On 25 September 2026, The Guardian reported that several NHS bodies in England now make people with suspected ADHD or autism wait a fixed minimum time before they can even be assessed: two years in one area. If you are on a waiting list, or about to join one, this is discouraging news. But the months ahead do not have to be empty. Used well, they can make your eventual assessment clearer and more useful.
What Is Happening in England
According to the Guardian, which relied on an analysis by Finally Seen, a group that tracks restrictions on patient choice, 15 integrated care boards (the local NHS bodies that pay for care), covering 19 million people, have introduced some form of rationing for ADHD and autism assessments. This includes yearly caps on the number of assessments funded and priority criteria that reserve assessment for the most severe cases.
The headline speaks of a "two-year minimum wait" in four boards. The detail is more varied:
- West Yorkshire: at least two years from referral for anyone seeking an assessment with an independent provider.
- North East and North Cumbria: a minimum of about 78 weeks before a first assessment with the private providers it funds.
- Somerset: a 52-week minimum.
- Devon: a 14-week minimum.
These minimum waits mainly affect the "right to choose" route, through which an independent clinic paid by the NHS carries out the assessment. Such clinics now do half of NHS-funded ADHD assessments and a third of autism assessments. In total, about 960,000 people in England are waiting for an ADHD assessment and 295,000 for an autism assessment.
Patient groups reacted strongly. ADHD UK called the two-year minimum "scandalous". The National Autistic Society pointed out that, in practice, a diagnosis is often needed to get support.
Not Only a British Problem
Demand is rising elsewhere too. A JAMA Medical News feature published on 18 September 2026 describes how more adults in the United States ask their primary care clinician for an ADHD evaluation. A Yale psychiatrist quoted in the piece says that about 1 in 5 of her middle-aged patients asks to be assessed. That is the experience of one practice, not a national statistic, but it reflects a real trend. In France, the national health authority (HAS) acknowledged in 2024 that too few trained professionals, unevenly spread across the country, lengthen the time to diagnosis for children with ADHD.
What You Can Usefully Do While You Wait
None of the steps below will move you up the list, and none replaces the assessment. They help the clinician, and they help you.
- Keep a symptom diary for a few weeks. Write down concrete situations rather than labels: "missed my train because I lost track of time again", "left the party after 20 minutes, the noise was unbearable". Note how often it happens and what it costs you at work, at home or in relationships.
- Look for traces from childhood. For ADHD, the diagnostic criteria require several symptoms to have been present before the age of 12. For autism, signs must be present from early development, even if they only became obvious later or were masked. Old school reports, teachers' comments ("daydreams", "talks too much", "prefers to play alone"), notebooks or medical records can all help.
- Ask the people who knew you. Parents, older siblings or a long-term partner can describe what they saw. Clinicians often value this outside view, and some services send a questionnaire to a relative.
- Prepare the appointment. Put together one page: your main difficulties, how long they have lasted, your health history and current treatments, any other diagnoses, and the questions you want to ask.
- Use a validated screening questionnaire to structure your thoughts. The ASRS-v1.1 adult ADHD screener (18 questions, about 10 minutes) or the AQ-10 autism screener (10 questions, about 3 minutes), a short questionnaire the UK's NICE suggests clinicians consider for adults, can show which areas stand out and give you words for them. A screening score is not a diagnosis and does not jump the queue. The experts interviewed by JAMA stress that such a questionnaire is only a starting point: a proper evaluation looks at your whole life history and rules out other explanations. Be wary of any service that offers a quick diagnosis based mainly on a questionnaire.
- Do not put everything else on hold. Anxiety, low mood, sleep problems or burnout can be treated now: you do not need an ADHD or autism assessment first to get help with them. Tell your GP if things change, and check from time to time that you are still on the list.
- Look after the basics and find support. Regular sleep, simple routines, physical activity and fewer overloaded days help most people, whatever the outcome. Charities and peer groups (in the UK, for example, ADHD UK or the National Autistic Society) offer information and contact with people in the same situation.
If Things Get Worse
A waiting list should never stop you from getting help in a crisis. If you have thoughts of harming yourself or ending your life, seek help now. In the UK, call 999 or go to A&E if your life is in danger, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option, or call Samaritans free on 116 123, day or night. In the United States, call or text 988. In the European Union, the emergency number is 112.
What This Means for You
Long waits are a real problem, and fixing them is not your job. What you can do is arrive at your assessment with clear examples, evidence from childhood and an outside view. If you have not yet spoken to a doctor, a free screening questionnaire is a good way to prepare that first conversation: the ADHD test (ASRS-v1.1), the AQ-10 autism test, or the Neurotype test to see five dimensions of your profile at once. Then take your results to a professional.
Sources: Bawden A, Campbell D. "NHS bodies in England impose two-year minimum wait for ADHD and autism assessments." The Guardian, 25 September 2026 (based on an analysis by Finally Seen). Schweitzer K. "As More Adults Seek ADHD Care, Primary Care Clinicians Are Tasked With Getting the Diagnosis Right." JAMA, Medical News, published online 18 September 2026. DOI 10.1001/jama.2026.16679. Haute Autorité de santé (HAS), recommendations on ADHD in children and adolescents, September 2024. News report and medical news feature, not research studies.