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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 10:14:17 GMT
As per title. What are the actual reasons as to why getting an adult ADHD diagnosis is virtually impossible in the U.K?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 10:55:01 GMT
it's not impossible, i got one! ;D
it just takes bloody ages!... the reasons are:
1) GPs don't have enough experience of the disorder, so they don't know what to do when someone presents with it.
2) there are nowhere near enough specialists with experience of diagnosing & treating people with ADHD. So they all have very long waiting lists!
3) Because there are so few specialists, many GPs will have to refer you to a specialist outside of your region. Which gives them a headache because funding has to be specially approved.
but all of this is slowly changing!...
-although it might actually be nearly impossible in Scotland!!!
-matt
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Post by boo on Sept 3, 2009 11:00:20 GMT
dont lose heart, there are a whole bunch of us dx, so like matt says, it may be an uphill struggle in your area, but you can get there. remember the more people banging down doors, the more aware and knowledgeable the psychiatric community / experts will become, we just need to oil the wheel a bit for a while
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 11:02:34 GMT
Just to expand on Matt's point 1)
If you go to your GP with the symptoms without knowing what it is then the GP is going to diagnose something else (unless you are incredidbly lucky in your choice of GP).
I'd been going to my GP for years (20+) with the symptoms and had given up, since the treatments were all wrong, until I stumbled across ADHD elsewhere.
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Post by andy12345 on Sept 3, 2009 11:43:45 GMT
Shocking is it not? Really shocking.
Is the USA only ahead of these controversial matters because of the private (read expensive) health"care" system? I mean in the 70's/80's ritalin was given for the "disorder of the nerves" and the other names for what is now listed as ADHD.
The biggest ignorance so far is that people instantly associate with hyperactivity.......
So many ignorant cattle in this world.....and that's probably insulting cattle!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 11:57:05 GMT
some psychiatrists are complete tossers and, rather than go out on a limb to prescribe currently unlicenced medication which is proven to help adhd sufferers, will attempt to deny the existence of adhd at all, let alone in adults. At least with the new guidelines they can no longer dispute its existence, nor the proven benefits of medication.
At the moment there are relatively few adult adhd specialists working in the NHS (although the numbers are increasing).
it is very much a postcode lottery as to whether you have a specialist in your Primary Care Trust, unfortunately for most.
You may have to prepare yourself for a bit of a battle with your local PCT, but a diagnosis and help can be arrived at eventually, even if your postcode is the wrong one; referrals can be made out of area but this will not happen overnight as mental health is something of a low priority for the NHS.
As Matt said, it can take bloody ages. It is worth it in the end though.
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Post by andy12345 on Sept 3, 2009 13:24:52 GMT
Mental health should be top priority. After 10 years, watch a lot of the other problems go away..........
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 16:36:10 GMT
Dont want to be smug at all but i was rare exception in being dx quiet quick and that felt like a traumer as its just been surgested or realised that you may have AD/HD and then have to go on mission impossible to get help. I was lucky as my consultant isn't being funded by my part of liverpool so he could have told me to go away apart from his secetary not knowing the boroughs of liverpool. That would have been horrible it was not a nice time and you have my sypathy. The problem is it isnt as simple as just waiting for dx i was in danger of losing my family house and everything and would imagine same for others. Hard to believe these horror stories in society until you fall into some niche that know one knows about or cares about.
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Post by twix on Sept 3, 2009 17:02:35 GMT
I think its a bit like the old british rail adverts
We're getting there.
In some places there is a really good service, once you get referred you get seen by someone that knows what ADHD is and get diagnosed. The only difficulty is getting past your GP and getting the referral to the right person. The GP might not know who this is so its worth looking on here.
In other areas ADHD seems "not to exist".
I think that the more we push the petition, the more we talk about ADHD and tell people what we have the more it becomes recognised. Also as more of the children who have been diagnosed turn into young adults the more it will be recognised as an adult thing too.
I got seen in a neighbouring area, and somehow this happened without as much out of area stuff as it would have been if I had gone to the Maudsley for example.
Sassylassy are you in Scotland? I don't know if you have seen Madscots letter to his MSP but that is worth looking at and maybe doing the same if you are, because Scotland is on different guidance to NICE and this is the big issue there.
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Post by haydreamer on Sept 6, 2009 17:07:43 GMT
Sassy Lasy- please don't be down or discouraged, I felt like u ,its the system they are badly letting people with mental health down, adhd included. I had to fight hard to get where I am now- it was one of the toughest years ive had for a while.
If you were to read my posts aug 2008 onwards you will see my struggle to get a)my diagnosis-which I was forced to going private as my pct didn't get the right specialist with knowledge of adhd
b) Was told to get into Bristol clinic (nhs) as could not afford private treatment that I needed funding from Wiltshire pct, it took me a year of writing , banging down doors, being a right pain the ass, getting my mp involved
and guess what guys......................................................... Sorry to invade on your post SASSY, but i feel the need to move on now and celebrate:) ;D
LETTER CAME IN THE POST YESTERDAY ;D
GOT MY BRISTOL CLINIC APPOINTMENT THIS NOVEMBER 2009 WITH DR BLANCA BOLEA YIPPPPEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D
SO SASSY, PM, me ill give u any help at all, please ask, I don't want anyone to suffer like I did, that's a year, some poor people wait and wait for years and years, some don't even know they have adhd!!
You have come to the right place, u will get so much help, this is like a second family, you won't be judged but given sound advice from people who TRULY UNDERSTAND how you feel and the struggles u face pre- adhd dx or post dx.
xx
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Post by andy12345 on Sept 6, 2009 18:56:50 GMT
Wow Haydreamer, 2 months. It's a short time really. So, does this mean that they will re-assess you ?
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Post by boo on Sept 6, 2009 21:18:13 GMT
thats brilliant haydreamer ;D
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Post by haydreamer on Sept 6, 2009 22:21:36 GMT
Yes i will have to go through more tests, but i am dx, so, hope to get meds, I know i should't think like that, meds to solve all my difficulties, cos meds or not, there is no cure, But at least I have hope and a person that is passionate about ADHD unlike the private guy I had in April who saw me as walking pounds-money mad and no heart, I want a specialist who has compassion and enthusiam about adhd, someone sincere-someone I can pick up the phone and say I need advice for this and that, without being fobbed off, cos I am not rich and a walking cash machine!! don't want my hopes to be built up, but it seems surreal Ive finally got here, been fighting so long:)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2009 11:22:58 GMT
Great news Haydreamer! made up for you especially after your experience with that private gobshite. Hope it all goes well
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Post by haydreamer on Sept 7, 2009 11:26:40 GMT
Thanks guys for your kind comments, big virtual hugs to you all-if u like hugs lol!!!!
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