I don't have ADHD, but three private clinics say I do, and offered me medication

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65534449

by walthamstow • 3 years ago

42 136 3 years ago

bbc.co.uk

It would be a lot more convincing if they'd sent an undercover reporter who didn't in reality display a lot of ADHD symptoms.

wombatpm• 3 years ago

So, it's easy to get ADHD drugs if you act like you have ADHD in the UK.

Eumenes2• 3 years ago

Its insanely easy in the US too. I abused it early in my career (have talked about it in previous posts). "Doctor" offices all over NYC and SF have 5 minute appointment blocks where you utter "I can't concentrate at work or school", and by the time you walk to Walgreens, your RX is filled. Its even easier now with the websites that do it.

ToValueFunfetti• 3 years ago

This is inevitable because there's no physiological test for ADHD; the only diagnostic criteria are how you behave and how you describe your experience. If you couldn't get treated with a convincing lie, you also couldn't get treated if you needed it.

michaelt2• 3 years ago

What makes you think he displays a lot of ADHD symptoms?

I mean, he says "I can forget things, I fidget, I will on occasion zone out of long meetings" but that's true of every human being to some extent.

ZeroGravitas3• 3 years ago

This bit:

When I was 14, I witnessed the aftermath of my sisters being knocked down by a car. Ailis survived, Claire - who was 11 - died. Almost 17 years to the day, my dad died unexpectedly. I was a different person after those events. The reason I am sharing this is because I was told the effect of such trauma can sometimes manifest itself into symptoms similar to ADHD.
A friend of mine - who had been privately diagnosed with the condition - had once suggested to me that I might have it too.

ParetoOptimal15• 3 years ago

I mean, he says "I can forget things, I fidget, I will on occasion zone out of long meetings" but that's true of every human being to some extent.

I feel like the difference is whether you can decide "I need to pay attention to this meeting even though it's boring" and then are able to actually do it.

With ADHD it's more like "oh crap! oh crap! I did it again.. I'm not paying attention to this meeting. I'm going to do it now. But man I suck for falling into not paying attention again. How could I prevent this in the future? Oh I can improve sleep by getting a sleep mask. grabs phone to order sleep mask on amazon"

Meanwhile the meeting has ended and your co-worker you eat lunch with asks "are you coming?" and you lookup to say "huh" with a dazed look.

pessimizer5• 3 years ago

You should believe the patient unless they threaten your trust in the system. Then you should attack the patient's knowledge of themselves and their medical situation casually, and imply that this stupidity indicates something sinister about their character.

bluefirebrand2• 3 years ago

It sort of sounds like what you actually have is an ADHD diagnosis from 3 professionals and a No-ADHD diagnosis from 1 professional.

shapefrog• 3 years ago

The No-ADHD diagnosis was done by a professional whos pay depends on dispensing a No-ADHD diagnosis, while the 3 professionals offering a Yes-ADHD diagnosis depend on positive diagnosis of things to get paid.

ParetoOptimal15• 3 years ago

I haven't verified whether or not the No-ADHD diagnosing psychologist was paid or not, but I will say that just the fact that the reporter told them what they were doing is a huge confounding factor on the scale of making their conclusion pretty useless.

Nextgrid2• 3 years ago

The real failure here is that there's a market for these clinics in the first place, despite supposedly having a "national health service" for which we have to pay (quite high) taxes for. The NHS is not fit for purpose and hasn't been for a long time.

youngNed• 3 years ago

i don't follow your logic here, at all.

The NHS doctor told him, he didn't have ADHD, 3 private clinics told him he did

and your reply is 'The NHS is not fit for purpose' ?

madaxe_again• 3 years ago

Because the waiting time for an ADHD assessment on the NHS is currently >2 years, which is why he was talking to the director of services rather than an actual practitioner at an actual assessment, and there are therefore private entities providing the service the NHS should be providing. As far as I’m aware the NHS actually sends most of its patients to the three profiled to be assessed, so really I’m not sure what an “NHS assessment” actually is.

Nextgrid2• 3 years ago

My logic is that those clinics shouldn't be able to remain in business if the NHS did its job and was fit for purpose. Nobody pays £500+ if they have an equivalent, free alternative.

