Are you neurodivergent?

[fintangel]

Have you been diagnosed with, or do you suspect you might have ADHD or ASD or a combination or both?

YABU = yes
YANBU = no, I’m definitely neurotypical

Wow, that's a high percentage of ND people! Nearly 70% of almost 400 so far. I wonder if everyone has been diagnosed professionally, or if some are self diagnosed?

I'm not ND.

Not everything is ADHD. Poverty is traumatic and is intergenerational. We know trauma can mimic ADHD.

I teach children with ND with severe difficulties functioning. They are worlds apart from my DD who is perfectly able to function, albeit masking, who is also diagnosed with the ‘same’ thing. There needs to be two different labels if we must have labels.

It’s more lack of education and prospects and not giving a crap in many cases. Feeding the children crisps for dinner, never telling them no don’t do that. Smoking weed around them or drinking. Allowing them run the streets damaging people’s property. Once they get to school they don’t know how to listen or sit in a chair without a screen, next time little ted smashes a plant pot. You hear parents shout he can’t help it he has ADHD.

One of my best friends was often a complete PITA - I used to tear my hair out. But he stopped self medicating with alcohol and got an ADHD diagnosis and calmed right down. We both understand his behaviour much, much better. He's always been worth staying around for so I'm glad I did.

Maybe. I find others asking me if I self identify really annoying and personal for some reason. And I don't see it as my main identity set in stone either, I'm just me, but have different days.

Everyone is these days LOL
It is nonsense

OP has posted once and run, having got the response she or he wanted.

Agreed

No you are quoting a letter in 2011 as a stance which it isn’t. Since the official adoption of the DSM-5 in 2013 and the subsequent ICD-11, the BPS has shifted considerably, shifting from an outsourced structural critique of psychiatric manual alterations to a proactive, neurodiversity-aligned model focused on functional support, human rights, and intersectionality.

No, their position hasn't fundamentally changed. They don't agree with the DSM 5 diagnostic model and in fact have distanced themselves further from this suggesting a whole different Power Threat Meaning Model be used which is meant to be a shift from the DSM 5 diagnostic model. This is specifically designed to reduce labels or diagnoses.

Your blind insistence that they have somehow accepted it is wrong. I imagine this distresses you because you feel it might invalidate your diagnosis. This is part of the problem. People have internalised their diagnosis. It is part of their identity so they feel threatened when it's questioned even when there is clear validity to the questioning.

This ⬆️ pretty much sums it up for me too

Yes. Diagnosed autistic and ADHD, autism when I was 22 and ADHD this year at 30. If you spoke to me for 5 minutes you’d see it. Apparently I don’t “look” neurodivergent because I have a full time job, soon to be two, I run a home and go on holiday and sort myself out, always have. But I struggle so hard every day with it. I’m so exhausted. I can’t wait until I can get my medication sorted but it’s up to a year wait.

Yes was diagnosed with adhd about 3 years ago. I’ve also been diagnosed with bpd

This is part of the problem. People have internalised their diagnosis. It is part of their identity so they feel threatened when it's questioned even when there is clear validity to the questioning.
This.

Link please

Absolutely. Out of the abundance of threads on here about struggling kids and teens, all with a mix and varying levels of different types of behaviour, what’s the odds they all boil down to ASD or ADHD? I can’t remember the last time anyone was diagnosed with anything else.

We all have equal access to Google. Information about the model is readily available alongside information on how it moves away from a diagnostic approach. I'm not your secretary.

errr…. Well procrastination etc has existed since the beginning of time and so has has ADHD and autism. Indeed, my psychiatrist says there is an ADHD phenotype which she refers to as a ‘hunter’. Those of us who are hunters tend to have heightened senses of smell and hearing, are natural athletes and turn carbohydrates into blood glucose exceptionally quickly (thus making it possible to keep chasing the animal) ….. amongst many other things. This is hinting at why ADHD may have come into being.

The other thing you probably don’t understand about ADHD ‘symptoms’ is that yes they are issues that everyone in the human race experiences but they are to extreme levels and more frequent in a person who has ADHD. So to give a classical but silly example - we all occasionally forget our keys but someone with ADHD might have a complex system of reminders to avoid forgetting them but despite that might still forget them twice a week. So it is not lack of effort. It is due to physiological differences in the brain that make focus levels very variable.

I hate the term neurodivergent and I hate that so many people self diagnose and then try to use it as an excuse. I have ADD, dyscalculia and short term memory issues professionally diagnosed by an EdPsych. It is what it is. You deal with it.

It's a shame there weren't 3 options in the poll response.

It's also a shame @fintangel has given no follow up or context to their question either.

I. Am not ND, but what is the point if the thread?

Doesn’t it make absolute sense that many middle aged parents are self diagnosing though?

1. its genetic, so if the numbers of children with it are increasing, then it follows that many of their parents are undiagnosed
2. when forms are filled in for children, many parents can then see that it describes them too
3. if you’re an adult with it who is successful (albeit with a few bumps along the way) then you might realise you have it, accept that, but dont want to waste NHS time diagnosing you (they’ve got enough to do with the kids) as you’ve made it without the help anyway
4. recognise your own struggles with life and don’t want that for your kid

Absolutely this.
It’s like someone short sighted expecting a blind person to put on some glasses and get on with it because they too are diagnosed with an eye sight issue and manage perfectly well.