We often hear stories about people being told they can’t possibly have ADHD for an assortment of reasons that quite simply indicate the person making the diagnosis is ignorant or prejudiced.
First of all we must add the proviso that we understand that mistakes can be made and there are some people diagnosed with ADHD that may not have it, but our examples here are people who we have actually met in person.
Ms E. was told she didn’t have ADHD by a clinic that had, only a few months before refused to see her because they didn’t have anybody there that was qualified to treat it. There hadn’t been a change in staff so let us hope that someone there had done a lot of learning in a short time. The report said:
Ms E. does not have ADHD because she can focus sometimes.
Obviously whoever had done the learning had been away the day that hyperfocus had been dealt with. ADHD is slightly misnamed (but an expert would know that) as it doesn’t always come with the H – hyperactivity – and it isn’t so much a lack of focus as poor voluntary control over focus. Dopamine, prefrontal cortex yadah yadah yadah, if you are an expert you should know all this, if you don’t know this then you should pass the patient on to someone who does.
Mr B. was told he couldn’t have ADHD because there had been an article in The Times suggesting there was no such thing. This was by a qualified medical doctor. It is a little below the standard of modern evidence based medicine to be getting your information from opinion pieces in newspapers.
But there is some hope. A person with ADHD who clearly can focus sometimes told us:
I managed to get 3 degrees without treatment although I had serious problems because of ADHD. Getting qualifications wasn’t one of them but there were many others. Don’t worry, it is a very different story now after treatment.
He asked to remain anonymous so we’ll call him Dr S. Yes, Doctor, he’s a fully qualified medical doctor and not only that, a psychiatrist and he’s out there using the knowledge he has to help others. And there are a lot of people who do know about ADHD. So come one, let’s stick together and seriously, we can make a change.
AADD-UK
adhdbrighton
aethelreadtheunready
veillantif
Just to add, my point is what is it that makes living in this world so difficult for so many with adhd symptoms. Why if the numbers are as huge as they seem to be, then surely those who seemingly don’t experience the same bloody awful obstacles, if they are so much clearer, why is the presence of ADHD/ADD symptoms and behaviours not aknowledged. Wouldn’t that be more advantageous in the longrun? Despite awareness of the problems and continuous life-long efforts at avoidence/preventative measures etc., people with ADHD/ADD are inevitably different in responding to social conforms. Resulting isolation will for many blur the line between ADHD/ADD and insanity.
An opinion .
Posted by Janine | February 17, 2012, 10:29 pmBut aren’t there just too many cases? What is going on…?
Posted by Janine | February 17, 2012, 10:02 pmJust recently the 18 year old daughter of a friend of mine who has requested an assessment through her GP, was asked by another GP when she asked for an update “Why on earth would you want a label?”.
Bearing in mind that her mother(my friend)has ADHD/ASD and her brother also has ADHD/ASD.
She has still not been referred after being declined by Wandsworth Adult Mental Health as not qualifying and was told that her symptoms could be managed by her GP ICAS but they will not come to the house to support mum with her complaint and mum is too busy as her daughter has just had a baby.
Posted by sheena | July 31, 2011, 6:06 pm