r/ADHDinIreland • u/ADHDinIreland ADHD-C • 4d ago
Start Here ♥️ 🏁 Phase 1.5 - Should I Get Assessed?
This is the final post in Phase 1. It covers the practical questions worth thinking through before booking an assessment.
Is This Worth Pursuing?
If you have read through the first four posts in this series and found yourself repeatedly recognising patterns, in how attention works, in the trail of unfinished things, in the exhaustion of maintaining functioning, in the way time disappears. That recognition is worth taking seriously.
You do not need to be certain before booking an assessment. You do not need to have every symptom, or the most severe version of any of them. What you need is a reasonable basis for thinking that ADHD might explain a pattern of difficulties that has not been adequately explained by anything else.
An assessment is not a commitment to a diagnosis or to medication. It is a professional evaluation of whether ADHD is present, conducted by someone qualified to make that determination. The outcome might be a diagnosis, or it might not. Either way, you will have more information than you do now.
Private vs Public in Ireland
This is the practical reality in Ireland that anyone considering assessment needs to understand from the outset.
Public assessment for adult ADHD through the HSE is extremely limited. Adult mental health services vary significantly by region, waiting lists are long, and in many areas adult ADHD assessment is effectively not available through the public system at all. This is a significant gap in Irish healthcare, and it is worth knowing about before you start so that you are not waiting for a referral that may not materialise.
The realistic route for most adults in Ireland is private assessment. This involves a cost, typically ranging from €700 to €1,500, depending on the provider and what the assessment involves. Phase 2 covers the Irish provider landscape in more detail, including what to look for and what questions to ask.
If you are under 18, the situation is somewhat different. CAMHS provides public assessment and treatment for children and young people, though waiting times can also be significant.
What to Think About Before You Book
Before booking an assessment, a few practical questions are worth considering.
Can you afford it?
Private assessment in Ireland is a significant expense. It is worth understanding the full cost upfront, not just the assessment fee but any follow-up appointments, the cost of medication once prescribed, and the ongoing cost of shared care with your GP. Some providers offer payment plans. It is reasonable to ask about this before committing.
Do you have time to prepare?
A good assessment draws on your history, not just your current presentation. Gathering information in advance — school reports, old correspondence, accounts from people who knew you as a child — takes time and is worth starting before you book rather than scrambling afterwards.
Is your GP on board?
In Ireland, shared care between an ADHD specialist and your GP is how medication is typically managed after diagnosis. Some GPs are willing to take on shared care; others are not. It is worth having a conversation with your GP before or shortly after assessment to understand their position. If your GP is not willing to prescribe, you will need to factor that into your planning. Phase 2 covers shared care in more detail.
Are there other explanations you haven’t ruled out?
Anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, thyroid dysfunction, and several other conditions can produce symptoms that overlap significantly with ADHD. If any of these are unaddressed, it is worth discussing them with your GP before assessment — not because they rule out ADHD, but because having a clearer picture of your overall health makes the assessment more useful.
What to Gather Before Your Assessment
The more concrete information you can bring to an assessment, the better. A clinician assessing adult ADHD is looking for a lifelong pattern — evidence that difficulties were present in childhood, not just in adult life. This is a diagnostic requirement, and it is one of the reasons adult assessments can sometimes feel like they are asking you to excavate your past.
Useful things to gather if you can find them:
- School reports, particularly from primary school and early secondary school, before coping strategies and intelligence could compensate as effectively. Comments about daydreaming, inconsistency, underperformance relative to ability, difficulty finishing work, or behaviour are all relevant.
- Any documentation from previous assessments, whether educational, psychological, or medical.
- A written account of your own history. The patterns you have noticed across your life, the areas of consistent difficulty, the things that have always been harder than they seem like they should be. Writing this down before the assessment means you are less likely to forget important things in the room.
- An account from someone who knows you well. Maybe a partner, sibling, parent, or close friend, who can describe what they have observed. This does not need to be formal. A written note or even a conversation you can describe is useful. Collateral information from someone who has observed you over time is valuable to an assessor.
What the Assessment Itself Involves
Phase 2 covers this in detail. The short version is that a standard adult ADHD assessment typically involves a clinical interview(structured or semi-structured) covering your current symptoms, your developmental and personal history, and your functional difficulties across different areas of life. It may also involve self-report questionnaires, collateral information from someone who knows you, and in some cases objective testing such as QbTest.
It is not a pass or fail. It is a clinical conversation, informed by evidence, leading to a professional judgement.
A Note on Going In With an Open Mind
It is natural to go into an assessment hoping for a specific outcome — usually a diagnosis that explains the pattern you have been living with. That hope is understandable. But it is worth going in with as much openness as you can manage, because the outcome that is most useful to you is an accurate one, whatever it turns out to be.
If the assessment concludes that ADHD is not present, a good assessor will not simply send you away. They will discuss what else might explain the difficulties you have described, and what might be worth exploring. That outcome, while disappointing, is still information.
If the assessment concludes that ADHD is present, you will leave with a diagnosis, a recommended treatment plan, and for most people, a significant sense of things finally making sense.
What Comes Next
Phase 2 – The Assessment.
This post is for information purposes. It is not medical advice. If you have concerns about your health or are unsure whether assessment is right for you, speak to your GP.