Why is adhd not as "respected" as other ND conditions?

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I'm wondering if it's because autism can mean anything from what used to be called Aspergers syndrome and profound autism with profound learning disabilities and people with adhd are more likely to either not have learning disabilities or have learning disabilities with a separate diagnosis.

But Nigel Farage has been in the news again saying he is going to get rid of PIP for people with mild anxiety and adhd as their primary diagnosis. I don't think anyone gets PIP for mild anxiety, I certainly don't anyway. But adhd can be extremely debilitating and require PIP.

My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD last year, aged 36. If the lovely Mr Farage could see the struggles she has had over the years he might think again. She is very far from a crappy person. She works extremely hard managed to get a Masters degree and works in her chosen profession. I have no doubt people claim to have ADHD who actually don't but if you have the real thing it is no joke. I am immensely proud of all she has achieved in spite of her struggles.

ADHD is a brain phenotype.

Other brain phenotypes include Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Discalculia.

One day it will be widely recognised and understood that there are just many different brain phenotypes and people will stop with this ridiculous 'why are there so many people suddenly with blah blah blah blah blah de blah de blaaaaah'.

People need to get with the program and start understanding instead of whinging, fingerpointing, undermining and disrespecting.

I am anything but sheltered. It's a shame when adults cannot think critically, social media is really dumbing down the masses.

DD had DLA and now PIP. She has combined ADHD along with chronic tic disorder (often comorbidities). She has a diagnosis, she is also currently, as an almost 18 year old, going crazy on a zip line, starts running off when she sees a rabbit, and doing gymnastics in the field in front of us (we’re currently camping). She is 2 years behind at school so just done her GCSEs (she is super talented in some very specific areas, but unfortunately not in many of the areas required at GCSE level). Her executive function/emotional maturity is at least 2 years behind her peers. When she is off her medication the difference in her is massive (she doesn’t like to take in the holidays). Her risky behaviour has morphed from shinning to the top of lampposts and running off (without rabbits involved!) to the sharp end of teenage risk taking and we have to manage that whilst not curtailing her social development. We are supporting her to become independent but it will take us a while and is at great expense.

So for those who say ADHD is some sort of “vanity” diagnosis. Walk a mile in her/my shoes and then get back to me.

Maybe because ADHD traits are considered poor character: not finishing things and procrastination = lazy.

Being forgetful about birthdays, appointments = selfish and inconsiderate

Living in chaos = lazy and slummy.

Bouncing around and not making eye contact while being told important information = rude and indifferent (even though it is easier to absirb the information by acting that way)

People really don't get how very differently ADHD brains work.

I'm awaiting assessment for both. I work ft and when I told my boss he looked absolutely stunned - because he doesn't see

• all the checklists I've developed to stay on top of my work
• that a large proportion of my work gets done in the last half an hour of the day
• that when I get tension headaches I take painkillers and power through
• the songs playing in my head
• me sneaking a finger into my ear when my colleague with a loud voice starts speaking in meetings
• the exhaustion I feel at the end of the day
• how when I switch from one tab to the next or to email how quickly I get distracted by other tasks
• how fucking hard it is for me to make dinner

What he sees:

• my empathy for my clients
• my effectivity
• my creative ideas
• my analysis
• me keeping to the law in our line of work.

One of my senior guides was medicated recently and shaved 3 hours off her working day!

I think many people hear it as an excuse for people who can't seem to knuckle down and crack on with life, rather than understanding how difficult normal life is for us.

How do you know what the number of children is and how many children are at the whole school?

Out of interest what would he use the PIP for?

I agree with @WhatNoRaisins - massive amounts of over-diagnosis and cod psychiatry gleaned from tiktok so there is a lot of self identification. It seems like a cool label for Gen Z to denote countercultural / cool / bit quirky etc.

Though unlike @mindutopia I would say to anyone who has your view, meet my son. It's debilitating. He has to attend a special school and still can't read and write at the age of 10 because even with meds he cannot sit down for longer than 3 minutes, cannot focus and cannot retain the information given to him as he has literally no working memory. He's been to loads of specialists who assure me this is what severe ADHD looks like. He has medication, daily therapy, hours of tutoring and practice and every technique under the sun.

Obviously my hope is he never needs to be on benefits but the idea that at any time in his life he'll be able to hold down an actual job feels pretty unlikely. We're investing a lot for him so we can support him through his life.

So the idea it's not a real condition is just not right. But it's also the case based on my observation that a lot of people self diagnose who really are perfectly capable of coping without a diagnosis.

Psychiaytrists, psychologists. Paediatricians and others doing formal diagnoses can tell the difference between ADHD and behavioural issues. Even if they couldn’t, if the patient is prescribed ADHD stimulants, they will behave worse if they don’t have ADHD.

I don't see any of those as particularly unusual.
People are all different.

Also if I had a penny for every friend who ‘has ADHD’ just because they find 8 hours of sitting in front of a screen working boring, I’d be rich. Are there people profoundly affected by ADHD? Sure. But it’s like we’ve stopped expecting anything to be hard anymore. Being organised and multitasking IS hard. Working a FT office job and managing a home IS hard. Just because you find these things hard doesn’t mean you have ADHD. I know so many people who are convinced they have ADHD just because life isn’t always easy, which is really patronising for everyone who does have a neurodiversity or disability than deeply impacts their daily life.
This.

