Has ADHD become trendy?

[RedRobyn2021]

Please don't burn me at the stake

But I've noticed for a little while now that loads of influencers on Instagram are suddenly saying they have ADHD or suspected ADHD

Also on parenting pages, almost every other post and they'll be a comment on there suggesting the persons child has ADHD

Is it just me?

Sorry if this is really insensitive, it's something I've wondered for a while

So trendy my daughter is on the verge of being expelled because no one believed she has ADHD at school and continually punished her, and then didn't add her diagnosis to the SEN register. And now she hates everyone in authority. And as other people have said the disregulation, the struggle every day.

I've got ADHD (diagnosed as a child) and I kind of agree with you, OP.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's 'trendy', but it seems that the threshold has changed for want of a better phrase. Previously, it seemed to be something that would be investigated if an individual was struggling, but nowadays it seems that people who are doing OK in life will self diagnose after watching a tiktok video and then seek assessment.

I'm not talking about people that mask their symptoms and appear OK to outsiders (when inwardly it's often a different case). I'll give an example.

I read a thread a while ago on here by a middle aged senior exec who thought she had ADHD. She managed a team of 250 people and was earning into the six figures. She went on to say that she was well respected at work and her output was regarded as being industry leading.

I immediately thought I recognised the situation. She was going to say that inside she struggled tremendously and that it took all her energy to manage her job, leaving her depleted afterwards - how I always felt when I was a project manager.

Instead she said something along the lines of not every person with ADHD struggles and she'd never herself experienced either anxiety or depression. Her reason for having ADHD was that she procrastinated about doing the housework on Saturdays and was always losing her keys, alongside a few other things like going 'all in' on new things she discovered.

People were telling her to get assessed but I couldn't help but wonder if her lack of motivation on a weekend might actually be more to do with her being a working mum with three kids and a big job.

It's not a game of top trumps and of course some people are affected more than others, but to get a diagnosis on the NHS you need to show 'significant impairment in two or more areas of life'. Where's the impairment if you're smashing it at your job/home life and you've never struggled mentally?

I'm trying to get back on Ritalin which I now realise I never should've stopped (I didn't realise for years that they prescribe it to adults nowadays). I need to be re-assessed and I've been waiting 18 months and counting now. I can't help but wonder how many people like that poster are ahead of me in the queue.

Not meaning to sound bitter but none of the people I knew with ADHD as a kid/teen would've likely been successfully running a team of 250 people alongside managing three kids before they realised they might have ADHD. I could barely get through my lessons despite being in the top 1-2% for intelligence according to several educational psychologists.

Not clumsy, offensive. You have offered to have your post removed so why is it still here despite the response which you have received?

It does appear to be 2 things at once

1. A very real thing which affects the lives, mental health and life choices for quite a number of people and their children.

Many of who are on this website, always making it a contentious subject.

1. An internet/tik tok craze, so much so that people in need of real help are waiting years to access it. The NHS is not paying for all prescriptions. And a lot of the "tests" I score 10/10 in when I know I don't have ADHD but my DN and DSis do and are struggling to get real support. Especially my DN who needs it to get through school, as his mum isn't equipped to help him when her high needs aren't being treated.

But a lot of services and waiting lists are being used up by people talking fake tests and listening to fake people tell them ADHD covers things it doesn't.

In another example, I was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome almost 25 years ago. It causes, amongst other things your connective tissue to be abnormally stretchy, I have other illnesses Inc RA but could still go to a yoga class and out stretch the teacher.

It had a hey day on tiktok - normal girls (mostly girls) who were Gymnastics students, cheerleaders - who had trained their muscles and joints to move in a way they shouldn't were suddenly very very ill with EDS. Leaving lives full of fun to sit in a wheelchair. Going through the symptoms too fast and aiming for painkillers not physio.

EDS got bad name, as a fakers disease, the 2020s fibromyalgia or ME (both real I know)..... but this was a phenomenon grown on tiktok.
Medical papers have been written about muchauchen by Internet involving EDS. Also tourettes.

It's not beyond the relms of possibility this is happening with ADHD.

People want to be part of a tribe.

If ADHD was “trendy” then everyone with ADHD will find their symptoms magically disappear once the autumn/winter range of neurodivergent conditions hits the stores. Don’t think that’s gonna happen.

So many replies aren't addressing what was actually written inside the OP past the title.

Nobody's said that those who really have to the symptoms that impair their ability to function in a sustainable way are pursuing a trend.

It's objectively true that loads of influencers and tik tok wannabes suddenly are self diagnosing and spreading misinformation, minimising something serious for the sake of a trend.

It's not offensive to real sufferers to point this out (most know and agree). It's offensive that it's happening.

I'm 32 and was diagnosed with ADHD 2 years ago, I have barely told anyone because so many people think people are just saying they have it to be "trendy"

Its ruined my life and I wish to God I didnt have it. Or at least been diagnosed as a child so I could of learnt to support myself better

Instead I'm 32 years old, 2 children with suspected ADHD and autism and trying to teach all of us how to navigate life. Exhausting

I think it’s a mixture of more awareness and very needed for some people who are finally getting the diagnosis they need but there are undoubtedly others who do seem to be jumping on the band wagon as it were and it reminds me of everyone coming out as non binary a few years ago but you can’t ever say that because so many people feel that they or a family member have it so it’s perceived as a personal attack.

