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Has anyone managed to get an ADHD dx as an adult?

30 replies

Callardandbowser · 28/08/2020 20:40

I’m a primary school teacher but I’m becoming more and more convinced that I have ADHD. Have any of you lovely people had a dx as an adult? If so, how?
TIA.

OP posts:
billysboy · 10/09/2020 14:58

I jumped right in following a couple of introspective years and made an appt with Harley st specialist
I had the first appt yesterday and they confirmed ADHD I have a follow up in a week
I feel quite relieved to know I am not mad after all

phenelope · 13/09/2020 14:18

This will tell you! See last paragraph. PLEASE read this.

Equasym have cheapened their formula again. I think they have used the wrong amphetamine, which makes it worse instead of better. I have been taking more in an effort to be focused and I now see that I was making myself worse. So what happens to families?

How do stimulants work in the ADHD brain?

There are 43 medications currently available that stimulate in the same way that amphetamine and methylphenidate do, but only three of those medications make ADHD better. The rest make it worse. Just being a stimulant is not enough to make a medication work in an ADHD brain.

A PET scan study was done monitoring a specially prepared solution of methylphenidate to see where it wound up in the human brain. Everyone expected that it would go to somewhere in the fronto-parietal cortex, or to some area that was rich in adrenaline or dopamine nerves. It didn’t. Instead it was actively pulled out of the blood and concentrated in only one area at the exact center of the brain called the corpus striatum.

The striatum has no adrenaline or dopamine activity. The striatum is your executive assistant. It scans all of your thoughts, feelings, and experiences and sends the one most important thing up to your cortex for you to think about. Everything else is handled behind the scenes.

The current theory of ADHD is that the striatum works 99 percent as well as it does in neurotypical brains. Rather than sending only one important thing to the frontal cortex, it sends five or six things, with no particular significance attached to any one of them. This is what it is like to have untreated ADHD — five things rumbling about in your head for no apparent reason. The ADHD medications help the striatum work the way it was meant to. —William Dodson, M.D.

OdysseyOracle · 13/09/2020 14:47

I was diagnosed with autism in 2017 and have been on a waiting list for an ADHD assessment since December 2018. I've been told the list is somewhere between 5 and 7 years long and I've been under mental health teams for about 15 years, so don't think that makes a difference here (Liverpool). I would see if I could afford a private assessment, but I wouldn't be able to keep up the expense for medications afterwards.

I think I do have it - I feel so muddled and slowed down most of the time. I've tried probably over 30 different medications to treat depression, anxiety and OCD but only Bupropion has made a tiny difference. I also have anorexia nervosa, so they might not let me have the meds if they cause weight loss. I turn 40 tomorrow and just wish I could actually get some kind of life together finally, as it's been a disaster so far!

phenelope · 13/09/2020 20:08

Someone said something about all that, I think it was when they took thyroid medicine with T3. All that stuff went away. You might put in a search for it. Very best of luck.

Tell me if you find it. And someone to prescribe it!

billysboy · 26/09/2020 16:32

I got a dx and have started treatment this week

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