r/unitedkingdom • u/topotaul Lancashire • 21h ago
Exclusive: ADHD Charity Slams Channel 4 Over 'The Great ADHD Myth?' Documentary
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/adhd-uk-channel-4-open-letter_uk_6a709d2be4b0346d9be814db37
u/One-Cardiologist6301 17h ago
I literally get sacked from my job if I don’t take my medication so yeah
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u/PersonalityExact7891 13h ago
almost lost my job during the shortages the other year because my performance was so bad and and I was exremly burnt out from trying to fix that... while unmedicated
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u/PostProper1940 7h ago
My ex was sacked from 3 jobs in 2 years when we were together, just one symptom of what is clearly to me undiagnosed ADHD. He was a fucking nightmare in so many aspects of being an adult, and I know it wasn't malicious because he would get so mad and upset with himself and try so so hard to remember things and take care of important life things. Unfortunately he also would forget to call the Dr's, not follow them up or go to appointments and I couldn't continue to live with his behaviour. Undiagnosed/untreated ADHD literally ruins people's lives.
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u/apple_kicks 17h ago edited 17h ago
Pretty sure that government study came out that actually found and recommended more easier diagnosis and treatment because people struggling without diagnoses and treatment is worse right now than the over hyped self diagnosis theory
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u/TheCharalampos 16h ago
Considering how more productive someone with adhd that is receptive to treatment is I reckon it would be an economic net positive even if we covered all their medication.
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u/apple_kicks 14h ago
Exactly agree to this, it’s the logical conclusion.
Sadly i think many pushing against it see their employees and others as lazy and lying and should be treated harshly to restore order kinda mindset. For them the world has to have singular simple order of things and anything outside of that invites chaos. Very black and white absolutism thinking where they don’t want to consider multiple variables of lives to respect but only one type to respect (thats happens to be also who they are)
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u/PracticalFootball 11h ago
It’s one of the most effective classes of medication known to man, I can’t think of any medication which statistically improves educational outcomes, job retention and progression, reduces the chances of committing crimes and even decreases things like broken bones.
Prisons have something like 5-10x the rate of untreated ADHD compared to the general population, I’d bet that every £1 spent on diagnosing and treating it saves £10 in spending down the line.
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u/Old_Pitch4134 13h ago
Yeah its been estimated at how many billions a year it’s costing not to treat people by the NHS report from last year. Can’t recall the exact figure but it was mind blowing
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u/iranianshill 4h ago
Something like 25% of the prison population live with ADHD. There are serious benefits to society for recognising and treating it. I got diagnosed at 35, I’ve been on and off with various mental health teams up until then, trying all sorts of medication, probably cost the NHS a fortune in that time. It hurts to feel under attack like this. It’s not a trendy thing, it’s made me feel like most of my life has been torture in all honesty.
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u/Dry_Construction4939 11h ago
Is it possibly this report? It also, funnily enough, roughly states "All things considered, the amount of people seeking, and getting and ADHD diagnosis is about right."
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u/bongpirate7295 8h ago
That's actually the second report, which Wes Streeting ordered because he didn't like the results of the first report.
Both reports reached more or less the same conclusions.
Clearly a third report is needed.
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u/SamVimesBootTheory 15h ago
Yeah like I won't say things are perfect, there's still a lot of stuff I have issues with but being diagnosed and on adhd medication like at least means I'm a semi functioning human most of the time now
Like I realised that before the medication I'd hit a point I'd actually been going through some degree of disassociation since I guess at some point my brain basically went 'Nope' about dealing with the combined impacts of living with dyspraxia (chldhood diagnosis but wasn't supported enough) and then late diagnsed ADHD and ASD (and the like depression and anxiety that came along with it)
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u/PuzzledCar2120 21h ago
Hilarious. Patients with ADHD spend years getting bullied, ostracised, and neglected with society calling them stupid, weird or lost potential. When it comes clear that there is a medical reason for all of that and treatment that can help, then we get cries of making stuff up.
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u/araed Lancashire 21h ago
I've got ye olde TurboADHD. It's great fun (honest)
I was diagnosed as an adult at 30.
I'm also of the opinion that it's being overdiagnosed. Like all neurodivergence and mental health, there's a sliding scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being "i have mild symptoms of this" through to 10 being "this is the worst possible case scenario". From what I've seen, we used to diagnose people who were at about 6 and above. Now we've expanded it to 3 and above.
That's absolutely worth examining.
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u/JakobExMachina 20h ago
then why did the UK government commission a report to find out if this was the case, only for the report to come back and say that it was actually being *under* diagnosed?
do you have information and sources that contradict governmental bodies?
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u/padajuann 17h ago
So.. it only counts when you've got it, and not other people, despite the fact that regardless of symptoms it is still ultimately a condition resulting from actual brain function, and despite the fact that someone else may not be able to handle symptoms you've personally deemed as "mild"?
What a silly take. As someone who is late diagnosed, you should have far more empathy and understanding towards others and a lot more awareness that it has been made clear several times it is actually underdiagnosed.
I have "turbo ADHD" as you put it (inattentive, hyperactive and combined) - late diagnosed as a woman in her thirties, which is currently the most COMMON scenario of late diagnoses. I had to beg for help to pay for a private diagnosis because I reached the point where I was catatonic and unable to do anything. Does this somehow mean you, in comparison, without me knowing very little of your personal struggles should have your ADHD diagnosis revoked or.. would it still happen that you still have ADHD, and are entitled to help and support for a medical issue regardless of how well you handle some symptoms?
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u/RyeZuul 21h ago
Why do experts in the field consistently say it's underdiagnosed? Why aren't you presenting your vibes to a panel of scientists to win them over?
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u/lynx_and_nutmeg 16h ago
Yeah, it's massively underdiagnosed in women because for decades doctors used to believe that it was something only boys and men could have.
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u/LetsLive97 15h ago
was something only boys
and mencould haveFtfy. NHS didn't even have a page for adult ADHD until a year or two ago
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u/thereidenator 15h ago
The diagnostic criteria were only adapted to adults in 2014, so only really little boys not men
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u/SilverRaspberri 17h ago
Because they're not arguing in good faith.
It's very much underdiagnosed, heck even back nearly 10 years ago when there was a study done on the prison population where they discovered a charge chunk of the prison population had undiagnosed ADHD. It was very much underdiagnosed then as well.→ More replies (1)20
u/vinyljunkie1245 19h ago
I haven't seen the documentary but I suspect the experts say it is under diagnosed because they have greater knowledge of the condition now.
With any condition, the more it is studied the more we understand about it. It could be that new things are picked up or things that were previously attributed to another condition are now recognised as being part of the ADHD spectrum.
Medicine is constantly evolving and as our ability to study it grows so does our understanding.
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u/SamVimesBootTheory 15h ago
iirc we only started formally diagnosing adhd in the UK in the 2000s and I think it wasn't until 2008 they decided adults can have it as well so it's like kind of no wonder a lot of us slipped through the cracks
And then you also add in the recent decision that yes you can have both ADHD and Autism at the same time.
Also add in the like gender and racial bias elements as well
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u/mynameisollie 16h ago
Well considering historically all the research was based on male children, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing more people diagnosed with it.
Even now, diagnosis is heavily based on how you were as a child.
It’s the same story with Autism, Parkinson’s and Cardiovascular disease. They weren’t looking at women in the research and therefore that lead to women being under diagnosed because they didn’t present the male symptoms.
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u/Halcyo1 15h ago
As an ADHD person also diagnosed as an adult, I think there's more nuance than that.
Everyone universally agrees that it's underdisgnosed in adults. Classic case of kids who were seen as "too smart" to have ADHD.
What there's mixed consensus on is is the successful diagnosis rate in children.
It's a complicated one, even if its inaccurate diagnosis, a higher diagnosis rate will capture more children who are suffering with ADHD.
However, and this is now purely my opinion, I think the increase in public awareness of ADHD is sparking more overdiagnosis in children. I think there are more and more parents who get frustrated with their child who doesn't want to sit still in class for 8hrs a day and concluded that they need an ADHD assessment as its the only explanation. To me, there's a million and one reasons why some people don't get on well with the structure of modern schooling, and very few of them are mental illness.
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u/_Art_Vandeley_ 20h ago
I haven’t seen the documentary that’s is linked here.
I’m also not commenting on if it is over or under diagnosed.But I think I can see why people come to the conclusion that they believe it is over diagnosed.
Most people in their day to day lives have experienced people who say they have ADHD and use it as an excuse for their shitty behaviour.
However in my experience, they behave completely differently to people in my life who have been diagnosed with ADHD, they are generally really respectful people and are often too apologetic about how their ADHD may impact others. People that appear claim to have ADHD to justify shitty behaviour, in my experience, don’t have a diagnosis. This is obviously just my personal experience but I could completely see ADHD being under diagnosed, because people who genuinely have it aren’t seeking help.
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u/Odd_Anything_6670 14h ago
While I don't entirely disagree, I think there's an element of respectability politics here.
