Are ADHD waiting lists ever going to improve?

[MaddenA]

I've been told I could be waiting 7 years. Nearly bought medication a few months ago but panicked when I read about possible side effects so bottled it. Moment of madness. I'm desperate. How can it take 7 years for an assessment? I wish I could afford private.

It’s problematic as it means that people who are genuinely severely impacted by it can’t get medication

Someone I know has just been referred through school. They were told waitlist was 45 weeks (I think it’s less for children). Adults is currently 2 years

sorry realised you said Surrey schools! Misread it!

Of course it is - different areas always have different diagnosis / treatment wait times.

Yep.

And also why do people feel the need to seek an official diagnosis. I've likely got autism. My DCs have it and I have identical traits.

However I've made it this far through life without medication or an official diagnosis so I feel absolutely no need to waste my GP's time or have public money spent investigating something I already know.

What's the point?

This is literally me down to the letter too!

Agreed. Some people self diagnosing to excuse their children's behaviour/piss poor parenting, which will cause a huge back log for children that require correct diagnosis and possibly treatment

@THisbackwithavengeance Unlike autism ADHD has effective medication that (for lots of people) can really improve their symptoms and be life changing. So it's a bit different..

Speaking personally - I think I am probably one of the women who slipped through the net in childhood, I'm 36 now and had a difficult school experience. I think a diagnosis will provide an explanation to me for certain traits I have that prove very difficult and have complicated my life. I have gone through most of my adult life feeling like a complete failure. If I get a diagnosis it will take a lot of time to unpick the negative thoughts and beliefs about myself that I have formed over the years but with support I think a lot of women want a diagnosis to help them start that process. The other side of the coin is that if I don't get a diagnosis that could be devastating as I really will be just a lazy forgetful ditzy woman with a social handicap.

If you’re reliable and successful then there’s no need for diagnosis and medication

I made it to late 50s without a diagnosis or meds and thought I was coping (never thought I had ADHD until my dd showed me the symptoms and could tick each one both as an adult and a child)

The diagnosis and meds literally changed my life and probably saved it. Definitely added years to it.

Don’t forget the average life expectancy of someone with non diagnosed and medicated ADHD is 13years less than the average life span of a NT

Wait till you get to menopause.

That is complete BS

The type of drugs that are prescribed to someone without ADHD could affect them so badly that they could end up being responsible for their death.

When taken by a person with ADHD they have the opposite or no affect (remember taking my first 30mg of Lisdexamphetamine and waiting for some sort of different feeling but non came)

Where's the bar for medication?

Id say the bar should be set at where medication will make a difference to that person.

How severely affected should someone be before they're allowed medication?

I have a job, kids, i cope with family life. Adhd makes all of those things much more difficult. If medication will help why shouldn't i have it? Do we deny people with bad backs painkillers because other people have worse back injuries? If there's a shortage of medication, make more! If there's a long wait list, recruit more doctors! If someone thinks they might have ADHD, how do we decide which of those people is worth listening to, and which isn't? (Maybe by assessing them? Oh... Wait....)

As for parents just using adhd to explain bad behaviour - a parent is usually the best person to collect the information that the psychiatrist will require to make the diagnosis. There's no scan, no physical test that they can do. They make an assessment based on anecdotal evidence from the people that know the patient. Do we ignore parents when they go to the doctor's and say that their child is complaining of a physical issue on the basis that kid probably just wants to excuse themselves from PE? Or does the doctor listen and make an assessment of the patient in front of them?

This is exactly why i was diagnosed, and why i have found it helpful to have a diagnosis.

Not true.

The point is that many people do need medication to function, and if you don’t even have ADHD why do you think you’re qualified to say they don’t?

Yes, they can be dangerous in someone without ADHD. But that
doesn't stop people taking them as it can make them feel more focussed and they like the feeling.

my concern is precisely for people who actually need the medication to be able to function in life. I’ve seen at my work doctors very despondent about this, and the shortage of meds.

Medication “to function” for the worried well is a far cry from that needed for people with a significant and disabling disorder

Bullshit.

