Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › What ADHD actually is
If you have not been assessed because of money, waiting lists or simply getting to appointments, that is a barrier and not a lack of seriousness on your part.
The loop is unkind: the difficulties themselves make earning and organising harder, and that makes assessment and treatment harder to reach. Before deciding it is impossible, find out what actually exists near you, such as school based assessment, sliding scale clinics, university training clinics, or a referral route through your doctor. Ask one person who might know rather than trying to map the whole system yourself.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Give full measure and weight, according to justice (Quran 6:152). People being given what they are owed in full is put there as a matter of justice, which is where unequal access properly belongs.
وَلَا تَقۡرَبُواْ مَالَ ٱلۡيَتِيمِ إِلَّا بِٱلَّتِي هِيَ أَحۡسَنُ حَتَّىٰ يَبۡلُغَ أَشُدَّهُۥۚ وَأَوۡفُواْ ٱلۡكَيۡلَ وَٱلۡمِيزَانَ بِٱلۡقِسۡطِۖ لَا نُكَلِّفُ نَفۡسًا إِلَّا وُسۡعَهَاۖ وَإِذَا قُلۡتُمۡ فَٱعۡدِلُواْ وَلَوۡ كَانَ ذَا قُرۡبَىٰۖ وَبِعَهۡدِ ٱللَّهِ أَوۡفُواْۚ ذَٰلِكُمۡ وَصَّىٰكُم بِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَذَكَّرُونَ
Stay well away from the property of orphans, except with the best [intentions], until they come of age; give full measure and weight, according to justice’- We do not burden any soul with more than it can bear- ‘ when you speak, be just, even if it concerns a relative; keep any promises you make in God’s name. This is what He commands you to do, so that you may take heed’
Qur’an 6:152read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A systematic review of ADHD in children and young people looks at care pathways and service provision alongside prevalence, which it puts at around 5% with a further 5% just below the threshold. Set against how few are actually seen, that gap is largely a matter of services and access. The review describes provision rather than testing any way of improving it.
Sayal K, Prasad V, Daley D, Ford T, Coghill D. (2018). ADHD in children and young people: prevalence, care pathways, and service provision.. The lancet. Psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Getting help depends on what you can reach and afford, not only on how much you want it.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
ADHD is not only about focus. Physical health tends to drift down the list, and appointments, sleep, food and movement are exactly the sort of thing this condition makes hard to keep up with.
Driving is one long attention task with a very high cost of failure, so it is worth deliberately giving yourself more margin than you think you need.
Keep two or three trustworthy places to read about ADHD and go there first. Confident, tidy explanations online are easy to find, and most of them have nobody checking them.