Anyone in the UK that thinks they may have ADHD or ADD ?

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I'm beginning to think that I do.

I don't think that my Autism diagnosis is the whole explanation for my issues. My main problem is with my mind wandering off. I'm so bad for this. Its affecting my work and home life. My pace of work is slow (as a result of this I believe) and I'm often losing things around the house, which makes me so mad. There's other things as well. On the screening tests I've done so far I've been over or well over the threshold.

Is there any one here that is in the UK, that has already been diagnosed, or thinks that they may have ADHD or ADD?

Did you get diagnosed as a child or adult? What was the procedure and waiting times like?

Did you get prescribed medication?

I was just watching a Yo Samdy Sam video on You Tube last night, and she was saying that in the country she has moved to (The Netherlands) that if you have an Autism diagnosis you automatically qualify for ADHD meds. Without having to be additionally diagnosed for ADHD. I so wish I lived there!

I'm going to make a Drs appointment and start the ball rolling, but was just wondering if anyone else has any relevant experiences or thoughts that they would like to share about being Autistic and also possibly ADHD or ADD too.

Yo Samdy Sam was saying that 30% - 80% of Autistic people also have ADHD or ADD. As per current diagnoses, or estimates (not sure on that. I can't remember exactly what she said regarding that)

By the way, it's great to see how huge Yo Samdy Sam's You Tube channel has become. She has 148,000 subscribers which I find mind blowing. Many of the other Autism channels I watch are lucky to get 1000. I guess this comes down to a number of different things.

I started to realise I had it when I started educating myself about it a few years ago. Before then, I didn't know I had ADHD, as back in the 1990s when I was a small child ADHD was only diagnosed to naughty schoolboys, and shy, timid schoolgirls like me got slapped with f*****g autism instead .

I got assessed and diagnosed with ADHD about a year ago, and looking back on my life I feel it explains everything - much more than sh***y autism does. I'm happy with my ADHD diagnosis and I'm even quite open about it.

I have Moderate Autism and Combined ADHD (ADD+ADHD).
My daughter is also ASD / ADHD.
We're both on meds.

For myself I don't see it as a magic elixir.
I feel more awake on it, but I'm still ASD (problems with EF etc.)
I don't think the meds are as effective for autistic people as they are for NTs.
I wouldn't want to quit them though.
I can barely function at all if I don't take them.

My daughter is on the same dose and it makes a huge difference for her.
It's interesting to watch third-person because I can tell straight away if she forgot.

No such thing as ADD anymore. It's all ADHD.
ADHD - Inattentive Type
ADHD - Hyperactive Type
ADHD - Combined Type

I have the Inattentive Type and have been taking stimulants since 2004. I wouldn't have gotten through uni without them. Instead of daydreaming, I focused on my work. When I was a kid, I hated myself for daydreaming, especially when I got into trouble for doing it. Teachers, parents, even other kids. It was embarrassing.

Whoops, I just realised you're after UK posters. Sorry.

I'm on Vyvanse. Started at 5mg and worked up to 50mg.
I wish I could try Strattera or Ritalin but I've already had strokes and my doctor said no.

Here's a "proper" screening test for ADHD:
https://add.org/wp-content/uploads/2015 ... SRS111.pdf
As usual with questionnaires, in my case I sensed that many of the questions could give rise to misleading answers, so I was little the wiser for doing the test.

I don't think I'll ever go for an official ADHD test. Too concerned about being a victim of overdiagnosis, which would obfuscate my thinking about who I am. And I think I'd be hostile to pressure to start taking medications (I don't trust them), which might lead to the medical profession taking a dim view of me and being prejudiced against me in the future. Though I suspect the NHS is so overwhelmed in the UK these days that they'd never get round to testing me even if I asked them to.

It seems the medications most popular with clinicians are stimulants, particularly amphetamines.
https://www.healthline.com/health/drugs ... ral-tablet
I gather Ritalin is the first-line medication for ADHD in the UK:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylphe ... se_effects

This page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_att ... y_disorder
shows some overlap of symptoms with ASD, and I suspect it would be a hard task to reliably diagnose an autistic client for ADHD.

The condition is itself controversial, which doesn't mean it's totally made up, but it does seem to indicate that people should be cautious about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention ... #Treatment

My ADHD testing took about 20 hours with a Neuropsychiatrist and Psychometrist.
It was very objective and not based on my personal opinions.

They were actually measuring my brain processing speed / lags for various processes.
It was very thorough and "medical" since he was a medical doctor prescribing meds.
He took my pulse and blood pressure on every visit, and wanted all my hospital records.

I have a thread here about the assessment process, somewhere.
I know it's not that thorough everywhere but here it was even more complicated than ASD testing.
My ASD testing took 12 hours.

