Laverne Bell will never forget the day she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) earlier this year, at age 65.
She had been diagnosed with mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and complex PTSD and had counselling, but after reaching the “end of the road”, felt something had been missed.
She started looking at content online about ADHD and thought: “I relate”.
She told her psychologist she wanted to be assessed, and after six months and several face-to-face and online sessions, was diagnosed with the condition.
Laverne Bell says receiving an ADHD diagnosis was the “last piece of the puzzle”. Source: Supplied
It’s been a long road. Laverne says she was “off with the fairies” at school, struggling with relationships and addiction as an adult while trying to mask her symptoms.
“Eventually, you just burn out terribly. You’re constantly trying to work in a neurotypical world when you’re not. And the world has been built for neurotypical people,” she told SBS Insight.
When, years later, she received an ADHD diagnosis, she felt “completely validated”.
“It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said. “It was the last piece of the puzzle.”
You’re constantly trying to work in a neurotypical world when you’re not.
Laverne Bell
Like Laverne, Rob Keniger struggled through his school years.
“School can be horrific if you [have] undiagnosed ADHD,” he told Insight.
“I would do well at things I was interested in and terribly at things that I wasn’t interested in.”
Rob left high school with a “not great, not terrible” result and went to uni, which he also found a challenge.
Rob says receiving an ADHD diagnosis “explained so much”. Source: Supplied
“Even more so than school, you need to be self-directed, and I was unable to maintain focus. If it was not something I was interested in, I would procrastinate to the point where it was impossible to pass.”
He “muddled through” for a couple of years before dropping out, then “floated around”, unsure what to do with himself.
He eventually found a job in computing — an area of interest — and has made a career as a software developer.
“It’s taken me a long time to get to a job that I really feel at home with, and I’m really enjoying this role,” he said.
Last year, at the age of 50, Rob took an online assessment quiz for ADHD. He says the results were “staggering”.
After a referral from his GP to a psychiatrist, he was assessed and diagnosed, and similarly to Laverne, his initial reaction was relief.
“It explained so much,” he said. “It really did.”
Rob has now been on medication for about a year and says it’s made a “huge difference”.
“More than the medication is the knowledge. I can now identify traits or behaviours that previously I put down to all sorts of things, but never to anything like ADHD.”
Rob and Laverne are among the growing number of Australians diagnosed with ADHD later in life.
In recent years, there’s been a surge in awareness of the condition, which has given those who ‘fell through the cracks’ the chance to recognise their symptoms — and seek clarity they weren’t afforded in their youth.
Misunderstood and unnoticed
ADHD is a developmental condition that starts in early childhood.
It can present as inattentive (difficulty focusing, remembering things, and/or completing tasks), or as hyperactive with impulsive symptoms (fidgeting and reacting quickly to situations without considering the consequences).
Someone can also have a mixture of these two types, resulting in a ‘combination’ diagnosis.
More than a million Australians have ADHD, according to the Australasian ADHD Professionals Association (AADPA). Between 6 to 8 per cent of Australian children have ADHD, and 3 to 5 per cent of Australian adults.
Dr Catriona Davis-McCabe, the immediate past president of the Australian Psychological Society, says there’s been an “influx” of people presenting with ADHD symptoms, including a cohort who are in later life.
She credits this increase to both greater public awareness of what ADHD can look like and a reduction in stigma surrounding it.
“For such a long time, people with ADHD have fallen through the cracks because it just hasn’t been understood and it hasn’t been noticed,” Davis-McCabe says.
“Traditionally, people have assumed that ADHD is in young boys and it’s this hyperactive impulsivity. So I think that lack of understanding means that we haven’t very well supported our girls and our women.”
Females can present slightly differently, she says.
“There can be more of a deficit in attention, so they can be more withdrawn or have trouble paying attention.”
Long waitlists and high upfront fees
Laverne said as gendered perceptions of what ADHD looked like started to shift and more girls were diagnosed, women of her generation realised they’d “missed the boat”.
“There’s late-diagnosed women popping up everywhere,” she said.
While greater awareness around neurodiversity has led to more and more adults seeking out diagnosis, barriers remain.
Davis-McCabe says people can be on waitlists for months before starting treatment, and upfront fees during the assessment process can cost between hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Laverne, who is on a pension, says the cost of assessment and treatment has “ruined [her] financially”.
Last year, a concluded that the condition is a “public health concern” and that a “more consistent and coordinated approach” was needed to improve access to assessment and support services.
Examining submissions and evidence from more than 700 people, community organisations and medical professionals, it made 15 recommendations to better support Australians living with ADHD.
On Thursday, the government responded to the inquiry after more than a year. It adopted just one out of its 15 recommendations: to expedite the development of uniform prescribing rules.
It gave “in principle” support to nine others, and “noted” the remaining five.
ADHD advocates criticised the government’s response. AADPA called it “woefully inadequate”, while ADHD Australia chair Matthew Tice said the response effectively told the ADHD community: “We heard you, but we don’t listen to you.”
In its response, the government said “that there are opposing views about the best way to address these issues, something that must be comprehensively explored to ensure the best outcome for all”.
Nine of the ADHD Senate inquiry’s 15 recommendations were supported “in principle” by the government. Source: SBS
The federal government “noted” five of the inquiry’s recommendations. Source: SBS
The Senate inquiry’s report last year noted the “lifelong” impacts that barriers to adequate care and support had for people with ADHD, including their health, self-esteem, relationships, education, employment and financial status.
For some, those impacts mean that the joy and relief of diagnosis can be tinged with other emotions.
“For some people, it’s a really positive thing,” Davis-McCabe said.
“Others can experience anger or guilt. People also report a deep sense of loss over the years they’ve spent struggling and not understanding why.
“It’s really important that people give themselves permission to feel sadness or anger, grief and mourning.”
Trying to live life without regret
Laverne says she understands how a diagnosis can prompt complicated feelings.
“There’s a lot of [my] life that could have been better,” she says.
“It’s sad, in a big way, really. Sadness that my life was so chaotic and out of control. But that subsides if you work on it and learn to let it go … [and] look to the future,” she said. “I try not to let things fester.”
Rob similarly says had he known he had ADHD earlier, it would have saved him “an enormous amount of grief”.
He says he’s heard people describe the ‘micro-traumas’ that can come when grappling with undiagnosed ADHD, such as when going through school.
“That all builds up, and it basically means your self-worth is really low. That was certainly me,” he said.
“Coming out of uni, I dropped out, I was a mess. It took me a really long time and some amazingly supportive partners to get me out of that self-esteem hole.”
But he says he doesn’t feel angry.
“I’m in a reasonably good place. It helps when everything is kind of stable.” And as far as regrets, he’s prioritised “accepting life for where it’s taken you”.
“I’ve tried to ground myself and go well, am I happy with my life? With myself? And I can say yes. There was maybe some other path I could have gone down, but focusing on moving forward and looking towards a future where things are even better lets me get over that.
“That’s the same with all regret. You could live your life going ‘what if’, and I don’t think that helps. It just makes you unhappy.”
Last year, Insight heard from adults navigating the life-shaping consequences of living with ADHD. Watch the full episode on .
With additional reporting by Amy Hall