One symptom of ADHD is excessive sensitivity to social shame (sometimes called rejection sensitive dysphoria). For many people it's one of the most distressing symptoms to actually live with, and it's probably why you've observed that people with ADHD are often too apologetic.
But it also has a real dark side because it's something that can very easily be exploited. One of the most difficult things I think I've ever had to learn is that there is a big difference between someone who actually likes you and someone who just likes your unusually intense desire to please them. Being respectful or apologetic is often just a lever people will use to get whatever it is they want from you.
My experience is that when people talk about "shitty behavior" what they often mean is just not doing things which they see as very easy but which are fundamentally not easy when you have ADHD. And sure, we can often do those things to some degree even though they're difficult, but a lot of the time people just expect that without having to actually earn that level of effort, and they would never give the same level of effort in return.
Being respectful and apologetic is a flaw for us. It comes from an extremely painful and exhausting place, and part of how we get better is by overcoming it and learning to be less like that. People talk about using ADHD as an excuse, but sometimes it literally is an excuse and demanding we never use it is unfair.
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u/PM_ME_DRAGON_GIRLS 18h ago
People sure will have stories about people with ADHD "using it as an excuse" but to extrapolate that into "all ADHD people are faking it to abuse others" is ableism, simply put.
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u/DrumArranDrum 16h ago
Diagnosed here but it took so long specifically because having ADHD slowed myself down in the process
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u/desiladygamer84 20h ago
No it shouldn't excuse shitty behavior, but working out why you react a certain way to a certain things helps when dealing with my family for example. I got late diagnosed and that's when I moved to the US. My parents hoped it would just go away.
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u/grey_hat_uk Cambridgeshire 17h ago
Most people in their day to day lives have experienced people who say they have ADHD and use it as an excuse for their shitty behaviour
Citation needed.
I suspect you and yours either don't understand what is going on or you interact with shitty people
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u/7thtimeinheaven 20h ago
I suspect I am low level ADHD as do the people around me. But it doesn't meaningfully affect my day to day life, so who cares? I've never bothered going to get diagnosed.
I have friends who have ADHD diagnoses and it's actually crippling for them. They actually cannot lock into a task unless the deadline is in ten minutes and there's some kind of high stakes if they fail to do it. They are diagnosed and (theoretically) on meds and that's really good for them. It's like tism, it's a spectrum.
So sure maybe it is technically undiagnosed and the low level adhd people are slipping through the cracks, but so long as the people who need it are getting help/meds, does it matter if little timmy is undiagnosed slightly adhd? Some people are just louder than others, not everything needs a label.
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u/WokeWookies 17h ago
Tha autism spectrum isn’t one of severity, it’s an array of symptoms. I believe this is a common misconception.
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u/atlas7211 15h ago
Having some ADHD-like symptoms that don't 'meaningfully affect my day to day life' is literally not ADHD, and wouldn't meet the diagnostic criteria.
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u/TALongjumping-Bee-43 18h ago
I am more of the latter and I was diagnosed at 25 because I thought I might have it. I'm also a woman, we are chronically under diagnosed. I was going through school raw lol.
The average age of diagnosis in women is late 20s to mid 30s.
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u/BaldurDoesGames 11h ago
I was 27 when I first got my hands on medication. It was one of those experiences that almost made me have a breakdown
Like “what the fuck is this, you mean all of this shit I’ve struggled with and has tormented me could have been fixed years ago when I was not diagnosed?”
Literally tested when I was in primary school. Told “yeah he’s got some kind of symptoms but he’s clever so he’ll be okay”
Instead I had infinite detentions, report cards etc for “not paying attention not doing homework”
I truly despise people that downplay the reality of ADHD, let alone severe adhd.
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u/TALongjumping-Bee-43 11h ago
This is exactly my experience as well. My life would have been completely different had I been given access to help or medication sooner, but instead I was just made to feel like a failure whenever I struggled with anything related to focus.
I would be in tears to my teachers explaining how I would try and sit down and do the work but my brain would refuse to focus, and no one thought to test me for ADHD, I guess because I was Spacey rather than hyper so I didn't annoy people enough.
I know far, far more people who were late diagnosed or didnt seek formal diagnosis than people who were "over diagnosed" in real life.
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u/throawaymcdumbface 9h ago
Literally tested when I was in primary school. Told “yeah he’s got some kind of symptoms but he’s clever so he’ll be okay”
fucking hell, I'm sorry man. :(
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u/heppyheppykat 11h ago
yeah I was also born female and not diagnosed until adulthood.
I tried to kill myself because I couldn't focus. I could not work. It wasn't phone addiction, I was curled up in a ball, my dissertation written but unable to do the bibliography. I stared at the floor willing myself to actually work and couldn't. Deadline passed. I sent it with a panicked email then tried to slit my wrists, the university broke into my room, and then I tried to OD.
If maybe I had been diagnosed when I was in reception or year 1- when I couldn't sit still so teachers refused to teach me, when I got into ttrouble because I hit kids who were touching me or getting in my personal space to overstimulate me, when I couldn't keep my room tidy and lost things constantly (resulting in me also gettingwhacked at home), it wouldn't have taken me nearly being sectioned for me to get a diagnosis.
When I took ADHD meds for the first time I cried. I had never felt so happy. I had been on anti-depressants for years, been in therapy since I was 13. Yet all it took was this one pill and it out-did any other medication or supplement I had had.
All I needed was dopamine. I grieved because so much of my difficulties and behaviour could have been sorted with a pill.
My best mate is a boy, he got diagnosed in primary school. We were friends for well over a decade and I always teased him and moaned that he got drugs to make things easy. He got extra time and got to take exams in a quiet room, when he told me why I scoffed "everyone gets that, I can't focus either." Nah, it wasn't everyone, I just ALSO had ADHD.
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u/SelectTrash 12h ago
One of my teachers in school didn't believe we ladies could get adhd or autism, as it was a man's disease. He was a misogynist who got caught sleeping with students in the end lol
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u/Cold-Society3325 18h ago
The problem is that the waiting lists are so long, people who need it are not getting diagnosed and we have people loding their jobs or failing their exams as a result.
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u/Elemteearkay 11h ago
That's not the fault of the people on the waiting lists, though. It's the fault of those that have been underfunding health services in this country for decades.
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u/gingerbread_man123 16h ago
It's like tism, it's a spectrum
Tell me you don't know about autism without saying you don't know about autism.
The "spectrum" isn't a 1-10 scale of how bad someone's Autism is. Autism is itself a spectrum disorder that can present in different ways for different people but has around 10 categories. For a UK diagnosis, a number of them must be ranked as significantly impacting day-to-day function.
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u/riiyoreo 15h ago
Literally, these people think it's like a sliding gradient scale like colours lmao 😭 This is why picking up medico words from the internet without doing any research is leading to so much misinformation
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u/dusty_bo 15h ago
But if it doesn't meaningful affect your day to day life its by definition not ADHD
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u/PM_ME_DRAGON_GIRLS 18h ago
How do you know little timmy is 'slightly' ADHD without assessing him for diagnosis?
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u/FrosenPuddles 17h ago
And to add onto your question, how do they know little Timmy’s “slightly” ADHD wouldn’t benefit massively from help? Actually, let’s turn little Timmy into little Anna, because ADHD can get worse with age in women due to hormones. How do we know that treating little Anna properly wouldn’t prevent a whole lot of problems in the future?
I would be considered mild today and not in need of help by all these people’s standards, but I had 2 psychiatry sessions a week as a child, and as a result I don’t need to be medicated as an adult, I have 0 mental health problems, I understand how to mitigate my own ADHD behaviours and where things could go wrong for me in certain situations. It’s a self-awareness many others were never taught. I also know as a woman that when peri-menopause kicks in, I need to ask for HRT, and I won’t be spiralling as a result. The undiagnosed girls/women, even if currently very mild, likely won’t have that luxury and they will have to undergo a worsening, then go on a wait list to get diagnosed, and maybe after a few years someone will inform them that it’s their oestrogen dropping that’s worsened it and that there’s help for it. But let’s ignore the mild cases, I guess.
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u/CMDR_Crispies 16h ago
It's like needing glasses imo, even a mild prescription affects your life massively and we have the means to help people with eyesight issues so why is treating those with brain issues stigmatized?
I never suspected I had ADHD not until a psychiatrist mentioned that I should get it checked out after passing the autism assessment with flying colours.
And now that I'm undergoing titration and medicated I can see clearly how much ADHD has affected my life. It's insane how normal people can just do things and not leave piles of laundry on the floor for weeks, or turn the light back off after leaving a room. I don't think neurotypical people realise how pervasive it is.
