They make it so easy. NHS waiting lists can be years long. I was on a "9 month" waiting list for nearly a year. Since following the instructions here it has been 2 and a half weeks and my first appointment is about to be booked.
As long as your GP isn't an ass and accepts that your self-assessment form and any evidence you have is enough to justify an assessment, you will be able to get an appointment. You just give forms/letters to your GP and Psychiatry UK do the rest - even chasing payments from your CCG.
In my experience, GPs often aren't familiar with how Right to Choose works or confuse it with funding requests, which the CCG will likely decline. There is a letter you can print on the page I linked that outlines Right to Choose for the GP. I also edited mine to clear up that it wasn't a funding request and didn't require the same protocols.
Once your GP has sent your referral to P-UK, they will contact you. You then sign up to their portal where they will send you forms to be filled in. 3 are for you and one is an "informant form" for someone who knows you well. This is the only real difficult part because you might not have someone who knows you well enough/believes that you have it/ you could be like me and know your parents would just dismiss whatever you have to say about it.
Fortunately for me my gf is supportive and was willing to do it, I also asked P-UK if that was appropriate, they said "The Informant Report is ideally completed by someone who knows you well and has for some time." It's probably fine for say, a close friend who has known you for at least a few years and at least somewhat understands ADHD and knows you want to get diagnosed. (Also it's very funny comparing what they notice about your symptoms to what you notice)
Currently, the relevant NHS commissioning authorities in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland have not agreed to fund anyone to receive our services
:sadness:
Yeah that really sucks, hopefully that will change at some point. Right to Choose itself is relatively young and even Psychiatry UK didn't have it explained very well on their website until recently.
thanks for telling us about psychiatry uk though because i've been wanting to get a proper adhd assessment for almost a year at this point but i've been constantly putting it off. just gonna need to spend a while saving up so i can pay for the private route lol
Diagnostic assessments cost £360
£105 per month, including the cost of a monthly prescription
Additional prescriptions will be £25 each
When you are on the optimal medication for you, you will have a follow up appointment with your consultant for £180
:agony-wholesome:
Once you are ready to start titration you can switch to your GP so you won't need to pay any more, so there's that
They rejected it because it’s basically privatisation with extra steps but private mental healthcare is better than no mental healthcare.
:deeper-sadness:
Mind if send you a PM at some point next week if I have any questions? in a similar boat and will look into it over the weekend.
For some reason in the UK, prescribing for ADHD is like pulling teeth, and when doctors are willing to prescribe it's very rarely amphetamine. Compare the rates of prescription makeup from America to the UK. What's troubling there is the fact that atomoxetine is prescribed at a superior rate to amphetamine, which is absolutely not supported by evidence. It pretty clearly underlines that bias and stigma still structure attitudes towards treatment.
On the bright side, methylphenidate has good evidence in support of it still and perhaps the highest tolerability, but consider pushing for alternatives if they stick you with atomoxetine and it doesn't work (although give that one two months) or methylphenidate has troubling side effects.
Got my appointment with Psychiatry UK on the 12th after months of waiting and a semi diagnosis through uni. Just send me a message if you have any questions about it.
I posted about it here when I found it. It’s basically Tories forcing people to use a private healthcare company through the NHS even though it costs them way more than just hiring more psychologists but mental health is important so don’t let it deter you. They’ve done the same with GPs and other NHS services for years anyway.
Mental healthcare pls. :yes-honey-left:
Tories forcing people to use a private healthcare company through the NHS even though it costs them way more
It's absolutely classic Tory short-termism, but it is good short-term help for the country's mental health crisis. Following up with some actual progressive policy would be amazing, but that won't happen even if the cunts get voted out now :agony-deep:
a semi diagnosis through uni
Disability assessment?
In the states I just called up a new doctor and said “hi, I just moved to town and have adhd, can you write me a new adderall prescription?” “They said, we just need to make sure your insurance is valid”
Can somebody explain to me how pharmaceutical grade uppers are supposed to treat hyperactivity? I never grasped that one
Not a clue, but I notice that stimulants in general affect me totally differently than other people. I feel calmer and more focused - even sleepy sometimes - on every stimulant I've tried. I can legit sleep after a fat line of coke or mdma
Stimulants give ADHD people a big boost in executive function because the ADHD brain requires a lot of stimulation to regulate attention. The "hyperactivity" in question is actually an inability to stick to one task.
To start with, I'm not a neuroscientist, so if I've gotten something wrong please correct me, but afaik:
ADHD is caused by a deficiency in neurotransmitters and/or neuroreceptors in the brain, specifically in relation to the neurotransmitter dopamine. This means that ADHD brains aren't able to process as much dopamine per any given interaction that would release it as a normal brain, which lead to a couple problems. First is that not being able to process as much dopamine as is needed causes a lot of signals within the brain to become lost, obviously leading to problems with focus, memory etc. The other problems comes from the fact that dopamine functions as a reward/pleasure signal. Obviously the brain needs a delicate chemical balance to maintain it's ability to function correctly, so not being able to take in a much dopamine is going to throw off that balance. Since the brain is taking in less than the required amount of dopamine each time it's released, it tries to compensate by doing more things that release dopamine, so that the total dopamine intake is still within the correct limits overall, which is what produces things like hyperactive behaviors and/or excessive daydreaming. It's essential the brain "manually" stimulating itself into the correct chemical balance.
