Does anyone think they DONT have ADHD?

[Frenchtoastie]

I keep seeing posts on instagram with various reasons why someone has ADHD and then hundreds of comments below reporting these people also have all of these symptoms.
Just wondering if anyone reads these and doesn’t relate to them? To me they are just part of being human, but maybe I am completely wrong and I have ADHD🤣

the posts generally include statement along these lines…

• I find it hard to get going or impossible to stop
• I can put off a tiny task for weeks but worry about it for hours but when I finally complete it it takes 5 minutes
• I can distracted and start cleaning after the shower and suddenly I’ve cleaned the whole house whilst wearing my towel
• Having a chair covered in clothes
• having multiple drinks on the go in the house
• needing a calender because if not I would forget appointments

I’m not sure thats what they were getting at.
Don’t think it was meant that people dont have ADHD or only have it because of smart phones. More that a lot of the symptoms of over exposure to smart phones, info etc overlap with some ADHD traits.
So some people are linking that to ADHD when it’s not. And for those that do have ADHD - smart phones etc can exacerbate their ADHD.

Another perspective for SOME people:

All these cognitive/ psychiatric diagnoses, (of which adhd is one) can describe very challenging executive function difficulties but we have no biological blood tests - it’s a subjective description of behaviour not an explanation. If there was clear evidence of brain damage the behaviour could be the same but we’d have a biological reason why.

(I do know someone who had. Brain injury and developed adhd behaviour. Many years later however he’s made a lot of progress. As neuro plasticity does exist.)

We are forgetting how different life is today. We evolved in a very different society.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328x/16/5/650

I wasn’t clear in my post, I realise.
I didn’t mean that I don’t think ADHD exists at all. I grew up pre smart phones and I have friends diagnosed with ADHD in our childhood.
I meant, many people have developed some
ADHD like traits from smartphone use & are then assuming they have ADHD.

I don't know anyone who would put themselves forward for an assessment who isn't seeking to explain why they feel and act the way they feel and act.

Of course they are likely to get a diagnosis.

I do! Usually for additional provisions at work, benefit claims, extra support for their kids at school

there’s loads of reasons and it’s naive to believe that every person who wants an adhd assessment is truly genuine in their presentation

Lots of diseases are not diagnosed by blood test.

The new fMRI scanning is coming up with lots of answers. In summary, Google says

fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) brain scans show clear group-level functional and network differences in people with ADHD compared to neurotypical brains.

And we are only just at the beginning of fMRI research

It would be naive to believe that. I didn't say it.

I don't believe many people would put themselves through an assessment to get reasonable adjustments at work.

I believe that most parents who put kids through an assessment genuinely believe that their kids need help.

I do believe that it is too easy for clever/coached people to exaggerate to use both high functioning autism and high functioning ADHD to get PIP.

I do believe that some "reasonable adjustments" at work are not reasonable at all. If somebody was going to starve if they couldn't get to work on time then they would find a way to get to work on time.

Wow, you actually sound angry.

There are different types of ADHD. Perhaps you should educate yourself. I have the inattentive type and I’ve struggled all my life, but on the outside it doesn’t appear that way. Don’t go judging people unless you’ve walked in their shoes.

I do but I’m American and was diagnosed over 25 years ago as a preteen and well before all the Brits apparently started thinking ADHD was the “in thing” to have.

I could have written this - every single time I read one of the posts about how a person has ADHD and how their behaviour indicated it - I’m genuinely like I must have ADHD because every single one applies to me. One woman said it was her adhd made parenting harder for her than ‘normal lucky parents’ abd how she would get so over stimulated from her 2 young toddlers needing her she’d pretend to have to pee to have 5 minutes in the bathroom alone - sorry is that not literally every single parent??? All of hers were completely relatable and I honestly refuse to think that I’m the one with ADHD too rather than her living a fairly normal reality. I think people with genuine, life altering ADHD are being completely overtaken by people who barely have it and it’s making a mockery of a genuine condition

What a ridiculous take. For starters, most people are diagnosed with ADHD as children when driving, having careers and maintaining adult relationships aren't even relevant considerations and there are couess perfectly functioning adults with ADHD who go to university, hold down jobs, get married, and manage their responsibilities.

Having a neurological condition doesn't mean you're incapable of functioning in society. You can be successful and independent while still experiencing significant symptoms and challenges that other people don't necessarily see.

