Living With ADHD & Autism, Real Stories From NeuroFX Patients

Adult ADHD · 38

Story 01 Adult ADHD Online from Cambridge

"For fifteen years they told me it was anxiety."

"My GP was kind every time. She just wasn't asking the right questions."

I'm 38. I'd been on and off SSRIs since university, and I'd done three rounds of CBT. Every clinician I'd seen was thoughtful and well-meaning. The thing I kept hearing, generalised anxiety with perfectionistic traits, felt true on the surface and not true underneath. I was exhausted from compensating. I knew it.

A friend who'd just been diagnosed mentioned NeuroFX. I sat with the website for a week. Eventually I booked an online assessment and sent the pre-pack to my mum to fill in. She rang me crying when she'd finished it. She said "that's just you, all the way through your childhood. I never realised these were a thing."

Tina took three hours with me. Two months on, I've finished titration, my sleep is the best it's ever been, and I've stopped apologising for things that aren't my fault. I'm not a new person. I'm just less tired of being this one.

If you're where I was

Don't dismiss the bone-deep feeling that something else is going on. The compensating is real. So is the cost of it. A conversation with Paul is genuinely just a conversation.

About the Adult ADHD pathway

Child ADHD · age 9

Story 02 Child ADHD · parent voice In-person at Bedford

"His teacher said he had a kind heart and a busy head."

"We didn't want a label. We wanted him to stop crying at homework."

Our son is nine. Loud, funny, generous, completely allergic to anything that needed sustained focus. Homework took two hours and ended with one or both of us in tears. His school was supportive, his teacher described him as having "a kind heart and a busy head", but the gap between his ability and his output was growing.

We'd been put off by the idea of a private assessment for ages. It felt vaguely transactional, like we were buying our way into a verdict. The first conversation with Paul changed that. He didn't pitch anything. He talked through what an assessment actually does and doesn't do, what we'd come out with, and what we wouldn't. He told us if we weren't sure, to read for a bit and come back.

The family appointment took three hours in Bedford. His teacher's questionnaire fed in. Tina spent time with him on her own and us on our own. The diagnostic letter came two days later. Six months on, he's still loud and funny and generous, and he can do his homework in twenty minutes. We didn't medicate. We don't rule it out. What we got was clarity, and a plan.

If you're where we were

It's not about a label. It's about understanding what's going on for your child so you can stop fighting your own instincts.

About the Child ADHD pathway

Autism · adult · 47

Story 03 Autism In-person at Bedford

"I'd built the whole life around not being known."

"The relief was unexpected. The grief was, too."

I'm 47. Engineer. Quietly successful career, two grown kids, marriage that survived more by my partner's patience than my own emotional fluency. I'd suspected I might be autistic since my daughter was diagnosed at fourteen. I held off on doing anything about it for nearly a decade. I told myself it didn't matter at my age.

The ADI-R interview was with my mum. Then Cheyenne did the ADOS-2 with me in person at Bedford. The combination is unusual, most clinics rely on a single instrument, and what Tina explained afterward made sense of forty years of patterns I'd given up understanding. The clinical team review happened internally before they came back to me with the outcome.

The relief was unexpected. The grief was, too. Grief for the things I'd attributed to character weakness all my life. Grief that no one had asked me these questions at 14, or 24, or 34. I don't know that I'd say I'm "happier", I'd say I'm finally known to myself. That's bigger than happiness.

If you're where I was

It is not too late. It is genuinely never too late. The grief is part of the process, and it passes.

About the Autism pathway

ADHD medication · 32

Story 04 Medication, transfer of care Online from London

"My old clinic stopped returning my emails."

"For the first time, I was being looked after, not processed."

I was diagnosed at 31 by an online provider that, I now realise, was running an assembly line. The diagnosis itself was probably right, the medication management was probably not. Doses changed without explanation. Reviews were 10 minutes long with someone different each time. Then they got bought by a bigger group and the support quietly fell off a cliff.

I came to NeuroFX for the onboarding review (£250). Tina spent an hour reviewing my original report, asking what was working, what wasn't, and what I'd actually noticed in my own body. She kept the medication I was already on but moved me to a different formulation that fits my sleep pattern. She wrote a long shared-care letter to my London GP. For the first time in two years, I was being looked after, not processed.

Eight months on, I'm on a stable dose, the GP has accepted shared care, and my NeuroFX cost has dropped to a quarterly review. That bit matters. I'm not paying private fees forever. I'm paying for them to do the difficult work, properly, once. That's what was missing.

If you're where I was

If your existing provider isn't returning emails, that's a sign. The onboarding review is genuinely diagnostic, they'll tell you honestly whether they can help.

About the medication pathway

Combined · adult · 29

Story 05 ADHD + Autism (combined pathway) In-person at Bedford

"I'd ruled it out because I made eye contact."

"Two diagnoses, two reports. It finally explained the contradictions."

I'm 29, in my third year of a PhD. I'd been thinking about ADHD for ages and had ruled out autism on the basis of stuff I now realise was outdated stereotype. I make eye contact. I'm verbally articulate. I don't have routines I rage about being disturbed. None of that, it turns out, was relevant.

NeuroFX runs a combined ADHD + autism pathway: two assessments and two separate reports, for the same price whether you book them together or separately. The diagnostic process was unusual, four appointments, a lot of paperwork, and questions about my childhood that took me by surprise. It spans two appointments, DIVA-5 for the ADHD interview with Tina, then ADI-R and ADOS-2 with Cheyenne for the autism side. The whole picture went through a multi-disciplinary review before they came back to me.

Two diagnoses, two reports. It finally explained the contradictions, why I could hyperfocus on research for nine hours and yet seize up at a busy supermarket. My university DSA team accepted the report immediately and I now have proper support in my final year. I'm doing better than I have in five years.

If you're where I was

Don't rule out either one on the basis of internet stereotypes. The actual diagnostic criteria are subtler and more accurate than the cultural shorthand.

About the combined pathway

No diagnosis · clarity

Story 06 The other valid answer Online from Newmarket

"It wasn't ADHD. And that was the answer I needed."

"Best £675 I've spent in a decade, and they told me I didn't have it."

I'm 44. After a difficult eighteen months, bereavement, redundancy, a teenage daughter going through a hard time, I was finding it impossible to focus, sleep, regulate my temper or get on top of anything. Three people independently said "have you ever considered ADHD?" I started reading and went through the screen on the NeuroFX site. It came back as moderate. I booked.

Tina spent three hours with me. She used the full DIVA-5 interview and the developmental history. About two hours in, she said, gently, clearly, "I want to be straight with you. I don't think you have ADHD. I think you have a clear, very understandable adjustment response to a brutal eighteen months. Here's why." And she explained, criterion by criterion, what was and wasn't meeting threshold.

The written report was as detailed as a positive one would have been. It said what was ruled out, why, and what I should probably be looking at instead, sleep, grief work, possibly some short-term CBT. It was the best £675 I've spent in a decade. I got my clarity, and I got it without being given a label that wasn't mine to wear.

If you're worried it might be a wasted trip

A clear "no" is as valuable as a clear "yes", sometimes more so. The cost is the assessment, not the diagnosis.

About the Adult ADHD pathway

Life after an ADHD or autism diagnosis.

"For fifteen years they told me it was anxiety."

"His teacher said he had a kind heart and a busy head."

"I'd built the whole life around not being known."

"My old clinic stopped returning my emails."

"I'd ruled it out because I made eye contact."

"It wasn't ADHD. And that was the answer I needed."

If you've been through NeuroFX and want to share.

Talk to us.