Interesting Links for 10-03-2026

[andrewducker]

1. Grammarly Is Offering 'Expert' AI Reviews From Your Favorite Authors—Dead or Alive (without their permission)

(tags:ohforfuckssake ai writing )

2. Google proposes an AI training datacenter that would use up to 8 million gallons of water *per day*

(tags:water google ai )

3. NHS England continues attacks on trans kids

(tags:uk transgender lgbt ohforfuckssake )

4. It is likely that the UK is still under-diagnosing ADHD

(tags:adhd uk )

Comments

[jack]

Indeed, it might be 10% of people I know personally have ADHD but are on the waiting list, never got on the waiting list, or fell out of treatment.

It's nice to see someone respected making the argument clearly.

[andrewducker]

Yup. I looked into this the other day. It's at least a three year waiting list. And you can go private for a diagnosis, but then you have to pay for the treatment privately as well, which makes it pointless unless you're very well off!

[wildeabandon]

I think there might be something of a postcode lottery on that, though possibly it's becoming increasingly restricted. Certainly Ramesh got diagnosed privately, and paid for meds during the process of titration, but now gets them on NHS prescription (this was post the acute phase of the pandemic, but not super recently, maybe 18 months to two years ago, if memory serves).

[jack]

I think you know this better than me, and I don't know what it is like in Scotland, but for the benefit of anyone reading, when I looked into this in England:

* Most places the official NHS clinic has a waiting list of several years, which likely means never getting to the top. Some places are probably worse, some may be better.
* The "standard" advice is to ask the GP to refer you to one of the right-to-choose providers. The list keeps changing, and the waiting lists are long, but not *as* long.
* If you have a private diagnosis (and recommended treatment), I think it works the same way as a foreign diagnosis or similar: the GP can choose to believe it, and prescribe whatever meds the psychiatrist recommended. I think their guidelines suggest that under duty of care they shouldn't just blanket refuse, but GPs vary in what they will do, and unlike right to choose they don't have a specific requirement to accept it.
* The GP isn't really supposed to keep prescribing meds month-by-month, they're supposed to be following the recommendation of a psychiatrist. A common situation is a psychiatrist from a right-to-choose provider. (This is my situation.) But it applies equally much to any private/foreign/other psychiatrist, the GP can decide to accept their recommendation or not, I think it's common that many will if the psychiatrist appears legitimate, but I think it's also common that some are suspicious of any non-NHS diagnosis.
* My off-the-cuff advice to people in England without money is to pick a right-to-choose provider and go to GP and ask for a referral. My off-the-cuff advice to people with money is to go to a private provider (either a traditional office-in-the-capital practice, or one of the modern online practices, someone who looks respectable as much as possible) for a diagnosis and initial treatment, and then try to get onto a shared-care agreement after.

(But it does keep changing over time. And this is very very boiled down from what people I know have experienced, I've tried to avoid it becoming a wall of text, but it doesn't have all the caveats.)

[andrewducker]

Interesting to know. I wonder if I should chat to my GP about it after all.

[channelpenguin]

As someone with no known psych issues, I'm just here to say I find this all very interesting. I'm glum that it seems so hard for folks to get help, and cheered that there do seem to be ways to at least partly get round it.

I'm assuming that people have found the meds really helpful in making their lives better? Only asking because for so many conditions, to me as an outsider, it looks like that's not always to be relied upon.

[andrewducker]

ADHD seems to be one of the ones where it really does help.

[channelpenguin]

That is good to hear. You'd think it would be in everyone's interest that those that need it get it, but when were societies ever that lack logical. Sigh.

[cmcmck]

3.Have they actually read any of the research?

I could introduce them to a US doctoral thesis which has a dedication to yours truly on the intro page as I gave a lot of help and advice over this very topic when it was being researched!

This is deliberate ignorance!

[andrewducker]

It is so very deliberate and so awful.

[melchar]

1 & 2 = I hate AI so very much. The Butlerian Jyhad can't come soon enough.