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 agree.

At least half the adults I know who claim to have ADHD patently don't and its so bloody offensive.

Many private diagnoses are bullshit and aren't worth the paper they are written on. That's why gp surgeries often won't accept them.

These companies/tik tok influencers etc..are vultures preying on unhappy people and its disgusting.

I agree OP. You basically pay for a diagnosis with some companies, even if you do not realise that is what you are doing. There are those who say anyone seeking a diagnosis must have it, but this does not work with any other diagnostic condition, so why would it for ADHD? Loads of people think they have cancer, or other illnesses and do not.

@LoudHam I sympathise with you - your left feeling like a fake/fraud/attention seeker and it's this that has stopped me being able to seek out help when maybe my life could be so much easier if I wasn't so afraid. I will fight for everything my children deserve but when it comes to me I just can't advocate for myself.

And that's exactly why GPs aren't qualified to diagnose such things ....

5 is ridiculous anyway. Most places won't assess unless there is evidence of difficulties in more than one setting, usually home and school. Even if it's picked up on early (and most are very dubious about diagnosing adhd at a very young age) they'd sit on a waiting ing list for likely a year or two. Chances of being diagnosed before 5 are slim!

That should say 6 not five

I genuinely don't understand this topic. I'm sure there is such a condition and it must be challenging for children and adults to live with. A friend underwent one of these on line diagnosis. The woman said she could " tell she had it within minutes" Such behaviours as collecting books by one author were put forward as evidence, being awake in the night with an active mind was another.
I don't see the point of it really.

@LlamaNoDrama If some private providers diagnose everyone who pays to see them, then you are paying for a diagnosis. Some of those people will have ADHD, and some will not.

Yes well why are people doing it - what do they gain??? OP criticises them but I’m not sure why.
I have a diagnosis and feel sad that I didn’t know before -could have made such a difference to me - instead I was depressed and terrible anxiety - now I know why people were unpleasant to me,irritated by me - I avoid all risky social situations now. Life is good.
Am not on an amphetamine but can support and empathise with my ‘slow at school’ or ‘naughty’ children.
it’s an inherited trait and adults need to know to support future generations.

my house is messy as all my mental energy goes into work and I constantly miss appointments, am late for other commitments etc

But that could apply to many people?

I am older and I think we have all known people who were scatty. This seems to be now what is called ADHD. So I think it is real, but over diagnosed.
I also agree with the OP that life is hard and very few people can have the kind of life that social media and the media generally say we should be living.

You still have to take responsibility for who you are. If someone else finds you irritating you can't say "it's my ADHD" and expect them to magically think you're great.

Amphetamines work for everyone, babe.

Oh dear you don't seem to have read the question.

Does having ADHD through a proper diagnosis mean you get the green light to be an arrogant fuck as well?

But who doesn’t have at least one trait? I doubt whether you would find an example of a completely “normal” - whatever that is - human being if you searched the whole world over.

Unfortunately it seems to have become an excuse now, and if you Google it immediately up comes “can I get benefits/PIP for ADHD?”

I'm so sorry @Canwedoit4- this is exactly why OP's opinion is so damaging.

I could have written your post. Please speak to your GP- it's a long road, and it's not easy, but now I have my diagnosis my life is much improved.

Ignore the OP and opinions like it.

Ignore the opinion that being able to buy a diagnosis is a bad thing? Ok...

Anyone on the make for benefit money is unlikely to have the money for a private ADHD diagnosis,

That isn't the only thing you said in your OP though, is it?

You suggested you can tell who has it by how organised they are, that people are saying they have ADHD when in fact they are just stupid and/or weak.

If you can't see how that might seriously impact someone who is scared to speak up and talk about the possibility of having it then maybe you're the one with mediocre intellect.

Why are people engaging with the OP?
This is the most obvious troll post I've seen on here.

The OP is absolutely RELISHING pissing people off, they know they're talking horseshit.

Ignore them, they don't have ADHD, they're just an arsehole that enjoys winding up those that do.

Pity them if anything. Imagine having no life and needing to do this sort of thing to get something out of your day.

I'm totally with you OP. I have no doubt at all that if I went there for a diagnosis, I'd get it. It's very easy to focus on the criteria that are linked to ADHD, convince yourself you hav it and as such come across as someone who has ADHD.

What has changed is that only people who couldn't cope with the manifestation got a diagnosis. Nowadays, people have functioning ADHD, but find it very hard, so want a diagnosis. They of course the benefits that also come with ADHD. They also oh ore the fact that just about everyone has something that hols them up and makes life harder than our seemingly totally functioning friends and neighbours.

We now associate crashing afterwards as a symptom of the diagnosis and 'masking' a new named symptom too. Again, just about everyone 'mask' to some level, be in that they tend to get angry quicker than average, that they are slower than average, they are shy, introverted, too extroverted....

I'm a functioning ADHD person. They key word is not ADHD but functioning. Yes ADHD has held me back in some circumstances, it has also allow me to multitask and to think quicker than average.

At the end of the day, it's made me. And yes, some thing's would most likely be made easier with some drugs, but it wouldn't be me anymore. I just continue to cope as I've done all my life because...I'm functioning!

Lol. I do both those things but don't think I have ADHD.

I'm wondering though what's the actual point of getting diagnosis by whatever means in your 40s/59s

YANBU OP but you just have to wait it out.

I don’t have ADHD but I’ve got OCD, diagnosed by a psychiatrist at a point when I was so unwell we were having conversations about whether I needed to be in hospital in not. A few years ago OCD was the fashionable ‘ooooh maybe I’ve got that’ set of letters and I had people telling me constantly that they ‘had it too’ then describing a completely normal set of behaviours. Totally minimises of the impact the actual condition has had on my life.

Don’t worry, it’ll be something else soon and you’ll get a rest.

"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"

@OptimismvsRealism your OP has RSD written all over it. Who are you to say that someone else's diagnosis has been pursed by them simply so they can cover up intellectual shortcomings? I'm interested in why you select this group as your example?

I'm sure you know that a diagnosis of ADHD is far more than an assessment of executive function and not just about present functioning. The clinical measures are not "quizzes" and though the diagnosis is based on self reporting assessors can and do ask for historical evidence such as school reports, forensic history, family input and family history. The diagnosis is very much about the co-morbidities which are such an important element in the idiosyncratic picture. I don't think any of us are in a position to dismiss someone else investigating or having a diagnosis if we don't have the full picture of their lives. Nor can any of us say that someone's diagnosis is invalid unless we have been present at the assessment and have expertise (not individual lived experience).

Influencers particularly those that manage to do it for a few years are more likely to have ADHD than the average person. They have to keep making new content to keep people interested e.g. keep showing people their new shiny stones.

Also their lifestyles are completely false. The ones who do the home stuff have help keeping their homes tidy. Most have an editor, a camera person and an assistant.