Giancarlo Cristea • Neurodivergence - Affirming Psychotherapist

02/12/2025

Mr Grange, from Essex, said he was one of those young people as he joined calls for more targeted support. “Neurodivergence is the thing that makes me, it’s given me all the strengths I’ve had in my life, but it also gave me a lot of negatives because of being undiagnosed as well. At the time I was going missing, I didn’t know what was going on. And that’s what led to the school exclusions, the getting in trouble with police, the in and out of court, detentions, isolations, you name it."

“And it was the biggest catalyst for me going missing, 100 per cent. When I would go missing, it was just taking a break from everything. But even when I’d go missing, my brain wouldn’t shut down, because ADHD goes a thousand miles per hour. I was overthinking, I was nervous, I was thinking, what’s going to happen, what are my family going to think, what are my friends going to think? So it’s a massive issue, and I think it’s one of the things that gets overlooked. We seem to miss neurodivergence.”

It is estimated that more than 15 per cent of people in the UK are neurodivergent, according to NHS Scotland. Before his diagnosis, Mr Grange described struggling with low self-esteem and emotional dysregulation, “hating myself, not understanding myself, thinking I'm bad, I'm naughty, I'm unintelligent, I'm lazy”.

After going missing multiple times between the ages of 13 and 15, he was diagnosed with ADHD at 16 and soon stopped disappearing. “After the diagnosis, I understood myself more, which gave me clarity, and I stopped all the negative things, going missing and dealing [drugs] and changed my life around,” Mr Grange, who has also now been diagnosed with dyspraxia, said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/adhd-diagnosis-missing-people-safecall-campaign-b2871176.html

As The Independent launches SafeCall – a new service to help bring missing young people to safety – Tara Cobham speaks to support worker J Grange, who is calling for tailored support for neurodivergent children at risk of disappearing, just as he once was

02/12/2025

Neurodivergent adults Autistic, ADHD and those with Tourette’s are over twice as likely to have hypermobility than the general population in this study.

They also had way more dizziness when standing up and widespread body muscle/joint pain and these got worse with the more hypermobility they had, the bendiness actually explained much of the link between neurodivergence and body symptoms. It was also reported much higher rates of dizziness or faintness when standing (dysautonomia, orthostatic intolerance) with both symptoms getting worse the more j.hypermobility they had.

Key finding: hypermobility statistically "mediated" or explained a big chunk of why neurodivergence linked to these body issues. Neurodivergent people scored over 50% higher on dizziness measures and had double the pain symptoms. The researchers urge screening neurodivergent patients for hypermobility (and vice versa) to better treat pain and autonomic problems holistically. The study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35185636/ Csecs et al (2022) led by our Patron Dr Eccles is very important.

We, as the user led charity and our vision to support people with symptomatic hypermobility (EDS HSD +) and Neurodivergence, agree with this screening and hope this is carried on in education, health and for all ages. Bear in mind the older you are injured or deconditioned the less often you are joint hypermobile but you might suffer from far more stiffness than the general population!

02/12/2025

In some parts of the world, record numbers of people are being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In the United States, for example, government researchers last year reported that more than 11% of children had received an ADHD diagnosis at some point in their lives — a sharp increase from 2003, when around 8% of children had (see ‘ADHD among US boys and girls’).

But now, top US health officials argue that diagnoses have spiralled out of control. In May, the Make America Healthy Again Commission — led by US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr — said ADHD was part of a “crisis of overdiagnosis and overtreatment” and suggested that ADHD medications did not help children in the long term.

So what, exactly, is going on?

One thing that’s clear is that several factors — including improved detection and greater awareness of ADHD — are causing people with symptoms to receive a diagnosis and treatment, whereas they wouldn’t have years earlier. Clinicians say this is especially true for women and girls, whose pattern of symptoms was often missed in the past. Although some specialists are concerned about the risks of overdiagnosis, many are more worried that too many people go undiagnosed and untreated.

More children and adults are being diagnosed with ADHD in some countries. Science is helping to understand why — and how best to provide support.

02/12/2025

⚠️ NHS (National Health System) Scoția ar putea fi chemat în instanță pentru refuzul de a efectua evaluări exclusiv pentru ADHD la adulți.

O petiție a fost depusă împotriva NHS Tayside la Curtea de Sesizare, pe fondul îngrijorărilor legate de procedurile de tratament și evaluare.

Potrivit avocaților de la Govan Law Centre (GLC), care reprezintă petiționarul anonim din Perth și Kinross, consiliul de sănătate nu oferă „evaluări medicale pentru adulții cu simptome de ADHD, trimiși de medicii de familie, cu excepția cazului în care acești pacienți au o „afecțiune psihică concomitentă”.

Astfel, în ultimii trei ani nu s-a efectuat nicio evaluare exclusiv pentru ADHD la adulți în regiune, cifră confirmată de o cerere în baza Legii privind libertatea de informare (FOI).

GLC susține că acest lucru încalcă Legea egalității din 2010.

A petition has been lodged in the Court of Session amid concerns relating to treatment and assessment procedures.

02/12/2025

A Scottish health board could be taken to court over their refusal to carry out ADHD-only assessments for adults.

A petition has been lodged against NHS Tayside in the Court of Session amid concerns relating to treatment and assessment procedures.

According to solicitors at the Govan Law Centre (GLC), who represent the unnamed petitioner from Perth and Kinross, the health board does not provide “medical assessments for adults with ADHD symptoms, referred to them by GPs, unless such patients have a 'co-occurring mental health condition’.

”As such, zero adult ADHD-only assessments have been carried out in the region over the last three years, a figure confirmed by a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

GLC alleges this violates the Equality Act 2010.

A petition has been lodged in the Court of Session amid concerns relating to treatment and assessment procedures.

30/11/2025

😉

27/11/2025

27/11/2025

27/11/2025

27/11/2025

27/11/2025

Drug Science: “Our recent publication validates what patients have been saying for years: medicinal cannabis can make life with hEDS/HSD more bearable and more manageable.”

A new analysis of 121 people with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and hypermobility spectrum disorders in Project Twenty21 found significant improvements in sleep, mood, pain intensity and quality of life after three months of prescribed medicinal cannabis. Patients also showed reduced opioid requirements, and only 5% reported mild adverse events.

Co-author Lucy Stafford explains the results through both science and lived experience — and highlights why access to this treatment remains such a challenge in the UK.

The symptoms of hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and hypermobility spectrum disorders are often invisibile, delaying diagnosis. This leaves many to seek medicinal cannabis, leading to life-changing effects.