The reason he was able to get a diagnosis from the NHS is because he is a BBC journalist, and is able to navigate any bureaucracy as part of his work day and get paid for it, and ultimately does not suffer from the disorder and thus doesn't really care how long it takes for him to get seen by the doctor.

The average person would be stuck in a kafkaesque maze of bureaucracy and months-long waiting lists before they get anywhere close to a diagnosis (which is even worse if you actually do have a disorder and is impeding your day-to-day life and/or work) - that's why these private clinics have business.

seanp2k26• 3 years ago

Obviously the proposed solution is to privatize all healthcare, because what we have in the US should be a model for the rest of the world.

froh• 3 years ago

didn't they meanwhile redirect these 350 Mio GBP a week from the EU to NHS ?

mjhay• 3 years ago

Stupid hit piece, very typical of today's BBC.

User23• 3 years ago

There's something similar for testosterone. Many, if not most, doctors use the current average testosterone levels to diagnose if a person has some kind of hypogonadism. But there are also doctors who use the historical baseline before the secular testosterone decline, and thus virtually every man who walks in their door gets meditated for low testosterone. Coincidentally the latter clinics tend to charge cash and present much more of a medi-spa than a clinical experience.

AuryGlenz2• 3 years ago

The latter method isn’t necessarily wrong, however.

I have genuine low testosterone (using the current, quite broad, range). When I first tested I was at…352? And the low end of the range was 350. The doctor wouldn’t prescribe me anything but let me see an endocrinologist. That endocrinologist let me test again, and that time I came in close to 200.

I had actual symptoms that made me test in the first place and testosterone supplementation has greatly helped with that. The downsides aren’t great for most though. It’ll wreck your fertility and you very well may suppress you levels even further without supplementation for life.

All that said, we’re living in a time where we know levels are low for men - and they very well might be for women. Teens are having less sex than ever, many identify as asexual or trans, etc. Sperm counts have absolutely ranked.

A lot of that could very well have the same root cause and we need to figure it out. Testosterone supplementation is a cudgel but it’s basically all we’ve got right now.

whitemary• 3 years ago

I recently learned almost all of my coworkers are on ADHD medication and I'm hardly surprised because my workplace is extremely competitive. I have since started taking Adderall myself and I have no shame in doing so because it's the only way I can meet expectations.

spirit5572• 3 years ago

It's very easy to get ADHD medication. Fill out the mental questionaire aka check all the boxes that would match having ADHD symptons, say you can't focus on anything and in short order you will get your prescription.

AuryGlenz2• 3 years ago

On one hand it makes it easy for people that don’t have ADHD to get the medication. On the other, I’m under the impression that one of the best ways to confirm you actually have ADHD is by taking a stimulant.

If you make it significantly harder those who actually need help might not get it, and the harm from a limited stimulant supply for everyone else isn’t all that bad compared to even things like alcohol, weed, etc.

Little kids are another thing entirely, though I know someone in my family in the US had to go through quite a lot until their 8 year old son was given medication. That included things like therapy with coping strategies.

devmor2• 3 years ago

Is it really that easy to get ADHD medication over there? Here in the US it took me ~4 years of navigating bureaucracy, seeing different specialists and undergoing different evaluations.

ZunarJ56• 3 years ago

It's not. This is a moral panic piece.

spirit5572• 3 years ago

This is in US that I was relating

bpodgursky2• 3 years ago

"I don't have migraines, but three private clinics say I do, and offered me medication"

"I don't have chronic pain, but three private clinics say I do, and offered me medication

Yes, medicine does not have any real way to read thoughts right now, and medicine instead has to trust patients to give a reasonably accurate description of their own mental state. Really hard-hitting journalism, there.

kerowak• 3 years ago

The criticism is that the claims of the patient are not adequately verified by the prescribing doctor. Some people have to undergo a lengthy doctor-administered screening process to receive an ADHD diagnosis. Others fill out a straightforward questionnaire. To use your example, you'd hope that a doctor would verify that a patient actually had something wrong with them before, say, prescribing them something addictive like painkillers.

bpodgursky2• 3 years ago

What would more hoops possibly accomplish other than denying care to real patients through attrition and exhaustion? It's trivial for a person to lie in an interview as easily as on a questionaire.

