Roadmap to an Adult ADHD Diagnosis in Turkey

For an adult who is noticing something in themselves, the order is this: first note the consequences you live with, then book an appointment with adult psychiatry, and go to the interview with your childhood evidence. If medication comes up, the report and the prescription are a separate job. The disability report, work and driving are also topics that open after the diagnosis, when the need arises.

I got my diagnosis at 22, and I met medication for the second time at 28. The order below did not come out of my memories. I lined up, from start to finish, the procedures I had written about one by one on the site, so that nothing gets confusing. There are separate orders for children and for university students too; they are all on the Turkey guide page.

Two notes to yourself first

It is easy to read the symptom list and say "I have all of them," because some of the items are found in almost everyone who is sleepless and tired. The list gives a reason for an appointment; it does not make a diagnosis. And in adults the picture does not look like it does in children. The running around decreases, and a fidget inside takes its place. For someone who looks calm from the outside, this is one of the things that delay noticing. Which symptoms look how is in the post on ADHD symptoms in adults.

Two notes work at this stage.

The first is your consequences. "My attention is scattered" is a complaint. "This year I missed two appointments, I put off a bill three times and couldn't pay it" is something measurable. Write not the symptom but the consequence tied to it.

The second is childhood. The criteria look for the symptoms to have begun before the age of twelve, to be seen in at least two settings, and to truly impair function. In children six of the nine symptoms are looked for, while for adults the threshold has been lowered to five. You do not need to have been diagnosed as a child; it is enough that the symptoms existed in that period. If there is a note on a report card like "smart but inattentive", write it down.

Choose the right door

The adult evaluation is done by a psychiatrist, and the name of the clinic is adult psychiatry. Neurology is not the address for this diagnosis; it comes into play if another neurological picture is suspected. A psychologist can apply scales and tests and run therapy, but does not make the diagnosis and does not prescribe medication. A referral is not needed. If you want to talk to a family doctor first, that works too.

State, university or private makes no difference, because the criteria are the same. The difference is the time given to the interview and the preparation you bring. I think saying "I am coming for an adult ADHD evaluation" when booking the appointment makes the job easier, because not every psychiatrist is equally interested in this subject. The details of the branches are in the post on which doctor to see.

Appointment and waiting time

Appointments can fall weeks ahead. I think this is also where this road is most often broken, because booking an appointment is a chain: open the system, pick the department, find the date, write it in the calendar, go on that day. When one link breaks, the job goes back months.

The minute you get the appointment, write it in your calendar, set a reminder for the day before, and if possible tell one person. Then turn the waiting into preparation. On the doctor preparation page you can mark your symptoms, medications and what you want to ask, and produce a one-page summary. Nothing goes to a server; it stays in your browser.

Fill the summary with these:

• Childhood evidence: report cards, teacher comments, old health records.
• The observation of someone who knew you as a child. If they cannot come to the interview, you can take their written answers to a few questions you asked.
• Concrete examples. Say you wrote, "I always ask someone else for the meeting notes, last year I missed two deadlines." The doctor gets much more from this than from the name of a symptom.
• The medications you use, past diagnoses, diagnoses known in the family.

Scattering while telling your story in the interview is very normal in this picture. The paper both collects you and gives the doctor ordered data.

Inside the interview

A diagnosis can be made at the first interview but often is not. Two or three interviews are normal for deepening the history, applying the scales and the differential diagnosis. The scales are supporting data and do not make a diagnosis on their own. A neuropsychological test is not required either; the doctor asks for it if they see fit. The order of the process is in the post on how adult ADHD is diagnosed.

The differential diagnosis part sometimes surprises people. Sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, thyroid, iron and B12 deficiency, trauma, alcohol and substance use can produce a similar picture. For this reason a blood test may be requested. It is also possible to have both anxiety and ADHD; in adults the presence of another accompanying condition is even considered normal.

