For GPs, Paediatricians and other Clinicians
As you know, people with ADHD are both blessed and cursed. They are often lively, quick thinking, enterprising, independent minded and incredibly curious individuals who refuse to tread the trodden path. However, they often drift like clouds in the sky, day dream like hell and can’t focus on what is considered important – they may choose to focus on the flight of swallows through the windows than listening to the math’s teacher, often get in to trouble for not doing homework/School work and for acting without thinking. They often get marginalized and ostracized.
One of my young friends aged 11 described it as having a “super Ferrari brain with the breaks not working well and the satnav being shot at”. They often do not materialize their full potential, develop serious problems to their physical and mental health and end up having a lot of problems in their family and social lives as adults.
Services for children are reasonably well organized in the UK, though there are long waiting times in some areas compared to others. But up until recently even some of my wise colleagues believed that when an 18-year-old with ADHD wakes up on their 18th birthday, their ADHD mysteriously disappears! . So,it is still an uphill struggle to develop services for adults with ADHD and many are left with nothing but a free supply of hopelessness. Many of them may present to General practice, addiction services or Accident and Emergency services with complications of ADHD or co-existing conditions such as depression, anxiety or substance misuse and it is very often difficult to diagnose ADHD when such conditions co-exist.
Please feel free to access the attached documents and familiarize yourself with the multifaceted presentation of ADHD across the life span. You may wish to attend the ADHD master classes we offer for clinicians as well. Please refer to the training section on the website for details