ZunarJ56• 3 years ago

What this article got wrong: https://matthewhughes.substack.com/p/part-4-what-the-bbcs-ro...

Also if someone wanted drugs, wouldn't it be cheaper/easier to get street drugs instead of this whole process which costs a ton of money? These treatments can cost thousands. Unreal, garbage piece. Leave people that need help alone. ADHD has been known to be underdiagnosed. There is a reason for a spike in dx and it's awareness and societal pressures. This article will hurt people.

dylan6046• 3 years ago

this process does not carry the risk of getting caught buying street drugs or being caught in possession of those drugs which means you don't have to worry about court/jail or being ripped off via street crime

ZunarJ56• 3 years ago

Tell me you know nothing about addicts without telling me you know nothing about addicts.

rozal8• 3 years ago

ADHD is over diagnosed. Your comment will hurt people.

Sincerely - ex medicated ‘adhd’ diagnosed.

iamdbtoo2• 3 years ago

So your diagnosis was wrong and you apply that to the entire industry?

ZunarJ56• 3 years ago

That's simply not true:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.6493...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12888-022-04290-7

https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5849/v1/d0dcddc0-...

Adhshdhdhd3• 3 years ago

How did it hurt you?

falcolas3• 3 years ago

ADHD has been estimated to impact 5% of the population for years now. 4% of children and 2% of adults are diagnosed with ADHD.

That's under diagnosis, not over diagnoses.

erokar• 3 years ago

Almost anybody, ADHD diagnosis or not, will feel and perform better on low dose amphetamine like Adderall. It's not surprising there's a demand for it — and actors who know how to profit from it.

zabzonk3• 3 years ago

Almost anybody, ADHD diagnosis or not, will feel and perform better on low dose amphetamine

the germans tried this with their troops in ww2 - hint: it didn't go so well for them.

dylan6046• 3 years ago

stories of amped up pilots in the US military are common as well. i don't think it was just the germans, so trying to say that was the thing that didn't work well for the germans is just falling flat.

sneed_chucker3• 3 years ago

Germany didn't lose WWII due to a lack of combat effectiveness among its troops.

dylan6046• 3 years ago

Almost is a huge caveat for your comment. Maybe it's lack of practice, but whenever I've attempted to work while "medicated" in logic intensive workflows like coding or other things like maths or other sciency stuff, my output is much less coherent. Being "medicated" doing more creative type work is the only time I actually enjoy working in that state.

rozal8• 3 years ago

And no surprise how people in this thread rush to defend amphetamine usage.

As someone who was diagnosed several times with “adhd” - there is zero science to it. No medical tests to prove its existence. You’ll just get a drug after the first or second visit and who doesn’t want to defend their addiction online?

If you want focus, don’t take drugs. Exercise, eat healthy, self-discipline yourself

falcolas3• 3 years ago

This is pure misinformation, and it would be great if you'd stop spreading it.

ADHD is real. It's helped with meds. Denying its existence because of your own bad experience is going to hurt others.

Listen to professionals' advice, not self-help advice.

grayhatter• 3 years ago

Can I assume you don't believe depression is real either?

Can you explain why experts believe there's science behind it?

ParetoOptimal15• 3 years ago

As someone who was diagnosed several times with “adhd” - there is zero science to it.

How can you state this so confidently?

You’ll just get a drug after the first or second visit and who doesn’t want to defend their addiction online?

Do you know how much people with ADHD hate their meds and want to avoid taking it, but cant?

Then they avoid taking it for a few days for a break, but the break turns into 2 weeks of disarray without medication.

waboremo5• 3 years ago

This is objectively false. There are medical tests to prove its existence, there have also been numerous studies highlighting the differences in ADHD brains and those without it, one of them being far slower development of the pre-frontal cortex. Not just a couple of weeks or months, we're talking years of delay. The FDA has also approved testing to assess for brain wave ratios, specifically theta and beta, in which ADHD brains have much higher count.

For most people with ADHD, staying on the drug is the hard part. On top of all of this, there are ADHD drugs that aren't stimulants if one reacts negatively to it. It's not the 70s anymore. Pushing stereotypes is a horrible thing to do, please refrain from it in the future.

pessimizer5• 3 years ago

And no surprise how people in this thread rush to defend amphetamine usage.

