'We re-mortgaged to buy our kids ADHD medication'

Among those to have taken action to side-step the lengthy wait are Jannine and Chris from Halifax.

The couple were told it could take up to two years before their children, Oliver, 13, and Sophie, eight, would be seen by the NHS in West Yorkshire.

"Oliver's ADHD was debilitating," said Jannine.

"For both children, ADHD manifested itself through anxiety, being unable to focus on their education, and emotional dysregulation.

"Oliver couldn't face going to school because of the anxiety. Sophie, especially on a Monday, would come home just completely burnt out. We were just banging our heads against the wall with the NHS."

After making the decision to go private, the couple paid more than £8,000 for assessments which led diagnoses for both children and now pay a further £500 each month for their medication.

The couple said to fund the treatment they had switched to an interest-only mortgage.

"It felt like we had no option," said Chris.

"Finding the money each month is just more stress when you're already dealing with the challenges of ADHD."

"There's a shelf life on how long we can afford to do this because it's definitely a financial strain," added Jannine.

Their son, Oliver, said: "When I didn't have my medication, it was difficult to concentrate and focus, and I used to get confused easily.

"But I've been a lot better since I've started taking my medication, and in the last four months, I've started to learn to play the guitar."

Some families though say the cost of private medication is simply unaffordable.

"We would not have been able to afford the monthly cost," said Jenny Barker from Pontefract, who has been trying to get her 21-year-old daughter Nicole an NHS prescription for ADHD drugs for the past seven years.

"If we'd gone private and I'm honest it probably would have meant we'd have had to go down the route of going to food banks, because we'd have had to make cuts to other areas of the household budget," she said.

"The system is broken and incredibly unfair."

Graham, also from West Yorkshire, said he had been paying less than £100 a month for his ADHD medication since going private four months ago after being diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, which left him unable to work.

He said he thought rising awareness of the condition as well as an increase in online content may be driving people to seek private help.

Videos on YouTube and TikTok claiming to help people self-diagnose have racked up billions of views, while celebrities, such as TV presenter Ant McPartlin, singer Jessie J and comedian Johnny Vegas, have shared details of their diagnoses recently.

"It's been a good investment, but I think a lot of people watch YouTube videos for ADHD medication which describe a sudden total calming and quietening of the brain and pin their hopes on that happening to them," he said.

"My experience and from talking to other people is that the effects are far more subtle than that."

Emily Dove, who also has ADHD, works as a private assistant psychologist in Leeds.

"We're seeing more and more private referrals where people are just absolutely desperate," she said.

"People cannot wait the amount of time they're being told they're going to have to wait with the NHS, and they just don't see any other option than to get the money together to pay for a private assessment."

Ms Dove was diagnosed with ADHD in her early 30s and said women and girls in particular struggled to get a diagnosis via the NHS.

"I remember going to see my GP and him telling me that ADHD was a trend and that everybody thought they had it. That was hugely invalidating. The stereotype for ADHD is still overactive, excitable boys running around.

"I think it's just cheaper for the NHS to diagnose people with anxiety and depression, which are often the by-products of ADHD, rather than to properly assess and diagnose people for ADHD."