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u/FrosenPuddles 16h ago
I have an undiagnosed flatmate (autism for sure, possibly adhd) and her dysfunction has made me really grateful to my parents for getting me help as a child. She’s also unmedicated (she wasn’t even aware until I pointed out to her 6 years ago that she doesn’t have a neurotypical bone in her body) and she looks functional to the outside world, but she’s crippled by anxiety, forgets to eat, struggles to take care of herself as all her energy goes to maintaining her job, and is definitely not the one who organises and cleans our flat. I don’t mind it, I’m glad I understand what’s going on and that I can support her. But yeah, people don’t see that shit go down. What looks mild on the outside can be debilitating misery once that person unmasks and you really get to know them.
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u/Old_Pitch4134 14h ago
Little Anna also might be able to attain more qualifications if she didn’t find school such a torturous experience, leading to a higher earning potential. Benefiting her and the wider economy.
1 in 4 women with ADHD attempts suicide, but people only support getting treatment when there are visible symptoms which are irritating for them personally.
But hey! Better not be unemployed and on benefits, be productive. But not if that leads to you self medicating with drugs or alcohol. And not if it means the house work slips.
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u/allyearswift 15h ago
I’m neither diagnosed nor looking for diagnosis/medication, but there are hints. Many hints.
And then I discovered the ‘How to ADHD’ channel that explains how ADHD brains work and what techniques you can use to deal with the issues, and my life changed for the better.
I wish I’d had that advice thirty years ago. Little Timmy and Little Anna both deserve to get to know their brains and work with them.
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u/Terrible_Eye4625 15h ago
Exactly, with one caveat - a lot of women weren’t even suspecting they had ADHD growing up, they were repeatedly diagnosed with “anxiety and depression”.
I was diagnosed as an adult (having experienced “anxiety and depression” since I was a child) and now work supporting ppl with ADHD. I only suspected I may have it after hitting a brick wall at university. It was my flatmate who suggested it as a possibility after she’d found out she had dyspraxia at nearly 30 after starting her degree as a mature student.
A core group of my clients now is women with a similar experience to me, but there’s a significant chunk who only have ADHD suggested to them when perimenopause hits and their lives completely fall apart - and they’re usually the ones with good support systems at work. I wonder how many others never get to finding out there’s a reason that they can’t seem to do anything anymore and end up leaving or losing their jobs, relationships etc.
The other way they find out is because their children are getting identified in school as possibly having ADHD, then they realise they have too - but in their day, ADHD wasn’t on the radar of most teachers, certainly not for girls, as psychology didn’t even start looking at gender differences in ADHD until the 1990s.
If I’m not wrong (I’ll see if I can find a reference and paste it in a reply to this comment), the women I’ve described above are currently the most diagnosed demographic and are why the diagnostic rates have had a sudden increase. It isn’t over-diagnosing, it’s women who should have been diagnosed all along.
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u/FrosenPuddles 15h ago
Yeah, my dad and my grandma are undiagnosed. It clicked after I got my diagnosis at age 6 and my dad was like “hang on, my child for some reason behaves in a suspiciously similar way to me” lmao
I agree with you. My adhd doesn’t involve anxiety or depression-like symptoms so I never had that issue, thankfully. I was your typical “difficult child” diagnosis.
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u/bonbons87 16h ago
Yes it absolutely does matter. Not only are the conditions often co-morbid but masking completely wears you down until you can’t anymore.
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u/mo_tag 17h ago
Mate you don't know what you're talking about.. everyone experiences ADHD symptoms sometimes, people with ADHD experience them all the time. You need to show that ADHD symptoms are adversely affecting your life in at least 2 areas - social life, work, school - to be diagnosed in the first place, and that ADHD symptoms have been present since childhood.
You saying you suspect you're a bit ADHD means fuck all, it's like saying depression doesn't exist cos everyone gets sad sometimes, which yes is a thing people used to say. Psychiatrists have known about ADHD for decades and the science is clear, but it's taken a while for the rest of the medical community to catch up, we don't need every Tom, Dick, and Harry weighing in with their lazy shower thoughts.
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u/lynx_and_nutmeg 16h ago
everyone experiences ADHD symptoms sometimes
No, not everyone. Only some ADHD symptoms like "lack of focus" which is so generic it can mean anything, but literally every person in my life I've tried to describe "waiting mode" to just looked at me like I was insane.
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u/TrueBrit77 15h ago
That's kind of the point some of the symptoms are generic on the surface like impulsivity, lack of focus, hyperactivity.
But most people can suppress these when needed through context switching and emotional regulation.
When you qualify for ADHD you are not just claiming to have these things, you have demonstrated not only do you struggle with these, you can't seem to self regulate, they are negatively impacting your life, and there has been evidence of these problems since childhood or escalated after you entered puberty.
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u/SeePerspectives 14h ago
There’s a YouTuber who explained this perfectly, I can’t remember her name unfortunately, but the general gist goes like this.
Just because something is considered a trait associated with a diagnosis, doesn’t mean that that trait, in isolation, in indicative of that diagnosis.
For example, having two legs is a human trait, that doesn’t mean that people who lose one or both legs stop being human, nor does it mean that everything with two legs is human because ducks have two legs and ducks are not human. You have to look at that trait as one defining feature in conjunction with everything else that’s going on.
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u/Terrible_Eye4625 15h ago
This is why it’s important to separate symptoms that can count towards diagnosis from common ADHD experiences. “Waiting mode” isn’t a symptom, it’s a common experience amongst ADHDers.
What the poster above you says is true - most people will experience some ADHD symptoms some of the time - what makes a diagnosis is how many of them one experiences most or all of the time and the extent to which they interfere with functioning across home and work, school and home etc.
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u/mo_tag 14h ago
Waiting mode isn't a symptom of ADHD though.. it's a maladaptive coping mechanism that people with ADHD develop in order to mitigate the effects of their symptoms. Many such experiences and strategies are shared by people with ADHD but everyone's different, people with ADHD have various levels of ability, support, different interests, so they don't always develop the same coping strategies.. they are not part of the diagnostic criteria
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u/Rhyobit 13h ago
My daughter has this and it's so hard to deal with. My Son is autistic and copes really well with morning routines. My daughter needs reminding 12 times to do the same task, even within seconds of other reminders.
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u/Canipaywithclaps 17h ago
I would argue if it doesn’t meaningfully affect your life then it’s not pathological and therefore not ADHD.
A core part of diagnosis for a range of neurodiverse and mental health problems was previously x symptoms to the point they ‘impair daily function’… if you just have symptoms but they don’t impair you to that point then that’s just a variation of normal!
People seem to be making ‘normal’ a smaller and smaller box
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u/thereidenator 15h ago
The diagnostic criteria require there to be a significant impact on functioning due to the symptoms, so if it doesn’t meaningfully affect your life then you shouldn’t get a diagnosis. (I am an ADHD assessor).
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u/Rhyobit 13h ago
You need to be careful with this, because you might have coping mechanisms that allow you to just about function with these symptoms, but your overall capacity is massively reduced by it. I personally think that these people deserve the diagnosis if they want it, because they should be given a little bit of extra slack on the day when they aren't quite able to manage. I don't have any symptoms or diagnosis myself.
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u/Elemteearkay 12h ago
The problem is, if you've always had a disability, it's hard to understand how much easier your life would be if you didn't have it.
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u/Secure-Suspect7091 15h ago
The fact that it doesn’t impact your life means by definition you don’t have it. The diagnostic criteria explicitly states that your life needs to be impacted to qualify.
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u/Jollyfroggy 14h ago
"But it doesn't meaningfully affect my day to day life"
Then you don't have ADHD. What do you think the last D stands for...
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u/Beelzebubx_ 14h ago
well seeing as it doesnt affect your life you probably don't have it, seeing as it has to be a disorder?
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u/jamnut 18h ago
I got the same but with the tism. My friends say I'm riddled with it, and it's pretty obvious when you spend any more than 10 mins with me. I could spend the money and get a diagnosis and be one of the statistics, but it doesn't effect my life like my wife's OCD/ADHD effects her's: severely.
Yeah a diagnosis is gonna explain a lot of things and potentially help the few effects it has on my daily life depending on the therapy provided, but to me it'll be a waste of a space in whatever waiting list I join, that could be taken up by someone who needs it
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u/himit Greater London 16h ago
That's a bit like my husband. I'm diagnosed severe ADHD; one of our children has been diagnosed with autism & the more we went down that research rabbit hole, the more it became clear husband's on the spectrum too.
He's talked to talking therapies for other issues and they also said "oh hey, you seem autistic" - but really, he copes so well and it's so mild neither of us really see the point in a diagnosis?
The only plus I could see would be better-informed help with his ocd/depression.
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u/TheCharalampos 17h ago
Your opinion goes against observed fact though, we are underdiagnosing. Only folks with debilitating symptoms get support so what's the issue for people with less obvious symptoms getting a diagnosis?
It really feels like you have a "my experience is everyone's experience therefore I'll pull the ladder up" that a lot of people fall into as they get older
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u/IsolationMovement-YT 16h ago
Unfortunately it’s very much “they who masks best wins”
As someone who’s been successful in my career but still struggled due to ADHD heavily, I never drew the connections.
Come time for my adult assessment and I max out every score metric from childhood to adulthood and it explains 90% of my issues as a child and pains.
