Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder sounds bad – but isn’t – or at least it isn’t as bad as it sounds – or, at least, it’s not necessarily so…..
Turbocharged superheros
Actually, many people with ADHD quite like some of it’s effects. For many with ADHD or who know someone with ADHD, it is a fascinating, rewarding and intriguing collection of ways of behaving that make them the fun, different, scatty, artistic, exciting, creative, generous – mad – person that they are. One top American specialist doctor calls having ADHD having a turbocharged race-car of a brain – but with bicycle brakes!
Unfortunately, the thing about turbocharged race-cars is that they are rather difficult to handle, especially when you don’t have very good brakes – and more especially without any training – and most especially when you don’t actually know what it is – and nor do any of those people around you – most of whom don’t have this mental turbocharger. Which is why many of those who didn’t have their ADHD diagnosed as a child feel they make such a mess of their lives because of it.
The trouble is…. being in trouble
People with ADHD are used to being in trouble. Mainly because there are things that those who don’t have ADHD learn to control or manage at quite an early age that ADHD people find impossible to ever manage – without help. Non ADHD people find it really hard to understand that an ADHD person is really trying to control this thing but actually cannot do it. People with ADHD are often forgetful, unpunctual, unreliable, inappropriate, easily distracted, impulsive, inconsistent, loud, lazy, impatient, noisy… The list goes on and on! The fact is, living with someone with an uncontrolled turbocharged brain is not at all easy.
The good news is that for nearly everyone with ADHD (or who has to live with someone with ADHD) it is possible to control that turbocharger. In fact, with suitable medication and training, anyone with ADHD can control the negative sides of having a turbocharged brain while remaining that fun, different, scatty, artistic, exciting, creative, generous person they (almost) always are.
For most adults with ADHD, the overwhelming emotion when they receive the diagnosis is one of sheer relief at receiving an explanation for why it is that they are always messing up. However, getting the diagnosis is only the first step. The big task is to learn to control that turbocharger.
Taking back control
Luckily, the medications for ADHD can be amazingly effective. They are actually stimulants that calm the brain down. It seems really unlikely, but the thing that an ADHD brain needs to be manageable is a sort of drug that makes anyone else get all excitable and behaving like someone with ADHD!
Due to the effect of these stimulants on people who do not have ADHD, these are controlled drugs – so you have to have a type of prescription that no GPs would ever prescribe unless they knew that a specialist psychiatrist had made the diagnosis of ADHD. The problem is that, when the symptoms of ADHD are described, most people think that it might apply to them because being distracted or always late is something that lots of people experience. The difference is that people with ADHD do it all the time and in lots and lots of different but similar ways. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder but it can only be considered a disorder if the effect of ADHD impinges negatively on the person enough to impair their lives: so that is what the ADHD specialist has to judge to make the diagnosis – and to agree to prescribe.
Lack of NHS resource
The bad news is that, in the UK, there is a huge shortage of psychiatrists and therefore a major problem with getting ADHD diagnosed, especially as an adult. Frankly, you will be very lucky indeed to do so on the NHS in many areas of the UK. There are some excellent services, especially in London, but even if you are fortunate enough to be in a region where they offer an adult diagnosis service, the waiting lists are huge. On top of that, to even get on the waiting list you have to persuade your GP that you have a serious problem – and there is a sad lack of understanding of adult ADHD among many GPs. This means that you will probably have to go privately. We believe that we are the fastest and cheapest option at Psychiatry-UK as we provide an online diagnosis for £300, and you can see a specialist psychiatrist within a week. Most private face to face diagnosis services cost between £500 and £700.
Diagnosis and beyond
Once you have a diagnosis, if you have also decided to try the medication, the specialist psychiatrist will have to make sure that you are on the right dose by using a process known as titration. This is done by starting you on a small dose and then, while keeping an eye on your blood pressure and heart rate and talking to you about your appetite and how you are feeling, increasing it over a few weeks, perhaps varying the type of medication or the time you take it, until they and you agree that you are on the right dose. At that point the psychiatrist will write to your GP and ask them to take over the prescribing – though you will then need to have an annual follow up appointment. To do this online, we will charge you between £150 and £250.
