I’m confused. You went privately and were diagnosed but weren’t prescribed anything?
I know it’s a long process but know people who deal privately with their adhd and get medication through their psychiatrist.
Absolutely not sure if this would work but pharmacist here have to fill any script from an EU doctor.
Try to find one that will actually take your situation seriously, not cost an arm and a leg, be able to prescribe if they feel you need it and do phone consultation for anyone in the EU.
Again, not sure if it would work but it’s worth a shot.
This is why people go to the Belfast ADHD Clinic.
I’m on the fence about starting the process, but have decided that if I do I’m just going to Belfast because it seems very much in its infancy down here.
Hi. I’m sorry about how shit Ireland is for this. I’m waiting on a diagnosis. Can I post this on @safe.sesh.ireland Instagram? Our government force people to self-medicate, and then imprison them for it. It’s a horrible cycle for people to get lost in and could be fixed so easily.
So have you been diagnosed by a psychiatrist or psychologist?
If they were onboard before ringing the pharmacist-then I would tell the psychiatrist to call another pharmacy.
It cost me €45000 to get diagnosed with autism & adhd including 2 x month long stints in psychiatric hospitals where they decided I was depressed instead and they refused to examine the possibilities of it being anything else.
I’m sorry to hear your experience has been so bad.
What is your main goal in getting a diagnosis? Are you just hoping to get some medication for it? Medication will help somewhat, but it won’t fix the issue.
In the mean time I’d highly recommend a few different things.
1. Start practicing mindfull meditation every single morning. Start small at 5 minutes a day and work your way up to 20 minutes a day. Those 20 minutes can become two 10 minute blocks if you prefer (10 minutes in the morning, and again over lunch). This should show some results very quickly.
2. Exercise daily for at least 20-30 minutes if you don’t already do so.
3. Change you diet. Try a diet such as The Whole 30, to get a much better idea of how different foods affect __your__ body and your mind. For example dairy and bread give me brain fog.
4. Create a simple repeatable daily routine to help put a large amount of your day on “autopilot”. This should help take care of most daily tasks without you ever having to think about it.
E.g.of my own morning routine.
Wake up at 6am
Bathroom
Put laundry that I put in the washer before bed into the drier.
Exercise for 30 minutes.
Put on kettle
Shave then jump in the shower (it’s now 7am)
Make the bed (my wife is up by now)
Change into today’s clothes (which were laid out then night before)
Get the kids ready for school
Make breakfast and coffee
Eat breakfast
Clean and put away any dishes
10 minutes of running around tidying and cleaning. (It’s now 7:40am)
20 minutes of mindfull meditation.
Drop my youngest off at school
Head to work.
90% of the time this routine is followed every single day Monday to Friday.
I have a slightly different routine on the weekends, but it’s almost identical.
I don’t give myself a choice in doing these things. They are tasks that must be done every single day.
I built up the courage for months to go to a psychiatrist only for him to tell me that he doesn’t believe that Adults can have Adhd. That was E80 well spent
I’m an Occupational Therapist and it shocks me how underutilized our profession is in the non-pharmacological treatment of ADHD. Also, the management of ADHD seems to halt at assessment (assessment, ad infinitum, it seems), without sufficient emphasis on treatment!
OP, I went through the same thing as you not so long ago. There are UK based clinics that are not as Draconian as Ireland is about giving out prescriptions. I would go down that route of I were you, so you have a legal recourse if you’re ever accused of abusing controlled drugs. It’s not cheap though, cost me £1000 followed by £100 a month
Hey OP.
Replied to you elsewhere, but please feel free to PM me.
I am being treated (poorly I’ll admit) by the HSE and my local GP for Adult ADHD.
I can’t give you the name of a psychiatrist who can help you unfortunately, but I can confidently say, without hubris or ego, that I know more about Adult ADHD than 90% of psychiatrists nationwide, and might be able to help in some other ways.
That’s mad
That’s crazy to hear. I started looking into it a few months back, as there is a good chance I have it too. Now, I’m not too sure…
For me it went like this, in Cork btw and I’m a 29yo lad with no history of mental health issues:
July 2020: Speak with GP about potential symptoms, told he will find a psychiatrist who will be the right person to help. GP is class btw, very nice guy who has never belittled any symptoms I’ve mentioned, great doctor overall.
