"TikTok trends or the pandemic? What’s behind the rise in ADHD diagnoses"

[flashbac]

"The striking overlap between ADHD symptoms and garden variety “pandemic brain” only compounds common misunderstandings of the former. Simply, ADHD symptoms can look and sound a whole lot like the struggles that define many people’s everyday workflows, which are so often fragmented by push notifications and digital dopamine hits. Who doesn’t have trouble multitasking or following through with tasks? And who isn’t fighting the urge to impulse-scroll social media during the particularly dull moments of any given afternoon? In the past two years, these difficulties have only become more pronounced."

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/02/tiktok-trends-or-the-pandemic-whats-behind-the-rise-in-adhd-diagnoses

What do you think?

How is the whole thread offensive in your perspectives, when it's opening the topic for debate ? Surly debate = more understanding ?

Some of the comments on this thread are awful and so upsetting.

To the person who said there’s no stigma attached to an ADHD diagnosis - isn’t there? I would say 100% there is and the reason is because of some of the narrow minded views on this thread. I am ashamed of my diagnosis because I know there are a hell of a lot of ignorant people who have a set idea about what ADHD is, based on nothing other than some outdated views held when they were at school in the 90s or a panorama about naughty boys!

I have just ‘survived’ for years with fluctuating mental health and a vague ‘you are probably a little depressed or anxious. Here you go - have some SSRIs and by the way, have you considered talking therapy. I’ll stick you on the 17 year waiting list’. After children I struggled to even survive and eventually asked to be referred to community mental health who were unable to diagnose ADHD but ruled out other psychiatric conditions. It took me another three years to go back and go on the waiting list for an adhd assessment which I’m still waiting for so had to go private. The amount of times I have cried to my husband about how unwell I feel but no one on the NHS will help me and I don’t think I can live anymore.

The private diagnosis and medication costs are so difficult as well. It’s caused me to be in a situation where I am about to default on my debt which fills me with deep sadness as I know it will make me unable to remortgage easily in the future and so yet again my shortcomings thanks to my ADHD mean my family suffer. But I finally am on medication that helps my brain to function so at least I hopefully won’t kill myself. I’m saying that flippantly but feeling like you can’t do the basic things in life that others can is devastating beyond belief, especially when you are trying to reconcile that fact with the fact you have an academic degree and to the outside a successful life so it makes no sense to anyone as to why you can just keep your house tidy, remember to pay bills or not feel completely overwhelmed.

Some of the content on the thread is ignorant beyond belief and that is really offensive.

On the private diagnosis front, it’s the same doctors who typically do NHS assessments - they are all regulated by the GMC and all use the same criteria. I purposefully picked one who does NHS assessments in my area to hopefully avoid any difficulties in future when I finally get an NHS assessment. I would have preferred not to pay out vasts sums of money to be assessed but by the time I get to the top of the NHS waiting list I fear that I may have been dead thanks to the utter and constant feeling of uselessness the condition makes me feel.

Everything you say displays your ignorance further it is not just being disorganised or forget you. You continue to characterise a complex disorder in a dismissive way. I have issues with object to permanence and light sensitivity due to ADHD, I don't forget where I've parked my car because I'm 'forgetful' but because object permanence is a real issue for me and has been since I'm a child.

As for 'there ought to be a test' what do you even mean? As with every other disorder there is screening and assessment.

There is no blood test or brain scan that can diagnose ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism or anything like BPD which you've also mentioned. But you specifically have an issue with ADHD, you sound ignorant and prejudiced because you are.

Yes @Winterhail the leaving a note idea, great. If only you remember to do it.

I'm another late diagnosed chaotic person, I've tried many coping strategies. I've got 4865359 notepads, pens, post-it notes, mini whiteboards ALL OVER MY HOUSE.

Even with a notepad in my own actual pocket, I can't guarantee I'll remember to write down important stuff. Just needs one of the kids to talk as I'm reaching for the pen and my working memory is so poor that I've forgotten the thing, or forgotten that I needed to remind myself of the thing.

It is a condition which affects your ability to be consistent, which people find very confusing. You can be really smart and coming up with great ideas one day and the next a complete stress ball who is barely functioning.

My self esteem is in the toilet. I felt useless for decades. Imagine how fun it is to go through your entire education being told you could just do better if you try harder. But you are trying.

To then go through every job almost certainly being late most days, which you can't explain because you got up earlier.

