social media is convincing all our kids they are nd?

Well yes however it is a good summary of well known information.

Although it's annoying it comes form chatgpt

How! "Masked ADHD" is a total contradiction in terms.

it like me saying I have totally benign cancer. Or I have normal-colour-vision colour-blindness.

It really isn’t. A quick internet search will show you what happens

Girls with ADHD often mask their symptoms to fit in with social expectations, which can lead to them being overlooked or misdiagnosed. Masking involves consciously or unconsciously modifying their behavior to appear neurotypical, often leading to exhaustion and self-doubt.

Common masking behaviors include:
Suppressing hyperactivity:
Forcing themselves to sit still, suppressing fidgeting, and appearing calm when they feel restless.

Over-preparing:
Spending extra time and effort to avoid making mistakes or saying the "wrong" thing in conversations.

Mimicking others:
Copying the behavior, speech patterns, or organizational styles of others to blend in.

Suppressing emotions:
Bottling up feelings and impulses, which can lead to emotional dysregulation and anxiety.

Compensation for inattentiveness:
Working late, overcompensating for missed deadlines, and creating elaborate systems to manage tasks.

Camouflaging in social situations:
Pretending to understand conversations, nodding along, and appearing engaged when they are struggling to focus or understand.

Internalizing perfectionism:
Striving for perfection to avoid criticism and judgment.

Consequences of Masking:
Burnout and fatigue: Constant effort to mask can lead to physical and mental exhaustion.

Low self-esteem and self-doubt: Masking can create a disconnect between their true selves and their perceived selves, leading to feelings of inadequacy.

Social anxiety and isolation: The fear of being judged or misunderstood can lead to social anxiety and withdrawal.

Difficulty forming authentic relationships:Masking can make it challenging to form genuine connections with others.

Why is masking more common in girls?
Societal expectations:
Girls are often socialized to be quiet, polite, and compliant, leading them to internalize the need to mask their ADHD symptoms.

Lack of awareness:
ADHD in girls is often overlooked due to a lack of awareness of how symptoms manifest differently in females.

Underdiagnosis:
Because girls may not exhibit the stereotypical hyperactive and disruptive behaviors associated with ADHD, they are often underdiagnosed and miss out on appropriate support and treatment.

You are talking about autism, I am talking about ADHD, masking in autism is completely different. "Masked autism" is not an oxymoron. "masked ADHD" is.

Of course it's different, it's not about not slurping, burping or picking your nose or worse, most people learn not to do these if culturally not appropriate and no one will get mental health problems as a result of not doing these things.

It's about communication and interaction. It's acting as if the way people talk with each other and socialise also comes naturally to you when it doesn't at all. It's about speaking, looking, dressing, moving and acting in a manner to fit in with female peer group (not sure how it works with boys), even adopting facial expressions and laughter so that you gel and are one of them when none of this comes naturally to you do to the way your brain works. The way autistic girls are different socially is obviously slightly different for each individual but masking in that way is extremely detrimental as you live life as a fake version of yourself merely to fit in. Can you se the difference?

It really isn’t. A quick internet search will show you what happens

Girls with ADHD often mask their symptoms to fit in with social expectations, which can lead to them being overlooked or misdiagnosed. Masking involves consciously or unconsciously modifying their behavior to appear neurotypical, often leading to exhaustion and self-doubt.

Common masking behaviors include:
Suppressing hyperactivity:
Forcing themselves to sit still, suppressing fidgeting, and appearing calm when they feel restless.

Over-preparing:
Spending extra time and effort to avoid making mistakes or saying the "wrong" thing in conversations.

Mimicking others:
Copying the behavior, speech patterns, or organizational styles of others to blend in.

Suppressing emotions:
Bottling up feelings and impulses, which can lead to emotional dysregulation and anxiety.

Compensation for inattentiveness:
Working late, overcompensating for missed deadlines, and creating elaborate systems to manage tasks.

Camouflaging in social situations:
Pretending to understand conversations, nodding along, and appearing engaged when they are struggling to focus or understand.

Internalizing perfectionism:
Striving for perfection to avoid criticism and judgment.