Dec 2020: Finally scheduled meeting with psychiatrist, went private to speed things up. Initial consultation cost €200. Looked him up beforehand and he isn’t an ADHD specialist, but has worked around Cork for years so must have a good reputation. Spoke with him for an hour and a half about symptoms, he asked plenty of questions about private life, work life etc. Asked if I used any street drugs and told him I’ve tried some white and green stuff but I’m not a regular user, just warned me to stay off it.
At the end of the meeting he concluded I was in fact likely to have ADHD. Spoke about treatments, mainly medication. Prescribed me Concerta and went through how it works, how it’s a regulated substance so pharmacies will be tricky to deal with.
Mar 2021: First check in call (€120), see how I’m going. Asked to move up a pill strength because while I felt the pills were helping, they could be stronger.
For the rest of 2021 we fiddled with dosages to find the right one that fits me. Check-ins every 3 months to make sure I’m not suddenly developing suicidal thoughts or going mad (have only ever felt benefits from the medication and have an abject fear of death so no worries there Doc!).
Overall it was fairly simple for me, but given that I don’t have a history of mental illness or excessive drug use my story might be anecdotal. Overall I feel lucky I was able to go through the process without much hassle and get the help I needed, I’ve read some horror stories from others trying to go through the same thing!
A quick question for the ADHD people in this thread who might be able to help… I’ve been really struggling to manage a regular sleep cycle for over 10 years now and it’s detrimental to my mood and productivity and general mental health. I’m self employed so no real hurry or incentive to get out of bed most mornings. Usually wake up feeling like death and SWEARING I’ll go to bed early tonight… But never do. Anyone have any experience with overcoming that and being able to hold yourself accountable? I feel like I will never in my life have a decent sleep schedule and I’ll probably get Alzheimer’s or something as a result 😅
This is fucking ridiculous. What’s wrong with our country.
So I went public – waited 8 months to be seen only to be told there’s nobody in western HSE who can assess ADHD. However I paid for private assessment and have the mystical adhd.
Went back to HSE – they said they had to put me on a norepinephrine first before considering anything else.
I had horrible side effects and had to stop.
Argued back and forth and fought tooth and nail — BUT – they put me on Concerta / Ritalin.
Had to sign legal waiver. They give it to kids – but not yet approved here for adults (nonsensical and archaic – but same dr also told me kids grow out of adhd – that dr is gone now thankfully).
So I was apparently the first adult prescribed concerta in Galway!
So basically- fight them! You will eventually win.
I’m lucky my parents got my diagnosis at the age of 4 but this year I decided to go back on ritilan after 10 years off it. Tbf to my GP she was really helpful and got me back on thr 20mg ones. Tbh I don’t really need anything stronger but I understand if I wanted anything stronger I would have to go through loads of checks and balances. Hope things work out for you. Adhd can be a super power if you learn how to control it!
Ah sure ADHD is gas, we love getting moaned at; getting called lazy & useless. Sitting on the sofa in total paralysis not doing something you enjoy because you’re afraid you’ll fuck it up and it’ll be a waste of whatever energy you have – mad craic.
As a committed sufferer of Gang Stalking, Morgellons, Kings Evil, Vapours and Ennui I sympathise with you.
Nobody believes me either.
How do people find Ritalin. I hated it, it made me feel dead inside.
My experience with ADHD and the HSE;
I was refered to the HSE adult psychiatry with what I thought may be a mood disorder, they immediately gave me mood stabilizer/anti psychotics to help me with no real assessment other than what I personally thought might be wrong with me.
They then refered me to psychology department who said I couldn’t possibly have ADHD they would have caught it when I was a kid and after around 4 meetings over 4 weeks they came to the conclusion that I probably have ADHD having scored very highly on the tests.
