Louder Than a Label
Answering Parliament’s ADHD debate questions around diagnosis and treatment through lived experience
On 20 January 2026, the UK Parliament held a Westminster Hall debate titled “ADHD Diagnosis”, led by MP Bill Esterson, with a response from Health Minister Dr. Zubir Ahmed.
You can read the full transcript here: 👉 Hansard Parliamentary Record
For those of us who have lived with ADHD, not just the diagnosis, but the reality beneath it, the questions raised in this debate weren’t abstract. They were echoes of experiences we’ve carried for years, often in silence.
This article is my reply, as an ADHD advocate and someone who has navigated the system, both public and private, who continues to witness, up close, what happens when that system fails.
Why This Debate Matters
In August last year, I created a petition to urge the UK Government to Fund a Fast Track for ADHD & Autism.
After sharing my story here and on Instagram, people reached out to say they finally felt empowered to seek their own diagnosis. Many are now in treatment, and the shift in their lives, their careers, relationships, and mental health, is already profound.
The fact that Parliament is listening signals a turning point. It proves that when we speak the truth about our lived experiences, we can achieve things together. While the debate touched on clinical definitions, backlogs, and NHS processes, it also demanded questions to be answered.
I’ve chosen to answer 5 of them on this article, drawing from my own experience and from what I’ve seen and heard among friends, peers and loved ones.
1. What Happens When People Wait Too Long?
“Delays in diagnosis can damage relationships, careers, mental health, and life chances.”
Delays are not neutral. They compound. The longer a person goes undiagnosed, the more likely they are to internalise shame, fail silently in school or work, and develop co-occurring conditions such as depression, anxiety, and chronic stress disorders. I know because I lived it.
I was seven when hyperactivity was first noticed. But it would take decades to receive formal treatment. The cost? Years of masking, people-pleasing, self-doubt, and exhaustion so profound it felt cellular. I wasn’t lazy. I was under-resourced, mentally and emotionally.
When you operate with a brain that doesn’t produce enough dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for reward, motivation, and attention, you’re not choosing dysfunction. You’re living inside it. Survival becomes the norm. By the time help comes, many of us are already fractured.
I was diagnosed with hyperactivity at 7. But it took over two decades, and a collapse for me to receive treatment. What happens during those “in-between” years? You survive in fragments. You become brilliant at coping, but at war with your own mind.
By the time I sought help privately in 2024, I was already a mother. Treatment didn’t fix me, it returned me to myself. And that’s what’s at stake: not convenience, but continuity of self.
2. Is ADHD Care Becoming a Two-Tier System?
“Access to private diagnosis is faster, but expensive, what does that mean for equality?”
Absolutely. Private care and NHS care do not operate at the same frequency, not in speed, clarity, or follow-through. When I accessed private care, I received rapid assessment, psychoeducation, and a well-structured plan, including medication. It was life-changing.
My attempt to move into public care through a shared care agreement was met not with support, but with silence. Between practitioners who didn’t understand the protocol and others who outright refused to prescribe, I watched as my letters were lost in the GP clogged system and the months ticked by.
With my treatment interrupted, my stability began to fracture. I couldn’t help but wonder: if this system is this difficult for me to navigate, what hope is there for a vulnerable teenager? If a thirteen-year-old were standing where I am, struggling with anxiety and depression and a failing system, would they have the strength to survive the wait?
ADHD treatment works best when it’s timely, tailored, and continuous. When that continuum is broken by system inequality, the message becomes clear: recovery is only for those who can afford it.
A two-tier system is not just unfair, it’s dangerous. Because the people who can’t afford private care are often the ones most at risk of falling through.
3. What Is the Human Cost Behind the Data?
“We need to hear from people who’ve lived this.”
Behind every waiting list is a human being, often a gifted, overwhelmed, empathetic person trying their best to function in a world that wasn’t designed for their brain.
The symptoms are not just “being distracted.” They include emotional dysregulation, executive dysfunction, ADHD paralysis, and a kind of internal chaos that’s hard to put into words. And yet, so many of us mask it. We appear competent. We over-deliver. Until we collapse.
One of the hardest realities to accept is that ADHD, when untreated, leads to higher rates of suicide. I’ve lost someone I loved to that fate. And it’s not uncommon. Many of us did, and the ache will be always there… what if we could have done something to help? The answer is that we can.
There’s also the quieter cost: the mothers who can’t keep up with the multiple roles demanded from them, the employees who burn out, the teenagers mislabelled as “problem kids.” Many neurodivergent people don’t fail because they lack talent. They fail because the systems around them never accounted for their biological difference.
When people finally get help, whether through diagnosis, meds, or therapy or a system that supports their needs, the shift is seismic. I’ve seen people around me change careers, rediscover joy in life, become more confident about themselves, reconnect with their children. We shouldn’t have to fight so hard to reach that point.
4. Are Children Being Missed Too Early?
“How many children are falling through the cracks?”
Yes, and the cost is generational. The earlier a child is identified as neurodivergent, the sooner they can stop internalising the message that they are broken, lazy, or difficult.
Growing up neurodiverse meant I often dissociated. I could be extremely sharp, but then freeze at the smallest task. My nervous system was in a constant state of overdrive. Teachers saw the symptoms but not the cause. And the result was years of mislabelling and misplaced guilt.
My son is now five. Watching him develop has illuminated how early intervention could change lives. If schools had proper ADHD screening, emotional literacy programmes, and trauma-informed approaches, many children would grow up not in fear of being different, but in celebration of it.
Neurodivergence is not a disorder to be cured. It’s a brain-type to be supported. And when kids feel that support early, they thrive, not in spite of their differences, but through them.
5. Is Diagnosis the End or the Beginning?
“Once diagnosed, are people left to manage alone?”
Diagnosis is just the start. What follows determines everything.
After my diagnosis, I began treatment with a nervous system stimulant, a compound that metabolises like food, stimulating the brain to produce the dopamine it chronically lacked. The effects were transformative. My brain stopped panicking. My thoughts slowed. I could access joy without the shame of delay.
But that’s not enough. Real treatment is multimodal. It includes psychotherapy that helps untangle the trauma of decades spent masking. It includes lifestyle shifts, access to informed practitioners, and, ideally, community.
Without follow-up, diagnosis is just a label. And the danger is that people get stuck, believing the system has done its job. But diagnosis without care is like drawing a map and then refusing to let someone leave the shore.
This is where private practitioners excel, they offer continuity. Because their business model depends on outcomes. But basic access to care shouldn’t be a commodity. It should be a right.
🌱 What Comes Next?
What Parliament began this week must continue, with transparency, urgency, and inclusion of real voices. Not in token panels, but in working groups, school policy, NHS commissioning, and everyday care.
And if you believe in this cause, I invite you to do one small thing today:
👉 Watch the debate on ADHD diagnosis here.
There is nothing radical in asking to be understood. But sometimes, it’s the most revolutionary thing we can do.
Thank you!
Marie :)
Press links:
BBC, Westminster Hall-https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002qr4b/westminster-hall-20012025?seriesId=unsliced&page=2
ADHD Diagnosis, Bill Esterson extracts-https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/mp/bill-esterson/debate/2026-01-20/commons/westminster-hall/adhd-diagnosis