As someone diagnosed with ADD in June 2021 (thanks to my brilliant amazing wife's constant nagging and patience - why she still loves me is beyond me), I feel the Panorama programme has done immense harm. My diagnosis has help both my wife and myself come to terms with my incredible inability to lose myself (I turn up to tennis games without my shoes or even my racket when I have put them next to the door, I can drive straight pass someone I have gone to pick up because i have forgotten why I am driving down that particular road, the shit just goes on etc. etc.). I have avoided taking medication as I think I should be able to manage my brain - I have been successful, have build successful businesses and led business turnarounds as MD saving hundreds of jobs.
Once things are sorted I rely on my team to carry me and I cannot do basic tasks. This pisses off those who are closes to me who cannot understand why and has led me to resign as MD a couple of times. When people talk to me about the Panorama program it questions the trust I have in my diagnosis which in turn remove trust I have in myself and others. The real foundation need to have hard open honest conversations. Shame they did not have someone with ADHD on the Panorama editorial panel.
Thanks for this article Tom. As a 50yr old who has done the online assessment for ADHD and now on the extremely long waiting list for a clinical assessment, I’ve found the Panorama program has made me question if I can trust the outcome. I’m hoping I don’t have ADHD and I’m just easily distracted with a poor attention span but my position was if I do have it, I’d rather know.
Wow! Thank you Tom. That was all so good to read. Is it a waste of time to ask what’s in it for governments to fail to treat mental and physical health problems, to classify as rare, diseases that patently are not rare, and are disabling many?
I have come to the ADHD table fairly recently, aged 72. When asking friends what they thought, the 'I always knew you were ' had me wondering - why had no one said anything?
Why had I been left to stagger under the weight of unfulfilled tasks, culpability, dissipated effort and a continual sense of failure, in spite of my many gifts?
Partial relief has since come on the sound advice I've been given, breaking down tasks, tackling sequential stacked priorities, building a 'staircase to heaven'.
Its made everything take on perspective, and gradually, given cues and clues how to tackle things. It also explains why I'm a writer. Having worked out anything for myself, the resulting relief motivates me to share.
So, thank you, Tom, for inspiring this response to your experiences, ideas, and thoughts!
Diagnosed with ADHD two months ago as an adult woman. After spending 15 months on an NHS waitlist, I realised that the money was worth spending to get an answer for myself, because I didn't have ADHD, right? That's just for naughty boys and pick me girls.
After my parents came to me, following them learning more about how ADHD presents in girls through their jobs, I approached my GP, I met all of the markers for assessment and was referred. But still, I just wanted to tick a box that said there wasn't anything wrong with me, I was just a bit weird, and that's fine.
A long story (with a lot of sighs) later, I finally met with a private consultant who I'd made sure only diagnosed ADHD in the absence of all other possibilities, I did not want to have this, I just wanted to know for sure.
Lo and behold I'm textbook ADHD, right down to the school reports my parents brought to my assessment. I struggled with my diagnosis to begin with, maybe I'd been misdiagnosed again, just as I had at 15 with anxiety and depression, for which I had been needlessly medicated for 15 years...was that happening again?
Just as I begin counselling and begin to toy with the idea of taking ADHD medication to see if it really can make me into a normal, functioning human, the BBC brings this documentary.
And so, here I am, diagnosed but stuck, so afraid of misdiagnosis that I can't bring myself to medicate, something that really could change my life for the better, the investigation has made me doubt myself, my parents, my doctors... Anyone I've ever known who has suggested I might have ADHD...
As someone diagnosed with ADD in June 2021 (thanks to my brilliant amazing wife's constant nagging and patience - why she still loves me is beyond me), I feel the Panorama programme has done immense harm. My diagnosis has help both my wife and myself come to terms with my incredible inability to lose myself (I turn up to tennis games without my shoes or even my racket when I have put them next to the door, I can drive straight pass someone I have gone to pick up because i have forgotten why I am driving down that particular road, the shit just goes on etc. etc.). I have avoided taking medication as I think I should be able to manage my brain - I have been successful, have build successful businesses and led business turnarounds as MD saving hundreds of jobs.
Once things are sorted I rely on my team to carry me and I cannot do basic tasks. This pisses off those who are closes to me who cannot understand why and has led me to resign as MD a couple of times. When people talk to me about the Panorama program it questions the trust I have in my diagnosis which in turn remove trust I have in myself and others. The real foundation need to have hard open honest conversations. Shame they did not have someone with ADHD on the Panorama editorial panel.
Thanks for this article Tom. As a 50yr old who has done the online assessment for ADHD and now on the extremely long waiting list for a clinical assessment, I’ve found the Panorama program has made me question if I can trust the outcome. I’m hoping I don’t have ADHD and I’m just easily distracted with a poor attention span but my position was if I do have it, I’d rather know.
Wow! Thank you Tom. That was all so good to read. Is it a waste of time to ask what’s in it for governments to fail to treat mental and physical health problems, to classify as rare, diseases that patently are not rare, and are disabling many?
I have come to the ADHD table fairly recently, aged 72. When asking friends what they thought, the 'I always knew you were ' had me wondering - why had no one said anything?
Why had I been left to stagger under the weight of unfulfilled tasks, culpability, dissipated effort and a continual sense of failure, in spite of my many gifts?
Partial relief has since come on the sound advice I've been given, breaking down tasks, tackling sequential stacked priorities, building a 'staircase to heaven'.
Its made everything take on perspective, and gradually, given cues and clues how to tackle things. It also explains why I'm a writer. Having worked out anything for myself, the resulting relief motivates me to share.
So, thank you, Tom, for inspiring this response to your experiences, ideas, and thoughts!
Diagnosed with ADHD two months ago as an adult woman. After spending 15 months on an NHS waitlist, I realised that the money was worth spending to get an answer for myself, because I didn't have ADHD, right? That's just for naughty boys and pick me girls.
After my parents came to me, following them learning more about how ADHD presents in girls through their jobs, I approached my GP, I met all of the markers for assessment and was referred. But still, I just wanted to tick a box that said there wasn't anything wrong with me, I was just a bit weird, and that's fine.
A long story (with a lot of sighs) later, I finally met with a private consultant who I'd made sure only diagnosed ADHD in the absence of all other possibilities, I did not want to have this, I just wanted to know for sure.
Lo and behold I'm textbook ADHD, right down to the school reports my parents brought to my assessment. I struggled with my diagnosis to begin with, maybe I'd been misdiagnosed again, just as I had at 15 with anxiety and depression, for which I had been needlessly medicated for 15 years...was that happening again?
Just as I begin counselling and begin to toy with the idea of taking ADHD medication to see if it really can make me into a normal, functioning human, the BBC brings this documentary.
And so, here I am, diagnosed but stuck, so afraid of misdiagnosis that I can't bring myself to medicate, something that really could change my life for the better, the investigation has made me doubt myself, my parents, my doctors... Anyone I've ever known who has suggested I might have ADHD...
A thought provoking look at ADHD, Tom, and a most enlightening one. Thank you!