A woman has said she no longer “feels broken” after receiving her ADHD diagnosis.
Della Hyde, a 37 year-old from Sandbach in Cheshire, has been documenting her experiences with ADHD on TikTok. Despite believing she had the condition for most of her life, it was only recently that she received an official diagnosis.
Speaking about her experiences, Della said: “At university for instance, my work was either feast or famine. When you have ADHD, your brain’s not producing enough dopamine, so it can be difficult to start a task. When I was preparing for an exam, I needed to have that fear of failing it to start revising.”
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Despite this, she said she’s found it very hard to get diagnosed throughout her life. She said: “Getting people diagnosed can be quite difficult. It’s a lengthy process and sometimes my referral has been lost in the system.”
Della also argued that it is harder to get an ADHD diagnosis as a woman than a man. She said: “We tend to mask our symptoms and present ourselves differently to boys.”
“It can get misdiagnosed as depression and you start to believe you are. You think, 'it's my fault, why can’t I get access to happiness?'”
The ADHD Centre has argued that adult ADHD symptoms are “more likely to go undiagnosed in women than in men”. The organisation said this is because women can face extra societal pressures, such as housework and childcare, which makes finding a diagnosis “extra-stressful and difficult”.
Della’s friend recommended Dr Peter Mason ADHD & Psychiatry Services in Rodney Street, where she received the diagnosis. She said: “Dr Mason was wonderful. The service was very thorough."
This is a private service, which is a sign of the struggles the NHS is facing with ADHD diagnosis. The ECHO reported in 2019 that more than 1,000 people in Cheshire and Merseyside were waiting for an assessment on the NHS.
Nevertheless, Della has said a combination of the covid-enforced lockdown and social media has highlighted living with ADHD. She said: “Since lockdown, a lot of us haven't had to mask our symptoms.”
She added: “TikTok has made us realise we are not alone. That awareness is freeing.”
Della has garnered more than 3,000 followers and 283,000 likes on her TikTok channel and has joined a group in Sandbach for people with ADHD. Her confidence has increased due to this and her diagnosis.
Della still has some regrets about how long it has taken her to get to this point. Referring to her university work, she said: “You have that feeling of, ‘if I had that medication or more awareness, what could I have achieved?’”
However, Della is incredibly grateful that she can live her life with a better understanding of who she is. She said: “You realise there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with you when you get diagnosed. Your life changes a lot.”
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