[turnsout]

I agree with the author… We need to stop pathologizing behavior that is developmentally natural. We over-medicate kids, full stop.

The ADHD self-diagnosis trend amongst adults also needs to stop. People are now ascribing any minor challenge in life to ADHD. Everyone procrastinates. Everyone forgets people’s names. Everyone has trouble focusing sometimes. It’s not ADHD, that’s called life.

My worry is that by giving it a label, it lets people give in to negative behavior because “that’s just the way I am,” or “I’m neurodivergent.” But even people with severe emotional and behavioral challenges can navigate life. It’s not an excuse to be inconsiderate.

[TomK32]

Self-diagnosis is only a first step, the more important one that has to follow it is a professional diagnosis. While those are not bullet proof or by means of biological markers, the tests we have are thorough and conclusive for a overwhelming proportion of patients. Medication is quite hard to get approved, at least here in Europe, but it shows far better and faster results than say anti-depressants do (mis-diagnosis is a huge problem, a "depression" label will do nothing for someone with ADHD).

Decades of research by Russell Barkley and others have given us a fairly deep insight into ADHD and the tests and questionnaires that have been developed over those decades is what an adult should undertake. Procrastinating, forgetting names, dates and not being able to focus (a lot of the time, not just sometimes) are the milder symptoms that will more often than not push someone with ADHD into a downward spiral of depressions and alcohol abuse.

[shortrounddev2]

I was diagnosed with ODD as a kid and was prescribed Ritalin. I hated being on Ritalin because it made me feel unenthusiastic about anything and killed my appetite. My older brother stole my 60 day supply when I was 10 and sold it for heroin money. Insurance wouldn't pay for a refill so that's when my family decided I was magically cured!

I meet adults today who self diagnose with ADHD so they can get Ritalin or something I suppose. They want to take stimulants to be more efficient at work or have more energy at home, but I can't imagine wanting to feel that way all the time. I HATED being on Ritalin, made me feel like a zombie.

[dns_snek]

> but I can't imagine wanting to feel that way all the time. I HATED being on Ritalin, made me feel like a zombie.

Those people most likely don't feel like zombies and just feel normal (or better). ADHD medication is extremely personal, some people feel normal, others feel better, and some feel terrible on any given medication.

[dns_snek]

> The ADHD self-diagnosis trend amongst adults also needs to stop. People are now ascribing any minor challenge in life to ADHD.

What do you mean by that, what specifically needs to stop? It's a "trend" that results from increased awareness about ADHD. This is massively helpful for people who have undiagnosed ADHD, but many people have sadly co-opted the term "ADHD" to describe any minor struggle, just like they did with OCD. This is a problem that sociologists might be able to tackle some day, but in most cases self-diagnosis is the first step to getting an actual diagnosis as an adult.

> Everyone procrastinates. Everyone forgets people’s names. Everyone has trouble focusing sometimes. It’s not ADHD, that’s called life.

Of course everyone does those things to some degree. It's ADHD when these and other challenges significantly affect multiple areas of your life, starting in childhood, and often including your private life.

> My worry is that by giving it a label, it lets people give in to negative behavior because “that’s just the way I am,” or “I’m neurodivergent.” But even people with severe emotional and behavioral challenges can navigate life. It’s not an excuse to be inconsiderate.

There a lot to unpack here. People with ADHD, autism, and many other disorders process information differently. It's a lot like interacting with someone from a very different cultural background, they might say something that you find rude, and you'll probably say something that they find rude.

Both of you are likely to be reasonably good people with good intentions but you'll probably end up offending each other sometimes, whether it's cultural or neurotype related.

The vast majority of people with ADHD and autism already try to fit into society that doesn't cater to them, e.g. by trying to strictly adhere to norms and expectations that are extremely difficult to adhere to due to cognitive differences inherent to these disorders (e.g. impulsivity with ADHD), because they disagree with these norms (think about petty laws you disagree with and break all the time), or perhaps just don't fully understand them.

This is called masking and it's often mentally and emotionally exhausting, frequently leading to severe burnout and depression which I think is quite a natural reaction when the rest of society constantly deems you to be "inconsiderate" or otherwise unacceptable even when you've been trying your best and don't have any bad intentions.

I think it's quite hypocritical and extremely inconsiderate to label people with ADHD or autism as "inconsiderate" without living a decade with their disorder.

Of course there are some people who will try to use their disorder (real or fake) to excuse their crappy behavior but that's in no way unique to ADHD. Worrying about whether people are using ADHD as an excuse for bad behavior makes as much sense as worrying about whether people in wheelchairs are faking it.