I saw a post the other day from someone who was frustrated because she’d got her baby ready to go out and had come out and someone had blocked in her car and now she couldn’t be bothered to go out. Literally the first comment was “do you have ADHD with PDA as maybe that’s why you no longer want to go out”.
I am constantly getting reels about random things which supposedly mean you have ADHD. Today it was if you lie on your left side to sleep with your hands a certain way and all the comments were like “this explains so much”. It’s always going to be difficult when the assessment is based on the patients self report though, particularly nowadays when everyone will have read the assessment criteria online beforehand.

This.

I attend a MH support group, and the facilitator has ADHD. She will tell us that "not everything is a symptom" when someone says they saw some reel/video saying holding your hands like a T-rex, or having both a hot and cold drink on the go means you have ADHD.
One thing I keep seeing on social media is that having a favourite fork is a symptom. I mean, who comes up with this crap?

There is certainly is a lot of talk, and a lot more awareness about ADHD at the moment. The reasons for this have been explained well by other posters. And yes, because the issue has become so prominent there are people on social media diagnosing themselves on the basis of flimsy evidence (being disorganised or forgetful for example, which are traits many people have, ND or not). And then there are all the people seeing this on social media and deciding that it’s just a trend and therefore anyone saying they think they might have the condition must be regarded with suspicion.

Because of all of that, I was quite dismissive when my DD told me at 16 that she thought she might have ADHD. Like many teens, she spends time on SM, is quite impressionable and is often engaged in that age-old teenage quest of looking for an identity. I fobbed her off at the time, thinking she was jumping on a bandwagon. But we discussed it again about a year later, by which time I had done a lot more reading and had also found out that a family member had recently been diagnosed. So my DD was assessed and received her diagnosis this week. I cried when they told us- because I’m sad that she is going to have to battle with this throughout life, and I’m also relieved that she can now squash those voices in her head that tell her she is stupid or annoying or lazy or obnoxious. She has wondered for years ‘why can’t I get my shit together?’ And now she knows.

And through the process of filling in all those forms for the assessment and learning about the condition, I have come to see that I likely have it too. I will get on a waiting list for assessment and if it turns out I have it too, I’ll be relieved again as it might help to explain why I have suffered from anxiety through much of life. Why I consistently underperformed at school and college, and why I have never had what you could call a career because I can’t stick at anything for any length of time. And perhaps why I have struggled with so many addictions and obsessions in my life.

But I do understand why you asked the question OP and am not going to berate you for it.

I have wondered the same OP. It is possible to wonder if every self-diagnosed "ADHD-er" on social media is entirely genuine, while also understanding that it's a serious condition which a lot of other people really struggle with. It can't be helpful to them that every man and his dog is now seeking a diagnosis. More awareness is obviously good but lately it seems like more people think/say they have it than don't, and they can't all be correct.

I think an awful lot of people (most?) don’t gel with out incredibly demanding and multifaceted modern life and want a reason why. And so rather than look outwardly (such as query why we need 4 apps just for our kid to go to primary school), we diagnose people instead. Life was far less demanding 30 years ago, it’s not surprising people’s brains are in meltdown. Off the top of my head here is how life has become massively more demanding in the last 30 years:

We have to have a daily bath/shower and same for kids otherwise we’re ‘grim’
Every single thing we do requires an app and a password
We are now switched on and accessible 24/7 via mobiles - and the timeframe to reply to these messages is short
Social media and 24/7 news updates to bombard us with information, much of it negative
Expectations of leisure time are high - we feel like we constantly have to have plans and make things an experience thanks to social media and a lower tolerance of boredom
We can’t put our kids ‘out to play’ any more because it’s neglect. So we have to somehow manage housework, work, cooking and downtime, with kids hanging round our feet all the while
So we put the kids on screens and their threshold for boredom tolerance shrinks in return… it’s a vicious cycle
Bombardment with health messages - 5 fruit and veg a day, drink 2l of water, take supplements… how the fuck do you fit that into a busy day? But we try

I could go on. Not surprised whatsoever people ‘struggle with the world and feel they just can’t get their shit together’

I agree that our modern world can be difficult to navigate. However, I think people are sometimes too quick to look for a reason why they struggle with something as opposed to just finding a solution.

I manage with most of the things you mention. I have a protein shake with two bananas blended in for breakfast and then another when I get home - that's four pieces of fruit already. When I make the evening one I make two and put one in the fridge for the next morning. I take vitamins with my breakfast (or later if I forget) and just have a sports bottle at work which I keep filled with water to ensure I drink enough.

4 bananas a day?!

You clearly don’t know how the diagnosis process works or how difficult it is to get one.🙄

Most of those things you mention don’t have anything do with why I and my 3 kids have been diagnosed with it. Also I was diagnosed in my 50s so grew up through the 70s,80s and 90s. I had adhd then when life was very different. I have it now.

Not always but often. I don't really eat much sugar otherwise and Iift heavy 3x a week so a bit of natural sugar isn't really an issue - I'm close to a 150kg deadlift so need the calories.

A bigger issue is potassium deficiency. Most recent study I read said that only 0.015% of Americans hit the daily RDA - doubt we're much better. Previous figure was 2%. It varies by study but the very highest I've seen was 20% getting enough, which seems contradicted by the vast majority of studies showing it's usually well under 5%.