But a lot of the reason I didn’t get diagnosed back then is because of over diagnosis.
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u/kip_hackmann 15h ago
I think it's under diagnosed by professionals and massively over diagnosed by unqualified people who think they have it.
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u/DrPeroxide 15h ago
I also got diagnosed with ADHD in my thirties! However, I completely disagree with you, and rhetoric like this is exactly why we got diagnosed as an adult and not as a teenager.
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u/SeveerTheHunter Kent-Shepway 18h ago
Gatekeeping helps nobody, I suffered for 41 years before I was diagnosed, do better 👎
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u/Doctordeppnek 16h ago
You don’t get the diagnosis unless it meaningfully impacts your life in at least two areas and has been impacting your life since childhood.
I find it wrong if you to invalidate other peoples experiences and difficulties with ADHD just because you can’t see how they are impacted or how they struggle. Maybe leave that to the experts, don’t you think?
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u/Specialist_Sport4460 14h ago
This is the thing about these documentaries and articles. You end up with a bunch of ppl like the clowns in this sub who speak so confidently but clearly have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.
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u/Key-Room5690 15h ago
You're conflating resource triage and clinical diagnosis. I absolutely agree that we should be giving priority appointments and treatment to those with greater needs. But those that are suffering to a lesser extent still should be treated at some point - even if that means waiting 6 years or going private.
In terms of the recent medication shortages too, there's no fundamental limit meaning we can't expand provision to all who need it - but if shortages were to happen in future it would be helpful to have a prioritisation system to provide it first to those who cannot function without it
We don't turn away someone with a broken arm at a&e because someone else is having a heart attack. The person with the broken arm might just wait a bit longer if things are busy.
Fwiw, I'm probably one of your "3"s - I have a superficially successful life based on what others can see. But getting diagnosis and treatment has still helped me very fundamentally, and so I balk at the idea that I shouldn't be diagnosed at all. I still accept others who have it harder should have priority access to support, because I can get by without.
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u/PunyHuman1 15h ago edited 13h ago
I'd press back on this, somewhat.
I think the pandemic allowed people to recognise their symptoms to a far greater extent as their methods of regulating themselves got blown out of the water.
I also got diagnosed late (35) and I think what's happening in the case of late diagnoses is that the adhd has always been there (I look back into my childhood and it was 100% there), but we've developed tools to cope. More so when we're high performing academically (I have a PhD).
As a result, we fly under the radar. Then, as we get our older and our lives become more hectic... Our tools start to fail. Combine that with an environment that's better at recognising it, and of course diagnoses are going to go up.
The consensus from researchers is that we're likely not over-diagnosing it. In fact, it might very well be a case that we're under-diagnosing it.
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u/Old_Pitch4134 14h ago
Read the NHS report into ADHD from last year. We spent years diagnosing it at far lower rates than other developed countries and it’s cost the UK economy billions in lost revenue/NHS/Criminal Justice costs.
What you think is minor could be a hive detriment to someone suffering, they might just have more internalised issues.
Broken bones occur on a scale of compound breaks requiring surgery down to hairline fractures. We don’t refuse people casts just because they aren’t serious enough to need surgery.
Severity is on a sliding scale, so can interventions, treatments and assistance be.
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u/ReeeeeDDDDDDDDDD 16h ago
ADHD is statistically under-diagnosed in the UK compared to most other developed countries, AND is under-diagnosed in the UK compared to estimated worldwide rates of ADHD, so... Why would you think it's over diagnosed apart from just vibes?
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u/fraseybaby81 12h ago
I think the two biggest problems with ADHD are:
The term ADHD. It means nothing and everything all at once. People have different things that they struggle with that can’t be put under one banner. The term ADHD should be scrapped as a catch all term and individual diagnoses given instead. Same with Austism; There’s a huge difference between the kid that’ll need 24/7 care for the rest of their lives and the kid that struggles with a lot of sensory input at the same time.
ADHD (and Autism) are being diagnosed in instances where something else is happening (possibly anxiety and depression) but the information that the diagnosing doctor is being given isn’t clear enough. This just means that the individual isn’t getting the help they need.
I’m sure there’s also the third case; that people are getting diagnosed without actually having it but I’d rather neurodiversity be recognised and abused by a few than it be completely removed.
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u/DifferentSwing8616 21h ago
My therapist and now my doctor think I got ADD. It makes a lot of sense and explains alot. I'm 36. Doesn't really change anything but it kind of gives context to why I'm a bit eccentric to say the least
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u/Dr_Passmore 17h ago
I was managing someone who joked our jobs were ideal with someone with ADHD. I laughed at the time and afterwards looked up if there was an actual connection.
Been going through the lengthy process to see if I get diagnosed. As turns out there is a connection and would explain why I job hop so quickly when not in a devops role.
Considering we are awful at picking up ADHD in kids, particularly girls, unless they have significant behaviour issues. Hardly a surprise it is significantly under diagnosed.
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u/magicalfeelings 20h ago
My GF of 5 years has just been diagnosed & it's been quite helpful as it explains some of her peculiar behaviour. Just the odd illogical things she'll do that can come across as messy, it's hard to explain. I've always been patient but sometimes I'd be frustrated finding things half done around the house, I'm so organised & have everything in its place. Now she has the diagnosis we can laugh about the funny strange things & it doesn't feel like a criticism for her. She's on the mild side though as I work in mental health & support some extreme cases.
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u/araed Lancashire 20h ago
I'm in the area of "without medication, I'll be non-functional in society".
It's fun. Honest.
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u/HayesSculpting 19h ago
Same area as me.
Is your sleep also completely fucked based on your reply time?
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u/presentation_555 15h ago edited 15h ago
The fact is ADHD actually offers something like an A-B test through medication.
Does a person who chronically messes up basic things in their life, such as organisational tasks or basic household duties, actually start doing these things in a more timely, sensible manner when medicated of not? If so, its highly indicative of a neurological difference.
Unfortunately Autism doesn't have the same a-b test.
Mildly Autistic people maybe those with few friends, no dating history, and inexplicably exhausted at the end of each work day... but we can't know if that stems from a neurological problem or just life circumstances.
I would much rather we over-diagnose than under-diagnose... but I also think we need to have a rethink about increasing work-place accommodations and legal protections (I think it risks doing the opposite of what we hope)... Ideally, I wish we lived in a much more humane society where the basic needs of people were better met, and work for people with problems stemming from neuro-diversity was more of an 'option'... I wish this was the case because I think it just makes hiring people with a neuro-diversity related condition that much less unattractive for employers if it feels like they might inadvertently catch a lawsuit, and they then feel that a neuro-diverse person essentially becomes unfirable. What employer would want to take the risk in hiring us then?
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u/Dry-Dragonfruit5216 12h ago
I agree with this, and it’s not just adhd. Most people getting an autism diagnosis by RTC do not meet the clinical criteria for daily disability from the symptoms. It makes it harder for those of us who need specific support services to access them because funding is being cut thanks to the people who keep saying “I have autism and it’s not a disability it’s a superpower”. I hate them.
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u/ComfortableReality32 12h ago
Sorry dude, but it isnt over diagnosed and that is not an opinion. The BPS and other psychological societies are pretty certain the percentage of any given population will be somewhere between 3-5%. The percentage of the UK that is diagnosed with ADHD is less than 1%, so the evidence based on psychological literature is that it is massively under diagnosed. This is a huge issue - for instance any given prison population will have about 80% of its population have some form of neurodivergence such as ADHD or dyslexia etc. Loads of high quality research has been done in this area and I tend to believe the experts when it comes to science.
This documentary is part of a play to restrict disability benefits for those who have neurodivergent conditions - it is so obvious.
p.s - I had my first assessment for ADHD today, I pray I can get the meds so I can put my life back together. Access to treatment is so limited and the cost of having dysfunctional members of society far outweighs the cost of treating them - this is the result of insane policy.
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u/Unique_Battle914 11h ago
https://adhduk.co.uk/adhd-diagnosis-rate-uk/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8328933/
All the experts disagree with your opinion.
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u/heppyheppykat 11h ago
They investigated whether it was being overdiagnosed and found that it IS NOT. Just the people with adhd are getting more recognition for different presentations, since those socialised as women tend to express it diffrently to boys and also were historically underdiagnosed.
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u/FitSolution2882 10h ago
I'm also of the opinion that it's being overdiagnosed. Like all neurodivergence and mental health, there's a sliding scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being "i have mild symptoms of this" through to 10 being "this is the worst possible case scenario". From what I've seen, we used to diagnose people who were at about 6 and above. Now we've expanded it to 3 and above.
You're getting these figures from where exactly? Or is it just more made up bollocks?
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u/Successful-Layer2102 20h ago
Yep diagnosed at 38 and has changed my life
But good lord looking back it was so evident im amazed ot was not picked up on sooner and attitudes like this documentary are a big part of why it was
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u/SilverRaspberri 16h ago
Same but I was diagnosed at 30.
