To think most online adult ADHD diagnoses are bullshit?

[OptimismvsRealism]

(I have ADHD btw.)

I know it can manifest in different ways but all these neat ladies organising multiple events a day and keeping a perfect home do not have it. They just paid £600 to Adhd-4-u and (to everyone's suprise !) came out with a diagnosis.

I don't think anyone these days can accept that life is hard and they just have a mediocre intellect.

I never tell anyone about my diagnosis now because it's embarrassing to be lumped in with the buy your own amphetamine prescription brigade.

I think the market should be regulated as there are a lot of unscrupulous practitioners out there.

I get what you are saying.
It's hard not to feel like shit when other people with the same condition seem to function so well when the condition literally is executive dysfunction.
I think it clearly manifests in different ways as it is a spectrum and for some people a diagnosis and treatment won't be as necessary as they can function.
There will be some people who are diagnosed that don't have it as it's based on self reporting. We can't pretend this is impossible.

I agree to an extent. I’ve said before on here that I wonder if ADHD symptoms in adults are just a symptom of modern life. If you’ve got a high stress job, raising children, running a home, and everything around it it’s little wonder we feel disorganised, drowning, and mentally pulled from pillar to post. Is it any wonder we become overwhelmed and procrastinate, or look for dopamine hits to fuel us? I don’t think that means that there’s something wrong with us. We’re reacting perfectly normally to an unnatural modern life.

I strongly disagree on OP’s correlation between ADHD and intelligence. My DB was diagnosed (NHS) in the 1980s. He was textbook, running round jumping off things, noisy, always in trouble at school, and having accidents due to his impulsivity. He ended up in rehab for substance and alcohol abuse in his early 20s. He sorted himself out and 10 years later had a PhD. He’s the most intelligent person I know.

You're doing a logical fallacy. I didn't say ADHD means you're stupid (I think I'm not stupid). I am saying that people who aren't that bright falsely believe or claim to believe that ADHD is the problem standing between them and recognition of their genius.

Looking forward to more wisdom from the OP. Topics could include

If you can play sports, you're not asthmatic
If you don't have a wheelchair, you're not disabled
If you can see how many fingers I'm holding up, you can't be blind

So many more OP, don't limit yourself to one disability because let's be honest, none of them should be having any sort of life while 'claiming' to be disabled. Apart from you OP, because you're real but tbh if you stopped posting ill thought out rumblings on Mumsnet, you could actually be organising your life. I recommend getting up early and organising the day before anyone else wakes - no distractions, no excuses.

Maybe you're bitter that you're struggling and others seem to be doing a better job than you. If so, there's better ways to channel it than this.

I think if you actually believed this stuff you wouldn't be so nippy about it.

I do fine tbh. Live in chaos but it makes me happy. I observe that people who want to be a #girlboss but aren't (or want signed off completely) see this as a pathway.

Which people OP? Are we talking generic people that exist in your mind? Or are you talking about yourself? Other people you know? Research studies?

ADHD is usually genetic, are you suggesting whole families have been misdiagnosed? What about going back one, two, three generations, women with hysteria who were quite clearly neurodivergent. In my family they were given electric shock treatment, so yes, I am touchy. Misdiagnosis is a scandal - but you're barking up the wrong tree here. I'm glad you don't think you're stupid because that means you have the capacity to learn.

You are confusing prescription and street stimulants. Prescription stimulants don't work for non ADHDers, and DO NOT "make you feel good" (at least in the way you mean).

Girlboss? OP how old are you? 🤣 Pathways - to what? Signed off, from what? Again whom exactly are you talking about? There seems to be some army of made up ADHD women living in your mind threatening your ADHD identity with their tidy homes - how sad.

Again, touchy goes with the territory of neurodivergence and generations of trauma. Have you considered that you might just be chaotic? You really don't seem to know what your talking about.

You sound disappointed that you thought you weren't like other girls but now it looks like you might be.

Agree with this.
im not sure OP is right but I understand. My life has literally been chaos and ADHD has negatively affected every single aspect from school to relationships to work to the state of my home. I find a lot of basic skills painfully difficult. It can be difficult when you see people who appear to have a busy but highly organised and successful life proclaiming the same diagnosis. But ultimately I can’t pretend to know the inner workings of their life and mind, and what everything is like away from social media.

YABU. I am a doctor, I know several doctors who have been diagnosed on the NHS. ADHD traits connect well with medicine as a career eg as an A&E doctor I can jump from one task to another, constant high energy environment, little time to have to sit still and concentrate for a prolonged period etc. I can manage my job pretty well but it’s exhausting, my house is messy as all my mental energy goes into work and I constantly miss appointments, am late for other commitments etc. I never failed a single exam at medical school because I spent ages finding workarounds to help my concentration, such as mind mapping, careful choice of environment, studying later in the day when I was less distractible etc.

If you just saw me at work you might think “oh she doesn’t have ADHD” but trust me if you saw the full picture you would see I tick every box.

