19/08/2026
I have complained to Ofcom and I’ll explain why.
I am a psychotherapist, a Registered Manager, a parent who has spent years challenging SEND systems and I was diagnosed with ADHD at 36.
I am not interested in defending a label for the sake of it.
Call it ADHD, autism, trauma, attachment, executive dysfunction or a mixture of all of them. I care about what is actually happening to the person in front of me.
If a child cannot regulate, cannot focus, cannot cope in school, cannot organise themselves or is constantly overwhelmed, then something needs understanding and support.
Take the ADHD label away and what happens?
The child is still struggling.
Only now there is an even bigger risk they get called lazy, naughty, defiant or badly parented.
That is why this documentary bothered me so much.
We already have children waiting years for assessment. Families fighting schools, SEND, CAMHS and the NHS. Adults reaching their 30s and 40s before anyone joins the dots.
I know that because I was one of them.
My diagnosis at 36 did not create my difficulties. It explained them.
So yes, question diagnosis. Question medication. Question private clinics. Question whether trauma and attachment are being properly considered.
But if Channel 4 wanted a real investigation, why not ask why so many children and adults are struggling in the first place and why getting help in this country is so bloody difficult?
That is the scandal.
Not the label.
The lack of support.
