DD ADD diagnosis NHS or go Private..any advice..

[Whym]

My DD (20) thinks she may have ADD. GP didn’t sound positive about referring her due to being an adult so we are considering going private if nothing progresses. We are in the UK (Midlands)

• Has anyone gone through this?
• Any advice to offer?
• Anything I should do or ask, etc?

Thanks

We had our 17 year old assessed in the states earlier this year and think it has been a positive experience- for him, confirmation of reasons why he thinks how he thinks, behaves how he behaves and I’m sure answers to why He hasn’t quite fitted in. For us, a learning experience and lots of guilt. We have found Counselling has helped in executive functioning but still a long way to go....

My son is now 18 and was diagnoed last feb. We went private and so glad we did. He now has meds and is so much happier that he has an understanding of his problems, but mostly, now that he is off to Uni he gets all sorts of help, much more than his school offered

Hi could I ask what sort of things your daughter struggles with that led to suspicion of ADD ?

I suspect my DS may have issues with concentration and has really poor memory recall but I get confused with ADHD because he is the opposite of hyperactive !

@imissthebubonicplague

Hi could I ask what sort of things your daughter struggles with that led to suspicion of ADD ?

I suspect my DS may have issues with concentration and has really poor memory recall but I get confused with ADHD because he is the opposite of hyperactive !

She tells us it’s her concentration and memory. Her short term memory is not good and she can’t choose what she needs to remember. She can be told one thing one day to forget the next. The only time she can fully concentrate is when it’s something she’s very interested in. At school she recalled day dreaming her way through classes. Her concept of ‘time’ isn’t good either. At school we knew she wasn’t the quickest but didn’t realise things were that bad. We think ADD because of the inattentiveness.

@user1468673063

We had our 17 year old assessed in the states earlier this year and think it has been a positive experience- for him, confirmation of reasons why he thinks how he thinks, behaves how he behaves and I’m sure answers to why He hasn’t quite fitted in. For us, a learning experience and lots of guilt. We have found Counselling has helped in executive functioning but still a long way to go....

It certainly is a learning experience and yes the guilt (for me personally) is just awful. I just want things to be ok for her but have to confess I’m not finding it easy at the moment... I’m pleased to hear things are working out for your son, it must be such a relief for you. Thanks for your reply.

@Pennyxk

My son is now 18 and was diagnoed last feb. We went private and so glad we did. He now has meds and is so much happier that he has an understanding of his problems, but mostly, now that he is off to Uni he gets all sorts of help, much more than his school offered

With nothing picked up at DDs school it’s only now we are beginning to see what problems she is having. I think we will probably end up going private as the GP didn’t seem that confident he’d be able to refer her. Can I ask about how they diagnosed your son and what symptoms did he have? Thanks.

My son's school never really seemed interested in diagnosing him because he wasn't disruptive and was doing 'ok'. He was very distractable and teachers used to tell me that he was able but needed to get organised and focus more (I would say, Yes, I know that but how does he do that). The older he got, the more I could see how it was impacting his life. No concept of time, missing things all the time, very poor memory, having fewer and fewer friends because he didn't seem to have the skills to engage with them. He couldn't concentrate on school work for more than 10 minutes at a time.
We found a psychiatrist and she did two 90 minute interviews with him, then he had a two hour Psychological assessment. Within 3 months the doctor was prescribing the meds. On the first day of taking Medikinet, he said it was like the interruptions in his head had been turned off.
Like others, I have terrible guilt and get so down that I didn;t help him sooner. Yesterday, I took him to Uni and I have no idea how he will cope, but thanks to the diagnosis he now has 32 hours of 1-1 support and loads of other help, like special software to help him organise himself. It cost about £1200 for the diagnosis but, so far, I'm so glad we did.
If you want any more information, just say. I could even PM you the report we had so that you could see the kind if things the psychiatrist wrote. Hope this helps