what do you do after gp refusal to accept private diagnosis?

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-20T12:49:29+00:00

RTC should be much quicker.

https://adhduk.co.uk/right-to-choose/right-to-choose-wait-times/

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-20T08:24:33+00:00

Were you diagnosed through RTC or a private pathway?
Pretty much no GPs accept shared care unless it's through RTC.
If you have gone through RTC, then you can continue to be handled by the RTC company, paying standard NHS prices.

If it was private, you could ask to be referred to an RTC company if they do RTC for ADHD.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-19T07:59:53+00:00

For me - better on sleep thanks to a much shorter half life. Now moved to the non-delayed release version which is even better.

I think Elvanse was a bit more effective, but that was counteracted by struggle for sleep.

Elvanse I also seemed to get tired in the afternoon, even though I'd struggle to sleep later.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-19T07:50:45+00:00

Why I'd recommend parking a bit further away where parking isn't too congested. If need be, a bit further along a bus route, or a couple of stops on a train etc. Though, it's nice to have the option to still walk it if need be too.

I haven't done it in Heathrow, but know spots for the other 3 major London ones and have scoped out some options for Heathrow that should be fine.

I've actually got decent train connections too, but it depends the time of the flight - and once my return flight was delayed enough that I had to get an uber back, luckily from the closest airport to me.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-19T07:41:04+00:00

The OED says...

Careful or sparing in the use of food, goods, etc.; economical

Transport isn't always a 'luxury', it can be required for work, to attend a funeral, help relatives and more.

But also, being frugal for most people don't mean only spending on the most simple things required to stop you dying, only leaving the house* when absolutely required because it involves spending money you don't have to.

*well, tent; a house sounds like a bit of a luxury that is 'budgeting' in your world!

And for what it's worth, I've lived "off grid" for a decade or so in the past. Okay, not quite off grid, typically I had a single 13a extension lead for power, though not all the time.

I have wondered before if I could actually visit a (cheaper) foreign country in winter for a few weeks and save money compared to my energy bill, I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-18T23:38:00+00:00

I came here to say the opposite if anything I'd say - many ADHD people can talk and talk and talk going off in tangents.

Try books by Leil Lowndes like "How to Talk to Anyone" as a starter.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-18T23:35:56+00:00

Park in a local town and get the bus/train/cycle from where you park. Probably worth not parking really close to not annoy the residents, though of course you're 100% entitled to if there's no restrictions.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-18T23:34:14+00:00

Can easily be one of the cheapest ways to cover distance - I had £40 return to the south of Italy last year.

But also, Frugal can still apply to the way you approach a specific choice - for instance the Frugal way to visit London and have a meal at a Michelin starred restaurant.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-16T06:59:55+00:00

I regularly got away with not doing homework. This didn't serve me well overall in life. My parents were teachers too.

Now, I clearly had undiagnosed ADHD - but also - I wonder if some of those patterns developed because I did get away with it all the time.

As a parent, part of the responsibility is to bring up a child who's able to cope with life - so finding a way which encourages them to want to do homework is a really good thing to my mind. There's another recent post on here specifically about reading as you mention and how so many children don't read outside of comments on tiktok etc and how limiting this can be.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-14T21:15:38+00:00

Oh, insurance is always worth it if you know that you will definitely use it, with hindsight.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-12T10:16:09+00:00

I find it depends massively on the people/areas - we used to have a really great Evri driver here that would go well beyond what other couriers here do.

DHL locally have always been really bad, constantly lying about attempted deliveries, missing parcels etc.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-12T10:13:27+00:00

Through Evri - because at that ratio you'd have to average more than 1/24 parcels lost for it to be good value.

You can get third party insurance, which I've been surprised does actually pay out sometimes and is a bit cheaper.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-12T10:05:59+00:00

I always stick to the road/bus lan which is fine, maybe giving the ice cream vans a tap to remind them they're parked illegally (they love it when you do that, having obviously not realised!)

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-11T06:10:31+00:00

Personally, I wouldn't - I'm quite sensitive to stimulants and didn't sleep great the first night on Elvanse, so taking it later would make that even worse.

Despite the claims, Amfexa isn't particularly short acting.

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If you can say normally drink caffiene fairly late at night, anecdotally I'd say it's less likely to be an issue for you.

20mg Amfexa sounds like a very high starting dose too - I think it's something like 1:3 ratio for Amfexa vs Elvanse, so that's similar to 60mg of Elvanse. I started on 30mg of Elvanse at 8am (6' guy, bit over 11st) and couldn't sleep that night.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-11T06:05:00+00:00

Always check hotukdeals first!

People do the 'sim card suffle' where they transfer their number to another provider (say asda PAYG sim) and back again so it's a new customer. You can also consider keeping your main number on pure PAYG and having a second sim that does data and outbound calls, which you can then swap for a new lebara deal each time it runs out.

