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

https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/18136/html/

Fonagy answering qs in parliament.

I cheated and used chat gtp but feel free to fact check from the actual transcript.

Fonagy’s main points about overdiagnosis are:

There is no clear evidence of widespread overdiagnosis. The review did not find enough evidence to prove that ADHD and autism are being overdiagnosed. (My edit; Because the last review was in 2017. So he can’t say there is evidence of this yet.)

Misdiagnosis does happen. Some people may receive the wrong diagnosis or have other difficulties overlooked.

People often seek a diagnosis to get support. Parents may feel their child needs a diagnosis to access help at school.

Private assessments raise concerns. Financial incentives and poor-quality assessments could lead to problems.

Support should not depend on a diagnosis. Children should receive help based on their needs, rather than having to obtain a label first.

In simple terms: Fonagy does not claim that overdiagnosis is impossible. He argues that there is insufficient evidence to establish it, while recognising problems with how diagnoses are made and how support is accessed.

His main message is that children should get the help they need, whether or not they have a formal diagnosis.

(which goes for adults too obviously.)

Please see the excerpts I’ve attached wrt a child who’s struggling in school and the route the current system takes them.

Plus the fact that the lack of evidence for over diagnosis lies in the fact that it’s not been done since 2017.

Sureena Brackenridge: My questions will be around schools and family support. We have heard time and again—it has come through clearly in the report—that there very much needs to be a needs-led system rather than young people with their parents facing excruciating waits and feeling like they are in an abyss or a void when they are trying to get the support that they need. What is the role of a school in terms of ensuring that needs are identified as early as possible so that they are addressed appropriately before waiting for that rubber stamp or label of a diagnosis?Professor Fonagy: That is excellent. I am really pleased to be able to say that the current SEND reforms are very much in line with developing those strategies. Many of the things that we know work for neurodevelopmental conditions are not clinical but are best implemented in the context of education.There is a very well-known study, the OxWell Student Survey, that asks young people, “What is helpful in your mental health need?” They prioritise family and friends, but immediately afterwards they put school. Way down the line comes child and adolescent mental health services. That really underscores the importance of how much schools can do.Importantly, there are limitations, and I just want to underscore those. Special educational needs, particularly EHCPs, in terms of looking at the evidence, have not quite delivered in the way that people had hoped. The outcomes, even despite greater investment, have not improved. It is hard to assess, but we know that the major influence of mental health prevalence are things such as school climate.You have vast differences between two schools in the same demographic area in terms of mental health prevalence. That is understandable in terms of the climate of that school. For example, we know that teacher distress generates pupil distress. It is important that we address that.Children also often mask their discomfort at school. Many children who I have worked with, who are regarded by their teachers as doing just fine, are really difficult at home. What we need to do is integrate a sensitivity to a child’s problems with education far better. Mental health support teams, which I had something to do with establishing, is a step in that direction.

Many children who I have worked with, who are regarded by their teachers as doing just fine, are really difficult at home.

I could honestly write a book on this. For a long time initially, a parent's experience is disregarded or, worse, they are blamed for the behaviours seen at home. I'm sorry to say it, but you have to prove your parenting credentials, including your own level of intelligence, in order for anyone to take you seriously. And you need to have done enough research to advocate for even just the basics. I've lost count of the times people have asked me what behaviour management looks like in our household. And I've had to become an expert in the system, as well as a bloody psychiatrist, to understand what might be happening and - most importantly - why, and how to get what is actually needed. How many parents have the resources, never mind the ability, to know which levers to pull for support? How many children are being failed as a result?

I said this would happen a few months back. The state wanted public to try and turn on ADHD, makes it easier once they start withdrawing treatment options and medication.

ADHD is from birth, not secondary school, not after you got married and not intermittently when you cant be arsed to do something.

Ive struggled all my life, I wanted to learn i couldnt, i always thought i was shit at everything even though i so wanted to be good. Then all of a sudden i would completely fixate on a topic absolutely randomly. I would listen think i got what was told to me and then realise i hvent got a clue what they said. I couldnt seem to hold down any kind of relationship even though I wanted to. I was a mess no matter what I did.

i went from job to job and any change would send me in to some kind of episode BUT there would be emergencies and I could react brilliantly, panic and I was able to do stuff and then unless there was a potential catastrophe I was crap again. I was on all manner of medication up util the point I hit rock bottom and a very long mental health assessment diagnosed me with ADHD.

