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

Yes they’re two separate frameworks but you’re splitting hairs. It has to be long term to get a diagnosis then arguing the toss between significant and substantial impact that “is more than minor or trivial” regarding people and disabilities you don’t know is pretty ridiculous. Thankfully we have laws in place to protect people who shouldn’t have to be put in this position.

Right to stick to the OPs original question - today alone I saw a post from an influencer, her son has recently been diagnosed with autism; she, recognising the symptoms, now identifies as AUDHD (without any diagnosis ever occurring) and it is entirely her personality. Anyways, this morning comes the ‘surviving the hour going back as an AUDHD mum’ and all the reasons why it was so difficult to cope with as an ADHD mum, where are my other ND mums at you’ll understand etc - guys there was not one thing about her morning different to mine. Or I would imagine 99% of other peoples’ mornings with young kids when their sleep routine is disturbed by the clocks. So yes I do read some of them as, if these things are specific to having ADHD then do I have it?? Do my kids have it? Does my sister who I was texting to see how she got on with the clocks and had the same morning as me have it? Or do people think they have it, or do have it, but use completely normal experiences that are a bit difficult as justification? Or - and I do believe this - as bloody insta content. I think this is what the OP is on about more so then the debates here over ADHD even existing

It is not splitting hairs and nobody was discussing the semantic difference between significant and substantial.

There are many, many things that can cause ADHD to have a significant (and substantial) impact on your life without qualifying you for disability rights.

Why are you finding this so difficult to accept?

Wow do people even think for themselves anymore? As I said my algorithm is pretty highly set to adhd and austism but I don’t get any of this and even if I did it think I’d have the intelligence to look and think logically and accurately from early childhood as regards traits of it was highlighted. The shitstorm of life that autism and adhd have handed enables one to think pretty accurately. Anybody who is just a bit messy and disorganised wouldn’t make it through screening. Interested in how you “make” Audhd your personality. 🤔I have it, it’s me. Are we supposed to ignore the massive impact it has on life?

Such as?

When you get assessed for adhd the clincian looks into your very early years. They are less interested in the issues you face now but back in childhood.
To be given a diagnosis of AdHd means youve always shown signs of it. Back to your earliest memories at times.
Its not something that only shows up late inlife or because our modern world is genuonly chaotic and busy and far more pressurised than it waz 40 years ago even.
Symptoms of our capitalist system being too overwhelming.for the majority of us are not an actual diagnosis of ADHD.
My entire life is filled with the costs and shame and deeper self esteen issues than clothes on a chair.
Which mostly just represents the intense pressure we all face now to do more, be more than ever in history before.

We seem to come at this from two different stances I'm afraid. I've seen it enough to know what I think.

I don't have ADHD. I relate to all except the last 2.
I've given up on calenders because I don't remember to check them.
The discomfort of being in a towel wouldn't work for me.
Procrastination is my biggest flaw - really serious. I push it to the limit. To the point of imminent failure.
I recognise lots of the often listed "signs" as being me.
I think everyone would if they took an interest - or others would notice things about them.
You can procrastinate without being ND.

Developing and implementing compensatory mechanisms to deal with the cognitive disregulation is exhausting and stressful. That is a significant impact.

That you have to ask suggests that you don't know as much about ADHD in adults as you think you do.

Recurrent suicidal ideation.
Anhedonia that doesn't respond to antidepressants.
Bulimia (or anorexia or other eating disorder that doesn't make you physically too ill to function).

Plus a ton more possibilities, all of which can be of significant impact without qualifying for disability benefits or reasonable work adjustments.

And sometimes physically damaging 😆

My compensatory mechanism to remind me to do something that has to be done before I leave the house is to put a trip hazard in the hall. My poor husband has to negotiate these arbitrary obstacles, which of course he didn't know are going to be there!

I think you’ll find they absolutely do.

To be protected under the law, your conditions must meet a specific legal test: - The "Substantial" Impact Test.The condition must have a "substantial" negative effect on your ability to do normal, daily tasks."Substantial" simply means more than minor or trivial.The "Physically Fit" Misconception: You noted that the eating disorder does not make you physically too ill to function. The law accounts for this. An impairment does not have to be physical. If bulimia or suicidal ideation severely drains your mental energy, disrupts your concentration, impacts your social interactions, or dictates hours of your day, it meets the threshold of affecting "normal day-to-day activities". The impact must be measured based on how you would be without medication or treatment.