It took over 3 months to get this done because they told me my case was forgotten about and essentially dropped. The psychology department then told me they couldn’t technically diagnose me with ADHD so they’d have to refer me to my GP, then back to adult psychiatry. 6 weeks later the adult psychiatry department gets in touch to say “sorry we can’t help you we don’t have the department for it”
The whole experience took the better part of a year and normally I wouldn’t mind these kinds of things taking time, but both of these departments are 1 floor away from each other in the same buildings. There’s a disgusting amount of disconnect in the HSE, my entire case could have been taken care of in 2 months but I had to be swapped between two departments that had no idea what the other one could do/help me with.
I’m glad the service exists but it would have been nice to know that there was such a huge disconnect going in to the whole situation. Thankfully I’ve booked private care but they have no openings until the end of 2022. Last time I went to the HSE around 8 years ago severely depressed and suicidal, they told me there was nothing wrong with me and to keep taking my antidepressants.
So I suppose things have changed for the better but it’s still not good enough for people who really need help. I had to really fight for an ADHD diagnoses because their opinion on disorders like ADHD and autism is that “they would have caught it when you were a kid” and try to get you out of there asap. It’s very soul crushing and when you’re mentally ill/have a disorder like ADHD you find it very hard to stand up for yourself and make sure you get the help you need.
There’s a good psychiatrist in Galway who saw me and he was great, gave me great advice on resources to use, advice on medication and even organised exam accommodations for me for for my college exams
You can get a subscription for ritalin from your go, start witha half tablet for the short term release tablets and work with them to increase dose as you need – keep a diary to track side effects and don’t drink when on them, I got very depressed when j drank.
Source: fellow ADHDer
My own experience so far:
Saw a GP to get a referral to a psychiatrist. €65. I mentioned to her that I’d heard that SSRI meds can help with some of the executive dysfunction that is linked to ADHD, and asked whether she thought it could help while I wait for a psychiatrist appt. She prescribed me a low dosage of escitaloprám teva to try. Only a weeks worth, because side effects will show quickly. No side effects, so back to the GP for a full script. Another €65. The meds take 6 weeks to start working.
Meanwhile I hear nothing about the psych referral and follow up to hear that the 2 hospitals that the GP referred me to don’t have ADHD psychiatrists there.
I go back to the GP for a follow up script and to talk about the referral. Another €65. I bring a name of a psych that I’ve heard can deal with ADHD, we put my name down. It’s a 4 months waiting list.
So basically it’s been nearly 4 months with no joy. Although the SSRI is definitely helping. I feel like time moves differently now and that’s a relief.
For me, I called a psychiatrist and saw him a month later. He diagnosed me there and then and gave me a prescription. The appointment cost €150.
Unfortunately he’s retired now.
I found that in the end, the diagnosis was enough. I used it to look up how to manage my life better with ADHD and also to give myself permission to not feel guilty about being lazy.
The medication worked, but it was far from a silver bullet. And it wasn’t worth the side effects. In the evenings I was so mentally drained that doing anything felt exhausting, even watching TV.
Of course, to each their own. For some people the medications is a life saver.
The soonest appointment for an assessment I could get is next August.
TL;DR
This has been my experience in a timeline
> 2019: Experiencing symptoms of depression for years but finally get diagnosed. That was the year I made progress with counselling and medication
> 2020: covid comes along and takes the rug out from under me along with everyone else. It feels like I’ve lost all my progress and by the end of the year I’m left wondering what went wrong. (Sure I could blame covid, but sometimes you don’t know a tree is rotten until a storm brings it down)
> 2021: I feel like I got lucky here. A good friend of mine has ADHD and we talked a lot during the pandemic so eventually they must have noticed something. They noticed I seemed to go through things they experienced with ADHD and suggested I get tested.
> I was doubtful at first but the more we talked and the more stuff they pointed out the more I was convinced it was worth seeing if I did indeed have ADHD. My friend recommended a specialist they knew of that diagnoses ADHD in adults and I got diagnosed in July with ADD.
Fast forward to now and I still haven’t managed to get the medication the specialist recommended to me. Although as of yesterday I think I will have them this side of Christmas.
I’ll be honest, there are a number of things that were in my favour along the way. **Having a friend that went through the process of getting diagnosed who could give advice (and recognised that I may have ADHD before I had any clue myself) . **Having health insurance so I could jump through the hoops quicker to get myself medicated (even with that I was almost looking at January before I got any more word back from them)
So a psychologist diagnosis is one thing, but they can’t prescribe medications, they’re not qualified to, and it shouldn’t be taken as a confirmation in stone really.
