Reminds me of the Sir Humphrey saying: "Never hold an enquiry unless you know what the result is going to be beforehand."

I've got a bit weird about talking about this online since diagnosis; primarily since the big push towards over-diagnosis and the medicalisation of the human condition. But I realise we should probably talk about it for visibility and so we don't feel alone, like I have a bit recently. After 5 years of extremely intrusive tests, and a general sense of 'everyone thinks they're AuDHD nowadays', which I pursued largely because a raft of previous diagnoses didn't really fit, I had a final Dx of definitely 100% no question AuDHD. However, the ongoing public narrative has convinced me that I am a stupid attention-seeking fool. I was offered medication, and despite living my life for nearly 5 decades without it, I thought it might be interesting to try it for focus. It worked but the side effects were unexpected and I immediately thought I was a huge fraud and that this journey I've been on has been some kind of incredibly self-serving nonsense, and that I'm stealing resources from people in actual need. Cue a lot of spiralling. I had a meeting today to talk about it, and was fortunate enough to have a consultant who was brilliant - basically called me a dickhead and pointed out the very very long diagnostic process isn't just guesswork and I didn't 'trick' them into believing I'm something I'm not. Still I'm not convinced. But I realise I'm probably not alone in this. It seems very very cruel to me. The journey I went on was emotionally extremely difficult and stressful. But I'm infinitely grateful to the community on here who have helped me more than I can express. If anyone feels the same or ever wants to talk about it or just shoot the shit and talk about stuff, I am always happy to chat and you're welcome to message me separately. X️

Best would have been if my parents had known but NOT the docs or the schools of that era.

As ever, Streeting got hold of a genuine issue and conflated it without understanding or nuance:

1) Neuro divergence is under-diagnosed in the UK, because nobody without serious money can access NHS assessment in a timeframe where it would remotely help.

2) As the report acknowledges, independent (ie paid-for) assessment varies wildly in quality, and essentially any parent with deep pockets can achieve a positive ADHD/ASD diagnosis if they want one.

Both of these are a problem, but Streeting decided to divert attention from 1) by conflating 2).

(Source: spouse dealt with the fall-out from this professionally until recent retirement)

I didn't read the full article, just saw the headline. You're right and we have a teacher / teacher retention crisis as it is. Take support away and we could lose more teachers.

On a sort of related note, the I paper today had headline that schools may need to cut support staff to help fund teacher pay rises. TAs and LSAs etc are ESSENTIAL for classroom support, cut them and children/young people facing a range of barriers to education will be the ones who lose out.