Hi all. Posting here for traffic. If this would be better in another section than no probs with it being moved.
Looking for a bit of advice as there seem to be a fair few members who've gone down the assessment route in recent years. Might be a bit long but want to give full picture so apologies in advance. For context, I was diagnosed in primary school and took ritalin until my late teens and for a brief spell at uni.
I then stopped as I started smoking a lot of weed (apparently also common with ADHD sufferers) and felt this suppressed my symptoms enough - although no doubt it isn't the best solution, I just enjoyed smoking it so it killed two birds with one stone.
Stopped smoking in my late 20s and used THC gummies a few times a month when I found myself slipping into bad habits and unable to sleep due to restlessness. It worked well for a few years but in the past year I've had to stop due to regular drug testing at work. I regularly can't seem to switch off now and often go all week getting 4-5 hours a night (e.g. need to be up at 05:30 tomoz and only got 4.5 hours last night, yet feel too restless to sleep even after hitting the deadlifts in the gym).
Ritalin seemed to help in a different way. It didn't switch me off like weed does but seemed to help me to stick to a routine which allowed for better sleep hygiene - cook dinner, get stuff ready for work, get ready for bed, etc. It wouldn't be so bad if I still worked in an office but I'm operating heavy machinery a lot of the time and tomorrow I'll be driving a 38 ton truck to a site in central Brum, for example. It's really not in my interest to not be 100% on the ball as a second's distraction can literally result in me killing people.
I reality, I'm very careful and have quick power naps if needed (lots of waiting around in my job) but I need to get this sorted really. I'd just buy Ritalin online and start my old dose in the meantime but it shows as amphetamine in drug panels so without a prescription that's not an option either.
I'm currently on the list with Psychiatry UK since Sept/Nov (seems to be some confusion exactly when). Been waiting since Feb '23 but my GP messed up and didn't put me into RTC queue until Sept. Psychiatry UK then said in Nov they hadn't received initial referral so not sure if it was backdated or logged as received in Nov.
I'm wondering whether to just restart with ADHD 360 given that I'm only 3-4 months into the total 15 month waiting time for Psychiatry UK? In their Feb '24 update ADHD 360 are quoting eight weeks with no additional queue for medication. It's been a year now and I've defo read instances of people having been assessed despite applying after me. And what's worse is that it's taken my GP from Feb-Nov to even get me into the currently 15 month queue - I was expecting to be called in for an assessment soonish.
Wondering if anyone can advise? Can you restart with another provider or generally do the NHS do one referral and stick with it? If I have to wait another 12 months with Psy UK I could've quite literally gone through the ADHD 360 process six times over!