A psychiatrist will want to be sure you have it, including showing you had it since childhood, my own appointment required parental confirmation of symptoms in early childhood etc, and took near 2 hours.
Why didn’t the psychiatrist prescribe for you? I’m thinking it sounds like he is not sure you have it. You mention that you have other issues that cause similar symptoms, you should consider this may be true, you not having ADHD. Do not self medicate yourself in this situation, this is prescription abuse and dangerous.
Get a prescription from another psychiatrist if you really believe you have it.
It didn’t take me too long to get on Tyvense, that was just the one that was recommended to me by the Psychiatrist. But it hasn’t been having any effect for me on the past few months, maybe I’ve gotten too used to it.
I asked my GP if he could swap me to another ADHD medication, but said he wouldn’t (or couldn’t) unless the Psychiatrist gave me the prescription. Which is gonna cost me a lot of money.
Does anyone have experience with swapping to another ADHD medication?
I’ve been toying with going through the process to get diagnosed but the cost is off-putting, not to mention having to travel to Dublin or Belfast.
Any mental health services in Ireland are a joke, be better going up north or something tbh
[removed]
If you have a feeling your child may have ADHD, it is in your best interest to get them sorted as young as possible. This doesn’t even necessarily mean medication, but it’ll make medication a LOT more accessible if needed in the future.
I am one of the “lucky” ones who got sorted at 15, but the older you get the more difficult it gets to access any form of care for it.
The public system until I was 19 was great. Then when I turned 20 I was basically told I could see a doctor once a year in Naas hospital, despite needing a script monthly.
Without my medication I would probably be dead.
I got diagnosed this year in Ireland, took three years form initial enquiry, the process was dragged out frustrating and expensive, but it was the best thing I’ve done, anyone who believes they need an assessment keep going, I feel in a better place than ever, being aware of how ADHD has effect every aspect of my life has been tough but enlightening,
36 comments
I’m confused. You went privately and were diagnosed but weren’t prescribed anything?
I know it’s a long process but know people who deal privately with their adhd and get medication through their psychiatrist.
Absolutely not sure if this would work but pharmacist here have to fill any script from an EU doctor.
Try to find one that will actually take your situation seriously, not cost an arm and a leg, be able to prescribe if they feel you need it and do phone consultation for anyone in the EU.
These guys might fit that bill.
https://ginemedica.pl/en/diagnosis-of-adhd-in-adults/
Again, not sure if it would work but it’s worth a shot.
This is why people go to the Belfast ADHD Clinic.
I’m on the fence about starting the process, but have decided that if I do I’m just going to Belfast because it seems very much in its infancy down here.
Hi. I’m sorry about how shit Ireland is for this. I’m waiting on a diagnosis. Can I post this on @safe.sesh.ireland Instagram? Our government force people to self-medicate, and then imprison them for it. It’s a horrible cycle for people to get lost in and could be fixed so easily.
So have you been diagnosed by a psychiatrist or psychologist?
If they were onboard before ringing the pharmacist-then I would tell the psychiatrist to call another pharmacy.
It cost me €45000 to get diagnosed with autism & adhd including 2 x month long stints in psychiatric hospitals where they decided I was depressed instead and they refused to examine the possibilities of it being anything else.
I’m sorry to hear your experience has been so bad.
What is your main goal in getting a diagnosis? Are you just hoping to get some medication for it? Medication will help somewhat, but it won’t fix the issue.
In the mean time I’d highly recommend a few different things.
1. Start practicing mindfull meditation every single morning. Start small at 5 minutes a day and work your way up to 20 minutes a day. Those 20 minutes can become two 10 minute blocks if you prefer (10 minutes in the morning, and again over lunch). This should show some results very quickly.
2. Exercise daily for at least 20-30 minutes if you don’t already do so.
3. Change you diet. Try a diet such as The Whole 30, to get a much better idea of how different foods affect __your__ body and your mind. For example dairy and bread give me brain fog.
4. Create a simple repeatable daily routine to help put a large amount of your day on “autopilot”. This should help take care of most daily tasks without you ever having to think about it.
