Kat Brown Profile picture
May 15 9 tweets 2 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
If ‘almost everyone seeking a private diagnosis is getting one’, do we not also think it’s possible that only people who think very strongly that they have ADHD are going down the route of coughing up £££ to do so? #r4today
I really hope tonight's Panorama programme offers solutions as well as problems. Children as well as adults are subject to 3+ year waiting lists for ADHD assessments on the NHS. There just aren't enough clinicians or specialist care.
Any private clinician you seek assessment with should also be working in the NHS (that goes for everything, not just for ADHD!) but what was a £450 assessment for me in 2020 is now £795 – and that's before the cost of follow-ups, further tests, meds etc.
A key point is that people with undiagnosed ADHD will likely have already lost £££ through lost items, injury, dangerous habits and so on. I went private because, knowing the answer at last to 'why I was like this', I really needed that proven.
Assessment is also key because I had years of face time with NHS staff and nobody recognised I had ADHD. I had epilepsy, depression, insomnia, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, an eating disorder, yes – but nobody put this all together because how can you in 10 minutes?
You can only know what you know – the person I saw at my GP surgery didn't know about ADHD at all. I was just lucky that she was interested – and that I was so worried about not being believed that I turned up with pages of supplementary evidence!
In recent weeks I have spoken to adults of all ages who have spent their life feeling deep shame at not being able to navigate life 'like normal people'. Finding out about ADHD has lessened that shame and led to some measure of peace and acceptance – often, after years of mess.
I really hope the conclusion of the BBC Panorama doc is that the NHS is wildly underfunded, and ADHD is underinvested in, and that the many – many – people who have been frantically getting through life the best they can deserve support and answers.
Linking my live thoughts on the Panorama doc here as I'm out this evening. It's only 29 minutes (!) so shouldn't take long.

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More from @katbrown

May 15
Right, I'm out for dinner tonight so I'm going to watch the BBC's Panorama prog now. Loooool, the irony of it being *29 minutes* when the NHS waiting list for ADHD assessment (which the journalist totally went through, right?) can be up to 5 years. bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod…
(If 29 minutes feels too long for you, the BBC has done a précis article of the programme of which the neuroscientist @garwboy has done a thorough red flag examination in this thread:)

"In Panorama, we investigate the private clinics diagnosing ADHD online."

Ok, so already this makes it sound as though something happening 'online' makes it less valuable and potentially threatening than IRL, rather than a normal part of life. Mum, is that you?
Read 39 tweets
May 13
On the day we host #Eurovision, every one of us should read @victor_madrigal’s report as UN Independent Expert on the truly shocking state of life in the UK for LGBT people. Allies cannot stand by and ignore this. ohchr.org/sites/default/…
The sections on conversion ‘therapy’ and asylum seekers are beyond the pale, as are testimonies from so many trans people on not leaving the house. And damningly, the rightful, awful conclusion that anti-trans rhetoric is being driving by the media and government.
The one bright spot comes right at the end, albeit one that shouldn’t be required. LGBT people have faced the worst of us throughout the centuries. The IE “stands in awe” of their courage, resilience, resourcefulness and joy. Image
Read 4 tweets
Mar 13, 2021
Walking up to the Clapham Common bandstand to leave flowers for Sarah Everard and her loved ones. The daffodils have come out. They are lining Poynders Road as though representing every woman who would like to bear witness and stand for her, and can’t today.
I am seeing so many people carrying bouquets and quietly walking the same way.
People are threading their bouquets through the Clapham Common bandstand and already it is making the most beautiful monument to Sarah Everard and to all who knew and loved her.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 11, 2021
A moment of pleasure today: my ADHD doctor is releasing me into the care of my GP as my treatment is stable

He said something that I think should be said to anyone diagnosed as an adult. "You have achieved so much without support and you should be really proud of yourself." 🏆
(how incredibly fitting that I wrote that tweet originally with a massive typo in it 🙄)

Part of me wonders what my life would have been like if I'd been diagnosed as a child. BUT! I started senior school in 1993. The diagnostic criteria for women only really changed in 2013.
It was incredible to realise that the shopping list of everything "wrong" with me – binge eating disorder, problem drinking, insomnia, depression, anxiety etc etc – were comorbidities of ADHD – and sadly less so that it took women talking about it online to realise what I had.
Read 9 tweets
Dec 25, 2020
My husband just gave me a book of photos we had WhatsApped to each other this year with no context and it is just the most wonderful thing.
Ok, let’s have some more highlights.

(“I removed all the receipts and pictures where I was asking you what sort of ice cream you wanted.”)
I only now noticed that second cat
Read 7 tweets

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