Did you find out that you didn't have ADHD?

[PermanentTemporary]

I'll try not to navel gaze but I've been considering the possibility that I have ADHD for a while. Online screeners that don't look too trashy suggest it could be worth going further.

If that's me, it does explain some things and might help me make a career decision that's coming up. If not, it probably doesn't change that much - I could make the same decision, after all.

Was it worth going for a diagnosis? Particularly interested in those who were assessed but didn't have it.

Interesting watch , go carefully into the private sector

Diagnosis and treatment lifelong consequences

Money making business

The programme that was WIDELY discredited?

Widely discredited by who ???

The programme interviewed highly qualified experts in the the field of neuro diversity in particular ADHD

DD was diagnosed with ADHD privately and the private diagnosis concluded that whilst she had some ASD traits, she did not meet the criteria for a diagnosis.

DD was concerned about the private hype and as a young adult, having been picked up by the MH Trust ADHD service and asked to be referred for an ASD assessment. It came through and pretty much word for word triangulated the private assessment.

We went the route of a an adolescent psychiatrist after CAMHS refused even to refer her for counselling. At the time she was cutting, overdosing and withholding food.

Why do you implicitly trust the BBC?

This was heading grabbing, bandwagon jumping.

All those clinics were wrong and the NHS was right?

Why? It's almost like they're saying the NHS is the gold standard and never gets things wrong?

Maybe it's because I'm neurodiverse, but I don't blindly agree with authority, especially when they've been proved wrong on so many occasions. I wish those clinics would sue.

Mentalhealth services in the UK are dire
I'd go private if my child needed it everytime.
But I'd would be very aware of the private sector industry being exploitative and money making .
Do the research , that's all......
Face to face and legitimate, properly qualified and thorough
That's how I wouldproceed

This programme has been widely criticised.

'We are disappointed that BBC Panorama has opted to broadcast a poorly researched, sensationalist piece of television journalism. This programme has focussed on a niche issue whilst completely ignoring the broader context, including why there has been a rapid growth in private providers.'
https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk/2023/05/15/response-to-bbc-panorama-private-adhd-clinics-exposed/

In my case don’t have a diagnosis or meds because I’m a terrible procrastinator with a visceral fear of paperwork and doctors (and I don’t have a spare £1000).

I don't implicitly trust anyone

Especially a phone call or video call diagnosis

It's complex and a diagnosis takes time

Proceed with caution that's all

That's all.

The main problem with the panorama program was this -

He presented to the private clinics undercover. He reckons he filled in their screeners all accurately - but the screeners are around 95% accurate at pinpointing ADHD.

NHS waiting lists in most places are 2-5 years long. They didn't pick a presenter who happened to be on one already - they must have phoned up and said "We're doing a documentary for the BBC, can you show us what the diagnostic process would be like please?" The NHS psychiatrist knew that he didn't think he had ADHD.

That's not the same thing. It's completely biased. And since we already know that psychiatrists are prone to bias, this shouldn't be much of a surprise. When people go for an ADHD assessment, they aren't generally just going to say "Oh I read some memes on tiktok, sounds interesting, now I'm curious if I have this thing or not?" - they are going because they are severely struggling in life and want to know what might be the root cause and what could help. It might not be ADHD, but autism, depression, PTSD, thyroid issues, vitamin deficiency, coeliac disease etc. A good assessment process should be ruling other things out, and it's not uncommon for women especially with ADHD to have previously been diagnosed with anxiety and/or depression.

This disorder wrecks relationships and leads to people being fired from jobs and can prevent you getting a job or completing education. Most people don't have 2-5 years to just throw away once they know what could potentially help them. Of course, most people don't have any other option.

Oh, and it's not like it's an instant cure - you have to find the right medication which takes ages, unlearn all your crap unhelpful coping strategies which you've relied on for years, then learn new systems, potentially while dealing with the fallout of the untreated ADHD and/or the shitty coping strategies. It takes most people a good year or two after diagnosis to get things straightened out.

There could have been a really good documentary about why waiting lists are so long, why suddenly so many people are seeking diagnosis which is overwhelming the NHS capacity, why people are seeking private assessment and whether people getting private assessments over RTC are being short changed or whether telehealth is appropriate for this kind of thing.

Instead it was "ADHD is just a made up excuse for laziness and a reason to get free drugs!"

It's probably easier and cheaper to buy drugs illegally (if that is what you want) than it is to get hold of a prescription for extremely weak speed which BTW is adjusted so it can only be processed in the gut, for the most common form prescribed, which means it's not abusable and won't get you high.

