Undiagnosed ADHD in adult women

[HundredMilesAnHour]

Does anyone have experience of inattentive ADHD in adult women?? Ideally I'm looking for a recommendation of a specialist with experience in diagnosing adult women, preferably in London.

Any experience is very welcome please!

Dr Helen Read. Based in London, not central though. Diagnosed me with combined type in 2019.

Fabulous, thank you so much @roycroppersshopper

A psychologist that was assessing me for something unrelated this morning said he thinks I have inattentive ADHD. It was a complete surprise but OMG it makes me complete sense as I read more about it. I'm a little shellshocked so want to get a professional diagnosis (or not) asap but it seems it's harder to diagnose in women as we do a stellar job of masking?

The waiting lists are years long unfortunately.

I think there are a lot of women who are just realising they are undiagnosed because it was not picked up when we were at school unless you had horrifically disruptive or self-injurious behaviour (and even then, many children were more likely to be labelled as troublemakers than anything else).

If you were bright and did OK academically nothing was likely to be seen as wrong at all.

It's not necessarily years. 6 months currently in my area.
Under Right to choose you can ask to be referred to another org like psychiatry uk for diagnosis.

Also check if your work occupational health can help at all.

This ^ I've been on the list 4 months from referral and being assessed this week.

Right to choose - Psychiatry UK

Yes, Dr Read isn't accepting new referrals until Sept. 😥I'll try asking my GP but I'm in Tower Hamlets so waiting lists for anything are very long. I do have some private insurance through my employer but I've already exceeded my limit for the year and have spent an extra £20k of my own money on medical bills as I have long Covid that has prevented me working. The ADD diagnosis has come up as part of a workplace needs assessment during my phased return to work.

Will have a look at Psychiatry UK thanks @GalaxyBlobs

If you were bright and did OK academically nothing was likely to be seen as wrong at all.

@BertieBotts Yes, this really resonates. I was very strong academically and have a fairly successful career (senior role in the City) but it has always felt held together with bits of sticking plaster over the cracks that I've kept hidden from everyone while I wondered what the hell is wrong with me?!! So this is so out of the blue but it explains things that I've never told a soul.

Yes I felt exactly the same. I couldn't work out what was wrong with me and when I discovered ADHD-PI was a thing it was like somebody had written out all of my problems in a little neat and tidy list

I suppose I'd probably never thought to put them all together and ask "Is this related?" but it was still astonishing.

I'm glad to hear that the wait isn't years :) Months is still difficult, but I didn't mind waiting a few months. I had been waiting my entire life.

Requested GP to be referred to Psychiatry-UK last October. Got a call this week for an appointment after half term. It's quicker than I was told.

Good luck!

I live in London, by the way. But since Psychiatry-UK is online based, I doubt they make waiting list based on geographic location.

Astonishing is exactly the right word @BertieBotts . I think I'm over the initial shock and have reached the "wow! just wow!" stage. It explains everything. Even thing I didn't realise needed explaining as they were just 'part of of my personality'.

Trying to get an appt with my GP to ask for a referral to Psychiatry UK but of course there are no GP appts. I'll keep trying. As Bertie says, I don't mind waiting a few months because it seems at almost age 52, this has affected my whole life and I never even realised so what's a few more months.

That sounds really positive, thank you so much! I have a (free through work) private GP I can ask to refer me so will try her if I get nowhere with my NHS GP. Poor Tower Hamlets is struggling just to cover the basics like TB so I don't think a banker with ADHD is understandably a priority.

Psychiatry-UK is online based. I don't think your region would be taken into account.

If you go through private GP, I'm not sure you'd still be covered with NHS. May end up self paying.

I went private a few years ago, got dx via The Priory in Surrey. I tried medication and initially that was £100 a non on private prescription, I was eventually able to get shared care agreement with nhs for this, but haven’t been able to get organised enough to order repeats and get to pharmacy to collect so I’ve given up on that. At work I cope well, but I’m crap at keeping up with housework. I’ve found dx transformational, I’m able to be much kinder and more understanding of myself and (touches wood) my mental health has been much better. I’m open about having adhd at work (work in SEN which helps) and find I’m putting less effort into masking my symptoms and instead trying to accommodate them which probably makes me more challenging to live with but I’m much less stressed.

Have a look at The Effra Clinic.
We've just used them & found them to be professional, warm & understanding

Adult ADHD assessment with Effra is approx a grand

Yes, they can't refer me to the NHS but they might be able to offer me some guidance while I'm trying to get a NHS GP appt.

The Effra clinic looks good but I can't afford to fund it privately for at least a few months' time when I'll hopefully have an income again.

If you really need to go privately, make sure you get one that their diagnosis would be recognised/ accepted by NHS to pave for shared care treatment. And even before the shared care, each appointment for titration would cost a small fortune. I really advise you go through your GP if you could give it time to sort out.

My GP isn't willing to refer me. She says there's no point as they'll just want to get me meds and that it's amphetamines and they don't really agree with that these days. 🙄

So I am back to looking at getting this done privately.

There’s meds opinions that aren’t amphetamines eg. Amtomoxetine. There’s also adhd specific coaching and lifestyle changes such as more exercise that can have a huge impact on adhd symptoms. How incredibly short sighted of the gp!

Seedtalks are running some good adhd talks around the country at the moment.

Get a new GP. That's a ridiculous attitude.

Second this. I can hardly believe doctors with this narrow minded mentality exist.

Honestly, even if you go down the private path, in the end would still have to request for share care for medication. Not sure with their attitude if they'd accept it.

Going private would involve both diagnosis and titration, could end up thousands of pounds.

If I were you, would try a different GP. Psychiatry-UK (via Right To Choose from NHS) only takes six months.

Can anyone point me in the right direction of a list of traits/ behaviours/ coping mechanisms please?