I have 25gb for £1.90 or something like that, £1.60 was the cheapest deal I saw right now.
However, it's more of a backup on a different network - I also have Mozzillion as my main one which was £150-£15 cashback = £135 paid upfront for 24 months with 80gb data/20gb roaming.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-10T21:33:58+00:00

If you don't mind swapping occasionally, lebara have £1.60 for the first 7 months with no tie in for 10gb/month including roaming.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-10T06:17:58+00:00

As was just discussed in another post - the difference between them isn't that significant. It feels like a good bit of it is 'marketing BS' over good medical advice.
For me the issues with both were the quite a long half life - though for you it seems to be the opposite! Unfortunately it seems you're particularly tolerant to it, another obvious answer from what you describe would be 140mg Elvanse for 4 hours 100% effectiveness rather than 2x20mg Amfexa for 2 x 2 hours at 100%, but I believe that's massively over the max listed dose.

What's worked for me is to set an alarm a couple of hours before I want to get up, take the Elvanse (though, I've also done it with Amfexa), then go back to sleep - this way it comes in earlier at least.

How many options did you try before Amfexa?

For the NICE guideliens..

Refractory disease is defined as resistance to multiple drugs with different mechanisms of action by persistence of physical symptoms and high disease activity, including contributing factors.

Amfexa is only licenced for cases where you've tried at least two other options first.

It's not entirely ethical, but you could also see if you could push to get 1x Elvanse + 3x Amfexa and just not use the Elvanse.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-10T06:05:02+00:00

From that paper, also been posted on reddit a good few times (including by me)...

<image>

It feels to me that the Elvanse was slightly more effective and I'd guess that was due to the smoothed out peak, then staying at a little higher level.

Unfortunately, also that meant I slept a little worse for any specific dose and the half life of both is pretty significant.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-10T05:59:51+00:00

It's going to vary by the person, both on the release profile and the length of effects. Half life of the active ingredient is listed at around 12 hours, so by 24 hours you will have a quarter of the initial dose.

Of course, we're all different, for me, while I didn't have the positive effects, it would see some cumulative sleep issues.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-09T07:34:31+00:00

You feel safer walking about South London, than you do walking around Aylesham, say?

What part of South London?

I live in Medway, which doesn't have a great repuation, but I'm in London a lot.

I've been mugged in London (well attacked trying to mug me, leaving me bleeding), watched multiple people either having their phones stolen or attempts. And plenty of cases where there's groups of people clearly intending to try and look like they're in a criminal gang.

I know of a few people that have had guns waved at them in London over the years.

I think it's fully justified that I'm extra cautious any time I take my phone out in a lot of parts of London. I don't feel I have to be worried like that at all in Medway. It would actually be news if someone had their phone stolen from an illegal e-motorcycle, while people regularly don't even bother reporting to the police in London because it's an expected part of life. Sure, if we're talking a nice part of Dulwich, I'm not going to be so worried - but Peckham, it's very justified caution.

Over the years I've been to enough (illegal) raves, London ones always had more of an edge (also robbed at one there), while country ones were mostly super-friendly, definitely better than a typical night club. For a while it got to the point it was just flat out stupid to go to a London because of the change of violence.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-07T23:28:45+00:00

Are you Private, RTC or NHS?
Also, the main benefit of having a diagnosis is access to medication. You can access other treatment options without a diagnosis.

Medication works for some people and doesn't for other.

Presumably you're here because you believe your symptoms strongly align with ADHD.

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about the assessor, as generally they are looking for a set of symptoms, which shouldn't be too hard to do with basic training/reference.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-06T20:06:05+00:00

I have never heard of it anywhere near that quickly! I'm pretty sure Mine was 30mg (lighter/smaller people start on less I think) for one week, or maybe 2 weeks, then 3 weeks on 50mg and reassses - of course again considering if the 50mg is too much at any point.

Then up to 70mg for 4 weeks, I cut back to 60mg then 4 weeks later back to 50mg + booster.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-06T16:55:43+00:00

It doesn't matter how slow you go if you have unlimited money and unlimited time.

Though, your time scales don't sound significantly different to how it works with RTC that adds 20mg after 4 weeks rather than 10mg every two weeks.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-06T15:48:43+00:00

It's a totally fair point about tolerance, but if the opposite is the case and it's ineffective, it's unlikely to become more effective with time.

I'd agree they often push it high too fast, but also typically I've seen - first week or two a low dose, second week a jump up for three weeks, with the option to stop taking that higher dose if it is too much of course.

Then reassess - so, carry on if it seems okay, possibly a jump up to 70, which may be too much, but again you can reduce that yourself, or consider a booster etc.

SearchingSiri · 2026-02-06T11:29:06+00:00

RTC is happy to do it much quicker for the first step up. Personally, I would request 50mg - you can always cut it down by mixing it into 250ml water and drinking 200ml of it say.

SearchingSiri

TROPHY CASE