u/DribbleThing

So, I live in the Grampian region and there is NO facility for diagnosis with the NHS and they will not enter into a shared care agreement. It's quite likely I have ADHD, though.

I was referred to a local psychotherapies service for CBT to try and treat some of the symptoms, but during the triage appointment today the conclusion is that because I've had CBT before for anxiety, and this service is not ADHD specific, that it isn't right for me but she is checking if something else will work...

So anyway, while I am starting to lose my mind with that because I can't get any help, the people I have spoken with (the psychologist today, my local practice nurse as I can't get an appointment with a GP and also a counsellor through an employee assistance programme) have all said I should get some reasonable adjustments put in place. I don't know how that's going to fly without a diagnosis but there's no harm in trying.

However, I feel like I can barely think of any potential adjustments.

Could you guys share any experience or thoughts? For context I work in a design and sales role for a trades merchant. It is open plan and there are no meeting with rooms or quiet zones in the building. There are people in and out all day most often for the other part of the business, not for me. Some of the trades chit chat and hang about to pass time for whatever reason (so distracting, not to mention time wasting if they're hanging about at my desk) and some of them are actual customers for me. I always try to schedule appointments with walk ins anyway.

So far, I have come up with:

- forgiveness on start times if I am cutting it fine getting in to work (given they definitely get more time back from me anyway!)

- flexibility on work hours if I hyperfocus and skip lunch/work late - could I get time back so I'm not burnt out?

- fixed scheduled times for certain tasks - e.g. Calls on x days, appointments on x days, designs on x days, uninterrupted work time so I can focus. I think this will help with what people can expect from me (?!)

- working from home (and by extension a desk, laptop, monitor, chair). Links to above with uninterrupted time as there isn't an office I can shut myself in.

- messages being emailed rather than scraps of paper being dumped on my desk

It feels like without being able to speak to the right medical people, I don't know where to get info on some options!

I'd be so, so grateful for any help.

ETA: I'm in Scotland so the options for diagnosis are a wee bit different.

I live in the Grampian region in Scotland. There is zero NHS service for adults here. None. I'm pretty good at research but I've hit a brick wall here and I'm looking for any info or experiences you guys might have.

I can't really afford to go private. I could possibly find a way with a credit card I'd be paying for the next 87 years but I have just discovered (via Reddit funnily enough) that a private diagnosis isn't recognised by the NHS and until I can get diagnosed via the NHS, which will never happen because the service doesn't exist, I'd be paying privately for prescriptions. The post I happened to see was £88 for 4wks of that specific prescription. Never mind the cost of any therapies to try and learn the skills I think I might be lacking.

I am not coping and need to do something. I'm mid 30s and was diagnosed with GAD in my mid-late 20s and I really believe that the anxiety overruled the ADHD and now I have that under control these ADHD symptoms are absolutely raging and I haven't learned whatever coping skills that one GP seems to think I should have developed because I've survived to adulthood (I now refuse to see that doc 😉)

I am on hols from work this week but might need to get signed off and this is just the cycle I've been in for years now. I popped in by work yesterday morning and almost fully lost it 20mins after arriving and all I was trying to do was tidy up my area when people were up in my face, being arseholes and on at me to solve problems.

Can your GP send a referral to a different district? It was something my partner mooted last night that I hadn't even considered.

Is there anything any of you can suggest that will work in Scotland for someone who can't afford private diagnosis, prescriptions and therapies?

Surely it isn't totally hopeless...