It would take it took forever for Arnaq Bourup Egede to get through to psychiatry in the healthcare system and be investigated for ADHD.
That is what she had heard, and that is also what as several different sources have told here in the newspaper.
– I thought there was no point in contacting her, she says when AG talks to her over an online connection.
On a daily basis, Arnaq Bourup Egede lives and works in Ilulissat. She is probably best known for her place on the women’s national soccer team.
For some years she has wanted to be investigated for ADHD. She had gradually recognized that she needed help to deal with the chaos and noise that lived in her – and not least to find out where it all came from.
But the prospect of having to wait several years to see a psychiatrist discouraged her.
This summer, however, something happened. One of her friends wrote that she had been examined by a private psychiatrist in Denmark who offered online examination. It had gone quickly, the friend wrote, and Arnaq Bourup Egede decided to contact the same psychiatrist. She was prepared to cash out herself.
On July 28, three weeks after she first approached the psychiatrist, she was diagnosed with ADHD.
Arnaq Bourup Egede ended up paying a good 10,000 kroner for the interviews and examination by the psychiatrist, plus the cost of the ADHD medication for which she was prescribed. It was all worth it, she thought at the time. She had become wiser and the pills worked.
– Even though I knew deep down that I had something, it was really nice to get confirmation, she says.
She quickly contacted the hospital in Ilulissat to get a prescription for the medicine, so that she would be able to collect it here in the country in the future. But time dragged on, and as the days and weeks went by, the pills in the packets became fewer and fewer.
Everything went quiet after one pill
Since she was very small, Arnaq Bourup Egede has had a disturbance in her body and in her head. At times it has gone beyond sleep, and at other times it has shown itself through outbursts of anxiety or anger.
It has gotten worse over the years, especially after she moved away from home, where she no longer had her mother’s rules and fixed mealtimes to frame everyday life.
– I have gone to both a psychologist, infant therapy, thought field therapy. I have tried everything, but nothing really helped, says Arnaq Bourup Egede.
Therefore, in many ways, it was also a great relief for her when the psychiatrist told her this summer that she had ADHD.
– It was like rewinding an old video tape. Everything from childhood came back. It was quite overwhelming, she says.
– And it was also frustrating – because I wish they had figured it out sooner.
The pills she was prescribed were of the type methylphenidatewhich is better known as Ritalin. A medication used by ADHD patients, but as the police have previously told, it is also resold and abused at home.
After she had gotten her prescription, Arnaq Bourup Egede picked up the medicine herself at a Danish pharmacy, as she had a single overnight stay in Denmark in connection with a national team trip to the Faroe Islands. The first time she took a pill, she was having breakfast with her boyfriend and her three-year-old son at home in Ilulissat. Suddenly everything went quiet.
– It was only the sound of the cars out on the road that I could hear, she says.
She no longer thought about where the cars out on the road were going, who was sitting in there or any of the other thoughts that used to fly around inside. She could just focus on eating breakfast.
– My frustrations and my anger also became easier to manage. Because I had more time to think about it. And I slept better at night, she says.
Meanwhile, Arnaq Bourup Egede wondered why it could take so long for the health service to come back when she had a specialist’s word that she had ADHD.
Some types of ADHD medication are resold illegally and abused. Can you understand that the healthcare system might want to be a little extra careful before prescribing something as strong as ADHD medication?
– Yes, of course. But it’s so frustrating and I can’t help but feel a bit stigmatized. Like I’m just trying to get some medicine just to abuse it. That’s how I felt, she replies.
Have to wait like everyone else
As the weeks passed and the pills in the package disappeared, Arnaq Bourup Egede tried to call the mental health center in Nuuk several times. Twice she managed to get through and was asked to request a prescription on doktor.gl.
It was September 18 and at that time she only had one pill left. And then suddenly the phone rang.
– They said that the examination I had received was insufficient and that I had to contact the health service and get a referral to psychiatry there, she says.
On the same day, a reply also ticked in on doktor.gl:
– Thank you for your inquiry to the Psychiatric Area. You do not have a current course in a psychiatric outpatient clinic and therefore we cannot make a prescription. Please contact the regional doctor for a referral to psychiatry, it said.
Arnaq Borup Egede was devastated, and since the message from the health service, she has not had the strength to contact them again.
– And I’ve run out of pills, so I have to start all over again and get used to the medicine again, she says.
In principle, Arnaq Bourup Egede would be able to continue to have his medicine dispensed in Denmark.
– But then I will also have to pay every time I have to pick up the pills. It’s totally unrealistic, she says and sighs.
– I don’t understand why others can get a prescription when they have an investigation from Denmark, without having to be investigated again in psychiatry here.
Arnaq Bourup Egede has tears in his eyes.
– I just kind of gave up after that. I’ve spent so much effort being tossed back and forth and ringing around. And then it didn’t work anyway, she says.
– Now I don’t know what to do.
AG has contacted the health service to get an explanation as to why Arnaq Borup Egede has to wait until she has spoken to a psychiatrist in the health service, when she has already paid to be examined in Denmark. In this connection, Arnaq Bourup Egede has also given permission for her case to be reviewed.
The health service has said that they will return with an answer as soon as possible.