Honestly you can have the absolute best of intentions and still fail. Badly. A lot. :(

Starting a boring or intimidating task can be excruciatingly difficult. But from the outside you look like a lazy procrastinator.

It's also the worst named condition. We don't have a lack of attention, just an massive difficulty with controlling where it goes. You can know exactly what you want and need to do but can't get there.

It's actually bloody hard to describe that but it's awful.

People coming along with oh, haha, I get distracted and lose things too and I'm sometimes late. Really? Every day though, multiple times? Do people think you don't care often because you forget to follow through on promises (because you didn't write it down, and tbh even if I do, how do I guarantee I'll see that note or phone reminder?)

The unruly child brain is a nice comparison, @ClumpingBambooIsALie . (Just had to scroll up yet again to find your name 😅🤦)

My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD before the lockdown and before she had heard of tiktok as she was 11 and an immature 11 with no access to social media. She was diagnosed with autism aged 8. It is relatively unusual for a girl to be diagnosed so young (her older brother was diagnosed with autism after DD was and when he was 11) and there is absolutely no doubt it has been part of her, her whole life. She was identified as different at pre-school. I don't think I can blame it on ceebeebies! So I sigh at the way the subject of neuro-diversity is treated generally. ADHD is naughty kids turned into zombies by medication, autism is short hand for weird misfit. Diagnosis is a "label" or it is handed out like sweeties 🙄 Such a lot of bullshite

I have ADHD, I have always had ADHD.

One of the hard things about it is that many people at times can have symptoms that look to the outside like ADHD. So they think the solution is to try a bit harder, do meditation, write a list! One thing I now understand is that my brain runs completely differently to Neuro typical people's.

ADHD is also badly named, it is not a deficit of attention it is rather too much attention, combined with a lack of executive function to control it. If you look at what is considered the key features of good attention (flow state, connecting thoughts and ability to mind wander) they are all the normal state of the ADHD brain but out of control.

The idea that we need to just try a bit harder is so insulting. People have no idea how hard we are trying all the time! Its bloody exhausting!

A lot of previously undiagnosed people lost all their coping strategies during the pandemic and finally sought a diagnosis.

That's not to say that there are not issues with diagnosis. All attention problems get lumped in under ADHD. Likely there are several different things causing similar looking outward presentation, it's not easy to unpick what and there can be crossovers. A chaotic, traumatic upbringing can cause ADHD like behaviours in a child. But was the upbringing chaotic as the parent has unmanaged ADHD? Likelihood is it is probably overdiagnosed in some groups and underdiagnosed in others.

There is definitely a trend going on in places that to have ADHD is a bit cool, it's quirky and crazy. But that is not to say it is not still stigmatised in the wider world. Meds are seen as a magic solution as well when they are not. They are a tool, I use them to help me gain control. Ultimately diet, exercise, sleep, structure, simplifying my life and recognising and learning to work with my brain rather than against it, is the scaffolding that help me manage my life and my symptoms. I just can't do those things without meds at the moment but I hope in future I can.

ADHD groups have always been a bit of a shitshow and now they are stuffed with people who have struggled a bit with the pandemic. These people tend to be all me me me and get very upset if you don't immediately validate them. If you have been organised and together your whole life and are now struggling due to quitting coffee then no ADHD isn't the obvious answer.

If people knew the real pain and struggle that comes with ADHD they wouldn't be so flippant. I often felt like I was screaming into the void.

Bit of a ramble this morning!

@Winterhail so you've had quite a few people describing to you how it feels and what it's like to have ADHD.
Hopefully they have helped you to have a better and more empathetic understanding of the condition.

My ADHD diagnosis and meds enabled me to crack my problem drinking.

As has been mentioned upthread people with ADHD are over represented in the demographics of people with substance misuse disorders.

I tried everything over the years to get my drinking under control, Allan carr clinics, hypnotherapy, namalfene. Nothing worked.

Looking at myself compassionately through an ADHD lens and introducing meds when safe has changed my life. There was a study that showed the adolescents with ADHD are much more likely to develop substance misuse issues than others, but that if they are medicated this risk drops off massively.

None of the judgy disbelievers on this thread will ever know or understand the benefits of diagnosis and treatment. And they don't need to. They've never walked in my shoes and probably wouldn't have the resilience to do so anyway.

Plus more kids being diagnosed means more adults realising they may also be ND.

This is so true.