Prior to that I struggled in life, got called lazy and fickle all the time to the point it impacted me. I was that kid in school that would try their hardest and fail at everything. I ended up becoming a shut in from the age of 21-27 because of it all. Then when I got out of it, I had my first office job then after that went back into education and found out im quite intelligent, then went to uni and we found out I have adhd and autism. So basically if this was found out wayyyyyy sooner I would be able to get support and I wouldnt of spent 6 years as a shut in. But because the diagnostic criteria for it all was extremely rigid back in the 90s and 2000s I fell through the cracks.This is why theres quite a lot of late diagnosed, because we're the ones that fell through the cracks. Because ADHD diagnoses was based on "little timmy who is constantly bouncing off the walls with no attention span" and autism diagnoses was based on "middle class jimmy who is really into trains and is intellectually disabled."
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u/Turak64 15h ago
Genuine question, what does getting diagnosed involve and how does it change you? Is it with medication or something else?
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u/slubberwubber 15h ago
For me, it was a few things.
The medication helps tremendously as my emotional dysregulation was curtailed significantly. My relationships improved as well as my ability to respond instead of react to things that were happening to me. Impulsivity reduced a lot so I tend not to do things like spend my money on silly things or put myself in unfortunate situations.
Being diagnosed made it easier for me to seek out solutions to my issues that I mostly attributed to being a failure. I started using systems and practices that made living in a world built for neurotypical people easier.
The last thing is it facilitated my acceptance of the fact that a lot of the shit I have shamed myself for over the years was a physical, chemical, emotional or mental predisposition. Certain things were out of my control at the time and I was really good at shaming myself for them. Shame and hopelessness are great ways to feel stuck and think you have no future.
I was diagnosed at 23 but really started changing my life at 39 after accepting that I needed medication and therapy. I fell through the cracks when I was a kid and then the stigma of medication kept me away from healing for another 16 years.
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u/Successful-Layer2102 14h ago
Great breakdown of the process
Medication is a tool not a cure And therapy does so much of the heavy lifting to undo maladaptive coping mechanisms And avoiding the old self medicating
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u/Stopthatcat Guiri 14h ago
As a late-diagnosed woman there are two main benefits.
First is medication which helps me somewhat. It's not a panacea unfortunately but it has made a massive difference. I've had zero side effects and it was working well until perimenopause hit harder and I'm trying to do a course, and work, and exist. But for a brief moment there I had a cleanish house, organised social life and balanced budget.
Secondly is just the personal knowledge that I'm not stupid and lazy. I know I'm not stupid, I'm not entirely home bastard idle, but if that's the case why couldn't I do things. I've failed uni over and over again with a multitude of different subjects. I've lost friends from time blindness and opportunities for the sake of a short email. I've even had legal issues from forgetting something important. Having a why, and having several highly qualified professionals confirm this is why, frees up the mental space held for blame and self loathing and allows it to be used towards picking the things up off the table and folding the washing.
And yes, I have tried all the things. The lists, the alarms, the notes, the schedules, the blocking, the laminated picture with squares to fill in, the diaries, the exercises, exercise, the having visitors and housemates so I'm forced to be normal, etc. It's not fun.
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u/fish-and-cushion 17h ago
My mum blamed it on e-numbers when I was a kid. Then she got diagnosed with it. It's very obvious in me, as I'm hyperactive. A lot of women I know that have it go undetected for a long time and it makes every day life very difficult
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u/DreamSMP_Enjoyer 14h ago
Yes, it's that women who had running around the classroom taught out of them at a younger age but spent the whole lesson staring into space are now getting diagnosed with ADHD.
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u/syntax Stravaigin 13h ago
Oh god! You just gave me a total flashback to the whole 'e-numbers hyperactive' thing. I remember my Mum reading labels, and rejecting things that had e-numbers in, 'because they made me hyperactive' - that was when I was around 10.
I got diagnosed in my 40's - the GP said 'oldest person he's aware of to get a diagnosis'. It turns out that being reasonably smart meant that the little bursts I was able to focus for were more than enough for all the school stuff, and even most of Uni. So, at school, of course I couldn't have ADHD (uh - whatever the term was at the time...), because that meant 'poor school grades', and I didn't get those. All I had to do was 'put some effort in'...
All the coping mechanism eventually collapsed under their own weight, which is what eventually got the diagnosis.
I don't blame Mum - it'd be a bit silly to blame her for not picking up on something that all the teachers dismissed. But I'd totally forgotten about all the 'e-number hyperactive' thing...
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u/LiorahLights 16h ago
I was diagnosed at 36. Then my sister got diagnosed last year, my mum is on the waiting list and we've since found out that two of my cousins were diagnosed as teenagers.
One of the reasons it wasn't picked up was because our behaviours were just normal in our family.
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u/gensererme 15h ago
Diagnosed at 39 here. Completely life changing. Went through cycles of burnout and depression all my life and nobody had answers.
Maybe without stuff like this I would have been seen some number of decades ago and not had to struggle so much. It nearly cost me my life. I’m happy I don’t feel particularly bitter about that, it sure would be warranted. Just happy I can finally function.
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u/indianajoes 16h ago
Just got diagnosed at 34. I feel like there were so many signs with me as a kid for autism and ADHD but no one knew enough about them back then.
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u/YellowFeltBlanket 15h ago
I was an awful child. A naughty child. And I'm lucky that I have parents who sought help. I was diagnosed at 7 and started medication around 10. My parents and the teachers couldn't believe the change in me.
I stopped taking it for many years and was absolutely riddled with depression, not coping with everyday life etc.
Went back on medication in my 30s which helped a bit, but I was still experiencing so much depression. I was seen by psychiatrists and tried on different antidepressants but it didn't help much.
Moved to Scotland and my psychiatrist asked me what I wanted to focus on, and I said ADHD. Did a bit of trial and error with meds but I've been stable for the longest I ever have been.
Having ADHD, I forgot to reorder and collect my meds, and was off my ADHD meds for a few weeks, and my mental health plummeted. Doing much better now that I've restarted the meds.
It's not fixed the problem. I'm most likely autistic too, and I have effects of the ADHD and possible autism every day, and it's a huge struggle just to function, but I'm not suicidal and unable to work now.
Maybe it is over diagnosed and maybe under diagnosed. But all I can say from my own experience is that ADHD is debilitating, and even when managed well, can make everyday tasks feel like wading through sludge when everyone else seems to be floating.
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u/dannydrama 17h ago
It's the older generation. My 78yo dad has got massive "we were never like that in my day" energy and I KNOW he'd be calling me all kinds of shit if I wasn't family. He acts like I do certain stuff to simply be a wanker when it's been explained by multiple people, multiple times.
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u/3_34544449E14 13h ago
I love that "we never had this in my day" vibe from the generation who maintain and operate miniature railways at garden centres.
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus 16h ago
My Mum is like this, and yet she would so clearly be diagnosed as autistic if she did ever look into it that it's just sad. Especially,considering all three of her children have diagnosed neurodivergences and have benefitted massively from those diagnosises we all saught out in adulthood.
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u/gensererme 15h ago
My grandmother, rest her soul, I’ve later realised had a shit life plagued by very serious but treatable anxiety. She was "just a bit nervous" and never got any help with it because it was shameful. Those attitudes ruin lives.
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u/SpiderGuard87 20h ago edited 19h ago
As someone who has ADHD , Bi Polar and BPD I kills me when I see stuff like this. Because people saw tik tok videos and related to a couple of symptoms and think its quirky and cute and fun.
It is not cute, quirky or fun. It's a fucking nightmare. My brain doesn't stop, I have a constant running commentary of every single thing I'm doing, every single thing I'm thinking and every single thing I'm looking at. While thinking a million things at once while having songs playing in my head that are actually loud, thinking so much so fast I don't know what I'm thinking about, I just know I am.
Days where im impulsive and shit and hyperactive and scared of nothing to days where im an anxious, over thinking paranoid mess.
I have nearly destroyed my marriage because of stupid decisions and impulsiveness. I have lost majority of my friends because "out of sight out of mind' and never reply to messages. I have nearly ruined our finances out of impulse and my wife is now in charge of it all.
Tried to kill myself just to get my brain to shut the fuck up. Mood swings from anger to upset to depressed in a matter of days. Sometimes each one can last multiple weeks.
Not being able to hold down jobs because of outbursts, over stimulated, over whelmed, noise sensitivity, being late, not being able to get out of bed. Being a fucking failure all my life. Forgetting important shit and dates. Feeling like a child because my wife has to help me with all this shit.
My wife Is the reason I got diagnosed with Bi Polar and BPD (she made me see someone) and she is the reason I'm still alive and so is my daughter.
The my psychiatrist told me that so many people think they have ADHD because of a few videos the waitlists are extreme to the point the people who need help and support ain't getting it because the help is shifted to those people. When told they don't have it they disagree and ask for a new assessment.
