Is there any benefit to an ADHD diagnosis as an adult?

[Shewas]

I've started to wonder about myself and since I started doing some research, loads of those sound bite reels about ADHD in older women keep popping up in FB. Many of them are uncanny in the way they describe me, especially my reaction to rejection, and the procrastination followed by god mode to never miss a deadline.

But, at 56, is there any point making the effort/spending the money to have it formally diagnosed?

It's funny because I noticed your username on this thread and realised we have interacted before about this. Anyway, just to add important context to what what you are claiming, studies have shown that the majority of Gen Z believe they are ND.

The 3-4% figure doesn't align with what is actually happening in the system. The NHS states that around 14% of people would screen positive for ADHD and meet the criteria for an assessment. In private settings this is closer to 25%. We also know that lots of clinics have a conversion rate of 95% from referral to diagnosis. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if everyone went for an ADHD diagnosis that a lot more than 3/4% of the population would get one.

It absolutely is incorrect 🙄

Absolutely correct. It is not a binary, but a spectrum and most of us have ND traits. It would actually be incredibly rare to find a genuinely completely NT brain.

The threshold for diagnosis is arbitrary. America has a different threshold than us for example and has a much higher rate of diagnosis. 11% of American kids have an ADHD diagnosis. We changed our own diagnostic criteria three times since the 1980s. There is absolutely nowhere near the level of diagnostic certainty attached to an ADHD diagnosis that people like to believe.

My advice to OP is go for a diagnosis if you want the medication or reasonable adjustments as it's a gateway to that. It's totally possible though to accept you have ADHD traits without a diagnosis and allow this to feed into self acceptance and researching tools and techniques that will help you. You don't need a diagnosis for this. Don't buy until the ND/NT hype. It's nonsense

Link to said studies please.

The recent NHS independent ADHD taskforce lead by experts in the field state that we have a diagnosis rate of 3-5% that is below the rest of Europe which is costing us billions.

“Currently, the estimated economic costs of not treating ADHD are around £17 billion to the UK economy (6) (e.g. less tax contributions, in receipt of more state benefits, more likely to be not in education, employment or training (NEET) or long-term unemployed and higher costs for health, social care and criminal justice). English population data show that among young people who are NEET, 20–34% are likely to have ADHD, most of whom will not be diagnosed (3, 20). Many of these costs are avoidable, as with appropriate, early support, people with ADHD can thrive.”

Diagnosis rates are high because it is heavily screened.

The key is to improve NHS wait times.

You are completely misunderstanding what the spectrum means.

It doesn’t mean a spectrum of every single human and that we all have traits of autism or ADHD, it means that everyone with a diagnosis falls onto a spectrum.

I have to dash to teach aforementioned children but there’s absolutely no such thing as a neurotypical brain.

an awful lot of people struggle with varying degrees of executive function however.

the current school system and social pressures drive a higher level of perfectionism and also pressure which does mean more people struggle to cope.

a lot comes down to how much you are affected by difficulties. Many people choose certain careers that help them to manage it better. Some use and abuse drugs and alcohol. ADHD can also be caused by external factors such as chronic stress, trauma and abuse in childhood.

“ADHD can also be caused by external factors such as chronic stress, trauma and abuse in childhood.”

No ADHD is primarily a neurodevelopmental condition with strong genetic roots but research shows that chronic stress, trauma, and abuse can induce or exacerbate ADHD-like symptoms.

Also if child already has a genetic predisposition to ADHD, severe stress and trauma can worsen their symptoms or cause them to manifest more aggressively.

Due to its catastrophic symptoms when left untreated in many cases children with it in the family are probably more likely to be at additional risk of stress and trauma, even more so if there is a comorbidity with autism which is common.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/adult-psychiatric-morbidity-survey/survey-of-mental-health-and-wellbeing-england-2023-24/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder

25% of young people screened positive.

The conversion rates aren't widely published but you can find successful FOI requests online for various clinics and some are as high as 99%.

I’m just marking my place, haven’t rtft but have a similar one myself. Still debating it but I also think medication might be beneficial to me. Just have to see if it justifies taking money out of savings as I cba going on an nhs waiting list for 10 years.

OP, if you think it would help you, then go for it!

What is the difference between sub clinical ADHD and ADHD? It is all about symptom count and impairment. If traits have been exacerbated by trauma then this could easily tip someone into being eligible for an ADHD diagnosis that otherwise wouldn't be. They would be more impaired by their symptoms. It's how the diagnostic process works.

Lots of us have ADHD traits in the same way as many of us have ASD traits. It's why we recognise Broader Autistic Phenotype for example. Yet still people insist you can't be a bit Autistic or ADHD. What on earth is BAP then if it isn't being a bit Autistic?

