Help Harriet Get An ADHD Assessment

Once upon a time there was a child called Harriet.

Harriet had an older sister called Claudia and a younger brother called Alexander. When Harriet was 4, her older sister got leukaemia and when Harriet was 5, her older sister died.

Later that same year, Harriet’s younger brother had heart surgery because his heart keep beating insanely fast and he’d turn blue and pass out.

Harriet was always a little different to other children. For a long time it was easy to attribute this to the trauma of losing her sister. To the difficulty of having had both her siblings have life threatening conditions. To circumstances not allowing her to interact with other children as much as she might otherwise have done.

Harriet had always been very bright, but often found socialising difficult. So, while her parents were always getting good school reports, they were more interested in improvements in her confidence and ability to interact with others.

So when Harriet went to secondary school and made friends, a decline in her academic achievement wasn’t a problem. She was socialising. And when the school closed because of Covid, Harriet’s struggles were because home learning was difficult for everyone.

It took a long time for Harriet’s mum to realise there was an actual problem. That this wasn’t a response to early trauma and world affairs. That this wasn’t just Harriet being Harriet.

And then there was the revelation. ADHD can mean different things for different people. Harriet’s inability to focus at all on anything that didn’t interest her could have a cause. There could be a manageable condition behind her constant fidgeting, her rapidly changing interests, and her outbursts.

Her mother looked into diagnosis options through the NHS, only to find the waiting list was long. Years long. That would be after Harriet’s GCSE’s. After her A-Levels. Years more of not being able to focus on her school work during a time when that would impact her whole future.

That left private assessment, and that was expensive. Prohibitively so. Until it was pointed out to Harriet’s mum that people are nice and people may want to help.

It may be that it’s not ADHD. Maybe it’s something else. Maybe it’s really just Harriet being Harriet, or the trauma of losing her sister.

Or maybe a diagnosis and treatment will alleviate her current distress and allow her to achieve her full potential over the coming years.

She deserves that chance.

Thank you for giving it to her.