It's not uncommon for parents going through the assessment process with their children to realise that they could be talking about themselves as children and to recognise the same traits in themselves as they're now seeing in their child. Neurodevelopment conditions have a strong genetic link and a lot of neurodivergence was not necessarily recognised 10/20/30+ years ago with children instead being labelled as naughty, a dreamer, fidgety, nervous, anxious, painfully shy, thick, etc.

I can think of at least 2-3 children I went to school with who, if they were children now, would be assessed. One boy used to scream every morning and attempt to run away, he would spend most of the day turning the pages in his books but not actually reading them or doing any work in them just turning them, didn't like lunch so never ate it, often had accidents in his pants as he didnt like the toilets, and was obsessed with the rules so used to tattle on everyone for every little thing. Teachers called him stupid, told him he was being silly, often sent him to sit in the headteacher's office (this was the top level punishment).

That sounds closer to an ASC presentation to me than and AFHD one.

An example this morning. I was supposed to attend a physio appointment.
I knew I had the appointment, put it in the diary, had the reminder message yesterday. But did I make it this morning? No completely and utterly forgot until I saw them calling my phone asking where I was.
I am so annoyed at myself. I've had to pay out (completely fair as not their fault) for physio which I really needed but because of my ADHD brain forgot. I am also feeling upset and anxious that I have now upset the physio by being a no show.

I am medicated as well. But find my medication is less affective around my monthly cycle. Also the kids off for half term means all the timetables I have in place are disrupted so my ADHD brain struggles with the change.

I would absolutely love to have a 'normal brain'. I am exhausted and depressed with this one.

Me too but back then it was just "naughtiness" as he could speak, interact, etc.

There was also a boy who we thought was funny and was the class joker. If an idea crossed his mind then he did it, from calling the teacher a (made up) first name to climbing on the roof of the toilet block for reasons he could recall then climbing it a second time minutes later when he remembered it was to retrieve his tennis ball. He was usually in trouble for being "gobby" as he had no filter and no sense of when to be quiet. He never remembered to bring his reading book or his homework and in spelling tests he would spell the words to himself outloud. I'm fairly sure he'd be assessed for ADHD if he was at school now as it went beyond typical child-level impulsiveness.

I only read two pages and wow the offensive and ignorant opinions being spouted here. If you don’t have adhd, you don’t know what it’s like.

To be fair it is one or two posters that are coming across as wilfully ignorant, but most of the other replies are helpful.

To those with ADHD I want to say thank you for sharing your experiences in this debate. It sounds like a real battle to live with it.

The thread has got going now into an actual debate, the first few posts (which a couple have been deleted) were very offensive.

@Winterhail you really are absolutely clueless, you have no idea. Yesterday I forgot the word "bowl". I spent ages trying to describe the thing that goes in the sink before you do the washing up. Of course I know what a bowl is, what it does etc I just couldn't bring up the word.

Have you been spying on me?

@ClumpingBambooIsALie I write notes all the time, I have notebooks going back years. But they're written in some kind of code that is pretty much meaningless to me. @Winterhail oh wise one, what should I do?

I'm getting the strong impression that some posters do have the condition, and I'm not talking about those. It might seem hard to believe but I do actually have sympathy for those who are genuinely unable to cope with daily life. It must be very hard for you.

My point is that not everyone who says they have ADHD actually have the condition, and I think some people self diagnose, as a way to explain the type of disorganization and forgetfulness that happens to all of us from time to time. I have also once forgotten where I parked my car.

I have also once forgotten where I parked my car.
🙄

But do you forget every time? I do. Every. Single. Time

Yes , it's remembering to write the note, but also remembering that you've written the note and to check the note. And it's also the amount if things you need to write notes for. NTs can't grasp the number of things they just do without thinking, all of which we'd have to write notes for.

Even alarms aren't failsafe. I have multiple alarms going off for me at work. If I am on a call and the alarm goes off (which is incredibly distracting) I can't snooze as the snooze is 19 minutes and I can't have an alarm going off every 10 minute while I am on a call to a client. So I have to stop it. That's it then. That may or may not be remembered.

It's like your short term memory is not in your head. It's on post-it's and alarms and calendar entries and lists etc etc etc. I do all of these things but they are stressful to try to maintain and they are nowhere near failsafe or as good as if you can manage all this largely in your head.

And ADHD isn't just remembering tasks and appointments, it's distraction and boredom and emotional dysregulation and planning and organisation and losing things etc etc etc.

Saying "well I don't understand why you just can't write a list" is so far away from understanding ADHD it's both laughable and insulting.