I think you’re missing my point - this woman, and many like her, hence why the op found it to be a discussion point due to its prevalence - list so many reasons why they have ADHD and how it impacts their life and how they find it more difficult than lucky NT people do. I am more then capable of thinking for myself but it does come to a point where you see something so often you start to wonder are you the wrong one - so i don’t think I have ADHD, but if all these women are exactly like me and find the same things difficult and they all say it’s due to being ND - then the day comes when you say - hang on am I ND too?? Do most other people not find XYZ so difficult? Is it just me and the other % that act like this? That is the OPs point, and I totally understand it. And yes, this woman in particular makes it her entire personality- back to school after the midterm as an ADHD mum, clocks go back as an ADHD mum, grocery shop and ADHD mum, she can’t fart without saying how harder it is an ADHD mum

Does everyone not do that? I do that, as does dh and neither of us have ADHD.

Why are you obsessively watching it if you don’t like it. You do realise if you watch every reel frothing you’ll get more. It’s not an accurate picture of society. I have autism and adhd and don’t watch any pages like that let alone obsessively,hence I get a less skewed picture.

That link to the Equality Act actually disproves what you're saying. Neither ADHD nor autism are mentioned in the Act (certain conditions like cancer, HIV infection, and multiple sclerosis are automatically treated as disabilities from diagnosis, but autism and ADHD are not among them). You can do a simple search through the Act to double check this, you don't need to take my word for it.

If a person is functionally unable to do certain things, because of autism, ADHD or anything else, then they are disabled, not because they have ADHD or autism. Which means in practice most people with a diagnosis are not also disabled.

So, ADHD and autism are NOT disabilities. They may, or not may not, produce or contribute to being disabled depending on the person.

Those advocacy groups are misrepresenting the law to the extent they say otherwise. Sadly this is familiar territory from trans advocacy groups who just invent the law out of thin air - much to the chagrin of public and private bodies who listened to them only to find out that Stonewall law doesn't actually count.

I’m not taking away from people who have a correct diagnosis, hell my family is riddled with ND and I know absolutely first hand of the problems you’ve highlighted. I have nursed a suicidal child (my own) back to living well with no support because she had been misdiagnosed for years BUT I do also know people who have sought and got diagnosis who have struggled during menopause but NEVER had issues before. I’m not talking about people who I have just an association with but people I’ve known a very long time. One did say their assessment was like the prosecution leading the witness. So this is why I’m conflicted. For some a diagnosis IS a life saver. For others it stops them doing the work and again I am using my own lived experience as an example. So, I’m not dismissing your lived experience and I’d ask you to not dismiss mine.

I agree with your explanation, but I dont think thats what that poster was getting at. They called getting an ADHD diagnosis 'in vogue' 🙄

Something being a disability doesn't automatically entitle you to benefits

This is bloody outrageous.

First, I did not say that I personally had any of those things and you should not have assumed that I do.

But as it happens, I do and my experience of those things does not impact my life in a way that means that I can claim benefits or adjustments. Because I work fucking hard at making sure that I don't need to claim off the state for things I can moderate for myself. And that work doesn't attract benefits either.

That does not give you any right to write off their impact on my life as not being of significant or substantial impact.

Menopause often makes ADHD much worse. It is often the case wjtb girls and women that nobody realises how much they are struggling because they are so good at hiding it. Many/most of my friends don’t believe my ADHD and autism diagnoses for this reason and yet I was diagnosed by one of the most experienced consultant psychiatrists in the UK. According to her, it was obvious I had both, but she has been in the game for over 30 years.

I don’t think they are ‘symptoms’ most of them can relate to stressful situations - work/kids etc also cognitive decline, age and relationships.
I may be wrong but I haven’t got ADHD.

Whatever,you’re splitting hairs. The Equality Act does not list a rigid, closed catalogue of specific medical conditions. Instead, it uses a broad legal definition of disability, while automatically covering a few specific conditions from the point of diagnosis. Only Cancer , HIV, MS , certified visual impairments and severe long term disfigurement are mentioned.

Any other physical or mental condition is covered as long as it meets the "substantial and long-term" test eg arthritis,, back or shoulder injuries, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or loss of limbs. Hearing loss or deafness. Asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, and heart disease or stroke recovery, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, bipolar affective disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), autism, ADHD,dyslexia, and dyspraxia, progressive diseases such as Motor neurone disease, dementia, and types of muscular dystrophy (as they worsen over time…

Autism and ADHD are no different than most other disabilities.

Read more: https://trib.al/UprPd3q

An interview with the amazing Dr Sally Cubbin who is an experienced consultant psychiatrist.