To think most online adult ADHD diagnoses are bullshit?

They did an experiment where a team of ADHD experts analysed 100 videos from TikTok. They rated approx 50% as 'subjective', 25% as 'misleading', and only 25% as 'generally factual'.

It seems logical that for it to be considered 'a disorder' there has to be some disorder. I think the NHS benchmark is 'significant impact on at least two areas of your life', so struggling to do the washing possibly wouldn't cut it.

I sometimes wonder the same, OP.

I don't like to come across as a gatekeeper or the ADHD police but some cases I read about just seem so confounding.

I was diagnosed in primary school and was excluded from mainstream education for a while, attending a school for children with behavioural problems. My mother was actually a SEN teacher so I had loads of support, and I was also very bright academically, yet I just couldn't manage in a busy classroom. I was born six weeks prem so possibly this is part of the cause.

Now, I read cases like a woman with a 'big executive job' managing a team of 250 staff whilst juggling three kids. Saying her work is 'very well respected in her industry' but is seeking an ADHD diagnosis because she finds it hard to get motivated on a Saturday morning and do all the chores etc (this was a genuine poster on here).

Of course everybody is affected differently and to a different extent, but I just can't imagine either myself or any of my friends with ADHD managing a team of 250 alongside three kids without any medication or anything, and doing a bloody good job of it. It's a bit like an ultra marathon runner telling you they suffer from low stamina.

Just trying to unwatch this😂

School was definitely better for ND children. My friend (later diagnosed as ASD) was academic so teachers just let her pretty much do what she wanted. They didn't make her socialise or do presentations in the cruel way they do now. My daughter has to be part of the school play even though you see plenty of kids on the stage who are hating every second of it. It's weird.
Also there just wasn't that much to do outside of school. I remember being bored on sick days. School was your whole social life. There was no kids TV or internet. Very hard to get as sucked into special interests when you would have to lug books to and from a public library or watch the same VHS 50 times. Both of which I did but it's nothing compared to the utter rabbit holes I could fall down now!

I think children were very much left to their own devices. Lots of playing out, no parent hovering about. You had to negotiate your own path.

Less cult of the individual, less competition.

Interesting. In the past there was more forced assimilation of those with perceived differences. I think of children being made to write with their right hands, for example.

But there was also less structure, formality and oversight, as you say, which in some cases I agree may have meant more flexibility to adapt things for those who needed it; without it necessarily being seen as a formal adaptation and the person therefore requiring a formal diagnosis that marked them out in some way.

I am not convinced we are always much better now at accommodating genuine difference, though we certainly talk a good game about it. I do think some of our current approaches may serve to reinforce issues, without actually providing real means of managing them.

An extremely interesting and thought provoking answer.

Could it be that the school system , many years ago and society ( to some extent) absorbed difference in a more benign way. I'm sorry it sounds like a cliche, but I have absolutely no recollection of ADHD whilst at school myself or later in a professional capacity.
Children were children. Before the introduction of the National Curriculum teachers did as they pleased in Primary schools. Model making, colouring in, writing stories, bimbling about, singing, no internet.

I am trying to understand why I would seek a diagnosis of a disability when I don’t actually experience my life as a disabled person. I manage fine, with some difficulties, but everyone has difficulties of one kind or another.

Again I would highlight that I probably would get a diagnosis if I went for one (if online tests are reliable, which I accept they may not be). But what would I get out of doing that, except a label?

So if someone functions well, what actually is the point of a diagnosis? It’s not about deserving it, it’s about WHY.

Our food is not awful!

Yes. Absolutely this.

Are you talking about seeing a private HCP or the assessment is the paperwork done in line and then a further assessment on a teams meeting

ADHD used to be a poor person's condition. Nearly all people who were diagnosed in the nineties were working class white boys who struggled in school. Now, the only people I hear speaking about ADHD are middle class white women. Just in the same way that I believe the huge amount of people who are trans now are white people searching for a perceived disadvantage, ADHD has also become a helpful tool to distance oneself from discussions of privilege, oppression and culture. After all, white British people (myself included) have very little to feel connected to, all our history is steeped in shame and conquest, our food is awful and we are politically now a very small, isolated and poor country. People want a tribe, they want a culture, they want a 'yeah but' when people ask them, despite institutional racism, education, privilege why have they not succeeded in the way they would like, or why aren't they happy. ADHD gives them that.

You are diagnosing people online saying people function too well on this thread to deserve their diagnosis.

I’m not speaking for your family. Not sure where you got the idea I was.

I don’t think you get to speak for any family.

It sounds like I’m not talking about you and your family then. It sounds like you had good reason to seek your diagnoses.

Having any perceived disadvantaged identity comes with social cachet in these circles

Nobody dares voice this sort of thing.

Err yes I do because most of us with adhd

“Can’t keep time at all and hyperfocuses on meaningless tasks endlessly to the point they miss really important appointments. No budgeting, bills and other important letters left unopened for months. And so on. You get the picture.”

That is the why we get a diagnosis. Along with other crippling and dangerous symptoms such as impulsivity.

Some of us have developed some coping strategies over the years but still massively underperform. It’s a spectrum after you meet the threshold and intelligence and other factors will vary from sufferer to sufferer.One of my dc can’t and hasn’t done exams. Her sibling has but got woeful grades, he’s insanely bright. Couldn’t sit through all his exams but what he wrote got him something. Other symptoms for him are worse.

There are many downsides to really having ADHD.

There are no downsides to getting a diagnosis if you don’t really have it.

Do you see the difference?

You misunderstand what I say. According to tests I meet the criteria. No, I wouldn’t label myself as having ADHD and I think those who are similar to me but do so are milking it frankly.

ADHD affects executive function as you surely know? In the case of my parent it affects it so severely that almost any simple task is beyond them. Forget about exams, job interviews etc. Can’t keep a house habitable or even get themselves together to buy the basic necessities to live to day to day in a way that isn’t totally chaotic. There was a poster on here a few weeks ago who talked about not having a sofa, oven gloves etc and people were diagnosing adhd left and right. My parent is like this. Can’t keep time at all and hyperfocuses on meaningless tasks endlessly to the point they miss really important appointments. No budgeting, bills and other important letters left unopened for months. And so on. You get the picture.

Now you’re just talking even more complete rubbish.

No downsides to ADHD diagnosis.😂😂😂

I totally disagree that there are no social benefits. If you are youngish, very online etc there absolutely are benefits. Having any perceived disadvantaged identity comes with social cachet in these circles. Maybe it is different where you are but here everyone is trumpeting their diagnoses with pride.

Because they don’t really have it, or at least not in a way that really impacts them. If you really have it I am not talking about you.

And you absolutely can get an adhd diagnosis if you are a bit scatty, or not even that. People have posted the undercover investigation into this all over this thread.

I repeat, i believe ADHD is real and many people have it. I also believe it’s easy to game the system and many do.