Everyone joining the army, navy or RAF in the UK will need to pass a medical examination. An ADHD diagnosis in itself, will not prevent you from joining the armed services as long as you: 

You may be asked for evidence that you have been functioning well r and without behavioural difficulties for the last year. This might include evidence that you have been attending regularly and performing well in your job or at school or college. 

In March 2023, ADHD UK, made a Freedom of Information Request to the British Military to ask how many people currently serving have a formal diagnosis of ADHD. The answers were: 

 

 

Having an online assessment for ADHD is a significant decision. If you receive an ADHD diagnosis, it may change how you and other people see you now. It may change how you look back and think about your past: your childhood, time in school, how you achieved or struggled at college, university or in the workplace. It may alter how you view your past or current relationships. That process of seeing your past, present and future in a different way, can involve quite a lot of different emotions. So, it’s important to have the headspace to embark on that process. If you have a lot going on right now, in your work or home life, then is now the right time for you to have an Online Adult ADHD Assessment, or would it work better for you to wait for a while? 

 

After an online ADHD Assessment, if you receive an ADHD diagnosis, then would you want to consider medication? If the answer is “Yes”, then you need to know if your GP is willing to enter into a “Shared Care Agreement”. The majority of people who have a private virtual ADHD Assessment, will also have a private medication assessment. ADHD medication is a specialist area of prescribing and most GPs are not trained to do the initial assessment and prescribing of ADHD medication. Therefore, you would need to see a private specialist prescriber who may be a psychiatrist, a mental health nurse or a pharmacist. They will work with you to agree on a medication which works well for you, at what dose and at what time of day you should take it. 

 

GPs do not usually prescribe ADHD medication and so you will need to see a specialist prescriber. Most people who have a private ADHD Assessment, will also have private medication assessment. A range of specialist professionals can prescribe ADHD medication including pharmacists, mental health nurses and psychiatrists. 

 

After your ADHD diagnosis, I will give you information about individual professionals and organisations you can contact for a medication assessment. You can self-refer and do not need a referral from another professional. You will need to send a copy of your ADHD Assessment report to the specialist prescriber and they will request additional information about your physical health.  

 

When people are told that they have ADHD, they are often surprised by how they feel. This is true even if they were expecting the diagnosis. “I’ve always felt there was something different about me”. This is something that many of the people I assess for ADHD tell me when during our first conversation. Or sometimes people say, “I’ve always felt there was something wrong with me” or “I never felt I fitted in”. Yet when they are given an ADHD diagnosis people may suddenly feel very upset. If you have struggled all your life to manage tasks that seem easy to other people, like leaving the house on time, getting a meal ready and clearing up afterwards, paying your Council Tax bill on time or remembering a friend’s birthday. You may have got used to others telling you, or telling yourself, that “you just need to focus”, “use just need to try harder” or “you just need to get on and do it”.  

The Panorama programme emphasised the length of an assessment and stressed that a 40-minute interview cannot cover all the information which is needed.  

While that is true, an assessment could be several hours long and still be a bad or inadequate assessment and still not have all the elements which are important. The NICE (National Institute of Care Excellence) guidelines on ADHD names the essential parts of an ADHD assessment.  

 

This does what it says on the tin! It is the story of how you as a human being have grown and developed through your life from the year dot up to the present moment. It will cover your birth, how and when you reached key milestones as a baby and young child, including walking and talking, your family background, physical health as a child and adult and your experiences with learning and at school. It will include your work history and how you spend your free time. 

 

 

• Who can diagnose ADHD? 

• What should an ADHD assessment include? 

• How should questions be asked in an ADHD assessment? 

• What counts as an ADHD symptom? 

 

 

Many people who have a private assessment and receive an ADHD diagnosis, chose to take medication. They will therefore see a private specialist prescriber, usually a pharmacist or psychiatrist, for a medication assessment and a few follow up appointments. When the medication has been optimised and is working well, most people are referred back to the care of their GP through what’s called a “Shared Care Agreement”. From this point onwards, your GP prescribes the medication, like any other NHS prescription. Your GP needs to have a copy of your ADHD assessment report, and to know they can trust the conclusions of the report and the diagnosis. 

I’m very skilled at producing a shockingly loud whistle. I’m good at this because I spent hours and hours practising when I was about nine years old which probably wasn’t very relaxing for my family. By repeating the skill, over and over and over and over again, I developed pathways in my brain for making a loud whistling noise.  

 

I recently discovered, when I had to attract the attention of someone a considerable distance away from me, that I can still do it, even though I haven’t done it for several years.  

 

When you are learning a new skill, such as whistling, your brain is laying down a pathway. Like sheep tracks, the more you walk that way, the more you practice the skill, the clearer the path becomes. In the brain, chemicals called neurotransmitters, help make and develop these pathways. 

 

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition which can be diagnosed in childhood. For the majority of people, it will continue into adulthood. It involves specific changes in the brain which can be observed scientifically. For a person to be diagnosed with ADHD, they not only have to have symptoms – problems with attention and/or with being impulsive and hyperactive – they also have to show that their symptoms are having a significantly negative impact on at least two areas of their life such as their: