Brain health · Sanctum

Fits no box, not quite either

You were assessed for one thing and came out not quite meeting it, so you were sent away. Or you were simply labelled anxious. Either way you were left with the feeling that something is going on, and that you fell through the gap between the categories.

That not-fitting is not a dead end. It is often the clue. When ADHD and autism sit together, each one can blur the textbook picture of the other, so a single-condition assessment sees half of it and concludes there is nothing clear. The whole only makes sense when you look at both at once.

Because services are usually built around one condition at a time, the people who span two are the ones most likely to be missed, told they are subclinical, or sent off with the wrong label. The very thing that makes you hard to categorise is the thing worth understanding.

We assess for the whole picture rather than one box at a time, because the people who fit neither are often the ones who have waited longest. None of this is a diagnosis. It is what we explore with you.

Written by Dr Asad RaffiConsultant Psychiatrist · Founder & Medical Director