> Get checked and officially diagnosed.

That can be a surprisingly difficult process.

For example the NHS isn't entirely sure how to diagnose ADHD in adults. My GP didn't even know it was possible, and had to go and make phone calls to find out where the nearest specialist was. Unfortunately if your answer to "Did you get bad grades at school?" is "Not really" then hard luck, as they want evidence of underachievement as a kid to confirm the diagnosis. And there really is no way to complain your above average grades were underachievement without sounding like a dick.

It wasn't until I was in the final stage of my degree that somebody noticed that I had problems, and luckily the University helped me get a private diagnosis for some of my issues.

There are standard batteries of tests now. I'd be surprised if they were completely unknown. The need for evidence back into childhood does probably remain, but I think most pros who understand ADHD know that grades are only one possible indicator.

That's especially true for gifted people (guessing from your "sounding like a dick" sentence), where "twice exceptionality" can be tough to recognize due to smarter people being able to find better coping mechanisms. That particular issue is not unique to ADHD, comes up with dyslexia and other learning difficulties too.

Admittedly my last interaction with the NHS was three years ago, but the GP had to go away and research what to do. I have no problem with that, they can't be expected to know everything offhand! The human mind is a complex thing.

My own hangups make it difficult as I find the whole thing hard to talk about. I have no reason to complain in the grand scheme of things, "Some people have real problems!"

I agree that getting an assessment for ADHD in the NHS is frustrating and too hit or miss.

NICE is aware of that, and they're pretty clear about what should happen.

For anyone living in England: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72

I've been looking into it, but it looks like it's going to cost several hundred dollars, which would be fine if I knew I was getting something out of that, but it's a lot of money just to be told, "No, it must be something else."

Note that all a psychiatrist does for adults to determine whether they have ADHD is give them a self-reporting questionnaire. You can find sample questionnaires and diagnostic criteria for interpreting them in a couple of places online. In other words, if you're honest with yourself when you answer, you can know exactly what a psychiatrist will say without having to go.

The one thing that might not be mentioned on such sites is that people being tested for ADHD are also given an inventory for anxiety disorders, sometimes mixed into the ADHD questions. Anxiety looks like ADHD in some ways but is treated differently; effectively, in order for an ADHD diagnosis to "count", you have to be not-overly-anxious.

In my case I had to take two questionnaires (one was 100+ questions for general mental disorder evaluation), a subset of an IQ test, and a computer test. The computer test was interesting... it was along the lines of left click when you see the number 2, right click when you hear a sound. No other distractions trying to trick you into clicking, but it is a 15 minute test. Excruciatingly boring, but even trying as hard as I could, the psychiatrist wondered if I had cheated/fudged the test because my results were so far out of whack compared to the IQ test.

You sure on that? It's extremely common for ADHD to be comorbid with anxiety. There's a challenge in figuring out which is secondary to which, sure (same with depression and ADHD or depression and anxiety--they all confound each other) but I've never heard of apparent anxiety being a disqualification.

Not a disqualification, no; it's more, like you said, that they confound one-another, but usually it's the anxiety doing more of the confounding. It's very hard to determine whether the ADHD really "exists" as its own thing or not until you've treated for the anxiety. (In neurochemical terms, since adrenaline production consumes dopamine, there's no way to know what the person's "normal" dopamine flow is like until you can get them to stop being so stressed out.)

Couple this with the fact that a good few of the psychiatrists I know basically only treat adult ADHD cases—they're easy, no long-term maintenance therapy needed!—and it starts to look more like having anxiety is a "disqualifier". What it really means, though, is that the patient will have to get the anxiety under control before a sensible psychiatrist will trust the calibration of the ADHD self-assessment criteria.

It's a muddy situation but your insurance may cover the cost. I explicitly called my insurance provider and asked if they cover the testing required and they said learning disorders weren't covered for adults at all. It was getting to be a big enough issue that I was willing to part with the money out of pocket so I got tested anyways. Insurance ended up paying 100% :/

You will.

Well, true, any information is useful, I guess.

I started with the process of getting a diagnose less than a year ago, and am next month meeting up with doctor nr 4 and 5. It is a long and painful process.