E.g.of my own morning routine.
Wake up at 6am
Bathroom
Put laundry that I put in the washer before bed into the drier.
Exercise for 30 minutes.
Put on kettle
Shave then jump in the shower (it’s now 7am)
Make the bed (my wife is up by now)
Change into today’s clothes (which were laid out then night before)
Get the kids ready for school
Make breakfast and coffee
Eat breakfast
Clean and put away any dishes
10 minutes of running around tidying and cleaning. (It’s now 7:40am)
20 minutes of mindfull meditation.
Drop my youngest off at school
Head to work.
90% of the time this routine is followed every single day Monday to Friday.
I have a slightly different routine on the weekends, but it’s almost identical.
I don’t give myself a choice in doing these things. They are tasks that must be done every single day.
I built up the courage for months to go to a psychiatrist only for him to tell me that he doesn’t believe that Adults can have Adhd. That was E80 well spent
I’m an Occupational Therapist and it shocks me how underutilized our profession is in the non-pharmacological treatment of ADHD. Also, the management of ADHD seems to halt at assessment (assessment, ad infinitum, it seems), without sufficient emphasis on treatment!
OP, I went through the same thing as you not so long ago. There are UK based clinics that are not as Draconian as Ireland is about giving out prescriptions. I would go down that route of I were you, so you have a legal recourse if you’re ever accused of abusing controlled drugs. It’s not cheap though, cost me £1000 followed by £100 a month
Hey OP.
Replied to you elsewhere, but please feel free to PM me.
I am being treated (poorly I’ll admit) by the HSE and my local GP for Adult ADHD.
I can’t give you the name of a psychiatrist who can help you unfortunately, but I can confidently say, without hubris or ego, that I know more about Adult ADHD than 90% of psychiatrists nationwide, and might be able to help in some other ways.
That’s mad
That’s crazy to hear. I started looking into it a few months back, as there is a good chance I have it too. Now, I’m not too sure…
For me it went like this, in Cork btw and I’m a 29yo lad with no history of mental health issues:
July 2020: Speak with GP about potential symptoms, told he will find a psychiatrist who will be the right person to help. GP is class btw, very nice guy who has never belittled any symptoms I’ve mentioned, great doctor overall.
Dec 2020: Finally scheduled meeting with psychiatrist, went private to speed things up. Initial consultation cost €200. Looked him up beforehand and he isn’t an ADHD specialist, but has worked around Cork for years so must have a good reputation. Spoke with him for an hour and a half about symptoms, he asked plenty of questions about private life, work life etc. Asked if I used any street drugs and told him I’ve tried some white and green stuff but I’m not a regular user, just warned me to stay off it.
At the end of the meeting he concluded I was in fact likely to have ADHD. Spoke about treatments, mainly medication. Prescribed me Concerta and went through how it works, how it’s a regulated substance so pharmacies will be tricky to deal with.
Mar 2021: First check in call (€120), see how I’m going. Asked to move up a pill strength because while I felt the pills were helping, they could be stronger.
For the rest of 2021 we fiddled with dosages to find the right one that fits me. Check-ins every 3 months to make sure I’m not suddenly developing suicidal thoughts or going mad (have only ever felt benefits from the medication and have an abject fear of death so no worries there Doc!).
Overall it was fairly simple for me, but given that I don’t have a history of mental illness or excessive drug use my story might be anecdotal. Overall I feel lucky I was able to go through the process without much hassle and get the help I needed, I’ve read some horror stories from others trying to go through the same thing!
A quick question for the ADHD people in this thread who might be able to help… I’ve been really struggling to manage a regular sleep cycle for over 10 years now and it’s detrimental to my mood and productivity and general mental health. I’m self employed so no real hurry or incentive to get out of bed most mornings. Usually wake up feeling like death and SWEARING I’ll go to bed early tonight… But never do. Anyone have any experience with overcoming that and being able to hold yourself accountable? I feel like I will never in my life have a decent sleep schedule and I’ll probably get Alzheimer’s or something as a result 😅
This is fucking ridiculous. What’s wrong with our country.
