ADHD bandwagon

[wildmushrooms]

What is this ADHD/ASD bandwagon that everyone seems to be getting on? It seems mental health, especially ADHD and ASD are the "cool" things to have. TikTok is riot with it.

I'm not denying these conditions at all, I have ADHD, Panjc disorder, Anxiety and Depressive Disorder, OCD and somatisation Disorder. These conditions were all diagnosed by a psychiatrist when I was a child many years ago. I have struggled my whole life severely and all of a sudden everyone is claiming they have ADHD/ASD without even having a diagnosis.

I'm probably being unreasonable but it is NOT "cool" or "the in trend" when you really severely struggle.

My feeling is that many of us do have neurodivergent traits, however it’s only when it causes difficulties in life that a diagnosis & support is needed.

Perhaps people are confused by the traits they see in themselves & loved ones, then seek to self diagnose, to explain certain things that they feel may be holding them back?

We may need to reconsider what is ‘typical’ & what is ‘divergent’ & come up with new ways of accepting our individuality without this impacting on the people who really do need intervention.

On tiktok it very much depends on your algorithm as to what you see. I always end up on adhd tiktok (I’m asd and adhd), none of my family ever see that side.
I can well believe that there are many women who’ve struggled for years but not understood why.
Modern life is shit for most people, and is forcing loads to look at their own behaviours and limitations to work out why they are struggling so much.
For what it’s worth I’ve yet to meet any woman who suspects she has ASD or adhd who was wrong to suspect it.
There’s enough gatekeeping going on for women without us gatekeeping each other.

It's not usually jumping on the bandwagon to have an issue like this. It is to have about six.

I was diagnosed as an adult. I have also "severely struggled" with it all my life but it wasn't identified when I was a child because I masked very effectively.

Being very academic probably helped, as I was able to fly through school with minimal effort. Plus I'm pretty sure that my mother had undiagnosed adhd which caused her to normalise a lot of the symptoms that I was presenting.

The fact that I wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult doesn't diminish in any way the impact that it this shitty condition has had on me. If anything, I think it has probably exacerbated it, as I lived with decades of shame and self-blame that could perhaps have been avoided. Even now, those feelings are so deeply ingrained that I struggle to shake them off.

There is a lot more awareness these days, and yes, I'm sure that there are some people self diagnosing who are actually just a bit lazy or disorganised or whatever. But as far as I'm concerned, greater awareness can only be a positive development. If people don't actually have adhd, then a qualified psychiatrist is very unlikely to diagnose the condition.

This isn't new. It's been talked about ad nauseum. Interesting you have all these but ADHD and ASD aren't mental health. They can have mental health illnesses associated with them (due to several reasons) but they aren't mental health conditions on their own.

I have adhd but was misdiagnosed over the years with bipolar/bpd.
I think women especially have been given antidepressants since childhood and told they have BPD when they've struggled to cope with their undiagnosed autism/adhd.
I think there is always a few bandwagon jumpers but ultimately women in their 1000s have realised the crushing overwhelming sense of not being able to cope or having children themselves who have significant ND are seeing how disenfranchised they've been having to struggle through life, often being bullied, abused in relationships due to piss poor self esteem and have struggled with employment, even addiction.
Maybe some people like the attention of a label but for 1000s upon 1000s its giving them confirmation that they're not just a fuck up and their behaviours stem from a reason other than being a bit strange or any of the other ways nd people get described.

I had never considered ADHD until I was going through autism diagnosis with dd, now I'm convinced that a lot of the challenges I've had for years are ADHD related.
I dunno about tiktok (too old) but I've discussed with people who I've worked with and for in the last 10 years and they definitely see it. In fact my old boss was on our ND for manager training and said he was thinking of me as the example all the way through the ADHD descriptions!
I don't think it undermines people who have been diagnosed previously for more people to be aware of why they find things difficult and try to find tools to support them or feel comfortable talking about it because it's more widely known. I do think the adhd vloggers/influencers/unregulated coaches is potentially dangerous.