I don't know if you're correct or not, but there was this report on the BBC last year which suggested some clinics were cashing in on greater visibility of ADHD and related conditions: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65534448

I don't think anyone these days can accept that life is hard and they just have a mediocre intellect

Completely agree. I'm finding that intellectual performance drops off sharply with age, for a lot of people including myself. I don't need a diagnosis, just a bit of peace and quiet.

I've never heard ADHD being linked to mediocre intelligence, quite the opposite actually.

I work privately and do online ADHD assessments (as part of an MDT where there is a face to face element ) and I’m also the responsible clinician for an NHS ADHD clinic. Many nhs staff also do this work privately to supplement nhs work.

There are goood private clinics and there are bad clinics. That’s all it is. Most people with a professional qualification would definitely not be doing anything that sits outside of NICE guidelines, far too risky, we would get struck off. If the assessment is cheaper than other websites and there’s no involvement at all from psychiatry or psychology it’s probably a bit rogue and it’s likely the nhs wouldn’t accept the diagnosis for any further treatment (any assessment needs to fit nice guidelines).

I would be reluctant to diagnose if no practitioner had seen the person face to face.

@Catza

So you object to pay-to-diagnose companies for giving out the diagnosis but think you yourself are perfectly justified in diagnosing someone as NOT having it based on their social media post? Tell me how this works exactly

Menopause is known to exacerbate previously managed adhd. This post actually has been SO annoyed. OP you can seriously FO

Has anyone used ADHD-360? Any thoughts?

They are more affordable than Berkeley which was recommended on here, but I actually tend to agree with the OP's pov, and although I do have a strong feeling I might have ADHD, I don't want one of those 'paid for/bullsht' diagnoses as would rather get to the bottom of it!

I don't want to rile you up op but could you maybe give me some advice - I suspect I have ADHD, I have 1 child diagnosed and another on the pathway. I don't suspect its a few quirks, my life is negatively affected as are my children's because of my struggles. I'm mid thirties and I'm considering giving up work because the struggle and stress just to get through each day leaves me absolutely wiped out and not fit for purpose. I've never been to a doctor or told anyone how I feel or how much I struggle but it's left me so low at times I just haven't wanted to he here. The reason I haven't been to the GP is for fear of not being believed, looking stupid. The reason I haven't gone private is for fear of people thinking I'm jumping on the bandwagon and hoping to get a label to make myself look cool. I'm stuck and frozen with fear that even if I was diagnosed now people still wouldn't believe me. Your post hit hard and sort of reinforced what I think others will be thinking about me.

I feel the same as you @Canwedoit4 so you are not alone. I'm early 40s. Definitely feel like peri menopause could be a factor. I pretty much hate myself atm! But I don't want a bandwagon diagnosis, nor do I want to wait an age.

@OptimismvsRealism - although I actually really agree with you in some ways, I don't think you can judge if someone has ADHD by the state of their home/events organised etc. I have a tidy home partly as I live with a very domesticated DH, but also bc I have learnt it makes me feel better. However work procrastination is out of control. And I am not mediocre - first class degree from redbrick, straight As at A level etc, professional job. However I grew up before SM and internet was ubiquitous and I think I'd struggle more nowadays to achieve what I have. I am struggling to achieve anything further. But due to being from a 'good background' and marrying someone solid, you wouldn't really know how I really am unless you were a very good friend. It was a running joke growing up though how 'dappy' I was, despite being bright.

I was recommended ADHD-360.

I don't actually know if I'm ready to tackle another diagnosis so close to my last one. Nobody realises just how traumatic the whole procedure is as an outside to neurodivergence.

I have passed on the recommendation to a friend who is going through with the diagnosis although he has said he wants to use more natural methods to manage his ADHD, not stimulants. I can sort of understand where he is coming from but I also think he doesn't need an official diagnosis to advocate for accomodations for himself or use a supplementary management plan for his symptoms as opposed to paying hundreds for a diagnosis that won't necessarily get him additional support he isn't already entitled to.

I do think people, as others have said, that people are turning to private diagnoses due to the long waiting list in the NHS at the moment.

It is certainly true that anyone can buy an ADHD diagnosis online if they familiarise themselves with the condition so they can give the right answers.

I suppose the question is how many people consciously or unconsciously seek a spurious diagnosis, and why? It is not as if it gets you much in itself. Maybe validation for someone who struggles with life but for whom no other diagnosis really fits either.

There isn’t a link between ADHD and intelligence.

What happens is that among average or slightly above average middle class people, sometime in their academic or professional life they reach the limits of their intelligence.

Rather than admit they are not as smart as they thought they were, actually it was ADHD the entire time. It’s only due to their incredibly high intelligence that they could create masking strategies, unlike all those other ADHD people who struggle to keep or job or pass a single exam.

Now with their ADHD diagnosis they will be able to achieve all the things they thought they would! Except they don’t and loads end up not bothering with the medication in the end.

(I have seen this with 5 people now)

But having adhd/asd has no bearing on how clever you are. You could be a genius, you could have low iq or you could be perfectly average.

Of course you could also have adhd and a learning disability or difficulty but they are separate not part of.