ADHD Teenager

[Jimmyjimjam1]

Hello my son is 17 years and is in sixth form, he has been struggling with extreme focus problems, which he has had from early years, but they have become more pronounced due to the independent study nature of sixth form and it is really holding him back from achieving his full potential. The school have suggested that he may have a mild form of ADHD - we visited our GP who did a very brief assessment and agreed that he does have many of the symptoms, to follow up on the NHS would take 12-18 months due to long waiting lists. We have decided to go privately, but I am worried, as there are hundreds of psychiatrists listed, charging huge sums and I am worried that he may be seen by a poor practitioner and may be wrongly diagnosed ending up taking medication where it is not needed. I would be grateful for any advice you may have, what is the best way to get a private diagnosis and find a reputable ADHD specialist. Many thanks.

We got a private diagnosis for our son in 2022. We went online and searched for private clinics/practitioners and then we searched for reviews of them. The one we used, I have to say the reviews were accurate in that they have a huge number of practitioners, it seemed quite disorganised at times, and we couldn't get our son seen an in-person appointment - it had to be done over Zoom (since Covid this doesn't seem to be unusual). However, it does mean that you can see a practitioner who is geographically far away, because if the assessment is virtual it doesn't matter and this opens up the potential pool of practitioners that you could consult.

Overall, it took about four months to go through the process, get his formal diagnosis and get him onto medication. It's been life-changing and certainly education-changing for him. I'm SO glad we did it and we didn't wait. Now, when he's not medicated before we sit down to do schoolwork it's so hard for him (and for me!), but medicated he's calm and can focus and not be fidgeting and distracted. If you DS is already at A level age I can fully understand why you wouldn't want to wait and feel for any parent for whom going private just isn't an option. By the time you get to this stage of being fairly certain that your DC has ADHD, you're already pretty desperate and well aware of how it's impacting their life and learning.

I choose someone who works part-time NHS and part-time private. I think this means they are more likely to get NHS GP to agree to shared care and schools etc will have to respect their reports.

The practice we went with is led by a consultant who also works in the NHS for CAMHS.

It took about 3 months and about £4000 to get our teen assessed and diagnosed, then we titrated up a medication that is working for her.

Not all people with ADHD take medication. All my 4 adult kids have it, only two take medication, both for concentration.

Movement can increase concentration which is why peanut balls etc are used. Allowing him to learn information in different ways; verbally explaining, recording, listening to podcast type lessons but on the move. Movement supports the brain to access the frontal lobes which allows executive function to be optimised.

When researching you should be able to see whether the clinic’s assessment is recognised and they should mention shared care. Given a thread I’ve just started you might want to check that your GP surgery will accept shared care, only really relevant if your child is prescribed medication of course.

My son was diagnosed in his first year of A levels and did get extra time in exams. He is on medication and these helped him tremendously, completely turning around his education and is now at university.