Your prep pack

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition — without evidence of childhood symptoms, an adult diagnosis can't be made. Ask parents or older relatives if you can.

1. Pregnancy and birth: any complications, prematurity, low birth weight, smoking or alcohol exposure?
2. Milestones: when did you walk, talk, read? Any motor or speech delays?
3. As a baby/toddler: activity level, sleep, feeding, tantrums, ability to settle?
4. Preschool: could you sit, listen, take turns, follow routines, play with others?
5. Primary school: concentration, finishing work, losing things, fidgeting, blurting out, friendships, teacher comments?
6. Secondary school: organisation, homework, revision, exams, detentions or exclusions, bullying?
7. How have symptoms changed over time — better, worse, or louder as demands rose?

Clinicians (often using a structured interview such as DIVA-5) ask for real examples, not just yes or no. For each symptom you rated Often or Very often, write one example from childhood and one from the past 6 months: at work, at home, how often, and how you cope.

1. Make careless mistakes or overlook details at work, school or in other activities
2. Have difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or conversations
3. Not seem to listen when spoken to directly
4. Not follow through on instructions and fail to finish work, chores or duties
5. Have difficulty organising tasks and activities
6. Avoid, dislike or delay tasks that need sustained mental effort
7. Lose things you need, such as keys, phone, wallet, paperwork or glasses
8. Get easily distracted by things around you or by your own thoughts
9. Forget daily activities, such as paying bills, returning calls or keeping appointments
10. Fidget with or tap your hands or feet, or squirm in your seat
11. Leave your seat when staying seated is expected
12. Feel restless (in adults often an inner restlessness)
13. Find it hard to do leisure activities quietly
14. Feel 'on the go', as if driven by a motor
15. Talk excessively
16. Blurt out an answer before a question has been finished
17. Have difficulty waiting your turn
18. Interrupt or intrude on others, such as butting into conversations

Services almost always ask for someone else's view. If no one is available, the clinician will record that and rely more on records.

1. How do you know the person, and for how long?
2. Which of the symptoms do you see? Give an example of each.
3. When did you first notice them? Were they there before age 12?
4. Do you see them at home, socially, at work or school — in more than one place?
5. How do they affect daily life, relationships, work or money?
6. What coping strategies do they use, and what happens when structure is removed?

1. Work or study: performance, lateness, missed deadlines, conflicts, job changes
2. Home: bills, paperwork, appointments, chores, clutter, losing things
3. Relationships: interrupting, forgetting dates, emotional reactions, conflict
4. Money: impulsive spending, debt, missed payments
5. Self-esteem and quality of life day to day

Used to rule out medical causes and check medication safety. There is no blood test or brain scan that diagnoses ADHD.

1. Current medicines, past medicines and side effects, allergies
2. Heart history: palpitations, fainting, chest pain, high blood pressure; any family history of sudden cardiac death
3. Recent blood pressure, pulse, height and weight
4. Thyroid, epilepsy, head injury, sleep apnoea, diabetes or low blood sugar, asthma, hearing/vision
5. Mental health history: anxiety, depression, bipolar, PTSD, eating disorder, OCD, psychosis
6. Neurodevelopmental: autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia (DCD), tics
7. Alcohol, cannabis, stimulants, nicotine, caffeine — including any use to cope with focus or sleep
8. Family history: ADHD, autism, mood disorders, substance use, learning difficulties

These are asked routinely throughout an assessment, not because anything is assumed. Clinicians explain at the start that confidentiality may be broken if there is serious risk to you or others.

1. Any thoughts of self-harm or suicide, now or in the past?
2. Risky driving, accidents, fines or licence issues?
3. Impulsive spending, debt, gambling?
4. Any safety concerns at home, or about anyone else's safety?
5. Any contact with police or the justice system?

• Several symptoms before age 12, with examples
• Impairment in 2 or more areas of life
• Not better explained by another condition (anxiety, depression, bipolar, complex PTSD, sleep problems, thyroid, low blood sugar, substances, autism, learning differences, head injury, medication side effects)
• Borderline cases are often reviewed by a multidisciplinary team (MDT) so one clinician doesn't decide a close call alone

• Titration: start low and increase step by step over several weeks, reviewing benefit and side effects each time.
• First line for adults: usually a stimulant (lisdexamfetamine or methylphenidate). Non-stimulant options such as atomoxetine may suit people where stimulants aren't suitable or tolerated.
• Checks: blood pressure, pulse and weight before starting, after each dose change, then at least every 6 months.
• ECG: not routine — requested if there are heart symptoms (like palpitations), heart history, or family history of heart problems.
• Common side effects: trouble sleeping, reduced appetite, agitation or anxiety, raised blood pressure or pulse.
• Safety first: medication is usually not started until unstable mood, psychosis, suicidality or substance misuse are addressed.
• Shared care: after titration, your GP may take over prescribing under a shared care agreement — ask early whether your GP accepts this.

• Completed adult screener with real examples for each symptom
• Old school reports, educational psychology reports, work appraisals
• A timeline of symptoms from childhood to now
• Medicines, health conditions and allergies list
• An informant who can attend or send the informant form
• Notes on sleep, substances, mood and anxiety
• What help you want: medication, therapy, coaching, workplace or school adjustments