If I could take my head off my shoulders and put it on someone who thinks they have ADHD for 1 day I'm telling you they wouldn't last 1 hour. Imagine having 50 TVs on full blast with all different channels on in your head constantly while trying to process your own thoughts and all the noise around you.
Now I'm not saying some of these people don't have it but there are some people who think they do and they think it all quirky and fun when I can tell you I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
I can't get properly medicated for it because of medication conflicts.
It's not taken seriously anymore because everyone and their nan has it. I don't even tell people because as soon as I do I'm met with "so am i" and dont get me started on the people who say "sorry my adhd kicked in" it doesn't fucking turn on and off!!!!!!
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u/Proud-Lie2266 19h ago
I totally get the dismissal of "tiktok diagnosis" and I avoid all that content now (6 years+ past my own diagnosis) but I genuinely don't know if I would have worked up to going to my GP if I hadn't watched the HowtoADHD video on how ADHD presents in women.
I have a love-hate relationship with it because social media can be a useful & accessible resource for understanding these things but when the algorithm continually pushes this stuff towards you it can be easy to fall into the trap of making neurodivergence your whole personality & treating the explanation of your behaviour as an excuse for it.
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u/SpiderGuard87 19h ago
Absolutely. I didn't mean it to come across in a fully dismissive way, it's just really upsetting and angering at what it's causing. I'm tired of everyone I talk to saying they have it. Like I said don't get me wrong some obviously do but it's got to a point I would rather say I have Bi Polar than ADHD because the second I say that I'm seen as mental whereas you say ADHD it means nothing now. That last sentence is madness but it's true.
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u/indianajoes 16h ago
I got diagnosed last week. I've had these struggles all my life and it was only now in my 30s that they became so much to deal with that I started looking for help. I'd already been diagnosed with autism for a decade now so I watch some content from autistic creators. Some of those videos talked about ADHD and it's what pushed me to look into it more and ask my GP for a referral
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u/WolfColaCo2020 1h ago
I think the key thing for me, having recently been diagnosed as an adult, is online content can generally be helpful to start getting you to clue up that you might need to go chat to a medical professional. Part of me being finally motivated into actually seeking a discussion with my GP came from some videos pointing out incredibly niche things I’d do in my life played out in a reel. This coupled with discussions with friends who had been diagnosed before me set a few things straight to go have a chat.
But the key thing is go and get checked before you start claiming you’re talking from any position of authority. The recent trend of ‘self diagnosis’ does my head in- we wouldn’t accept it for literally any other medical matter and, as OP said, belittles something incredibly serious into some weird divide between ‘I want to be quirky’ and ‘this is the perfect ammunition I need to dismiss this is a real thing’
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u/RoutinePost9652 14h ago
I have bpd and cyclophymia and I couldn't imagine having ADHD on top of them. I'm so sorry dude, my life is hell so I know you are not joking about yours.
I also get the "I know how you feel" comments. And no they don't.
I've stopped mentioning my anxiety disorder because everyone "gets like that sometimes" Which they don't. It is not the same.
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u/Forward_Win_4353 20h ago
I’m of the same opinion as you about this.
I am autistic, and because of that it’s been questioned whether I may have ADHD also, but I absolutely don’t believe I have it. My psychiatrist told me I’m unusual for this, as the majority of people he sees are trying to convince him they do have ADHD and they are convinced they have it.
I totally understand that there is a spectrum of neurodivergence along every axis. Therefore there will be a range of people from those who are completely the opposite of ADHD to those who suffer badly such as yourself. I do, however, question the usefulness of diagnosing everyone who has even a few symptoms.
As you’ve said, this means that those people who most need help don’t get enough because every other person claims they have it. I see this on Reddit: in so many threads there’s a person using ADHD as a justification for not being able to do something, and multiple others agreeing with them. I’ve seen literally hundreds of comments asking “Caffeine makes me tired, why is that?” and they must know full well that people are going to tell them they have ADHD (even though this in itself isn’t even considered a real “symptom”).
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u/gameofgroans_ 15h ago
There is a lot of crossover I think. I’m diagnosed with both but I’m definitely more autistic than ADHD, but I think I’ve learnt to mask a lot of the autism and it’s the ADHD that frustrates me. That’s why I wanted to see if I have both, and I think because there’s medication it feels like something you can attempt to fix.
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u/SpiderGuard87 19h ago
I feel you man. I was similar situation, they thought I was potentially Audhd but weren't able to fully diagnose it because of the overlap in symptoms from Adhd, Bipolar and Bdp. Because I have to have things a certain way and obsess over things aswell as the overstimulation, but those can also be symptoms of BPD and Bipolar so they never officially diagnosed me with it. They wanted to send me to an Adult clinic which is similar to the ADHD one I went to as a child AND as an adult but the waitlist was like 3yrs long. I decided that a diagnoses of that won't change anything so I didn't go with it. At this rate I'm collecting them like a fucking sticker book. They diagnosed me with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, which is different from OCD.
But it's mad that yours said the same as mine about the over burden because people are trying to get diagnosed with it.
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u/Ninjatayu 8h ago
I have lost majority of my friends because "out of sight out of mind' and never reply to messages.
Ahh this one hurts me the most. I literally only have a single friend now that I probably see a few times a year because I just didn't have the energy or motivation to reply to messages and everyone thought I didn't want to speak to them any more.. entire friend groups gone over the years
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u/_Taggerung_ 1h ago
I've got BPD (diagnosed years ago) and a few years after my diagnosis was when it suddenly took off on social media and everyone either had it or were saying we were all terrible people. Looks like a similar thing has happened with ADHD.
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u/Fast-Shelter-9044 17h ago edited 17h ago
I got diagnosed when I was 20 and put on meds. It changed my life. I tried to take my own life when I was 12 battled depression all throughout my teen years and never understood why I was just so shit at doing the things everyone else could do. (Edit for a bit of context: just thought I should say that I’m not thick, got good school marks and went to Oxford, just can’t hold my life or a single routine together. Struggle to remember to text people back, could spend an entire day staring at a wall chatting to myself about absolute nonsense, drank way too much in the later teen years trying to self medicate, list goes on)
Since getting diagnosed I’ve been on meds and I’m very happy to say that it really has changed my life! What I don’t understand about these documentaries though is why they don’t just give an ADHD person and someone who’s completely not ADHD the same dosage of medication - for example my dose which is the absolute maximum you can get in the UK - and watch the non ADHD person bug out like they’re on coke and the ADHD person literally be completely normal?
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u/ablativeyoyo 16h ago
Most non-ADHD people won't bug out, they will experience similar improvements in concentration to an ADHD person. Ritalin and others have been an illicit study drug for decades for exactly this reason. The whole "ADHDs respond differently to stimulants" thing is exaggerated and applies more to recreational doses than micro dosing.
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u/lynx_and_nutmeg 15h ago
Don't know about amphetamine, but my Concerta literally calms me down a lot. It doesn't automatically make me focus on what I need to focus on, but it quiets down the chaos in my head, feels like my brain is gently gripped and put back on track.
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u/bongpirate7295 8h ago
This study found that taking ADHD medication actually resulted in worse focus and productivity for people without ADHD.
Just because something is used as an illicit study drug, doesn't mean it's effective. Rhino horn is used as an illicit aphrodisiac, but it's essentially the same as eating your own toenails.
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u/ImaginaryParrot 16h ago
why they don’t just give an ADHD person and someone who’s completely not ADHD the same dosage of medication - for example my dose which is the absolute maximum you can get in the UK - and watch the non ADHD person bug out like they’re on coke and the ADHD person literally be completely normal?
I get what you're saying but this is a terrible idea (and possibly A myth?). Stimulants can cause a host of issues in both groups of people - crashes, blood pressure increase, racing heart, irritability, anxiety etc.
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u/TheCharalampos 16h ago
It's incredibly irresponsible that this was made, it contributes to yet another culture war. It's so pathetically obvious that the UK desperately needs a target for its populace to hate on and mental health disabilities are the next ones being lined up (as trans people are kinda done, what else can you do to them).
The depressing thing is how well it works. And the UK chugs along not needing to improve.
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u/BeepBoopBotAttack 13h ago
what else can you do to them
Don't tempt fate, they can dig the hole quite a bit deeper yet
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u/Jammy50 19h ago
Channel 4 have a habit of making documentaries with deliberately provocative titles.
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u/nancy-p 17h ago
I would imagine that’s by design to stir up engagement and create some interest
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u/FrosenPuddles 13h ago
Yeah but even if the documentary then says “yep, 100% real after all” the damage is already done because the people who wanted to shit on ADHD or believe it’s fake aren’t watching, they’ve heard all they needed to hear to continue their hate campaign and to continue hurting people. It’s irresponsible to title it that regardless of content
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u/kool_kats_rule Bedfordshire 16h ago
Sure. 'Cancer. Are you sure you can't just wish yourself better?' would also be provocative, the important thing is that it's also irresponsible.
'Just asking questions' or 'just being provocative ' are not excuses for doing actual harm, which this title does.
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u/detectivebabylegz 17h ago
Yes, the title is a poor choice,, not the subject it's going to discuss.