My daughter's ADHD testing involved a psychoeducational profile too, since she's student-aged.
They screened for learning disabilities and all the other conditions that could be comorbid.

Here's my thread:

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=384481&hilit=ADHD+assessment&start=16

Another user brought the possibility up to me on another forum. I've always been fairly scatterbrained and disorganised. People tend to assume that I have it together, when in actuality, I'm just good at improvising and tend to over plan to account for well, my usual mess.

Speaking of organising myself, I hate it. To-do lists don't work for me, I've tried. Nor does journaling. 'Oh, it'll help you organise your thoughts!' ...It doesn't help me organise my thoughts, whenever I've tried to do that - the list or the journal becomes an obsession. Sure, I'll have the neatest list you've ever seen, but does it ever get done? No. In the process of trying to perfect the best system, I'll neglect the whole point of why I made it in the first place.

Which is why I use the now / for system. I'll do a task that'll help me in the present (such as meeting basic needs) and consider it a 'now' task. Then I'll do a task that'll help me in the future (such as making my bed - it'll make me feel happier when I come into my room later on in the day) and I'll class this as a 'for' task in my head. Often, tasks will overlap - what helps me now will help me later in some way, but just thinking about why I'm doing what I'm doing seems to help. It puts my actions into context and makes it feel less like I'm just going through the motions and more like deliberate choices.

I'm quite bad when I'm hyper focused, please don't tell me important information when I'm gaming. I'll forget that you even came in to the room and had a conversation with me. Likewise when I'm making art. If it's important, block my view and tell me THIS IS IMPORTANT. I usually set restrictions on such activities, just to check that everything is alright every once in a while and that I'm meeting my basic needs. Breaks are important. Otherwise I'll forget to eat or sleep. It's also good to let your eyes rest.

Ok, I had been taking dexamphetamine sulfate (7 x 5mg per day) since 2004 until 2020 when Vyvanse came onto the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for adults diagnosed after the age of 18 (which made it a lot cheaper).

So currently I'm taking 70mg of Vyvanse every morning and 2 x 5mg of dexamphetamine in the late afternoon should I need it. I'll take the afternoon dose if I'm driving or working late.

I can't feel Vyvanse kick in either. But I find that after I take it, I can't go back to bed because I won't be able to sleep.

When I volunteer (hanging and tagging clothes) I find I can work for some time without a break. I'll see faults in some of the clothes that the sorters don't. It's just easier to focus overall. One weird thing - I'm unaffected by other people's yawns. I also don't often feel like eating lunch.

I found that I have to take the highest dose, though. And I think in America there's the option of taking 90mg. I'm on 70mg, the highest dose available in Australia. I'm fat and so that could be why lower doses did nothing.

I really hope you don't throw yourself under a bus.

It's taken about a year since my Autism diagnosis for the 'penny to drop' with me that I may have ADHD as well as Autism.

Everything really fits and it explains a lot. Things like why I love having my house all clean and tidy, but why I can so rarely achieve getting it to that standard. Why I used to leave my uni assignments literally with 30 minutes before the deadline and then only be able to complete them with the Adrenalin rush of the deadline pressure. Either that or take stimulants and pull allnighters at deadline time.

Apparently things like this are 'classic hallmarks' of having ADHD and Autism according to Yo Samdy Sam.

It finally dawned on me at work very recently as my nice cushy admin role has been made redundant. My only option to remain in employment with this company is to do a 1 month trial of a much more demanding role. It's a much heavier workload plus lots of interruptions for phone calls.

I worked from home the 3 days in between Christmas and new years. I realised I had absolutely nothing 'in my tank' (no mental energy what so ever.) I understand this is likely to be an issue with dopamine depletion caused by ADHD. I took a 'little something' - Kratom - its actually not technically illegal in the UK, and i discovered very fortuitously just at exactly the right time that it does work for what I think is my ADHD and oh My God, the difference!

I have my brain back!!

It feels so good. I've not been lazy or stupid all this time!

I would also say that it means that my chances of passing my trial at work have gone from very low to very high. The prospect of being made redundant at this time of economic uncertainty was something that filled me with dread and anxiety. It's like feeling saved from certain doom.

I need to remain somewhat tentative seeing as I haven't passed the assessment yet, but I feel inwardly quite sure, because it all makes so much sense and just fits exactly right.

One strange thing is how and why it took me so long to make this final connection. I remember seeing memes on Faceboook etc about how it feels to have both conditions, and thinking to myself 'that must be an absolute nightmare'. For some reason I was blocked from seeing that it may well apply to me. I don't claim to understand my own psychology but I'm making steady progress for sure!

I've come on a million steps in the last 12-18 months, and if this could be the final piece of the puzzle for me now, and if I could get on some meds that work for me, it could represent a potentially massive change for the better in my life.

