Information on Medical History Prior to Consultation

[Cimmerian]

Hi there!

I've recently started looking into applying for MC. It seems the information here has been super helpful for me (thanks!).

I have my first consultation coming up next week. I'm a little concerned with what they'll say due to my medical history. I've been going through NHS GPs to treat my anxiety/depression/insomnia for over years but kind of gave up with official treatments a few of years ago. On top of that, I moved around 3 years ago which meant I needed to switch my NHS/GP clinic. All of my medical history regarding my symptoms were with the previous clinic.
I rang my current clinic about getting my summary (as most MC clinics need it apparently), but they informed me that when I switched clinics my previous medical data isn't fully transferred onto their systems, just "the important" information not including previous medications. So if I were to get a summary from them, it wouldn't say anything about the anxiety/depression/insomnia and treatments used... I honestly don't understand how or why this is the case but it's what they've said.
So I've requested a full data breakdown which apparently WILL include all of this information but it will take a week to receive due to it being in paper form. So, with this background info, I have a few questions:

1 - I have my consultation on Wednesday next week. My full medical history document will be ready by Thursday. So is it vital to have this information on the first consultancy? If i keep the current appointment and explain that I'm getting the medical history the day after, will that be fine? Or should I just re-book my appointment?
2 - My medical history regarding the symptoms I have was from over 4-5 years ago. Does this long time without medication matter? The reason for this is due to self medicating on and off via "illicit" means. I honestly just want to make this more official and stop the stress of not knowing 100% what I'm getting and feeling like some punk kid on a street corner every few months...
3 - As a third somewhat unrelated question. After years of trying to understand why I feel the way I do, I believe I may have ADHD/autism. I've never brought up this to my GPs currently as the idea of talking about that with the NHS and going through years of waitlists terrifies me. Should I bring this up during the consultation? Or would it be best to avoid this information as it's never been made official?

Sorry for the long post. Everything about going through getting treatment and one on one consultation scares the hell out of me.
If it matters, my appointment/consultation is with Alternaleaf. I have another booked with releaf but after reading the horror stories everywhere I've decided to cancel that one.

 

[GreenRed]

Just book it, they know the summary can take time. They will ask you to send it as soon as you get it. There are no time limits on history etc as far as I know.

Re: the ADHD, you should get it diagnosed officially. It makes everything more seamless (even in your head, knowing what's up with yourself), hard to argue the paperwork. This can take years, or you have to go private and cough up like £300-500 to get the diagnosis.

 

[Hazy-Haze]

If you can grab a copy of your Summary Care Record, that will do initially until you can get an access request done for full records.

ASD/ADHD assessments wise, you will probably have to go private. NHS assessments are pretty much offline at the minute. It took me several years to get an ASD assessment and another three to get the ADHD assessment. If you go private it's probably a month wait or less. Downsides to going private are only really for the ADHD if you get prescribed anything and especially if you get prescribed stimulants. 99% of the time the NHS won't accept the diagnosis and you will have to pay for your prescription/meds, which isn't cheap.

If you can afford it then go for it, but be aware it's going to set you back somewhere around £100 per month for meds. I have several friends doing it via that route and if you are working in a reasonable paid job you can easily offset £100/month for medication that makes your life better. If you are on ESA/PIP, then it's maybe something you look very hard at before committing.

A private ASD assessment is just an assessment. Several of my family have had them done privately due to the long or paused ASD waiting lists. I got lucky with mine (NHS) because it happened about 6 weeks before the first Covid lockdown, but it did mean i went into lockdown with a new diagnosis and zero support/help which wasn't exactly good for mental health.

My opinion is stick with MC for ASD/anxiety. But for ADHD, at least in my case, the MC does very little for it, well Sativas (and there Hybrids) give me slightly better concentration and if I top that off with a can of Monster I can often get stuff done. But MC works a lot better for anxiety, insomnia and relaxation for those of us with neurodiverse conditions. For those things it is pretty superior.

If you have past history with cannabis, mention it. It's a bit easier if your patient is already schooled in the subject matter. I had on/off been using cannabis since i was 17, like 30+ years, so my main learning experience was picking strains.