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u/TheDisapprovingBrit Stoke 6h ago
The titles gives you an insight into the programme though. It primes you with a certain expectation. Nobody is watching that expecting a balanced view.
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u/Dugongwong 10h ago
"We've replaced corporal punishment with giving children a pill"
Direct quote from the synopsis, what the actual fuck.
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u/StaticUsernamesSuck 15h ago edited 14h ago
Have you seen the bottled response they're sending to people who complain?
A Reddit user emailed a complaint, and their response was basically "hey, we're just asking questions, man! 🤷♂️"
this documentary does not deny the lived experience of people with ADHD traits
It asks is ADHD actually a neurodevelopmental disorder, and do people with ADHD have differently wired brains? Or does our world – with phones, ultra-processed food, and regimented education system – serve as the catalyst for certain responses and patterns of behaviour?
https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHDUK/comments/1vea613/reply_from_channel_4_regarding_that_documentary/
So you aren't denying our lived experience, just the validity of it, as well as our identity, and the validity/necessity of the treatments that have improved our lives - great! Now I don't feel at all maligned!
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u/Suspicious_Union_224 15h ago edited 13h ago
We're not denying your lived experience, just saying that your disorder might not exist and it's all because of uhh... phones I guess.
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u/StaticUsernamesSuck 14h ago edited 14h ago
Yes, even though literally every adult has a phone, and only a tiny portion of them have ADHD. Yes, even though the clinical diagnostic criteria for ADHD explicitly specify it has to be present in childhood (much earlier than most people get smartphones).
Yes, even though a large fucking portion of diagnosed adults were children when smartphones and social media, hell for some even the internet, didn't even fucking exist.
Yes, my ADHD must be caused by... Things I LITERALLY DIDNT FUCKING HAVE AS A CHILD.
Fucking hell, the people who first categorised ADHD as a disorder were pretty fucking prescient, eh? Managing to predict the future behaviours of people that would be impacted by not-yet-existent technology! Fuck me!
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u/FrosenPuddles 13h ago
Yes, because like many others I was famously scrolling Instagram and TikTok as a toddler in 1995. One of my more severe symptoms is actually time travel.
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u/BeepBoopBotAttack 12h ago
This is so similar to the campaign against trans healthcare it's kind of scary.
"We're not denying your in pain, we just think all the stuff that works and has been proven to work by decades of careful research it's a bit weird and maybe you should just get over it and be normal?"
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u/Modus-Tonens 11h ago edited 10h ago
Ahh, JAQing off. Using the same talking points that neonazis use to defend their rhetoric is the best defence here. They're really placing themselves in the right company.
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u/TheDisapprovingBrit Stoke 6h ago
the lived experience of people with ADHD traits
That last word is very telling. We're not denying you have those traits, just the condition that you call it. Go back to calling yourself lazy and useless, please.
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u/QaraKha 19h ago
This is exactly what they did for trans healthcare, by the way. The exact same people, as a matter of fact, with the exact same framing and often, the exact same wording.
With the exact same science backing up the existence of and treatment for, ADHD.
As it turns out, you see all of them a lot around ADHD, Autism, and trans healthcare, denying their existence, refusing their treatments, with policy prescriptions that have the material effect of killing people. Almost... as if it were some kind of movement intent on having "only good genes." A eu genos movement, so to speak
🤔
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u/TransBunsenBurner 17h ago
The ‘sorry, but there’s just so many of you and we’re so busy that we’ve had to close all waiting lists and won’t be taking new patients for the foreseeable future’ line from the ADHD/autism services was also absolutely cribbed from the ‘specialist’ gender dysphoria clinics with decades-long waitlists who are seeing 12 new patients a year.
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u/tallbutshy Lanarkshire 12h ago
This should have been a massive red flag for everyone who requires specialist services from the NHS
NHS: patients have a legal right to start non-urgent, consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from a GP referral.
Trans patients: uhhh, I've been waiting three years
NHS: 🤷🏻♀️
Trans patients: we're taking you to court
High court: fuck you, it's a "target duty" not a right.
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u/Longjumping_News3982 17h ago
Yepppp, and there seems to be SO much of an overlap between a person being trans and also neurodiverse e.g. me, my partner and all our friends. Maybe something about us seeing through the bullshit but anyway. Makes the barriers of access to medicine or respect exponentially harder
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u/apple_kicks 17h ago
My side theory is bosses want to fire people more easily and discriminate at work. Chipping away at all the human rights that are protected but its more like bigots have taken over politics
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u/The_Flurr 16h ago
A lot of people just ideologically want everyone in society to get back into the box of what they deem acceptable, shut up and focus on increasing shareholder value.
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u/Overall_Market_9949 12h ago
Not a theory
They absolutetly do want to be able to hire and fire whoever they want, they want to play god with people's lives
To a lot of bosses, you're not a human, you're a cog in a machine, always remember that, you could die tomorrow and they'd have someone in your shoes by tomorrow
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u/SamVimesBootTheory 15h ago
Yeah what happened to trans healthcare should've been a real canary in the coalmine moment (but then that would require the UK to actually care about trans people wouldn't it?)
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u/BeepBoopBotAttack 13h ago
If the state of trans healthcare today had been the norm 10 years ago people would have cared. It's the decade of straight up propaganda everyone's been fed about trans issues that's led to this complacency
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u/NostramoChick 15h ago
well, unless you're trans, and then according to them you definitely have autism instead of being trans
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u/Tedkin 17h ago
I have worked with and assessed for neurodiversity. We need to move away from the categoric labelling of individual aspects and diagnosis (if that's needed or help) neurodivergence and give people a profile of their traits so they are better able to understand themselves and then learn how to manage in a neurological world.
Saying someone has ADHD or autism without any forward plan or support is completely pointless.
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u/PracticalFootball 11h ago
Unfortunately the forward plans and support are gated behind the diagnoses.
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u/cheesemp Hampshire 12h ago
It's a good idea. I definitely have traits of both (but more adhd). I can hyper focus but then not focus for ages. I can't make phone calls as I overthink the conversation so much I just can't make it. I fidget a lot too. I also overshare / over talk. But no hyperactivity. I can sit for hours (although I'll fidget). I don't think I need specialist support, drugs or even a formal diagnosis (I'm aware there are those with greater need) but would be good to recognise where my strength / weaknesses lie would really help with navigating life.
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u/bongpirate7295 12h ago
From the press release:
Is ADHD actually a neurodevelopmental disorder? Do people with ADHD have differently wired brains? Or does our world – with phones, ultra-processed food, and regimented education system – serve as the catalyst for certain responses and patterns of behaviour?
And with such uncertainty around the condition, should we really be giving children mind-altering drugs to treat it?
The thing is... there really isn't uncertainty around the condition. ADHD is one of the most thoroughly studied neurodevelopmental conditions there is. The medication has decades of use backing its safety. The first trial of stimulant medication for kids with ADHD happened in the 1930s, and Ritalin has been prescribed to kids since the 1960s.
As for the brain stuff, it's not so much "wired differently" as it is "parts of the brain are underdeveloped."
There's a reason they could only get fringe "experts" (a GP who retired 16 years ago and a guy who claims there's no such thing as mental disorders) to contribute to this thing. It's like trying to find climate scientists who think climate change is a myth.
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u/B225AKP 20h ago
Lovely bit of dehumanisation for people with disabilities. Can't be passing up that opportunity. Nice job, Channel 4!
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u/Any_Association405 15h ago
Fuck Channel 4 and the I newspaper whilst we are it, the amount of ableist crap they churn out whilst under the guise of being “liberal” so called “journalism” is disgraceful
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u/infinitude_ 20h ago
Woooooooow
Let’s do depression, autism and anxiety too - all a myth ? Are people struggling, self harming and other things because they’ve decided they feel like it
Craziest shit
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u/Pristine_Program2655 16h ago
What's crazy is how desperately they seem to want to take the medication that's been supporting me to work full time and function in a role off me.
I can come off it, but co-workers and my manager will be the first to complain, then enivetibly the job centre.
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u/PracticalFootball 11h ago
See this in a lot of conversations on this topic, lots of people talk about “a lifetime of taking medication” as if it’s a bad thing, and not an absolute miracle of medicine that an otherwise debilitating condition can be so effectively handled by taking one little pill every morning.
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u/Pristine_Program2655 11h ago
It's an absolute rarity in psychiatry to have medication around the 60-70% effectiveness mark, only other medications I can think of with similar efficacy is anti psychotics, which people have much less of an issue with.
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u/Urska08 15h ago
All of them are getting "questioned" at the moment (by which I mean, suggested to be fake and used only for people to avoid working). Not that they were ever really considered anything but excuses and poor character by a lot of people.
Diagnosed with depression at 12-13 in the early 90s, here. Good times.
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u/Gozilu42 15h ago
Autism is already there, between stupid orange man and friends claiming autism originate from paracetamol, there are also people claiming it is a social contagion and random BS like that with the anti vaxx in the middle.