The same thing happens on opiate threads. The people who have been on opiates for a decade explain that their pain is the real kind that can only be helped by opiates. Take anyone with no pain at all, put them on opiates for ten years, and they'll say the same thing.

Because it's true. If you take away the opiates, they will be in all kinds of agony. They may have created deficiencies in their reward system that will never recover. That's not the same as saying that opiates are helping people (in the long term), or that pain is a deficiency of opiates.

edit: and there's no way out of this other than stopping big pharma from funding patients' rights groups, either directly or indirectly, and/or lobbying through them. Patients' rights groups from the 80s on were the Patient Zero of non-profits acting as political front groups for large financial interests.

seanp2k26• 3 years ago

And I suppose type 2 diabetics should, instead of seeking medical treatment, simply stop eating cake and go for a run every morning?

ZeroGravitas3• 3 years ago

Is this true?

I see it claimed a lot, but if so I'm surprised there isn't more open discussion in places like HN with people saying "I did the research and boosted my productivity by taking drug X".

Even if it only makes you feel better, there were people talking about micro dosing LSD for a while when that was fashionable.

r3trohack3r2• 3 years ago

As someone with ADHD, I have to disagree with people in this thread who believe it’s easy to get medication.

It’s easy to get medication because you don’t have ADHD (or are high functioning). The rules that have formed around ADHD medication are designed to prevent abuse, but in reality are one huge ADHD obstacle course that is incredibly difficult to navigate for someone who actually has ADHD.

Many of the steps you take to get on medication when you don’t need it seem trivial. To someone with ADHD, each of those steps is a barrier that they have a high chance of failing to clear because they “just forget” or “don’t follow up.”

Needing to setup and coordinate appointments amplified by the regular required checkins, the monitoring of “steady use” in filling your prescriptions, on-again off-again potentially impacting your eligibility. Needing to coordinate migrating your entire diagnoses and treatment history over (including childhood) to get a new prescription from a new doctor. Etc.

I don’t like being on ADHD medication because of the side-effects and the impact on how I communicate. So I frequently fall off the wagon. As soon as I’m off my prescription, the obstacle course starts over and I have to navigate it to get back on my medication.

version_five• 3 years ago

This rings true because most forms of assistance seem to be hardest to get for people who actually need them. Disability supports, social assistance, lawsuits, great if you want to game them, less so if you actually need them.

falcolas3• 3 years ago

Yes! If you do have ADHD, getting meds is a bloody nightmare of the most ADHD incompatible procedures that could exist. You can only get three months of scrip ahead of time. You can only get meds once a month. You can only get meds one week prior to the prior month running out. You can't call a pharmacy to see if they have it in stock, you must stop by directly.

And that's when you're already medicated. If you've been getting sugar pills (yes, this has been happening to some folks), you'll be trying to do all of this with high emotional disregulation, high executive disfunction, and a severely impaired sense of time.

Taxes are bloody easier, since there's a strict date once a year with lots of surprisingly clear written instructions. Plus you can pay someone to do it for you.

ParetoOptimal15• 3 years ago

As someone with ADHD, I have to disagree with people in this thread who believe it’s easy to get medication.

I agree. In fact I have many friends who likely have it that haven't been able to get medication.

I was "lucky" because I had a childhood diagnosis which really sped things up for me.

Many of the steps you take to get on medication when you don’t need it seem trivial. To someone with ADHD, each of those steps is a barrier that they have a high chance of failing to clear because they “just forget” or “don’t follow up.”

This is truly a profound thought I hadn't thought of.

I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to just answer the first question on my ADHD questionnaire.

The amount of friction I had at just searching for help was insane.

If I compare that to me on medication though, I know that the quasi-"normal" experience of this same thing is "this is easy - just... do it?". In fact it's sometimes quite hard to have compassion for non-medicated me struggling to do a few chores while me on medication does the whole week of chores in a day.

Needing to setup and coordinate appointments amplified by the regular required checkins, the monitoring of “steady use” in filling your prescriptions, on-again off-again potentially impacting your eligibility.