No , you were right first time. Almost all of us have ND traits. Currently there is a movement to erase these facts and treat ADHD, ASD and ND in general as binaries that simply doesn't reflect science. As referenced upthread, how does BAP or subclinical ADHD fit into your theory that people without a diagnosis aren't on the spectrum in some way. They might be on the less severe end but then again they might not be. The brain is complex and doesn't fit into neat packages. If you have few ADHD traits but one very strong one then you could be suffering worse than someone with a broader range of less severe ADHD traits.

Im not in any way a statistician or able to comprehend them meaningfully tbh. But surely common sense would suggest that conversion rates are higher because people are fairly certain before they get to the stage of private assessment and have done screenings, gone through years of struggle already.
If you took a random sample of 100 people of the street and assessed them what would that look like?

The positive screening rate in the general population would be 14% or 25% in young adults.

Extra information on the prevelance and impact of sub clinical ADHD for those who seem to think that you aren't on the spectrum if you don't have a diagnosis.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11536216/

Very worrying you're a teacher with those viewpoints

Clinically, "neurotypical" means someone whose cognitive/neurological functioning falls within the range that doesn't significantly impair daily functioning or meet diagnostic criteria for conditions like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, etc. It's a functional/statistical category.

Saying "an awful lot of people struggle with varying degrees of executive function however" is spectacularly missing the point. that's exactly why ADHD is diagnosed by degree and impact, not by whether the symptoms exist at all. The bar for diagnosis isn't 'do you ever struggle to focus' — it's whether executive dysfunction is severe, persistent (present since childhood, across multiple settings), and significantly impairing daily functioning: job performance, relationships, safety, finances. 'Everyone has some of this' is like saying 'everyone feels sad sometimes' to dismiss clinical depression.

Then this little nugget you left us with "“ADHD can also be caused by external factors such as chronic stress, trauma and abuse in childhood.” No, this is not true. Childhood trauma/complex PTSD can produce symptoms that look like ADHD — poor concentration, impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, hypervigilance mistaken for distractibility. This is a real clinical challenge (differential diagnosis), but overlap in symptoms isn't the same as one causing the other. ADHD is a neurological condition. Heritability is around 70-80%, among the highest of any psychiatric condition — comparable to height. It's linked to differences in dopamine regulation and structural/functional brain differences, and it's typically present from early childhood, often before any trauma could account for it.

By the way, its very clear that you are just parrotting Gabor Mate's opinions. Opinions that are completely unsupported by clinical research and data. If you are really teaching ND kids you need to get off Instagram and do better.

Exactly this! 👏🏿

The 95% conversion rate will be because by the time you get to assessment you have already had at least one pre-assessment so people who are unlikely to be diagnosed are weeded out. Also of course people only generally put themselves forward for an assessment if they are fairly certain they have it. I imagine many other conditions may have a similar conversation rate? This is often used as evidence that ADHD is being misdiagnosed but it is like concluding that the teachers in a grammar school must be better because the exam results are better. Correlation does not necessarily equal causation.

The 3-4% incidence rate for adult ADHD are figures from NICE and the Lancet. If you have some more reliable info, please put a link here. Ditto for your Gen Z figure.

I linked the positive ASRS data from the NHS. 25% positive screening result for young adults. This was conducted on a sample of the general population. This is the best data we have on initial screening results. The FOI requests are there for everyone to see regarding conversion rates. This is the reality of our diagnostic process in the country. Real stats, not hypothetical rates. I linked a report upthread about subclinical ADHD from British Journal of Psychiatry shows the prevelance and ADHD and ADHD symptoms is much higher than the 3-4% you seen adamant about.

The Gen Z figures are easily available. Deloitte amongst others have conducted surveys on this.

If the main problem is sensitivity to rejection and procrastination, I'd spend my money on therapy or coaching to address these rather than assessment which is unlikely to change these. But it's not a popular opinion.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czj8zp9e084o

This is worth a read

If you want validation or medication then yes

I read it on the internet, so it must be true? Give your head a wobble. ADHD is debilitating.

It made a huge difference to me but I wouldn't do it, or trust it, unless you know that you were like it as a child, because there is too much overlap with menopausal effects on the brain.

😂Did you actually read it as you seem to have missed out something quite important from it-

“Screening positive for ADHD (a score of four or more on the ASRS) does not mean that someone has the condition, rather that they warrant a more comprehensive assessment.”

Screening for diagnosis is not diagnosis. The 3-5% which the independent experts in the field collectively quote in the NHS ADHD taskforce report is for diagnosis.

And no the genZ figures you are alleging funnily enough aren’t easily available. Link?

You've left self-forgiveness, realisation that you aren't and never have been "lazy", reduction of depression, increase in self esteem, improvement in relationships with others and quite a few other things off that list and you've put "validation" on which for most people would not come into it and would generally be used as a dig.

If anyone is considering a diagnosis to get medication please go for it.

I learned recently that if you have ADHD you have a greatly increased risk of dementia, but taking drugs like Ritalin bring that risk down to normal levels.