@TheMarzipanDildo I can relate to that. I highly suspect I have ADHD and I score pretty highly, despite having a billion things in place to ameliorate symptoms. Every now and then I get hyperfocused on it, do a lot of reading, research etc. and think this is it, I'm going for an assessment. Then it's the actual doing and i lose focus, talking to docs/making appointments seems incredibly scary and overwhelming and the idea of paperwork and going back to my childhood/school years and what not fills me with dread. I can't focus enough to actually make that bloody phone call .

Not surprising really, when I barely manage to do it even with serious health concerns.

Allows me to follow a thought / piece of work / conversation from start to finish without getting distracted, moving to something else and then forgetting about what I initially started and then remembering in a blind panic later. It's helped massively at work in terms of not leaving stuff til the last minute, and has helped with paralysis around doing stuff like banking, trying to sort out official stuff (I'd spend days procrastinating)
My head is also quieter - there is more space for thought without a million of them colliding (there's still a lot, and weird tangential conversation topics but it's manageable)

The wheels fell off my masking and coping strategies (which I didn't even realise I had) when I hit peri menopause and it was dire. It's vvv common for this to happen with women, which is why we're seeing the start of a lot of later diagnosis in women imo

I work with someone who is a. ADHD researcher and he was telling that self-diagnosis has a very high correlation with actual diagnoses (with brain imaging) because surprise surprise, most people actually know themselves pretty well.

It is true. You would have to be very careful. Do your due diligence. Research the consultants.

But honestly? What alternative is there? There are places that have up to an EIGHT YEAR wait for assessment. Eight years? That's a whole school life over for some people.

When there is good evidence of adhd and you can afford it, it would make sense to seek a private diagnosis.

I know several who haven’t been diagnosed after doing the private route although none who haven’t the NHS route. Possibly due to schools sending children via the NHS and they see obvious signs compared to adults paying to go privately. It’s not true that you can just buy a diagnosis of anything purely because you go privately.

Yes - but the consultant told me I was autistic "beyond a shadow of a doubt". But that doesn't count as a diagnosis so back in the queue for that one.

I hate the constant social media posts convincing everyone they have ADHD.

When in fact ( especially women) it’s complete overwhelm with life, women have never been expected to do so much. Work full time, look after the kids, keep the house clean.. the list goes on.

Lots of women still have past trauma effecting them, difficult child hoods, the list is endless why your brain is fried add on to that complete overwhelmed and you’ve basically got a ticklist for ADHD.

A male friend of mine has just been diagnosed with it through a psychiatrist. He is going to try the medication. Apparently it’s hit miss and they may take a while finding the right one. They also told him his personality might change and that made me feel really sad.

He really wants to try the medication the medication because he cannot sleep he gets about three hours a night.

I was diagnosed with ADHD on the NHS by a psychiatrist a few years ago, in my forties. The medication (tried stimulant and non-stimulant, various types and dosages) has not helped me, and some medications made me feel worse or made my functioning worse. I now wish I hadn't requested assessment as this information about me hasn't been useful to me. In my case I wonder whether my ADHD symptoms could be caused by anxiety rather than ADHD. I am speaking purely about myself here, and of course am not questioning anyone else's diagnosis.

I got a private diagnosis first while I was on the NHS waiting list. I never mentioned that I had that diagnosis at all and still diagnosed on NHS.

I fully researched the psychiatrist I saw privately and ensured they were an expert in adhd in adults.

YEH this narrative that ''everybody has it now'' prevented me from getting around to making an appointment for years. I thought I was just jumping on a bandwagon. But although on mn I read that everybody apparently has it, in real life, everybody else seems completely unaffected by impulsivity, concentration, procrastination, obsessions! oversharing, fidgeting............. so really, not everybody has it. I'd be quite embarrassed telling people the reasons I believe I have it, because EITHER i'm a bit of a loser, or there's a reason and maybe that reason is that I have ADHD, so we will see. I'm not in much doubt though. Years ago I had therapy and that therapist was the first person to put the possibility to me. At the time, i wasn't ready to hear it and I shot her down but over the last five years, I've begin to realise, it does fit.

Everything you’ve just listed are also symptoms of unprocessed complex trauma.

A diagnosis of ADHD is like a Full English Breakfast. If you skip any one of the bacon, eggs, toast, beans, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, sausages, you'd still have a Full English, but there's no breakfast outside the ingredients.

If (like me) you procrastinate, lose your keys, lose track of the time, find boring jobs hard, fidget, and hyperfocus on something more interesting, then you might have enough ingredients to be described as having ADHD, but you haven't learned anything extra about yourself because ADHD is defined by having enough items from a few lists of symptoms, symptoms which you already know you have.

(To add: there's nothing wrong in getting a diagnosis for the stimulants, as they can undoubtedly be very useful for focusing— that's true no matter who takes them.)

Seriously you have no idea