So I went public – waited 8 months to be seen only to be told there’s nobody in western HSE who can assess ADHD. However I paid for private assessment and have the mystical adhd.
Went back to HSE – they said they had to put me on a norepinephrine first before considering anything else.
I had horrible side effects and had to stop.
Argued back and forth and fought tooth and nail — BUT – they put me on Concerta / Ritalin.
Had to sign legal waiver. They give it to kids – but not yet approved here for adults (nonsensical and archaic – but same dr also told me kids grow out of adhd – that dr is gone now thankfully).
So I was apparently the first adult prescribed concerta in Galway!
So basically- fight them! You will eventually win.
I’m lucky my parents got my diagnosis at the age of 4 but this year I decided to go back on ritilan after 10 years off it. Tbf to my GP she was really helpful and got me back on thr 20mg ones. Tbh I don’t really need anything stronger but I understand if I wanted anything stronger I would have to go through loads of checks and balances. Hope things work out for you. Adhd can be a super power if you learn how to control it!
Ah sure ADHD is gas, we love getting moaned at; getting called lazy & useless. Sitting on the sofa in total paralysis not doing something you enjoy because you’re afraid you’ll fuck it up and it’ll be a waste of whatever energy you have – mad craic.
As a committed sufferer of Gang Stalking, Morgellons, Kings Evil, Vapours and Ennui I sympathise with you.
Nobody believes me either.
How do people find Ritalin. I hated it, it made me feel dead inside.
My experience with ADHD and the HSE;
I was refered to the HSE adult psychiatry with what I thought may be a mood disorder, they immediately gave me mood stabilizer/anti psychotics to help me with no real assessment other than what I personally thought might be wrong with me.
They then refered me to psychology department who said I couldn’t possibly have ADHD they would have caught it when I was a kid and after around 4 meetings over 4 weeks they came to the conclusion that I probably have ADHD having scored very highly on the tests.
It took over 3 months to get this done because they told me my case was forgotten about and essentially dropped. The psychology department then told me they couldn’t technically diagnose me with ADHD so they’d have to refer me to my GP, then back to adult psychiatry. 6 weeks later the adult psychiatry department gets in touch to say “sorry we can’t help you we don’t have the department for it”
The whole experience took the better part of a year and normally I wouldn’t mind these kinds of things taking time, but both of these departments are 1 floor away from each other in the same buildings. There’s a disgusting amount of disconnect in the HSE, my entire case could have been taken care of in 2 months but I had to be swapped between two departments that had no idea what the other one could do/help me with.
I’m glad the service exists but it would have been nice to know that there was such a huge disconnect going in to the whole situation. Thankfully I’ve booked private care but they have no openings until the end of 2022. Last time I went to the HSE around 8 years ago severely depressed and suicidal, they told me there was nothing wrong with me and to keep taking my antidepressants.
So I suppose things have changed for the better but it’s still not good enough for people who really need help. I had to really fight for an ADHD diagnoses because their opinion on disorders like ADHD and autism is that “they would have caught it when you were a kid” and try to get you out of there asap. It’s very soul crushing and when you’re mentally ill/have a disorder like ADHD you find it very hard to stand up for yourself and make sure you get the help you need.
There’s a good psychiatrist in Galway who saw me and he was great, gave me great advice on resources to use, advice on medication and even organised exam accommodations for me for for my college exams
You can get a subscription for ritalin from your go, start witha half tablet for the short term release tablets and work with them to increase dose as you need – keep a diary to track side effects and don’t drink when on them, I got very depressed when j drank.
Source: fellow ADHDer
My own experience so far:
Saw a GP to get a referral to a psychiatrist. €65. I mentioned to her that I’d heard that SSRI meds can help with some of the executive dysfunction that is linked to ADHD, and asked whether she thought it could help while I wait for a psychiatrist appt. She prescribed me a low dosage of escitaloprám teva to try. Only a weeks worth, because side effects will show quickly. No side effects, so back to the GP for a full script. Another €65. The meds take 6 weeks to start working.
Meanwhile I hear nothing about the psych referral and follow up to hear that the 2 hospitals that the GP referred me to don’t have ADHD psychiatrists there.
