Ella Jazz Bear 🏴🎺🏳️‍🌈🍉🌻 How I was diagnosed on the NHS: Met psychiatrist for first time on video call. Started describing symptoms. Stops me 5/10 minutes in and says it sounds like ADHD, so he's going to try me on ADHD meds. I get a 5 minute heart test for safety. Prescribed meds. They work.

I'm a journalist with ADHD. From both perspectives it's unethical & misleading for a neurotypical journalist to try get diagnosed privately, but tell NHS psychiatrist about investigation into false diagnoses & then use the NHS assessment as evidence private diagnoses are wrong

Your NHS ADHD assessment result is worthless after you've warned the psychiatrist about your journalistic agenda and implied you don't believe you have ADHD. Plus if you don't apply the same approach to the private assessments, making comparisons is extremely misleading.

So what does this investigation achieve? The methodology biases the outcomes; the approach (neurotypical cosplays neurodivergent) is offensive; the message stigmatises those of us with ADHD, gives people reason to doubt us & increases our fears about being dismissed & disbelieved

#ADHD and #Panorama in the news today, in prep for an expose of private ADHD clinics offering short cuts. There are useful lessons to be drawn here but also a note of concern. The scandal is underfunded NHS, not overdiagnosis of ADHD. forbes.com/sites/drnancyd…

I still can't get over the fact a "Leading NHS Consultant" heard he was a journalist, let him skip the queue, gave him a dubious and likely unethical 'assessment' and yet presumably is still in a job. #Panorama #ADHD

Erin Stevens same handle elsewhere Or the BBC paid him to an ‘NHS’ assessment

Can we now have a Panorama investigating how services so often diagnose Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder within minutes, without even properly exploring the diagnostic criteria and other factors which could cause the same traits (such as undiagnosed autism or adhd…)?

Prof Nancy Doyle adhdfoundation.org.uk/2023/05/15/res…

It is far past time for stigma about ADHD stimulants to subside. They are: ✨not addictive when taken as prescribed ✨highly effective for most w/ADHD w/minimal side effects ✨out of our system quickly ✨stimulants. Like…caffeine. They don’t get us high, they help us work.

Tony Lloyd Really good counter Tony. Horrendous that you tried to advocate for this before the programme and were ignored. BBC Panorama this is damaging stuff. What are your thoughts?

Prof Nancy Doyle BBC Panorama I think they were given a story to report - with an agenda that was perhaps more layered than simply exposing some poor quality services & exploitation. I wonder now if they actually understood the harm it will ultimately do with regard to shared care.

Let's expose the unethical journalistic practices that went into making #Panorama - ADHD Clinics Exposed. It appears that Rory Carson went undercover in a private group for ADHD women and then messaged people pretending he was doing a piece on #ADHD diagnoses "within the NHS".

“As an NHS psychiatrist it is clear to me that the root of this issue is not overdiagnosis. Instead, we are facing the combined challenges of remedying decades of underdiagnosis and NHS services that were set up when there was little awareness of ADHD” theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

BBC Panorama “As an NHS psychiatrist it is clear to me that the root of this issue is not overdiagnosis. Instead, we are facing the combined challenges of remedying decades of underdiagnosis and NHS services that were set up when there was little awareness of ADHD” theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Tony Lloyd BBC Panorama If only this had been the tone of the programme…

Concerns over ADHD overdiagnosis by private prescribers by Panorama only added to systemic inequality of access to NHS & fuelled the fire of cynicism by the ignorant & prejudiced. Poor journalism of no public benefit because they ignored the real issue. pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinical-…

No, ADHD is not a con. If that’s the message you got from Panorama’s exposé, you weren’t paying attention or watching properly | Adrian Chiles theguardian.com/society/commen…