand the amount of children I’ve seen come into care solely because of their own behaviour and parents inability to cope with it. There is almost always a backdrop of neglect, abuse and fear. The commonality in CiC is trauma, and it’s a huge leap to say that undiagnosed ND is at the root. These children are managing the impact of developmental trauma, and yes, this makes it even harder for parents to cope if they are already grappling with other social issues like poverty and DV. But the trauma is driving the behaviour.

How many of the families live in the village and how many have moved their child to the school because it has small classes in a school which is seen as nurturing. It is very common for small village schools to have well above the national level of SEND due to this.

.

@strugglingparent1there is an enormous amount of crossover between ASD and ADHD. Your son could be both.