Norway is a welfare state, but there are caveats. I'm a Polish immigrant, worked here in a slaughterhouse for 14 years, after coming for a summer job after second time I failed first semester on Tech Uni.

Until last year, my doctor was a racist cunt (tho me not showing enough emotions on my face could have same effect). After begging for a year to get a MRI of my lower back (put myself in queue for a different doctor 3 months in, it still took almost a year to change), I paid for the MRI in Poland (expen$ive, but cheaper that private MRI in Norway) and found out I have serious issues with my back that got much worsened because of no treatment and continuing doing very heavy work on the killing line (cows).

Changing the doctor opened a different world to me, because before I felt treated as a N. Stupid outlander, here just to be exploited and to get minimum back. Sorry to people whom it offends. To defend my previous doctor gatekeeping me from any diagnostics for my back (and 6 years ago for autism, which I suspected, but didn't get accepted to see a psychologist), I have to say that a lot of Polish immigrants, with cutthroat post communist mentality of hostility towards the State and using any tricks possible to sit on paid leave and do as little work as possible. (Poland was occupied by Russia and Germany, and later only Russia for 250 out of last 300 years, so the State was never Us but Them).

New doctor pushed the things with my back, but also opened a possibility to try to get a green light for a public health system ADHD diagnosis.

I've already tried doing a rushed diagnosis during summer holidays in Poland, 3 or 4 years ago. I procrastrinated (and it was quite expensive, which added to hesitation) and ended up getting paired with my younger brother's (diagnosed with ADHD) psychologist. Not only I got a negative, but also lost the connection with my youngest brother (with whom I had best relations of all my 4 siblings), because he thought that I'm falsely appropriating the ADHD/Autism to excuse my laziness. Except for my sister, nobody believed (from 4 siblings) when I showed direct quotes from psychiatric books by Thomas Brown about why I'm in a group for a likely false negative from an inexperienced psyhologist. To mention them quickly, why in my case it could have been a false negative:
- high IQ (wish I was smart, I'm just good at solving IQ tests) individuals don't struggle with same things as regular and lower IQ, which makes it harder to spot for less experienced
- age - at 35 I've learned a lot of coping mechanisms and also found a niche in my life where it's not such an issue - f. ex. you can't be late with your work in the slaughterhouse - being distracted and not doing your job fast enough is instantly evident.
- very few issues before life got more complicated - first ADHD issues around age of 13, bigger in high school, even bigger on the University. In some diagnostic criterias, no issues before 6 completely disqualifies you.
- psychologist took a review of my 3 parents (stepdad), but refused to take one from my wife, who lives with me and knows me. My biological dad (obvious case of some form of executive function disorder) left my mom when I was 3. My stepdad thinks psychology is a fraud (even after his son committing suicide at 16y) and my mom has lot of guilt over the brother that killed himself and my "failed life" compared to other siblings who all have awesome jobs in IT at home.
- psychologist was just a couple years out of school, a hard NO for diagnosing adults (children are easy to diagnose, because they don't yet mask),
- psychologist only had 3h for diagnosis, not good in my case,
- psychologist said that biggest factor in negative diagnosis is my performance on the attention/memory/reasoning test, where I used memorizing techniques, brakes and managed to hack one very hard test that tries to bore you out.

Nontheless, my wife, book from my sister about ADHD (Dirty Laundry) and my wish and dire need to change jobs trough completing education pushed me to try to get a "refellal" for an ADHD diagnosis from my new family doctor.

In Norway you still pay for the public health service, but it's never more than 30-40$ for a visit, MRI/X-ray or a specialist visit. And all yearly expenses are capped at 300$.

The catch is that it's HARD to get sent to a psychologist, especially being seen as a foreigner whos trying to milk the state.

I prepared a lot, read diagnostic criteria and about ADHD in general. Understood that I have to prove that I struggle in 2 or more domains in life to get help. Was cued by my wife to avoid my tendency to whitewashing myself and sugaring up my situation. I stopped taking my supplements (vit D & fishoil for mood, magnesium lactate for sleep) and meditating a week before the visit to get a "referal" and the psychologist visit too. It felt very dishonest doing that at first, but when I read my notes, realizing that it's all truth, just underscoring elements showing issues with work, academic performance, mental health and family life, I thought that not doing it is dishonest towards my wife, my family and myself.

After 2 months the Psychological Centre replied to my doctor's note (he makes a note during the visit and sends it to them). This time my doctor was rooting for me, don't know how the note looked, but it was enough. I got the first visit in 6 months.

So far there has been 8 1-2h vists. Psychologist I'm working with is very competent and experienced. Added bonus is that she is Polish. I thought it wouldn't be an issue, but I did struggle a bit with spoken Norwegian when the language was diametrally different than what I use day to day.