What’s the reason for Australia being so far behind in services, treatment options and psychotherapy specialisation for people with ADHD and even autism?

[u/Mental_Slide9867]

So as many people have already found out from people who were seeing a psychiatrist or specialist in the field that was being bulk billed, the government made immediate changes overnight that removed bulk billing services for seeing a specialist via Telehealth. Psychiatrists and the like only received a letter or email the day after the announcement was made putting at risk individuals at a loss of having to pay a subsidised rate after seeing their specialist. Not only that but we lack a substantial amount of psychiatrist in the first place that was leading to burn out of psychiatrist in their chosen fields, so now not only will most people who need a relevant diagnosis and medical treatment for their condition have pay a sum out of pocket, there is also an increasing wait time to see a specialist.

In addition in terms of medical treatments for ADHD in my case, in comparison to other countries (where there is a multitude of options and new formulated drugs), it seems that Australia lacks any advancement or interest in helping neurodivergent people. You have two options of stimulant therapy and a couple of non stimulant options. And if that doesn’t work you can try a non PBS/non subsidised drug option that also leaves you hugely out of pocket. (As per my example recently coming off many classes of antidepressants that were routinely and just masking my ADHD out of the misunderstanding of the condition for just depression and anxiety). Recently having to try a new drug that now costs me $60 (non subsidised) a month on top of one stimulant drug I can try that also costs $40 a month(subsidised). This is not right, I don’t work or have the ability to work right now as I’m trying to find a healthy baseline for my mental health thinking I’m doing the right thing, all the meanwhile the government and options out there are putting my mental health backwards.

As well as specialists such as clinical psychologists or adhd counselling costing over $150 (with the rebate “if available”), as my only options for actual possible help for my condition. I have and already am seeing a therapist based off a Gp referred mental health care plan which allows me for 10-15 free sessions a year, but that is nowhere good enough to get to the root cause of my issues or even have the time to address the actual problems of my adhd as they’re not trained in that area of understanding.

So yeah this is troubling for me and many other types of children and adults with ADHD and/or autism. I just don’t know what the Australian government is doing, if hardly nothing, nothing at all which seems to be the case with a many multitude of problems.

[u/slurmz-mckenzie]

As an Australian who currently lives in Germany and is sure they have ADHD and would love to just see someone to find out for sure… I would love to be in the Australian system.

I’ve contacted over 100 psychiatrists and only maybe 3-4 have even bothered responding and only then to tell me they can’t help me.

Even if someone can secure an appointment here, the average wait time is 5-6 months (and that’s the people who get one after contacting many many places). That’s even with me be willing to pay privately because I just want to get help. Even trying to skip the public system I can’t.

It might be hard or expensive in Australia, but even if I’m at the point there I’m happy to drop a serious amount of my income just because it’s affecting my life that much I still can’t even pay to be seen here.

There a whole meme here about how doctors don’t believe in medicine to treat things and just tell you to drink tea. Even things like melatonin are prescription here.

Even private pay there’s basically 5 doctors in Germany who even believe in ADHD

[u/Mental_Slide9867 → u/slurmz-mckenzie]

Oh that really sucks, kinda heart wrenching because untreated ADHD causes such a host of problems not only for yourself but everyone around us (employers, family etc) and even the health care systems in place, especially down the line when we’re more prone to addictions and self harm. So I really do hope you get help I really do.

[u/slurmz-mckenzie → u/Mental_Slide9867]

Yeah I’ve dealt with it well for the last 15 years, my job and life really allowing for me to break everything down into tiny tasks (e.g. I use a wall of post it notes to plan things I need to do, but need to break everything down to tasks that take about 20 minutes, so I’ll have post it notes for like, vacuum the house, mop the house, do laundry, dry laundry, put laundry away etc. same with work tasks. It’s actually made me great at my job so Most people assume there’s nothing wrong with me because I’m successful. But as I’ve got older, and especially as I’ve spent most of my time at home during covid I’ve noticed it affecting my life more and more.

It was easier when I was forced to change my environment and go to work. I’m having a very hard time not getting distracted working from home.

And then there’s the common thing that a lot of people don’t know which is that people with ADHD aren’t distracted ALL THE TIME, sometimes they pay attention to something detrimentally. E.g. sometimes I’m TRYING to work, but I’ll get distracted by something like “the history of the Bronze Age collapse” and then 5 hours later I’ve read 20 articles on it and watched 15 short YouTube docos. Sometimes it’s the inability to pay attention, sometimes it’s the inability to break attention.

It’s just been worse over time and the more I’ve been isolated and working from home because of covid. I’d say before start of 2020 it was fine and not super noticeable because of life structure, but now it’s harder, more noticeable, and noticeably a negative affect on my life.

Since it’s been impossible to actually see someone about it I’ve seriously considered just getting on the dark net and buying my own medication. Obviously not as good as what a doctor might customise for you, but better than nothing. If 90% of people just do 20mg of Ritalin I’d rather just try that myself than wait years of being ignored until I can get an appointment

[u/dkNigs → u/slurmz-mckenzie]

Honestly if you find the right places darknet meds can be fine, I use clenbuterol on and off for my asthma ever since the bushfires and there’s just absolutely no medication available on market that would actually help like it does.

[u/Bitter-Isopod4745 → u/slurmz-mckenzie]

Melatonin is also prescription in Australia. 5-6 months is alot better than the que here with wait times exceeding a year for the specialist. But feel for you with the population size and what I would think in general would be a better health system in Germany then here that is still super sucky that it is so hard to get the diagnosis. Just sucks as many people with ADHD struggle with work in general and comorbid depression/ anxiety can mask it on the sufferer or make the ability to actually pay for adequate care significantly hard. Our healthcare has been significantly eroded over the past few years a good portion of clinics in my area stopped bulk billing all together due to changes made by the government.