When I finally got settled on a medication for the first time in my life at least for most of the working day, I could think, the noise and thoughts settled, it was as if a complete peace for me at least and I was ok.

So everyone taking the piss needs to think long and hard about whats going to happen as a very sick society, already low trust, now continues on widening their attacks on people with real issues.

Yea there are people who absolutely do not have ADHD, they get weeded out once they go through diagnosis but there are people who spend all their lives struggling, failing, falling to pieces and they need help. To anyone who is one of the ones thinking they miggt have ADHD but probably not but may be - you fucking dont! Believe me, its shit to feel like this! When i was young at least i had my imagination but I was poor at school and struggled a lot and back then there was zero help.

There might be some over diagnosis but there is a lot in the adult population certainly 40+ who are undiagnosed and should be.

we have money for war and all manner of pointless shit in this country, lets not give them an excuse to keep reducing the welfare and health care or things are going to deteriorate very quickly for a lot of people. If I hadn't got diagnosed and helped when I did, I wouldn't be here today.

Having ADHD or autism doesn’t automatically mean you are disabled. Your environment is the disabling factor (which is the principle of the social model of disability). My children were disabled by school but are thriving in adulthood. Their neurology hasn’t changed, their environment has. Personally I think the fact we view and diagnose neurodiversity through a medical model lens is the fundamental problem with all of this.

Absolutely!!

It's used as a cop-out by a lot of people.

Listen to Fonagy himself on Radio 4 on 9th October:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0032fl6?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile The segment starts at around 1:50:30.

He emphasises that mental distress in young people is has risen and is “very very real”.

He describes a diagnosis as “incredibly important”. He also says that some private providers of diagnoses are excellent and some are not and what we need is a body to oversee quality standards for ADHD and autism diagnoses.

He then goes on to explain that support needs
to be available to young people early and in their neighbourhood, rather than waiting for a diagnosis to provide support.

It isn’t just down to environment, it varies how it presents in people. I have 3 children with both and it varies massively in how it presents, disables and as regards support needs and always has even though they’ve had the same environment. 2 have also found adult hood harder.

No it differs in severity even though it impacts life significantly and how it presents.

With physical add ons. 4 times more likely to get an Ehlers Danloss diagnosis, many times more than that to be mildly hypermobile (👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻) (which leads to falls, sprained ankles and later in life, osteo arthritis), increasing recognition of greater autoimmune disease in people with ADHD, particularly rheumatoid arthritis (👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻), 2 or 3 times the rate of bed wetting in children, a very recent piece of research showed "patients with ADHD who undergo ACL reconstruction are at increased risk of early revision surgery, wound complications, and hospital readmission".

I used to teach boys with behavioural problems. Most were diagnosed with ADHD. I firmly believe 95% of them didn't have it, they just had poor parenting.

Or both?

One of the reasons girls didn't used to be diagnosed with it is that they tend not to misbehave the way boys with it do.

Which is par for the course. Women/girls are much less likely to get diagnosed/treated for loads of conditions

There is a list of actually diagnostic criteria in the DSM relating to ADHD.
Besides, it’s not just symptoms, it’s the severity of those symptoms and how long the person has suffered with them that also matter.

Yes Agee that ADHD or autism doesn’t automatically equate to disability.

I also agree that environment has a massive impact on how disabling neurodivergence is. Eg my DB also really struggled at school but does well working in software development because it is a career that provides a highly suitable environment. However, there are plenty of other areas of life where he struggles eg going on a busy commuter train with the noise and jostling and food smells

Happy to hear your DCs are doing well.

Oh! Just noticed I replied to the wrong post here, was supposed to be to the 'what IS it?' post.
Apologies Amber, I think that might come across like I'm trying to correct you or something, didn't even see your post but we saying the same thing basically

I definitely don't have ADHD. Nor am I autistic, although a friend of mine has got it into her head that I am for some reason! I admit I have a couple of autistic traits,such as not liking bright lights or sudden loud noises, and not being into 'small talk'. But I think those traits are quite common in non-autistic people. I actually did one of those tests online a couple of years ago that indicates whether or not you are likely to be autistic and my score was very low, meaning that I was highly unlikely to be autistic.