A diagnosis may not come out. If what is missing is childhood information, you can complete it and go again. If something else explains the picture, treatment of that thing comes up. For a diagnosis made in a single short interview and with only one scale, I think there is no harm in asking for a second opinion. Crying in the interview does not spoil the evaluation either.

When the diagnosis is made

After the diagnosis, many people expect relief, but another feeling may come first. Its name and its passing are in the post on grief after diagnosis. Whom to tell what is a separate decision. There is no need to hurry; you cannot take back information you have told.

If medication comes up: prescription and report

The medication decision is given after the diagnosis and with the doctor's assessment. Dose and adjustment are things to talk about with the doctor, and I am not going into them here. The procedure side, however, consists of two separate documents.

The first is the red prescription. Medicines containing methylphenidate are controlled. Under the Ministry of Health's circular no. 2010/26, this prescription is written by adult psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry specialists, not by the family doctor. The number of boxes that can be written per prescription is limited, and there is also a period in which the prescription can be used. ID is generally asked for at the pharmacy. The details are in the post on the red prescription.

The second is the medication use report. It gets the cost covered by SGK, is issued by a specialist doctor and is entered into e-Nabız. Its duration is not a fixed number. What is binding is the expiry date written on the report, because the day the report ends the medication becomes paid. Set the reminder not for the end itself but for a month before. Get the report before the prescription, and take the two to the pharmacy together. The report details are in the post on the ADHD medication report.

To my mind, what makes the job easier is a four-line note: the name of the doctor who wrote the report, the expiry date of the report, the date of the last prescription, the name of the pharmacy. Update it after every checkup. If the medication is not in the pharmacy, do not use another form you have on your own decision; call the doctor. Because the rules can change, take the information here as a framework and confirm the current practice with your doctor and your pharmacy.

When to think about a disability report

An ADHD diagnosis does not produce an automatic disability rate, and the question "what percent is given for ADHD" has no fixed answer. The regulation looks not at the name of the diagnosis but at loss of function: it assesses which areas and how much the loss in attention and impulse control restricts. The report is issued by the disability health board of an authorized hospital.

Put in the file the doctor's reports, treatment history, the medications you use and concrete information showing the loss of function. The report does not take the place of treatment, a separate application is needed for exam accommodations, and it does not bring an arrangement at the workplace on its own either. Confirm in writing from the relevant institution which right you can use. I think there is no need to rush to this right after the diagnosis; start when the need arises. The process is in the post on the disability report.

Job interview and driver's license

You do not have to say it in a job interview; the diagnosis is private health information. Stigma is a real risk. Instead of stating the diagnosis in the interview, you can state the need: "I work well in quiet, uninterrupted blocks," "having meeting outputs shared in writing helps me a lot." If a concrete arrangement is needed, it is safer to talk after you have started the job, directly with the relevant unit and in writing. The question to ask yourself is this: what do I want the other side to do with this information? If the answer is something concrete like a written note or flexible hours, saying it can work. I opened this up in the post on whether to say it in a job interview.

For the driver's license too, the diagnosis alone is not an obstacle. The regulation looks at a condition at a level that would impair driving safety. People who are under treatment and whose symptoms are under control can get a license, and in some cases the document is issued for a limited period. Do not hide the medication you use at the examination; take your current doctor's report with you. If a limited-period document is issued, write the renewal date in your calendar. The details are in the post on ADHD and the driver's license.

What I take from it

The hardest side of this road is not the difficulty of the steps but that their order is not known. A person can, instead of booking the appointment and collecting childhood evidence, spend hours on a forum about the medication report or the disability rate. I think the first two steps, the note of consequences and the appointment, need to be finished the same evening. The rest comes in order, and you do not need to solve any of it from the beginning.

Loading the reports, license and work questions onto your head before the diagnosis does no one any good either. They are doors that open after the diagnosis is made and the need has become concrete. Then each is a job the size of a post of its own, and all of them are linked from this page. Settle medical decisions like medication adjustment with the doctor, and the conditions of rights with the relevant institution.