Yes, in the periods of time I've forgotten to take my medication I've missed many of these checkin appointments and was warned missing them could affect my eligibility.

I don’t like being on ADHD medication because of the side-effects and the impact on how I communicate. So I frequently fall off the wagon. As soon as I’m off my prescription, the obstacle course starts over and I have to navigate it to get back on my medication.

I agree with this. I would give the advice of giving a buffer day where you take your medication because the first day back on for me (and probably others) is things can be quite overwhelming.

So one thing I try to do is make sure if I skip meds for Fri/Sat I take it Sun or Mon productivity will be affected by the jarring difference between medicated/not medicated.

r3trohack3r2• 3 years ago

I really appreciate your comment and it brought up a bunch of emotions about my ADHD that I hadn’t thought of in a long time.

I don’t know if this impacted you in childhood the same way it impacted me, but to pretty much every one of my teachers I was the “smartest kid in the room” who “just didn’t try” and I would “do amazing things if I just applied myself” - and now as an adult I know that’s just my ADHD, it’s a super power and a curse all wrapped up into one. I wouldn’t be “the smartest kid in the room” without it, but I’d also be able to keep a calendar.

The buffer day is a fantastic idea. I’m considering getting back on the my medication again. If I do, I’ll give this a try.

rozal8• 3 years ago

I was "lucky" because I had a childhood diagnosis which really sped things up for me.

Really? Cause it took me a single visit to get my prescription. And they never checked my health records.

teeray• 3 years ago

It sounds like it should be designed in the opposite manner. Present those requesting meds a complicated process to obtain them, and grant the requests for those who demonstrate ADHD by failing to complete it by forgetting, not following up, etc. Those who complete the process quickly are denied.

seanp2k26• 3 years ago

If only healthcare made actual sense and applied science to the entire UX of healthcare, not just the treatment research.

lazystar• 3 years ago

eh. that wouldn't have helped me out. before I was put on ADHD medication, I couldn't hold down a job or a relationship for longer than 6 months; starting the process for an ADHD diagnosis was something I'd put off doing for years. when I finally made the decision to start the process, i would show up to appointments 2 or 3 hours early and sit in the waiting room on my phone, just to avoid forgetting/being late.

getting that diagnosis was life-changing. as a funny side-effect of getting medicated, I've been able to build up a life over the past 8 years. now I have a full time job where I've been for 3 years, a long-term relationship, family + friends, pets, a house to take care of, etc. etc.

annie_muss3• 3 years ago

Absolutely! For me, getting medication required multiple consultations with a doctor and a 3 hour IQ tests. Just scheduling all of those was difficult. And where I live you need a special registration card on top of your health insurance. On top of that, for other medication you can pay the full price and then reclaim the cost if you don't have your health insurance documentation with you but not ADHD meds. Multiple times I've been denied meds because my insurance card was being renewed. Not only that, but after missing meds for a month, getting them prescribed again the pharmacist nearly blocked me because they wanted to titrate up from a lower dose (this is a dose I'd been on for years).

gtop3• 3 years ago

It costs ~£1000 for a one hour assessment from non-MD assessors at private clinics.

What do you suppose the market rate for a 3 hour assessment from an MD that leads an ADHD specialist service for NIH?

It doesn't feel like a fair comparison, unless NIH is willing to provide everyone with easy access to the 3hour assessment.

devmor2• 3 years ago

This article should probably be titled "How I learned that I have ADHD" instead.

Gordonjcp2• 3 years ago

I have every possible marker for ADHD but the top Adult ADHD specialist psychiatrist in the country diagnosed me as the "least ADHD person he's ever met", presumably because I showed up for all my appointments in plenty of time with all the things I needed, and a few other minor things like "no history of stimulant drug use" (uh, dude, you know I said I drink two or three pots of coffee in the morning with the first one before I've even got dressed?).

So, I'm starting to think it's all a bit of a fraud.

ParetoOptimal15• 3 years ago

(uh, dude, you know I said I drink two or three pots of coffee in the morning with the first one before I've even got dressed?).

I've found that very high caffiene use has a mild and very temporary ADHD medication like affect on symptoms.