What you might not see is the struggle someone might go through to be reliable or the monumental effort it takes to get up, go to work, get to appointments, do what's needed.

You won't see then collapsing in emotional exhaustion after work or spending their weekends frozen and stuck. Or self medicating without even realising.

Everything you've posted highlights that you know nothing and your attitudes are actively harmful.

Don’t blame us for the NHS, blame greedy people having the audacity to make a GP appointment

I am in an area where the waiting list is very short.

What I notice is that in my area they do things differently compared to what i have read on here and other forums.

In my area the final diagnosis interview is around 1 hour long. Then if you get diagnosed the psychiatrist takes you to a nurse who does your weight height and BP then you are taken back to the psych who has been writing the notes of the interview and then you get written out a prescription

From reading on here and other forums in other areas you leave with your verbal diagnosis.

Then you get written to with a separate appointment for your height, weight and BP done and then you get written to again to go back for an appointment with the psychiatrist to discuss meds and get your prescription

I went in and was diagnosed and was leaving with my 1st prescription in 75 minutes

I think the other way of getting separate appointments is just so long winded and wastes everyone’s time.

Sometimes the long waiting lists are directly because of the systems in place in some parts of the NHS.

That is interesting. See this is the kind of things it’s worth discussing - so we can make improvements in the system, not moan at other service users. The waiting list is not 8 years long in some places because 8 years worth of people were somehow referred for a diagnosis they don’t have (as is the opinion of some posters).

The point is that for some people ADHD and autism can be a debilitating disability so they need additional support.

I’ve got severe ADHD and it impacts every aspect of my life - on the surface I look like I’ve got my life together but, even medicated, I struggle to regulate my emotions, lose the things I need daily, get overwhelmed easily, impulsively spend, forget important work tasks or to pick up prescriptions, etc. Being diagnosed and medicated has hugely improved my quality of life even if it’s not a magic bullet.

I’ve also got a lifelong condition that causes hearing loss so I’ve worn hearing aids since my mid 20s. No one ever questions if that’s real, minimises the impact on me or suggests I shouldn’t seek help because I’m wasting the NHS’s time as I already know I can’t hear.

Surely medical care and support for any condition that impacts an individual is what we pay taxes and NI for?

The point is you don't know how much better the quality of your children's lives could be with a diagnosis. Like exam support - even if its the opportunity to be in a smaller room to help with sensory overload - or a rest break during their exam they can take at their desk or leave the room. I would use my break as a toilet break.
It also allows them to identify which are their autistic / adhd traits and understand themselves - for my kids with ADHD I can say to them not to feel bad about X as that's an ADHD trait...but let's work out a strategy to avoid X in the future.

Not true at all. To the outside world, I'm very successful ('big job' in the City and utterly reliable) but the effort that masking takes exhausts me every day, even since childhood when my parents took my to the GP and they checked my thyroid etc and found nothing wrong. The personal cost that my "success" comes at means I have been unable to maintain a serious relationship with a partner (my RSD, amongst other things, is debilitating) so have chosen to be celibate for the past 20 years. The impulsive behaviour, the risk-taking....my whole life has been me taking everything right to the brink and then hanging on by my fingernails. And then menopause hit. OMG.

It never occurred to me that I might have ADHD. I'm one of 'those' middle aged women. A psychologist specialising in ND suggested it to me after he interviewed me for 2 hours. I was gobsmacked. And then I read the materials he sent me and it was the cliched lightbulb moment. Here was me thinking it was my personality when actually it was ADHD. I've since had a formal diagnosis. If I was younger, it would have changed my life completely. I have so many regrets about how different things could have been. But that's life. I take meds now. They really help. I wish this happened to me 30 years ago.

7 years? In 2013, I approached my GP who referred me to a psychiatrist. I was assessed within 4 weeks, and diagnosed within 8 weeks.

have the inattentive strain of adult ADHD and no hyperactivity.

I was prescribed a form of stimulant medication and my life changed overnight.

I honestly don’t believe it’s difficult to get an assessment or diagnosis if you actually have it.