social media is convincing all our kids they are nd?

[AuntMarch]

I've just been sat on the bus and the tiktok videos I'm hearing almost have me seeking a diagnosis.
"ADHD TEST" Put a finger down if you've ever focused on something so much you've lost track of time/ sometimes think you talk too much or not enough.."
it's basically covered every possible behaviour and it's video after video.

it's no wonder every kid thinks they have something.

No, she didn’t. She got it because her needs arising from her ASD &/or ADHD meant she got enhanced mobility. The point being made is the diagnosis alone doesn’t qualify someone for enhanced mobility and thus a motability vehicle. PIP is based on needs, not diagnosis.

Yes. It reminds me of people who tell others not to have vaccines because they "have done their research" and found out they're dangerous. They also think that with a bit of googling, they know more on the subject than highly qualified and experienced scientists and doctors.

Completely incorrect, it’s been around for a long time.

https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/history

Your first point is a common myth. I was actually worried that I had done this in my autism assessment. A few years later, saw a consultant psychiatrist for an ADHD assessment. She commented that she thought I was downplaying things and then I said I explained that I was worried that I had exaggerated thiings in my autism assessment and that I was never 100% convinced it was correct. She said this was incredibly common to think that but it was very rarely the case.

When I think about it, even though I am very bright, I don't think I would have been able to trick my autism assessors. The assessment lasted several hours and was incredibly in-depth. They were also very bright and very experienced and they would have spotted inconsistencies. Also, even though I had done a lot of research about autism, there was absolutely masses of stuff that I didn't know about and they spotted in me. In the end they were highly experienced professionals and I a knowledgeable amateur.

Both of which are huge spectrums and a diagnosis alone doesn't wouldn't necessarily mean the person qualifies

I KNOW!

But people are always saying ‘you can’t get full pip with Audhd’ or aren’t ’allowed a car’ with AUDHD.

But some people do get these.

But that isn’t what the poster you originally quoted said. They said you can’t get a motability vehicle purely because of a diagnosis. That is correct. You don’t/can’t get it because of a diagnosis.

I do not have any SM except a rarely used Facebook page….and this here I suppose…..my life is INFINITELY better without all that shite. I did once have a Twitter account but I quickly realised what a cesspit it is so deleted my account within a few months. More people should remove themselves from it for their own mental wellbeing.

My daughter got a private adhd diagnosis this week.

I have called ambulances on my sister several times after finding her unconscious. she cannot work after she fell apart mentally in her early 30’s. She has been sectioned endless times (ASD)

my daughters dad fell apart when he tried to stop drinking which was his coping mechanism. (ADHD)

Too right I’m fucking pushy trying to get my dd a diagnosis so she has a chance to get the support she needs in her teens to help her stay in school and not send her MH down the toilet.

I count myself very lucky that I can afford to do this and I have all sympathies for people who can’t or who have their own challenges and cannot fight the school to get it recognised that she’s not just naughty and being difficult. It’s all very well saying act in needs not diagnosis but when you have a HOY telling you the fact she has an ADHD assessment coming up the next week has absolutely nothing to do with her behaviour and that other children with it can do as they are told maybe you do need a sodding diagnosis.

it’s taken me 18 months and cost a lot of money - I’m not doing it for the fun of it.

It seems that the biggest issue people have here is with the diagnosis of neuro-divergent women. I personally celebrate and respect the women coming forward to say that they are seeking a diagnosis.

There is a generation of neurodivergent women who have drowned internally because no one was studying what it meant to be a girl or a woman with ADHD and Autism. Now there is more information and knowledge out there but we continue to question and invalidate the experience of girls and women because of ignorance and outright/internalised misogyny. Women will always be fighting for the same respect and validation that men are given by default.

Perhaps some people are over-diagnosed but TikTok is not the source to help you to come to that conclusion. If you are basing your standards for the diagnosis of women on the behaviour of a neurodivergent man you know then this is ignorance. You can’t make a conclusion with half the picture and a heavily masked neuro-divergent woman will never show you the full picture.

It is a privileged position to be so unaware of the pain, suffering and loss that comes with a late-diagnosis that it is so easy to trivialise and question what it means to be a neurodivergent woman. Many have spent a life-time torturing themselves without the correct diagnosis to make sense of their brain. To have that understanding can be life-changing and can bring hope and self-esteem. I wish people were more careful with their words, especially when they don’t have all of the information. By so casually dismissing the experience of women with ADHD and Autism as a trend, we are creating the conditions to erase a lifetime of pain all over again.

Being profoundly disabled doesn’t make you unintelligent. Not unless you’re judging their IQ.