I go back to the GP for a follow up script and to talk about the referral. Another €65. I bring a name of a psych that I’ve heard can deal with ADHD, we put my name down. It’s a 4 months waiting list.
So basically it’s been nearly 4 months with no joy. Although the SSRI is definitely helping. I feel like time moves differently now and that’s a relief.
For me, I called a psychiatrist and saw him a month later. He diagnosed me there and then and gave me a prescription. The appointment cost €150.
Unfortunately he’s retired now.
I found that in the end, the diagnosis was enough. I used it to look up how to manage my life better with ADHD and also to give myself permission to not feel guilty about being lazy.
The medication worked, but it was far from a silver bullet. And it wasn’t worth the side effects. In the evenings I was so mentally drained that doing anything felt exhausting, even watching TV.
Of course, to each their own. For some people the medications is a life saver.
The soonest appointment for an assessment I could get is next August.
TL;DR
This has been my experience in a timeline
> 2019: Experiencing symptoms of depression for years but finally get diagnosed. That was the year I made progress with counselling and medication
> 2020: covid comes along and takes the rug out from under me along with everyone else. It feels like I’ve lost all my progress and by the end of the year I’m left wondering what went wrong. (Sure I could blame covid, but sometimes you don’t know a tree is rotten until a storm brings it down)
> 2021: I feel like I got lucky here. A good friend of mine has ADHD and we talked a lot during the pandemic so eventually they must have noticed something. They noticed I seemed to go through things they experienced with ADHD and suggested I get tested.
> I was doubtful at first but the more we talked and the more stuff they pointed out the more I was convinced it was worth seeing if I did indeed have ADHD. My friend recommended a specialist they knew of that diagnoses ADHD in adults and I got diagnosed in July with ADD.
Fast forward to now and I still haven’t managed to get the medication the specialist recommended to me. Although as of yesterday I think I will have them this side of Christmas.
I’ll be honest, there are a number of things that were in my favour along the way. **Having a friend that went through the process of getting diagnosed who could give advice (and recognised that I may have ADHD before I had any clue myself) . **Having health insurance so I could jump through the hoops quicker to get myself medicated (even with that I was almost looking at January before I got any more word back from them)
So a psychologist diagnosis is one thing, but they can’t prescribe medications, they’re not qualified to, and it shouldn’t be taken as a confirmation in stone really.
A psychiatrist will want to be sure you have it, including showing you had it since childhood, my own appointment required parental confirmation of symptoms in early childhood etc, and took near 2 hours.
Why didn’t the psychiatrist prescribe for you? I’m thinking it sounds like he is not sure you have it. You mention that you have other issues that cause similar symptoms, you should consider this may be true, you not having ADHD. Do not self medicate yourself in this situation, this is prescription abuse and dangerous.
Get a prescription from another psychiatrist if you really believe you have it.
It didn’t take me too long to get on Tyvense, that was just the one that was recommended to me by the Psychiatrist. But it hasn’t been having any effect for me on the past few months, maybe I’ve gotten too used to it.
I asked my GP if he could swap me to another ADHD medication, but said he wouldn’t (or couldn’t) unless the Psychiatrist gave me the prescription. Which is gonna cost me a lot of money.
Does anyone have experience with swapping to another ADHD medication?
I’ve been toying with going through the process to get diagnosed but the cost is off-putting, not to mention having to travel to Dublin or Belfast.
Any mental health services in Ireland are a joke, be better going up north or something tbh
[removed]
If you have a feeling your child may have ADHD, it is in your best interest to get them sorted as young as possible. This doesn’t even necessarily mean medication, but it’ll make medication a LOT more accessible if needed in the future.
I am one of the “lucky” ones who got sorted at 15, but the older you get the more difficult it gets to access any form of care for it.
The public system until I was 19 was great. Then when I turned 20 I was basically told I could see a doctor once a year in Naas hospital, despite needing a script monthly.
Without my medication I would probably be dead.
I got diagnosed this year in Ireland, took three years form initial enquiry, the process was dragged out frustrating and expensive, but it was the best thing I’ve done, anyone who believes they need an assessment keep going, I feel in a better place than ever, being aware of how ADHD has effect every aspect of my life has been tough but enlightening,