It would explain why I always loved amphetamines whilst at Uni! I'd have to not tell the assessors that or they might think that I may abuse my meds. But I am a lot more mature, disciplined, and sensible now though and I would use my meds as prescribed.

I rarely use drugs or medications to get high, I use them to self medicate. There is a world of difference. It feels like I've been forced in to this corner just to survive.. I've needed to because no one else has helped me until I could finally get myself in a position to be able to help myself. I found things that worked for me and no way was I going to give them up.

While Sam and Purple Ella are estimating that 30-80% of Autistic people also have ADHD, whether they know it or not, diagnosed or not, Dan reckons up to 90% of Autistic people may also have it.

Obviously, that is quite a bold and attention grabbing claim! (Maybe he comes out with some of these things to help with his viewer numbers etc.)

As Purple Ella and Sam point out, the problem is that the symptoms of each thing can mask each other/cancel each other out, and this can lead to the delays and confusion in self recognition and diagnosis. Ella finds it impossible to separate what traits are down to her Autism and what is down to her ADHD.

I can relate!

These people are years ahead of me with their diagnosis and understandings too..All the discussions and thinking they have done, it's great to be able to listen to them.

What is astonishing is that up until the year 2000 and after DSM4 it was considered impossible to have both conditions. Thankfully understanding has improved and many more people recognise the large Venn diagram type overlap.

This is Dan's video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZMCMCr3CUs

Sam's video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMx1DnSn-eg

Ella's - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irqcnMk4flE

While there are many resources and you tube channels for Autistics there seems to be considerably less for people with both Autism and ADHD. Thankfully there are some though, and the 3 channels above seem to have a very 'large presence' in the community.

I was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD as an adult a couple of years ago.

Waiting times on the NHS are notoriously horrific - it was ~2 years pre-pandemic, and probably even more now. Since ADHD relates to mental health, my suggestion would be to look into "right to choose" and exercise that right to ask your GP to refer you to a qualifying private healthcare provider. Right to choose is basically a legal right that you have in the UK to choose who treats you for mental health conditions, with the provider billing the NHS directly (it costs you nothing). The advantage of this is that private providers have much shorter wait times than their NHS counterparts, then once you're on a medication that works your psychiatrist sets up a "shared care agreement" with your GP who will then take over prescribing.

I asked my GP to refer me to Psychiatry UK, and within a week I was contacted by them and sent self assessment forms and told to book an appointment once I'd completed them. Completing the forms took me months - they aren't difficult, it's just hard to fill out forms when you have an attention deficit! - but once I submitted them I had an appointment two weeks later and medication the week after that. As far as I'm aware that provider has got quite busy with lots of referrals so turnaround times might be longer now - there's probably other qualifying providers if that's the case.

The forms I had to fill out were just the DIVA-5 questions where you give examples about how you present with the various symptoms. I'm also fortunate that my mum still had ALL of my school reports and every letter ever sent home regarding my behaviour so I just quoted all the relevant bits to show that I had all the problems since childhood, and my mum answered some questions on a form too (I think this part is optional but every little helps). The assessment was basically just an hour spent going over the same questions, then at the end the psychiatrist just confirmed what was already obvious and told me that a nurse would be in contact about medication options.

I was offered a choice of stimulants - methylphenidate (Concerta, Xaggitin, and a generic Ritalin I think) or amphetamine-based (Elvanse a/k/a Vyvanse, or dexamfetamine) - or non stimulants (Straterra is the only one I can remember). I went with a stimulant and picked methylphenidate first because I'd read that amphetamines were more effective in adults, so I wanted to try the 'lesser' choice first because I knew I'd be curious to try both and figured it'd make more sense that way round. If you're curious about choices then look up the NICE guidelines for ADHD because that's what they use.

The meds were delivered to me whenever I needed them (didn't even have to pay for them) and they just titrate you up through the doses until you find what works for you. They tend to try you on the extended release ones first then give the option of adding an instant release as a booster if you need it later in the day.

I've been on Elvanse for 2 years now but to be honest I'm not sure it makes any difference - I can just hyperfocus more on things I've always been able to focus on, but still can't focus on the other things long enough to complete them. You can get lulled into a false sense that they work because if you skip a day you feel like total crap (exhausted, barely functional), but the reality is that you're just experiencing withdrawal - not what life was like before medication. I'm planning to wean myself off gradually and see what happens, and if my feeling is right and it made no difference then I'll consider trying Straterra instead.

When I was diagnosed with ASD I was told by the professional that she thought I should also go through a diagnosis check for ADHD as she thought there was enough there, upon spending time with me to, to suggest i have this. I didn't bother going through with that but I do sometimes think than an ADHD issue is the thing that may well impact be day to day life than ASD