Like, if its nots public health system its obviusly price-gated for obvious reasons (it can be a commodity or boutique diagnosis for the rich and connected to get their sweet-sweet pharma speed)
I take arguably the sweetest or 2nd sweetest of that sweet-sweet pharma speed on prescription so lets not get into the the whole speed semantics for those of us otherwise inclinced
Edit: some advice- skip your first appointment on accident. It seems counterintutitive but its actually completely intuitive and expected for an actual ADHD person. If I was a psychiatrist I woupd almpst expect or come to expect people who end up diagnosed to do that haha
Many variables at play.
Price shop some independent psychologists in your area, but never mention ADHD.
Go see one and have a laundry list of things you’re struggling with (classic ADHD symptoms), let them do the troubleshooting. Be open to behaviour changes/mitigation strategies.
Part of the challenge is patients have to demonstrate willingness to work on things, and the doc has to document your start point and difficulty improving.
They have to be able o diagnose tho, and often thats only psychiatrists.
Theres an entire different use case for psychologists for when you sctually want to improve your habits/behaviors but the first order of business for most undiagnosed is to gdt that D…X!. I have all that done so I’m not the usual audience
Psychologists diagnose, psychiatrists prescribe meds. Rarely you can go to just a psychiatrist, but it’s not the standard pattern, and you risk being perceived as a drug seeker.
Start with a psychologist - let them do their job. When you have them on your side it’s a whole lot easier for a psychiatrist to justify medication.
Im from a public system and you absolutely go to a psychiatrist firsf, lots of psychologists make bank when they cant prescribe anything and to some degree its not a sure thing their dx is a bigboy dx thats enables access to meds
Psychiatrists definitely prescribediagnose . Access to psychologists is far more “boutique” and discretionary. Its like me saying i have (can afford) weekly freudian psycoanalysis sessions or whatever, I doubt a psychiatrist is going to care unless they’ve personally evaluated you
Theres a huge risk if you go ymthat route you’re gonna get gypped