An ADHD diagnosis requires clinically significant impairment, not a complete inability to function as an adult. The idea that having a degree, a career, or a relationship somehow disqualifies someone from having ADHD is absurd.

You have just made exactly the same point as I made up thread 🤣

I have no idea why you think your post is a relevant riposte to the post of mine you quoted.

Did you mean to quote someone else?

Yeah!

And us oldies used to have Filofax's. (Huge fun.) And before that little annual diaries.

Some of us still use annual diaries!

As someone with a diagnosis of Audhd I find it highly insulting half of these influencers etc claiming they have adhd. I find it even more sickening when someone finds out you have a diagnosis and they reply with 'oh arent we all a little adhd'. No. We are not. We either have adhd or we do not have adhd. Be similar to someone telling you they have cancer and replying 'ah dont we all have a bit of cancer in us'.

The other thing that absolutely riles me is the assumption that you have a diagnosis means you are on some form of social welfare payment and while I am sure they are scroungers and liars everywhere claiming something for nothing it really is an insult to those of us who pay our taxes and work full time jobs and claim absolutely NO benefits and even pay full whack for our medication for the adhd some people think does not exist.

Those are not ADHD symptoms. Those are behaviours that people with ADHD can experience. Correlation is not a diagnosis.

ADHD has to have been evident in childhood.. my reports are full of comments about hyperfocus, inattention, constant chatting, fidgeting, mood swings, angry outburst "would fly if she would apply herself" missed assignments because i didn't find the subject interesting, A* and E's depending on my focus.

Failed relationships, social problems, addictive behaviour, couldn't hold a job down, constant absences, forgetting appointments, losing shit, a brain that doesn't shut up, is constantly ticking, overthinking, spiralling, vocal ticks, ear worms that go on for WEEKS, not sleeping, forgetting to eat, then binge eating.

Your 'list' is a load of bollocks and not a diagnosis. A life lived in Chaos thinking you were a problem because everyone else seemed to find this stuff easy while you were drowning, being misdiagnosed with an anxiety disorder and as 'clinically neurotic' in your late teens/early twenties, and finally a diagnosis of ADHD aged 40 making you realise you aren't a fucking failure, but have been living life in hard mode.. is ADHD.

Yea sorry, that was supposed to be for ImJustATeenageGreboBaby

Completely agree that it's all becoming a circus.

It's so unfair on those who are truly disabled by the impact of neurodiversity on their lives. And also quite unfair, in some contexts, on those who don't have any sort of diagnosis and have to shoulder the burden of supporting people with ND beyond a reasonable level.

In my workplace, I sometimes feel quite irritated when people hide behind their "reasonable adjustments" when they're actually just not that capable of doing the job. I have some colleagues who are open about having ADHD and who have some adjustments and they are great at their jobs, so not a dig at everyone with RAs - but surely there needs to be a balance whereby a starting point is that the person with the condition does what they can to make their life manageable - including getting a job that fits with their strengths and weaknesses. If you need your workload reduced by 25%, you aren't fulfilling the role and shouldn't have the job!

No worries, it was really funny 😂

Hurrah! And maybe house calendars hanging on the kitchen wall, with nice images, to coordinate household activities?

One of the brightest friends I had, who did some awesomely intelligent job for the electricity infrastructure, just used a little annual diary to coordinate stuff. No need for Filofaxes, PDAs (look it up, kids.) etc.

Times have changed. I was in Waitrose today and their magazine rack included ADHD magazines along with the boating magazines. It's monetisable, folks.

Totally agree with this. I'd have been a complete disaster as an accounts clerk!

It's just me here so my calendar is mostly full of dates when my mum is working or when my parents are on holiday

My calendar is usually animal related, this year it's orangutans

So would I, mainly because my arithmetical skills are shite, and I NEVER understood double-entry bookkeeping, despite more than one explanation. But that's not because I have ADHD. I'm just not mathematically bright.

Nice theme. Do the orang-utans include Jeremy Clarkson? (Clasic Top Gear joke.)

I don't know what point you are trying to make. I would have been a disaster precisely because of my ADHD traits, not through lack of ability to double entry book keep.

The point was about people with ADHD using it as an excuse when in truth they are insuited to the job. And about being able to function pretty well very often if only they can get themselves into the right kind of job. And then other people thinking they don't have ADHD because they are holding down a job.