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 don't have ADHD but I have always used a calendar.
I do think skills can be taught and learned, such as ordering steps in your head to perform a task or how to prioritise tasks. My mum is naturally organised and it rubbed off on me having watched her as a child. I'm teaching my son and daughter to keep lists, prioritise tasks, plan ahead etc.
I think a lot of adults with 'ADHD' were not taught this as a child and struggle to manage the basics as adults and have come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that they have ADHD.

There's a reason why calendars exist, and it's either:

A) Because almost everyone has ADHD or

B) Because actually an inability to remember all appointments consistently is a normal part of the human condition.

I have an ADHD diagnosis and if it were just the things in your list I wouldn’t have got the diagnosis. There’s a lot more to it than that. I think everyone to some extent would identify with at least some of those and that’s why the reels and quizzes aren’t helpful.

I had a friend who had a large screen TV at floor level in her living room. It was on constantly every time I was over there, even though no one was watching it. Her child played on the floor in the living room by this TV. Every meal time this child would only eat if an ipad was propped up for him to watch. This child has now been diagnosed with autism and has obvious tics. I can't help but think that all this exposure to screens so young has affected the forming of neural pathways in the brain. Both parents seemed totally NT.
Another person I know was an extremely lazy mother and let screens do a lot of the childcare. She would boast of her 'little geek' son who spent all his time online. Both he and his sister have been diagnosed with autism and adhd. Again, what are the chances?

Call me cynical but surely there is a link?

Omg! I tick all of those bullet points! I must be ADHD then too! Who knew?!

I was diagnosed ADHD 25 years ago when it was really hard to get a diagnosis for a young girl, I was also diagnosed OCD 3 years before that at a extremely young age and I always have 2 thoughts about the trend of being diagnosed over the last few years.

1 - It's fabulous that some people may be realising that there is help out there after feeling broken for years, some people like myself spent most of my life in shame refusing to be medicated to normalise myself the way my parents and teachers and adults told me I should act. I grew up as a teen telling my parents I am not the problem, it's not my fault you can't handle me - although as most teenage girls go my mood swings were incredible and I hated taking my medication.

2 - Not everyone needs a diagnosis to make themselves fit in, not everyone who is sad on occasion has depression, not everyone who can't get to work on time is adhd, not everyone who has multiple ways of life is bipolar, not everyone who just likes things looking neat is OCD (this is my biggest issue)

But mostly its the 'I suspect I'm autistic, I suspect I'm ADHD' Or as a few of my adult friends seem to always say 'I'm undiagnosed ADHD' - well how the fuck u know then?? It really winds me up. No one can self diagnose their health from a few tiktok videos or the NHS website. Popular as it is to do so..

As someone who has struggled with her brain her entire life, intrusive thoughts, my house is messy as fuck because OCD does not mean 'my 3 candles aren't in a perfect line' It's counting to 7 before you even can look at a candle. It's having hand sanitizer on you before COVID. It's not being able to ever eat out because you don't know.

ADHD wildly contradicts OCD and it is a battle constantly.

But I do think it's a good thing it's more open and easy to speak about. But I would say being NT is all that typical these days.

I'm fully for people pushing to be diagnosed but I wonder if there is statistics out there that show us how many ask, how many are diagnosed and how many are not

I do think if we were designing an environment for humans to achieve a healthy and peaceful life it would look nothing like working full time, with caring responsibilities, while the bar for success raises year on year with the good career, the standard of a good parent, the good body and the good home, and advertisements prod continually at your self esteem to motivate you to buy products and we atomised the wider family so you are doing it on your own but you are knackered and lonely so you accept the social media dregs that sell you back more fantasy and inadequacy.

So, while I think ADHD clearly exists, if it emerges under pressure then people are being duped into carrying a societal failing as a personal difficulty and I am sceptical about who that is serving.

Me. I identify more with a sloth.

I agree that skills can be learnt. When I was young I had a bit of social anxiety. Was scared to walk into a roomful of strangers, terrible at small talk, worried about what everyone thought of me...I think all that's normal for young people.