Consequences of Masking:
Burnout and fatigue: Constant effort to mask can lead to physical and mental exhaustion.

Low self-esteem and self-doubt: Masking can create a disconnect between their true selves and their perceived selves, leading to feelings of inadequacy.

Social anxiety and isolation: The fear of being judged or misunderstood can lead to social anxiety and withdrawal.

Difficulty forming authentic relationships:Masking can make it challenging to form genuine connections with others.

Why is masking more common in girls?
Societal expectations:
Girls are often socialized to be quiet, polite, and compliant, leading them to internalize the need to mask their ADHD symptoms.

Lack of awareness:
ADHD in girls is often overlooked due to a lack of awareness of how symptoms manifest differently in females.

Underdiagnosis:
Because girls may not exhibit the stereotypical hyperactive and disruptive behaviors associated with ADHD, they are often underdiagnosed and miss out on appropriate support and treatment.

Masking is a lot more complex than you’re making out - most people don’t even realise they’re doing it until they go into burnout from stress and overwhelm, and everything starts to fall apart.

I was high-masking for decades until I had a breakdown and suddenly didn’t have the mental bandwidth to do it anymore. It was only with professional support that I realised that all my coping strategies were because I was autistic and completely unable to function otherwise.

At the end of the day it’s human nature to want to fit in with society - hence the whole “find your tribe” thing. Nobody likes feeling left out or as though they’re different or odd.

Please explain why "masking" is different to "behaving normally" which is something every single civilised human being learns, some with more difficulty than others, but it isn't natural to any of us.

And how is "learning to behave normally" possible in a condition defined by not being able to behave normally?

I don't think you can mask ADHD

You can.

How, with poor impulse control?

Again, question completely dodged - how many more ways are people going to try and insist I am wrong without explaining why I am wrong?

It just emphasises that there is no explanation.

"Masked ADHD" is still an oxymoron

Again, question completely dodged - how many more ways are people going to try and insist I am wrong without explaining why I am wrong?

It just emphasises that there is no explanation.

"Masked ADHD" is still an oxymoron

I don't think you can mask ADHD

You can.

Masking is a lot more complex than you’re making out - most people don’t even realise they’re doing it until they go into burnout from stress and overwhelm, and everything starts to fall apart.

I was high-masking for decades until I had a breakdown and suddenly didn’t have the mental bandwidth to do it anymore. It was only with professional support that I realised that all my coping strategies were because I was autistic and completely unable to function otherwise.

At the end of the day it’s human nature to want to fit in with society - hence the whole “find your tribe” thing. Nobody likes feeling left out or as though they’re different or odd.

I'm inclined to agree tbh, despite having a child and partner who are genuinely diagnosed with ASD/ADHD.

The difference between my 45 yr old brother (whose life has been severely impacted by ADHD but was only formally diagnosed last year after waiting 4 years for an NHS assessment), and the 40 odd yr old women I know who are getting private diagnoses and ADHD meds within months because they're scatty and get bored easily in a job...well it's indescribable.

These women have married, raised children, learned to drive, had jobs, bought houses, got friends, do their taxes - basically they run their lives competently. Whereas DB's life has been completely ruined by his inability to focus and concentrate. He's been in prison because of it. He can't drive because of it. He is completely unemployable because of it. He can't maintain relationships because of it. He can't handle his own life admin, he can't keep hold of a phone, he can't maintain a tenancy, you name it he struggles with it. He is truly and genuinely impaired in pretty much every area of his life, but he is still unmedicated because the waiting list for medication titration (even post diagnosis) in his area runs to years.

It's not the same thing at all. Thank fuck times have moved on enough that my ASD/ADHD child was diagnosed as an actual child and, alongside his special school, have been able to invest a lot of time and resources into teaching him coping strategies so that the impact on his adult life will hopefully be lessened. His presentation and needs are pretty much the same as DB was as a child but the difference is I know what I'm dealing with and are putting all the support in now to give him a much better chance at a happy and successful life. So I'm not against diagnosis at all, I just get irritated by people who don't really appear to be impaired by the traits they feel they have trying to make out they're in the same boat as people like DB and DS!!