Richard Bacon

Richard Bacon

Richard Bacon on an ADHD diagnosis at 42, and the drinking he has not stopped

Content note — this story covers a subject some people would rather choose when to read.

Richard Bacon was diagnosed with ADHD at 42. Speaking to Elizabeth Day, he connected it to something he had lived with far longer: he describes himself plainly as an addict. What he says he learned is that a lot of people with ADHD use alcohol or stimulants to compensate for how their brain is working, often without knowing that is what they are doing. He counts his own history in that — and is candid that he still drinks, still daydreams about stopping, and finds it hard because he likes it, while saying it has caused him a great deal of trouble. He also describes the trap of believing he works better after a couple of drinks, and says out loud that this is a dangerous way to think and is not true. He describes having had a brain scan at a private clinic in the United States which he was told showed unusually slow blood flow to his prefrontal cortex — a dark patch, as he puts it, that made his ADHD visible. It is worth being clear about how ADHD is actually identified here: the NHS describes diagnosis as an assessment by a specialist, looking at your history going back to childhood and at how the traits affect work, study, relationships and health. It is not made from a brain scan, and no imaging test is used to diagnose it in the UK. What comes through is a man who found a framework late that made a chaotic history legible to him — the risk-taking he enjoyed, the scattered focus, the hyperfocus — and who is still, by his own account, in the middle of the harder part. Nothing here is medical advice. If ADHD traits are affecting your studies, your work or your relationships, the NHS advice is to see a GP.

• ADHD