Then life took a strange turn and I had to develop social skills. I can now walk confidently into any room and not be overwhelmed. I can even speak in public.
DD has followed the same path.

People with actual ADHD and genuine anxiety would not be able to do this, I assume.

Glad you think its funny OP.
Ive thought about killing myself because of my inability to function and the weird things I do due to ADHD. Its distressing to know you will never be 'normal' no matter how hard you try.

Oh do give over with your ignorance. You can’t teach ADHD away. 🙄

Nope. Sorry but this is all wrong.

The current wait list is 10 weeks…..and it’s free on the NHS.

I don’t have it but my friend does and it is worse than just being a bit distracted. For example when I’ve popped over to walk the dogs together and given her flowers, she put them down to get a vase, one was dirty and couldn’t find the other one. Then started to wash up but left that to tidy up. It got to a point where she wasn’t actually doing anything! Just walking between the washing up bowl, island and looking for a clean vase! I told her she doesn’t need to do the washing up, just wash the dirty vase, pop them in and we can go! After an hour of this, she put them in a vase and we left!

When we returned she stared at everything cluttered on the island, as she wanted space to make us a coffee. I told her just to move all the dirty things on the island to next to the sink, make coffees then wash up! She left lots of cups of water, juice, specialty tea on the island as she was still drinking them all! So when she made coffee, she had 4 drinks! I offered to wash up (love washing up!) she refused and said she would get around to it, but usually puts it off until she needs all the cups, cutlery and plates back! So she finds chores overwhelming, therefore procrastination everything turns into one massive job! She’s so lovely, it must be hard living with adhd.

I think theres some truth to the pressure thing, but the reverse is also true, ADHD people thrive on chaos and tend to overload ourselves (and jump around between jobs etc)

I didn't say you can, but many people think they have it because they lack organisational skills.

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental very heritable brain disorder,( I think I read 70% or 80%).
Meds are the best treatment. Meds have changed my life. Counsellors and therapists saying “ADHD is just trauma” or “ADHD is a fear of being present” are causing harm. Thanks Gabor Mate
ADHD coaches and seeing a specialist psychiatrist who finally took me seroiusly has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made.

I have 2 children with adhd. For YEARS I “blamed” my husband. They inherited it from him. I don’t have adhd, I was just a bit distractable blah blah.

I was diagnosed about 3 years ago with absolutely rampant adhd and medication has been fab

I definitely don't have it. My daughter has it and very clearly on the spectrum. Without ADHD meds things would very quickly unravel and she would not cope with most areas of life. I do think about all these people who say that have it and don't take meds. I recognise ADHD meds do not suit everyone, however the difference is like night and day.

I think if someone can be taught this then they don’t have ADHD, they just, as you say, haven’t been taught it. This wouldn’t work for people who actually have ADHD.

I’m currently reading Sedated: how modern capitalism created our mental health crisis, and I believe that the rise in ADHD (and possibly autism) self diagnosis is linked to this. I think social media has altered our behaviour patterns so much that what looks like adhd symptoms are in reality lack on concentration and dopamine regulation caused by social media addiction.

I 100% do not have any form of ADHD, according to a quiz I did anyway

You've lumped a bunch of unrelated non diagnostic criteria together to get a bunch of strangers to agree with you that 'everyone' thinks they have ADHD and that it's over diagnosed.

Most people have some periods of time when they are less organized or more distractible. That is not a clinical marker of ADHD.

I wouldn’t treat what you see on Instagram as a reliable source of info on whether people saying they have ADHD actually have been diagnosed nor what the symptoms might be.

I grew up in an organised house (e.g. dishes always washed before bedtime, tidy house, tasks done etc) and I definitely prefer things orderly BUT do struggle with fatigue at times so put things off but reading that list about taking ages to start something then being unable to finish is something I reasonate with hugely.....(I always did wonder what was wrong with me!)....so whilst I think your upbringing can have a huge impact on being organised etc, I still think I have ADHD. It's a brain thing, not a role model thing.

The other half of the population who diagnosed themselves OCD