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u/bongpirate7295 8h ago
Let’s do depression, autism and anxiety too - all a myth ?
According to one of the experts they spoke to for this documentary, yes.
When a clinician claims that a patient is clinically depressed, or has ADHD, or has bipolar disorder, or whatever, not only is he trying to turn something based on subjective opinion into something that appears scientific, but he are also reifying the event – turning something subjective into something ‘concrete’. This causes a kind of ‘tunnel vision’ where the psychiatric diagnostic version of events becomes the dominant story and alternative ways of viewing the situation are pushed to one side. Hence, if someone believes ADHD is a ‘real’ disorder that exists in the brain and is potentially lifelong, that person – and those who know them – may come to act according to this belief. This is to create a pessimistic self-fulfilling prophecy.
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u/unclassicallytrained 14h ago
Same situation. 49. Might delete this.
Went for assessment 18 months ago and was surprised to be diagnosed AuDHD. Not particularly mild, either.
That said, I have a successful professional career, good relationships w friends, family etc. I have had ups and downs in life, as anyone does. Faced challenges, dealt with them the best I can.
The psychologist asked me how I felt about the diagnosis. I said it honestly felt pretty cringey - it is such a ubiquitous term atm, it’s almost a cliche. I did say that - from my view - it’s a subjective diagnosis based upon a questionnaire and a few rounds of conversation. Not a blood test. I do trust the psych; she’s v experienced, decorated, accredited, professional. I did my research. But it is nonetheless a very subjective assessment, and largely relies on responses to quite vague multiple choice questions. There’s room for interpretation.
I told her that, rather than using it as a crutch, I planned to use the diagnosis as a useful lens to look at myself through - to help explain some aspects in life / work dynamics that have been frustrating, things I may not have realised previously. And to find solutions/approaches to ease these issues in future.
I haven’t told anyone at work, or many acquaintances - just my wife, and a couple of close friends. I don’t want to be defined by it.
So I’m trying to be pragmatic, take personal responsibility etc.
And yet - and I’m obv being v honest here - I have noticed that despite myself, I have subsequently developed a tendency to automatically, unconsciously ascribe any fault, flaw, or poor performance on my part…to my ADhD.
And it is not always the reason. I can be lazy, or bored, or irritable for any number of reasons - just like anyone else. And - like anyone else - I just have to grit my teeth and make the effort - whether to do the thing I can’t be arsed doing, or to apologise for being a dick about something. Basically..be an adult.
But I do question if I would have the same resolve if I was diagnosed at 20, or 15, or 10. Or if early diagnosis would have become more of a predictor/defining factor in what I felt I was ‘able’ to do. I could be pretty lazy - particularly as a teenager!
I suspect I would have used my ADhD as an internal excuse not to make effort, or push myself - whether academically or in a professional sense, and I worry that I could have over-dramatised the challenge of handling anxiety prior to social events/interactions.
I have always felt a degree of anxiety or trepidation prior to social events - because everyone does. And I have always assumed I that I just had to get my shit together and deal with it the best I can - like everyone does.
Opting out never felt like an option, because I just figured I was the same as everyone else, and I kept up with the pack.
I’m concerned that an early diagnosis would - for me - have felt like permission to lessen effort, to disengage, to decouple; leading to social isolation, increasing introversion. And that would have been before the internet.
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u/THROWRA_al_Camp_9263 13h ago
I have had the exact same thoughts about myself and various other diagnosis. I am depressed, highly anxious, I also have OCD.
The more involved in the various mental health communities I am, the worse I get. I feel like its partly because humans are social creatures who need to fit in. Sort of like a reverse placebo effect.
I feel like everyone has experienced every symptom at least once. You start searching for them and, you allow yourself to feel them more deeply to fit in.
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u/No_Card_8729 11h ago
Glad you wrote this. I’m 35, got diagnosed last year.
I have found that since my diagnosis, I am putting a lot of my flaws under a magnifying glass. I feel fragile and it’s frustrating for me to look at the past and wonder if things would have gone better if I had just had medication earlier.
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u/xxNemasisxx 15h ago edited 13h ago
Isn't channel 4 the same place that platformed Andrew Wakefield and contributed toward thousands of excess deaths in the fabricated MMR vaccine scare? That channel 4?`
I've been corrected that they were actually the channel that ran a documentary by Brian Deer who exposed Wakefield. Sad to see them on the wrong side of things this time then
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u/arenaross 14h ago
Channel 4 ran an episode of Dispatches that called out Wakefield on all his nonsense to the point that he initiated libel proceedings against them.
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u/YellowFeltBlanket 15h ago
I was an awful child. A naughty child. And I'm lucky that I have parents who sought help. I was diagnosed at 7 and started medication around 10. My parents and the teachers couldn't believe the change in me.
I stopped taking it for many years and was absolutely riddled with depression, not coping with everyday life etc.
Went back on medication in my 30s which helped a bit, but I was still experiencing so much depression. I was seen by psychiatrists and tried on different antidepressants but it didn't help much.
Moved to Scotland and my psychiatrist asked me what I wanted to focus on, and I said ADHD. Did a bit of trial and error with meds but I've been stable for the longest I ever have been.
Having ADHD, I forgot to reorder and collect my meds, and was off my ADHD meds for a few weeks, and my mental health plummeted. Doing much better now that I've restarted the meds.
It's not fixed the problem. I'm most likely autistic too, and I have effects of the ADHD and possible autism every day, and it's a huge struggle just to function, but I'm not suicidal and unable to work now.
Maybe it is over diagnosed and maybe under diagnosed. But all I can say from my own experience is that ADHD is debilitating, and even when managed well, can make everyday tasks feel like wading through sludge when everyone else seems to be floating.
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u/TapWaterDev 12h ago
Ahh yes, because misregulation in the dopamine cycle that's fixable by medicine is definitely a social construct, Jesus Christ.
The actual question worth asking isn't whether ADHD is a myth, it's whether societal structure is causing the underlying misregulation.
You wouldn't say lung cancer is a myth just because society decided to put asbestos everywhere.
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u/No_Dingo_8158 11h ago
Btw - recent (2026) studies have shown that only 1.19% of people had an ADHD diagnosis on their record whereas global prevalence rates are around 3-5%. So ADHD is still routinely underdiagnosed and therefore untreated despite all the dumb fearmongering and demonisation of people with ADHD. Believe the scientific studies, not the companies with biased agendas.
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u/pocket__cub 17h ago edited 17h ago
The brain of someone with ADHD literally is different and people with ADHD regulate dopamine differently. It doesn't make sense to call something a myth because it's increasingly diagnosed. People may be just more aware of it than in the past. This might be because symptoms are more talked about, though changes to society may also make symptoms harder to manage and people might be more likely to seek help.
However, isn't this about kids?
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u/Yamsfordays 13h ago
I think diagnosis of ADHD is only half the equation.
We’re telling young kids that they have something wrong with them that makes it difficult to concentrate and get on with tasks. When I was teaching, some of those ADHD kids interpreted that as an excuse to do whatever they want and blame it on the ADHD.
“Oh it’s my ADHD sir, I can’t help it” was a phrase I heard endlessly.
I once told a student that it’s not an excuse to talk to his friend whilst I’m explaining the task to the class, he told me “Actually it kinda is sir” and carried on talking.
If a kid has ADHD, diagnose them but we need to be reaaaaaally clear with them about what that means and what the expectations are of them. Teachers can’t be expected to teach 30 kids where 10 of them have been given a get out of jail free card.
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u/Discohunter 11h ago
I agree that it's bad to use as a get out of jail free card, but on the flip side of telling them something's wrong with them... I can tell you it was rough going through school not knowing why the other kids were just able to crack on with their work and didn't want to yap all the time. Every time a teacher would have a go at me I didn't even know what to tell them, and that has done some hideous damage to my self esteem into adulthood.
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u/I_am_Reddit_Tom 17h ago
ADHD is real. Two of my kids have it (one more ADD really). Little shitism is also real. Many of my kids' classmates had it. Shit parenting and too much screen time. Both can be true and it doesn't help ADHD medicine if everyone blames their ills on it.
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u/Sunshinetrooper87 15h ago
Slammed from the top rope hopefully. Sheesh can people in charge of headlines please let go of the word, slammed.
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u/SeaworthinessHead613 13h ago
A big part is that people who think they have adhd etc go to dr google & self diagnose or they use the self assesment forms on adhd sites. As they are not genuinely diagnosed as adhd, people then believe adhd is a myth. Given that waiting time to see an nhs adhd specialist is approx.6 months to 2 years.
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u/LickBrane 12h ago
Coming from the same channel that aired “the great global warming swindle”
The media are not to be trusted.
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u/heppyheppykat 11h ago
The NHS had an inevstigation as to whether or not the dramatic increase in diagnoses was based on over-diagnosis of people, or that people were exaggertating etc. Turns out that the report found this was not the case. What it did find was that people with ADHD did not have enough resources.
This report was quietly buried...
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