The next step is to learn to drive a turbocharged brain. Anyone who has such an asset should make the best of it! The sad fact is that too many adults with ADHD develop their own issues and problems by failing to understand what they are dealing with and suffer terrible side effects such as addiction problems, or anxiety or anger management issues as a result of their untreated ADHD. There are a number of specialist therapists and coaches who work in the field of ADHD. However, not surprisingly, most of them work with children. There are some of course, especially in the US, who specialise in adult ADHD so it may be sensible to get help from them online. It can be hugely helpful to get a coach who can talk about relationship problems – or who has experience of working with those with gambling or alcohol addiction. We have a number of such specialist coaches, both in the UK and in the US, to whom we refer on our patients.
Dr Elena Ghetau co-wrote this with Jon Chanter. Elena is a Psychiatrist with Psychiatry UK. You can view her profile here. Jon has a turbo-charged brain.
I’ve always had adhd. And only discovered what it was about a year ago 35+ something years later.im Not looking for special treatment . Just some vindication to why people called me mad my whole life and why what’s supposed to be easy I find impossible. And the opposite i find easy. i read upto where it said 300 + 500-700 and said fuck that. =1 months rent + 8 weeks food.
I’ll live with being a frustrated pissed off ,unvindicated, patronised, detached, disjoined, forgetfull underwhelmed preoccupied scatty staring into a infinite white wall of a mental block that is making a sound conscious decision type of guy.
For that price
Still I enjoyed reading this and hope these services really help someone. Good luck
@ unnecessary detail – Get on to your G.P. A.S.A.P. as the waiting list is huge, there’s a World Health Organisation questionnaire in PDF format on the web, it’s not the be-all or end-all but filling it in and then seeing the doctor helped with me. A lot of folks find themselves on anti-depressants as a false diagnosis, if this is the case, point-out that those meds don’t seem to feel right to you, as frankly, they won’t if you’ve got ADHD, I’ve just come off them this year for the first time in nearly ten years of taking them, it’s been 4 months or so now and I feel fine, yes I still have the mood-swings and intense worry about doing the right thing by the right person etc etc, but that’s always going to be there occasionally, the frequency of it is far less now though, likely due to the right meds in my system – xenidate for me, currently on the 54mg dose. It’s not that the meds have changed me, they simply give me the consistency of energy/mood/behavior that enables me to commit to things without the worry of whether or not I’ll be “on form” that day.
Good for you Trevor, and I completely agree with your advice.
The good news from our point of view is that the NHS has, at last, started to fund our service. It’s still a postcode lottery as to whether you will get funding, but it is worth trying…
Jon Chanter
My doctor told me that my county can only fund and support 12 people through this diagnosis each year. I have completed the Weiss Test and almost cried because it was a tick in every box. But even so, I hold no hope of getting help via the NHS and if I wasn’t a parent I’d just continue life in my scatty, random, chaotic, yet reasonably ok world. But as a parent, I really need help and I need it now. I just can’t find ££ to get it. It’s just another failure for me but I hope it helps someone x
The good news is that the NHS has started to agree to fund our service. The bad news is that the funding is patchy and can still take some time to be approved. If you would like help in approaching the local commissioners in your area, there is this form on our website.
https://psychiatry-uk.com/2020/nhs-funding-application-form/
I was diagnosed with having ADHD in my twenty’s but for some reason they never wrote that in my medical files.For fifteen years they prescribed me Dexamphetamine where my tolorance went through the roof so I was on 175mg 31 tablets a day even 217 pills on a weekly script.Before I knew it they got me addicted to it I couldn’t do a thing without using it.Then at 40 they stopped prescribing it where they had made my depression so much worse low and down.Altogether they had made me 500 times worse than before.Tomorrow I’ve got an appointment to see a new phyciatrist after ten years but I don’t hold any good feeling to seeing them now.To prescribe Dexedrine Adderall or Ritalin it’s not even licensed for any adult to receive any of them.There waste of space in uk
My GP referred me to you through RTC, said it was around a 6 month wait…I’m pretty desperate to get this sorted as been on the NHS waiting list for over 3 years already.
The £300 you mentioned for the assessment I think is very fair and just about doable, are there further costs after this for prescriptions etc?
I’m not able to hold a job down for more than a couple of months because of how I am…unemployed at the moment…
Should I wait or try to get the money together!?
Hi Elaine – Thank you for getting in touch and I do apologise for the delay in our response. I’m afraid that we are currently only accepting online ADHD referrals through Right to Choose, so our best advice is for you to wait. We are doing everything we can to be able to move people up the waiting list as quickly as possible, so please do keep looking out for Psychiatry-UK emails or a phone call from 0330 124 1980. If you have any further queries, please do come back to us.