
Undiagnosed adult ADHD could cost UK billions a year, report finds - DanBC
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/15/undiagnosed-adult-adhd-could-cost-uk-billions-a-year-report-finds
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jjhbw
Obviously this can only be solved with more medication! Remind me to buy extra
Pfizer stock.

Edit: fair enough. I do realize people who are seriously affected benefit from
these medications. I did not mean to trivialize their struggle. However, i do
think the sheer number of people currently receiving these relatively heavy
medications is alarming. I think overdiagnosis is a serious problem with adhd.

~~~
zarkov99
My young daughter as ADD/ADHD. It is no joke. ADD/ADHD is an executive
function deficit, with tremendous negative impact on one's ability to regulate
behavior, resist distractions, plan and persist through a plan. You can
imagine how devastating that can be as you age and more and more is expected
of you in terms of self-management. Deep shame, anxiety and depression as a
result are common. Medication helps, sometimes a lot, and the objections
against it, to my knowledge, are not rooted in evidence.

~~~
msla
There are people who credit evidence, and people who believe in common sense,
and while most of the the "common sense" people can eventually get enough shit
kicked out of them by reality to learn to accept evidence, I'm half-convinced
there's something deep going on here. Maybe it's cultural, maybe it's even
deeper.

------
brookside
What happens when diagnosis? Seeking help (add your own scare quotes) will get
you amphetamines with an expensive monthly 5 minute refill appointment.

~~~
Klathmon
There are options other than amphetamines, and many of them are tried first
because they are cheaper and have less side effects.

Not to mention that therapy and just knowing about the problem can help too.

~~~
andai
You mean other stimulants? LSD works quite well, but is problematic for other
reasons (social stigma, prison rape, etc).

~~~
Klathmon
No, I mean non-stimulant options like Strattera and Clonidine, and a few
others that I don't know off the top of my head. Also there has been some
studies that show some antidepressants can have positive effects on people
with ADHD.

And like I said, there is also therapy and lifestyle changes that can have a
huge impact as well. I'd say that the benefits of my therapy and the
medication are about even in terms of effectiveness of managing my ADHD.

~~~
zarkov99
Can you write a little about your therapy? How does it work?

~~~
Klathmon
It is a bit weird calling it therapy, it feels more like a "one-on-one class
on how to deal with ADHD". They gave me a lot of tools to help with it, as
well as provided a good base "structure" which was important when I was first
starting (which was over a decade ago now!)

Tools like how I greatly benefit from a very strict schedule that needs many
things packed tightly together at some points, but very big gaps in others,
and I need to follow it to the t. Tools like knowing that exercise and eating
right help quite a lot, tools like how to structure my days and put external
reminders or blocks up that can keep me on track. Tools like being able to
figure out that I work well in COMPLETE silence, or a very chaotic atmosphere,
but not much in between. And information about things like "hyperfocus" which
is an ironic symptom of ADHD for many people, and ways that I can kind of
"trigger" it sometimes and use it to my advantage (while making sure I set
alarms to make sure I don't keep working until 9PM because I forgot what time
it was and the last time I looked at a clock was 3 in the afternoon...)

They are basically just people that have dealt with ADHD before, and can help
me find what works best for myself. Also, just talking to someone about how
something you tried (either medication or lifestyle change) worked can be
really eye opening. You never really think on your own about how something you
tried in your life really affected it, and just verbalizing that helped dial
in medication amounts and show the effectiveness of lifestyle changes.

~~~
zarkov99
Thanks a lot. Any references you can share?

~~~
Klathmon
Not really sorry. I'd recommend if you are looking to search for a therapist
in your area that has experience dealing with adults with ADHD (or children if
you are looking for someone else, or I guess are a child yourself... you never
know online!)

The important thing is to go to the appointments, which was tough at first,
but after a bit the appointments were the "anchor" that I started learning how
to schedule my life around, and then I was eventually able to schedule the
appointments around my life.

------
chatmasta
A bit off topic, but can someone investigate how much legalized gambling costs
the UK per year? Every town has at least two or three bookmakers in it, filled
with the poorest residents gambling away their already paltry wages.

And what about council tax? What kind of government charges extra taxes to the
renting population?

As an American in the UK, I see regressive taxes like this, and then just
shake my head when the MPs start asking why nobody is buying houses anymore.

~~~
DanBC
The regulator of gambling might have numbers:
[https://twitter.com/GamRegGB](https://twitter.com/GamRegGB)

Here's their website about statistics:

[http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-
statist...](http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-
statistics/News-action-and-statistics.aspx)

[http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-
statist...](http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-
statistics/Statistics-and-research/Statistics-and-research.aspx)

I think it's a huge problem. I'm especially worried about gambling (and
alchol) adverts that are shown to children.

> And what about council tax? What kind of government charges extra taxes to
> the renting population?

Council tax goes to local councils and is used to fund (alongside money from
central government):

[https://www.lovemoney.com/news/50941/where-does-council-
tax-...](https://www.lovemoney.com/news/50941/where-does-council-tax-money-go)

    
    
        Road maintenance, repairs and street lighting
        Local transport services like buses
        Children’s social care
        Support for elderly and vulnerable
        Supporting children’s education
        Preventing homelessness through social housing
        Libraries, arts, museums, leisure and recreation services
        Maintaining parks and open spaces
        Waste collection, recycling and disposal
        Street cleaning and flood defences
        Administration of licences, permits and housing benefit
        Planning and building control
        Other services like coroners, courts, registrars, elections and tax collection
        Long term investment
    
    

Before council tax (a rate based on the value of the property) we briefly had
a poll tax (a rate per person). Poll tax caused literal riots. So, while there
are problems with council tax it's less hated than poll tax.

~~~
chatmasta
Thanks for the insightful comment. I'm little more than a tourist, you've been
dealing with this far longer than me. :P

From the statistics page:

> 48% of people have gambled in the past four weeks

That is mind blowing. Yet only 0.5% of people 16+ England identify as "problem
gamblers." That means that roughly 1% of all gamblers identify as "problem
gamblers." Of course, it's gotta be pretty bad before you admit to yourself
you have a problem.

A more telling statistic would be the amount of money lost per gambler per
month as a percent of their income. But no gambler knows how much they lost
this month; indeed, that's probably part of the problem. Perhaps the law
should require bookies to track each person's winnings/losings and show them a
big red number for how much they've lost at that bookie.

