The first feeling after a diagnosis is usually relief. The second is often closer to vertigo, as medication, therapy, coaching, telling people and a new view of the past all arrive together. It helps to sort out what needs deciding now from what can wait.
Week one: let it sink in
Nothing clinical has to happen in the first week. Read your assessment report properly, once. Then write down the three things in your life the diagnosis explains best.
Those are what treatment should aim at, and it helps to have them in your own words before a clinician asks. If your diagnosis came late, grieving the years before it is real and normal. Our post on late diagnosis covers this.
Deciding about medication (you can change your mind)
For most adults, the Australian guideline names stimulant medication as the first-line treatment. It’s the decision people worry over most, and also the easiest one to reverse. A trial starts with a baseline of heart rate, blood pressure and weight and a low starting dose.
A few weeks later there’s a review where you say whether the effect was worth it. For some people it changes everything. Others find the side effects outweigh the benefit, and that’s a fine outcome too.
Who can prescribe depends on your state. In Queensland, a specialist GP can now diagnose and prescribe for adults. In NSW this is arriving in stages through 2026.
Elsewhere, a psychiatrist usually starts medication and a GP continues it. The GPs in the network say on their profiles what they can do, and the assessment fee is published before you book.
Therapy helps with what medication can’t
Medication changes attention. It doesn’t undo old habits and workarounds, or the anxiety and low self-worth that build up after decades of being told to try harder.
A psychologist can help with those, and therapy doesn’t have to start at the same time as medication. Many people do better starting a month or two in, once they can see what medication did and didn’t fix.
With a Mental Health Treatment Plan from any GP, Medicare pays part of the cost of up to ten sessions a year. All the psychologists in the network offer telehealth, and their fees are on their profiles.
What can wait
- Telling your employer. You don’t have to, and you can ask for workplace adjustments without disclosing a diagnosis. Our workplace support post explains how.
- Coaching. It’s most useful once the medication question is settled and you know which parts of the day are still hard.
- Overhauling your whole life. A single change sticks better than six made at once.
- Supplements and diets. The evidence for them is thin, and the money is better spent on a psychologist. Our nutrition post covers what does help.
A plan that works for most people
In month one, start a medication trial with a GP and write down the three things you want it to change. In month two or three, see a psychologist, usually for six to ten sessions in the first year.
Alongside that, make one change on your own. The most common are exercise just before the hardest part of the day, or a fixed wake time. Then review how it’s going before you add anything else.
You get to choose at each step. Read about the clinicians before you book anyone. Each profile is their own account of how they work and how they set fees, and a bad fit is the most expensive thing in ADHD care.
Sources and further reading
Ready to find your clinician?
No account needed.