Another point of view

shared by a U.K. psychotherapist on twitter

https://x.com/psychgeist52/status/2114979157490700365?s=46&t=A2fpFNgDRyXF2d6ye97wEA

And another one, that I came across via Professor Allen Frances (who worked on a previous DSM, mentioned below.)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42920509/

De-diagnosis and the problem of revisability in adult ADHD and autismMarios Adamou et al. Front Sociol. 2026.

Abstract

Recorded diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism in adults have risen sharply across high-income health systems, and demand for assessment has risen faster still, while the best available population estimates of prevalence appear to have moved comparatively little. This paper treats that divergence as an analytic problem. We argue that adult neurodevelopmental diagnosis has undergone a threefold transformation: it has become demand-led and co-produced rather than professionally imposed, identity-conferring rather than merely descriptive, and self-reinforcing rather than static.

The result is a diagnostic culture efficient at conferring diagnoses but weak, unsystematic and largely untheorised in reconsidering them.

Drawing on the sociology of diagnosis, labelling theory, Ian Hacking's account of interactive kinds and discourse-analytic studies of diagnostic contestation, we examine how demand-led medicalisation, the reframing of diagnosis as valued identity and the expansive use of the camouflaging construct can impede revision in practice. Against this background we develop the concept of diagnostic revisability: the capacity of a diagnostic culture to reconsider a diagnostic judgement, in either direction, in the light of change in the person or in the evidence.

We distinguish correction of an insecure original judgement, revision in response to change, supersession and reversal of a non-diagnosis, and argue that revisability is an intrinsic property of diagnosis understood as defeasible inference.

Precedents exist in medication review and deprescribing and in diagnostic de-labelling elsewhere in medicine.

The case is stronger for ADHD, where symptoms and diagnostic status fluctuate and diagnosis is linked to prescribing, than for autism, where it rests principally on the security of the original assessment.

Recent Swedish proposals for de-diagnosis services make revisability visible as an object of policy, but the conceptual case does not itself entail support for any service model.

Diagnostic revision may correct error; it may also threaten identity, access to support and self-understanding, fall unequally on particular groups, or become a mechanism for rationing.

If revisability is translated into practice, it must therefore satisfy stringent ethical and institutional safeguards, including an explicit equity criterion. The design requirements presented are minimum conditions for responsible revision and criteria for when it should not proceed.

Keywords: ADHD; autism; de-diagnosis; diagnosis; epistemic injustice; medicalisation; neurodiversity; sociology of diagnosis.
Copyright © 2026 Adamou and Hill.

The concept / action / impact of de diagnosis could be extremely problematic imo. But when the original diagnosis has been very consumer / reddit led (over the last decade, especially in the last 5 years) it becomes less secure.

Hackings Lopping Effect is very important concept to understand, as is the concept of concept creep (there’s been reddit research there) alongside the impact of the nocebo effect.

Sorry you lost me with the title 3-4% of adults does not an epidemic make.

And as for describing better knowledge re how ADHD presents in women and girls and opening a door that was previously shut to them as “consumer / reddit led” words fail me.

DH doesn’t have ADHD. Most of my friends don’t. DC1 doesn’t. DC2 and I (diagnosed) very definitely do!!

Purely anecdotally, I think a lot of addiction is down to undiagnosed ADHD. The need for the dopamine hit is achieved via drugs or alcohol. This must lead to premature death and/or a life of crime. Also, people that seem to be managing are using alcohol/drugs to lead a normal life.

Also - I think phrasing is important. I am not ADHD, I have ADHD. I can’t stand it when people say ‘I am ADHD’. It is not a state of being, it is a condition. The former depersonalises it - ‘I am ADHD therefore I can’t do xyz’. When actually, it’s that I have ADHD and therefore I find certain things difficult, so I need to work out strategies in order for me to fulfil my responsibilities, and I need leeway for these but please know I’m doing my best.

Even fifteen years ago when I was teaching kids would say to me ‘I can’t do that work because I’m ADHD’. Drove me bananas. There’s a lot more to me than my ADHD. There are some things I can’t do - eg the way it affects me means I’m highly unlikely to complete a PhD because I can’t concentrate for long enough, which is something I’d have liked to have done - but that’s life.

There are many reasons why some of us struggle with loud noise and bright lights that have nothing to do with our autism. It does seem that sometimes people don't realise there are many reasons for sensory issues that have nothing to do with autism

(In my case, I have problems with loud noise because I had blocked ears and the wax removal procedure caused it. My sensitivity to light is highly likely to be related to my visual impairment b- virtually everyone with my diagnosis has the same issue)