Where the stimulants come in is that they supercharge dopamine production. This solves the first problem because now there's so much dopamine being produced that even if a lot of it is still getting lost, the brain is still getting the correct signals through sheer numbers. It also solves the second problem by passively producing the kind of necessary stimulation that the brain could only produce manually before through actions like daydreaming or fidgeting.
I was diagnosed with adhd when I was a kid and got put into learning disabled classes transferred to another school and put on meds that muted me. Why adults would seek out treatment for something that caused me so much misery to me is insane.
These meds will delete the person you are. They will delete your ability to build memories. They will delete your interest in anything. I don't really have any solid memories till after I got off the meds after 8th grade. They will turn you into a compliant little cog. One of my most vivid memories is being at the Dr and my mom asking them to up my dosage cuz the school said I still have to much energy. The Dr replied if she gives me more I will be a zombie.
Congrats on being diagnosed and just realize that the diagnosis for most children causes damage to them that'll take decades to unwind.
ADHD is controllable. You just need to figure out an out let for your energy. I'm not trying to make you feel bad. Just realize that with adhd comes easy more energy than most people can imagine ever having. Like working a 8 hr contracting job than riding your bike for 30 miles after wards.
Like the other guy said, it's very dependent on the individual. On /r/adhd for example there's success story after success story. For me I have developed coping mechanisms over my life and especially over the time I've known I've had it yet so many things are still so much more difficult for me, so if medication works for me that's great, if not I can work on it. It's also nice to get a diagnosis so I know for sure.
They will delete your ability to build memories
ADHD already does that for me, I don't remember much of my school days.
I don't doubt that's what you experienced, and I've heard plenty of other people with ADHD say the same things. However, there are a few things in this that I feel like are a bit too specific to your personal experiences, so I'd just like to add a few things to give OP and others a more holistic view of ADHD.
Why adults would seek out treatment for something that caused me so much misery to me is insane.
Like I said, I have no doubt that you've personally suffered due to treatments you've received. However, ADHD is a spectrum, and different people with it are going to have different experiences and needs in how they live with their disabilities. Other people can share their experiences on the matter, both positive and/or negative, but personally, I probably would've dropped out of college by now if I didn't get meds. I'm incredibly inattentive, and I can barely focus on lectures or homework when unmedicated. Tbh, there's even a lot of thing that I enjoy that I can barely focus on, so for me treatment has done nothing but make my life better.
These meds will delete the person you are, memories, interest, etc.
Once again, I've heard a lot of people with ADHD say this, especially about Adderall, so I've no doubt this's true. However, different meds have different effects for different people. Personally I've only ever been on dexmethylphenidate, and I've never experienced any zombification. Also, I would like to say that no one has to take meds if they don't feel like it. Sometimes they just aren't effective or the side effects just aren't worth it, and sometimes they just aren't necessary. So I would like to make clear that that I don't want anyone to feel like they have to be medicated, just like I don't want people to be scared away from taking medication.
I’m not trying to make you feel bad. Just realize that with adhd comes easy more energy than most people can imagine every having.
ADHD is a spectrum ranging from super hyperactive to super inattentive. You sound very much on the hyperactive side of the spectrum, while I'm very much on the inattentive side, so our experiences with ADHD are going to be very different. And that's not to say I'm not hyperactive. I do display certain signs of hyperactivity on a regular basis, and in certain situations I can even become more like the stereotypical person with ADHD who's bouncing off the walls with infinite energy. However, my inattentive symptoms are orders of magnitude more prevalent than my hyperactive symptoms in my day to day life. With that said though, most people with ADHD are going to wind up somewhere more towards the middle of the spectrum between hyperactivity and inattentiveness, so unless someone is definitely to one side or the other, it's better they listen to both experiences otherwise they could get the wrong idea as to what exactly ADHD entails.
Edit: Also, just so that I'm explicitly clear about my intentions (and in case I didn't come across in the way I intended), I'm not trying to make you feel bad or invalidated or anything like that.
I'm pretty inattentive if something does not catch my interest. Like I get really into that thing I'm into. Get good at it than get bored. I always found learning in school straight up boring, impossible to pay attention to, and honestly easy.
And just FYI if you get your kids diagnosed with adhd or add they will force you to medicate them. Some school districts go so far as to call cps on the parents of they won't medicate the kid.
You can figure out how to manage these things with out meds and you should. Some of it may just be this isn't for your. If you can't study than maybe academia is not for you. Maybe wrenching on cars, farming, or some other pursuit is more up your alley.