Ive posted about this before but Ive had conversations with therapists who many years later will say about the young person they diagnosed years previously that now they think the YP doesnt have ASD/ADHD but attachment disorder

Ive worked with children who have been seen by different psychiatrists who have diagnosed and then the next psychiatrist has overturned that

Ive worked with children where Ive attended the assessment appointments and heard the parent give completely different information to what we know about the child and the child's history (minimising trauma/abuse and exaggerating behavioural traits using particularly terminology).

The idea that there is no room for error in any of these assessments is quite dangerous.

ADHD UK says the incidence is around 3-4% of the population. These figures are based on data from the Lancet and NICE . It may feel line there are a lot now because it was not possible to diagnose adults until 2008 and we are now playing catchup.

https://adhduk.co.uk/about-adhd/

Because parents are fed up of their child's education being disrupted on a daily basis by children with ADHD. or maybe it is because we are all sick to death of ADHD being used as an excuse for appalling behaviour by parents that don't parent. Or we are sick of listening to full grown adults making excuses for their "time blindness" or their inability to do the job they are paid to do.

You’d respect the diagnosis and not question whether adhd exists- which some people do.

No, I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous. You are describing the life of every person who has a 9-5 and kids who need looking after.
We all take painkillers, procrastinate, are easily distracted, have songs running in our head and are exhausted at the end of the day.
You need a different job, not a diagnosis.
I have never read a better description of adhd than that written by @MyKindHiker . You should read it.

That’s nonsense.

Inattention was recognised as a trait - as a result of research that increased the understanding of ADHD .

The criteria were also expanded to recognize that adults can have ADHD.

And there were some smaller tweaks such as requiring evidence of symptoms before the age of 12 rather than 7 and, for adults, a slight reduction in the number of symptoms required for a diagnosis.

I work in a special school and a very high proportion of children have ADHD. I see lack of focus, rushed work and extreme impulse and poor regulation in the children I work with.
I also have ADHD, misdiagnosed as anxiety for most of my life. I am late for almost everything, I procrastinate when really important tasks arise and can be impulsive. My daughter has it, she's been seen as dreamy and lazy but is also very preoccupied with anxiety. It's not a condition I would choose to live with. Constantly ruminating, the need to "appear perfect", losing things daily, feeling incapable of responding to text messages, it's debilitating.
I have lived with this all my life but the medication has changed my life.
I think it can appear that "everyone has ADHD these days", but in actual fact, it's only around 5% of the population. There's an explosion of women being diagnosed, because of the rhetoric in our school days (90's early 2000's), that it was a "boy's condition." Instagram doesn't help, with the "superpower" rubbish, hyper-focus is certainly a part, but it's selective.
It is visible on brain scans, is certainly not a superpower and absolutely, some people should be helped with the condition financially.
I find it hard to see how someone with chronic anxiety (me before diagnosis) can be worthy of benefits, but once the actual issue is found, suddenly they shouldn't qualify?
I do not get PIP or DLA, I have a professional career, but I would challenge Nigel Farage to come and spend a day in my classroom to see how he might "manage" it and whether it is a real condition!

I do know someone who pushed for a diagnosis of her daughter just so she could get PIP!

I know another person who gets PIP, ok, they do a have back condition, BUT they also work full time from home, can dress, make themselves lunch etc., without any assistance. They also get mobility so qualify for a car, which doesn’t need any adjustment as a ‘disabled’ person.

I’m not suggesting this is the fault of the people concerned and the system is and can be open to abuse. How many of us wouldn’t sniff at getting a handout?

Can’t bear the “my adhd brain” people. I am surrounded by late 30s/early 40s women who suddenly have adhd. They constantly talk about it.

A quick google says that approximately 4 million people claim pip, including 700,000 who are past retirement age. Of those, adhd is listed as the primary, not necessarily only, driver for 75,697 claimants. So it seems that contrary to Mr Farage etc al whipping up the media about this terrible situation, only 1.9% of pip claims are for adhd. Hardly going to be a massive saving if it is banned. Almost as if he just wants to scapegoat a bunch of people instead of coming up with working policies.

Clearly there is room for error because there are going to be borderline cases. However, there is a massive narrative that ADHD is routinely misdiagnosed and I think this is very unlikely because most people are not going to be borderline.

This isn’t adhd. This is how every adult slogging through their shitty jobs feels. Nowadays bog standard run-of-the-mill experiences that everyone has are labelled as some bloody disorder or other.

I’d be the same if I had a shitty job on a computer but thankfully my life is set up differently and I have a career that doesn’t melt my brain.

And why is songs playing in your head always given as an example? There couldn’t be a more mundane and common human experience than that.

Or rare

ADHD incidence is suggested to run at 3-4% of the population, so in the UK that's roughly 2million to 3million people. Despite this only 75,000 are claiming PIP with ADHD as the primary driver, and yet we are expected to believe that this is a major factor in driving the UK's finances into the toilet, and also that unless it's arrested catastrophe awaits.

Like everything these charlatans push, it's soon revealed to by entirely risible nonsense if you examine fact and stop taking propaganda on face value.