Short thread on how to get diagnosed with ADHD in Germany. I'm not 100% educated on all laws and procedures so keep that in mind! First, you'll need to google "your city name + adhd diagnosis". Ideally we are looking for a specialized psychiater, -

or a hospital or psychiatry with an "ADHS Ambulanz". Unless it's a "private pay only" clinic, you should get it paid by your standard insurance. No idea about procedures where you have to pay, sorry!

If you can't find a place, try looking up ADHD organizations, ADHD forums or pages like doctolib. If all fails, you can ask your insurance company. There's also arztsuche.116117.de Once you have found a place, you call them. You ask them what you need to bring and -

make an appointment. It's ok to make the appt first and then get the paperwork, you should have enough time. You'll need an "überweisung" (transferral) from your Hausarzt (GP). You go to your GP, say you suspect ADHD and would like an überweisung. The doctor might have to ask -

why you suspect ADHD so maybe you want to think of a few things before hand so you don't panic in office haha. Basic things should be fine, I think I said I have trouble with work and told him about my daily troubles.

I had to bring: -Überweisung - Schulzeugnisse (school reports) - Blood work (to make sure it's not my hypothyroidism). They might want to call your family to ask about symptoms in childhood, but in my case that made little sense cause my mom also has ADHD, so I brought reports.

I was extremely lucky, many people had cancelled their appointments so I got one within a month. EXTREMELY LUCKY. The diagnosing place will talk you through anything you'll need to do with your insurance, if anything at all (I don't remember!)

For me, the evaluation took 3 hours. My general tips: -write down things you really want the doctor to know before the appointment. You WILL forget and regret! - if you don't understand a diagnosis criteria / question, ask! Ask for daily life examples of the symptom.

- if you're unsure whether you struggle with a symptom, tell the doctor what you might do to mask it. Trust your doctor to make a good call on that! - if they leave you alone to do the questionnaire but you're confused and unsure, ask! Annoy them! It's ok! This is about -

getting the right result, not about being polite! - Tell the doctor anything you're worried about, even if it might counter-indicate ADHD. You want an accurate result!

You're unsure whether your diagnosis or rejection of the ADHD diagnosis is right? - if the doctor took a look at you and made a judgement without evaluation procedure, - if you feel not heard and not listened to,

- got told anything like "you have a degree so you can't have ADHD" or "You are too successful to have ADHD" Especially in those cases, I think it's absolutely valid to get a second opinion. Sometimes it's another diagnosis, sometimes it's ADHD + something else. It's best

to find the real cause of your problems, no matter what it is. In Germany you can get (correct me if I'm wrong) a disability degree of 20-30% with ADHD, depending on severity of daily life disruption.

I don't know the procedure about medication too well so I won't say too much, but most medications should be paid for by your insurance. (Sadly I wasn't diagnosed as a child but that is a requirement to get my medication paid for..so...I have to pay.)

@ADHD_Alien There's a solution for this! You need to get a retroactive childhood diagnosis. A Psychiater can issue this by having you take a specialised test for it. It's mostly symptom severity scale questions + old school reports get checked. It's how mine got my ADHD meds covered. (In DE)

@BalthiBoom @ADHD_Alien AFAIK in Germany an ADHD diagnosis implies a retroactive childhood diagnosis, which is why you have to bring school reports and tell about your childhood (the assumption is that you're born with ADHD, it doesn't spontaneously develop when you're adult)

@Doomed_Daniel @ADHD_Alien ADHD can develop in adulthood too, so if you're not careful they'll diagnose that instead. And specifically adult diagnosed ADHD isn't paid by public insurance. Which is stupid, but sadly the case. I got really lucky with my doc who explained the messed up system to me.

@BalthiBoom @ADHD_Alien Interesting, this is the first time I heard about this, I think my psychiatrist told me that he has to retroactively "prove" that it already existed at childhood and just wasn't diagnosed - but maybe that was b/c the diagnosis for ADHD developed as an adult would've been useless

@Doomed_Daniel @ADHD_Alien Exactly this! Sry, ran out of space. But in essence, yes. Unless it has been diagnosed as a child, the insurances have a clause specifying its exclusion of coverage if you get a diagnosis as an adult.