Comment by ChildOfChaos | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ChildOfChaos | Hacker News Reader

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I'm not sure if i have ADHD, I seem to come up pretty high for Symptons, but I don't want to play doctor on the internet, i'm also in the UK and as an adult I understand it's very difficult to get a diagnosis.

I'm also not sure if it's caused by something else. I just really struggle to function and it's a killer. I have lots of projects and life improvement things I want to do, but I wake up and i'm like ughh, I can't concentrate, my brain is very foggy, I have a lack of energy, it's a nightmare and i'm no longer sure what to do about it.

I think my issues might be more related to brain fog, which does come and go, but there isn't a clear trigger and even when it 'goes' i'm never clear at all, it's just a little easier to function, I get a lot of small dull headaches, I struggle to think or concentrate, i'm confused often, my energy struggles, I feel blah about most things and just urgghh...

Lots of empathy for people going through this, as i'm sure others just think you are useless or dumb, when I know i'm trying really hard to be the opposite because those things really matter to me.

I was pretty much exactly like you describe yourself here, for most of my life. I vented about it on HN occasionally for years, and every now and then, someone would suggest, "this smells of ADHD; get yourself checked out". So, at 32, I did, got a positive diagnosis, and my life finally started to have a noticeable upward trajectory. One of the major changes was that, for the first time, I could feel I'm actually capable of holding a job and supporting a family. That alone alleviated some serious emotional misery.

So, in the spirit of "pay it forward": this smells like ADHD; go and get yourself checked out if you can. It may be nothing. But it may be something, and if it is something - ADHD or not - an array of new options will open up for you.

Personal tip: if you do decide to get checked out, try and find an adult ADHD specialist. A random psychiatrist will likely first try to evaluate you for depression or some generic anxiety disorder, and you can waste a decade on it with little to show for it (guess how I know). ADHD is much faster to rule out (or in) than either of those.

I'm in Ireland, but have recently been diagnosed by a UK doctor as having ADHD. If you go privately, it's not a terrible process, and my local GP is willing to prescribe as my UK ADHD expert advises. Granted, medication has had no positive impact on me so far, but getting the diagnosis was pretty straightforward.

Have you tried recently? It was only a couple months wait on NHS when I did it.

I know, "only", but seeing as it had been 32 years at that point it wasn't a major wait. 2 months is good for the NHS and mental health haha.

Diagnosis itself once I'd got through the wait took about 2 hours in total across 2 weekly meetings.

How does it even work? I barely go to the doctors, do I just ask them for an ADHD assessment?

That's how I did it yeah, went to my GP and said I suspected I may have ADHD and asked where to go with it from there. They referred me to the clinic that handles mental health in my town

Unfortunately the wait lists are highly dependent on where abouts you are in England.

Wait lists are uniformly infinite if you don't get on them.

If you'd rather spend money than time a friend of mine zipped through the entire process inside a week going private

It's worth talking with a psych. I'm in UK as well, email's in my profile, I can give you some pointers. (Diagnosed 1 year ago)

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