All autistic brains are very intelligent, including those who have severe learning disabilities. It’s a different intelligence but I assure you, it’s there.

I assure you ,you are wrong
My son goes to a school for children with severe to profound learning disabilities he has a diagnosis of autism aa do most of the kids there
It is so ignorant of you to try an minimise his disabilities and say he is very intelligent.

This is such crap.

My dd was mute and too anxious to go to school. Thank fuck she didn’t go to yours. I was a teacher too!

You bet l was a pushy mother when she was traumatised by school.

I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m saying.

You are saying all autistic brains are very intelligent which is just not true.

I wasn’t aware of any neurodiverse people growing up. Every other post of mumsnet seems to have a Sen child. It’s scary.

It can feel as though people are appropriating disability. They can choose to identify into it, call themselves neurospicy and ‘a bit ADHD’, while living a rich work, social and family life. Meanwhile, there are people who don’t get to identify out of their disabilities, people who have unmet needs or who can’t advocate for themselves. It is nuanced - there are people who have overcome huge demons and inner struggles and I wouldn’t want to dismiss that. But I don’t think it helps to describe so many behaviours in a medical way which may make teenagers fix into an identity which might not help them in the long run.

You have given me some food for thought, but where did you get ‘the majority of prisoners are ND’ from? Prisoners where? What nature of crime? Length of sentence? What nature of ND? Percentages?

Exactly this. It’s like when people say they are allergic to a food when in reality they don’t like it, or say they are depressed when they are just a bit sad, muddies the water for people with a genuine need.

It really does not. Threads like this and posts like yours do that.

I don't think it's a myth.

People do it subconsciously with more illnesses than ASD/ADHD.

People will try to beat the system. In the 90s I was talking to a physiotherapist who was telling me about a young girl they'd had a few years back, who had injured her knee in a car accident. Every time she tried to get her to do any movement she screamed in pain and flinched away.
At the third session, her dm had to go to the toilet mid-appointment, and the physiotherapist said to the young girl in desperation "how can I help you to try to do the exercises?"
The girl replied totally straight: "I'm not going to do them because my mum says that if I show I can move my knee I won't get as much compensation money."
So people will do their best to use what they can get out of situations; that's not a new thing.

But actually I wasn't talking about that. I was talking more about the power of the mind when people read about conditions, even more so if they think they might have it - and people will research into it.

When dd was about 12yo she came to me and said she thought she had a particular physical ailment. I know a little about this, and I said straight off, that I didn't think she did, why did she think that? She gave me a mild symptom that could show the ailment, but only in conjunction with other much worse symptoms.
About three or four days later she came to me saying that she was sure she had the illness, and listed several of the main symptoms. Obviously I was more worried, and made a doctor's appointment.
That evening her internet report came through and I noticed that she'd been on a blog for this illness. So I went onto them and found her list of ailments were exactly as listed - there were other symptoms which were not listed, which she also hadn't had.
When we got to see the doctor he confirmed absolutely that she didn't have it through a test, he gave medication for the milder symptom and the other symptoms vanished before we left the surgery never to return.

The power of the mind can be very strong, and I think the natural thing for a young person to do if they are wondering if they have ASD or ADHD is to research it, which then lays them open to feeling they have the symptoms even if they hadn't noticed them before - even more so than a physical ailment.

Nobody is talking about people with a formal diagnosis. The OP was about people diagnosing themselves based on online quizzes and TikTok checklists.

And it is indeed the exact same people who were “a little bit OCD” twenty years ago.

I had adhd diagnosed at the age of 40 by the nhs. It was a relief to finally have answers. I did a degree by the skin of my teeth, I struggle With money, housework and I don’t drive. On the plus side I am incredibly creative and can do amazing things when I hyperfocus.

In the 80s my parents took me for multiple appointments but in the UK it wasn’t recognised until the 90s.

I couldn’t be more middle class and did several hours of sports a week.

The assessment process was extremely rigorous and I had to have my husband sit me explaining all my issues which was hard. Thankfully my parents had kept all my old school reports which were full of really harsh 80s descriptions of how little I could focus!

I am glad there is more awareness but it does frustrate me when people self diagnose and say they are as fact.

You can say that about any condition. There are thresholds and screening processes.

At the end of the day if a young person looks up autism and has social/ communication struggles, alongside repetitive and restrictive behaviours and sensory difficulties that are hugely impacting life then yes they’d be wise to look into it. They will then go through a screening process before the diagnosis process.

Tough luck if that bothers you.

I'm not sure we do any more. My work had a display about it and there were about a dozen conditions coming under it including anxiety. It was so wide it was pretty meaningless.