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Dr Elena Ghetau 2022-07-01 Person 5 5 0

Dr Elena Ghetau conducted my autism and ADHD assessments at Psychiatry UK. I had the autism assessment privately first, and then the ADHD assessment through Right to Choose. I am a 50 year old, high-masking cisgender woman with a husband, post-graduate qualifications and a job requiring high empathy. No doubt many of you will know these are exactly the kinds of reasons that autistic and ADHD women and non-binary folks are told they are not autistic, and/or can't have ADHD. To be fair to me I probably helped quite a lot by providing plenty of (presumably sufficiently relevant) information, though to be fair to her, she did actually read it. I also somehow had little trouble dropping the 'normal woman' mask I have spent so much of my life wearing. Maybe this was easier because Dr Ghetau is used to autistic people and ADHDers, so she was not putting out a bunch of triggering signals that I was supposed to act normal. Dr Ghetau clearly grasped the nuances and diversity of how autism and ADHD presents, especially in women and I am sure non-binary folks too, relying on her experience and clinical judgement, not on stereotypes or expecting specific behaviours or behaviours which can only be expected from children (no, I don't line up toy trains). I cannot say it is exactly a fun process to go through, but why would it be? It is focussing on all the things which earn you the dubious privilege of being badged as 'disordered' and judged by society to be inferior and weird. Dr Ghetau however is genuinely of the opinion that neurodivergent people are just different, and did not talk down to me in any respect (unlike some professionals dealing with autistic and ADHD folks) and just treated me like the normal human being that I am. She also seems to genuinely value having the opportunity to help people improve their lives and overall mental health through ADHD medication. She was also excellent at replying to messages I left on the portal and was happy to answer questions. She was very respectful of my requests in relation to amendments to the report, which was also very thorough, and discussed my ADHD medication options with me in a way which completely took my views and preferences into account. I would definitely recommend her and feel very fortunate to have had such a competent psychiatrist looking after me, particularly when there are so many horror stories about people being misdiagnosed and ignored.