Gordonjcp2• 3 years ago

Exactly.

Pretty much all ADHD medication is a stimulant of some sort, often related to the amphetamine family.

I never much liked speed, mostly because it simply didn't do much for me. I felt like I'd have been as well snorting Lemsip.

ParetoOptimal15• 3 years ago

Which is a worse outcome?

People with ADHD being denied medication to help something like extremely bad executive dysfunciton that drastically lowers quality of life.

People being able to take advantage of the system to get medication that shouldn't get it.

Do we really believe the second group is larger than the first?

I'd also like to point out that if he talked to the NHS counselor about his project before-hand, that makes it a big confounding factor in the negative diagnosis.

On a more personal level if you're interested in knowing if you have ADHD or not, anectdotally it seems quite effective to see what your reaction to adderall is. I wonder if there is some way to judge your likelihood of ADHD by reaction to medication?

For me personally it's "Now I can 'just do the dishes'" or other obligations without 1000s of other thoughts raining down on me that make doing the dishes seem pointless before addressing the 1000s of other thoughts.

However there are other days where taking medication feels like literally nothing happened and I have what feels like the same amount of challenges.

michaelt2• 3 years ago

Which is a worse outcome?

Well, it might be possible to reign in drug-seeking behaviour without denying medicine to people who need it. For example, with more rigorous oversight of healthcare providers, to make sure they're all providing an equally thorough diagnosis.

There are risks to turning a blind eye to drug use. We turn a blind eye to bodybuilders and hollywood actors using steroids because it's their choice, and it means the non-steroid-users either have to start using, or get left behind.

If we applied the same pressure to the nation's top scientists and mathematicians, or kids trying to get into the top colleges, and they all end up drugged to the gills like sam bankman-fried - we might not be doing the country a favour.

ParetoOptimal15• 3 years ago

Well, it might be possible to reign in drug-seeking behaviour without denying medicine to people who need it.

It may be possible eventually, but in the meantime which side do you err towards?

If you err towards denying adhd medication to people that may or may not have ADHD, you will almost certainly deny it to people who need it.

That basically leaves that group of people out to dry.

rozal8• 3 years ago

It’s not medication, it’s a drug. You’re not curing anything. There are cures but nobody wants the hard path.

annie_muss3• 3 years ago

"ADHD is not a disorder" in a nutshell. This is not backed up by science, not by experts in the field and neither by millions of people who suffer from it.

anovikov• 3 years ago

Why does it work this way with ADHD but doesn't work with obesity?! No one wants to prescribe Wegovy to me with BMI of 27, i'm almost ready to offer a bribe.

Workaccount2• 3 years ago

Ugh, my sister got convinced she has had ADHD her whole life (now 40) by one of these pop-up adderall shilling companies.

Now she has insomnia, but refuses to acknowledge that it could be her newfound "ADHD" is just a pill shill program and that adderall makes everyone perform better at their job.

Adhshdhdhd3• 3 years ago

Make drugs easier to get and start educating people more about it and let them choose.

It can't be that a doctor who can't look into you decide if you are better with it or not.

Abuse is real but gatekeeping is a real problem.

Kids is a problem and imature people are.

But also everyone above some magic line are absolutely able to get it one way or the other

vjk800• 3 years ago

Saying that only people with ADHD should get ADHD medication sounds similar to me as saying that people who are shit at sports should be allowed to use exogenous testosterone so that they are able to compete. As far as I've understood, ADHD medication works the same way whether you have ADHD or not. In my analogy, the only difference between sports performance and ability to focus is that we don't call bad sport performance a "Muscle Deficiency Disorder" because we lack renounce the idea that everyone should be able to perform at the top level in sports.

seba_dos14• 3 years ago

ADHD medication works the same way whether you have ADHD or not.

Not really. Many stimulants can have counter-intuitive (but desired) calming effects on people with ADHD.

pseudalopex3• 3 years ago

A wheelchair works the same way if your legs work or not.

seanp2k26• 3 years ago

Next up: an article about how easy it is to get a handicapped parking placard by lying about having a disability.

pessimizer5• 3 years ago

Modern doctors stick to an affirmation-only model in profitable situations where the symptoms could be psychosomatic, malingering, and/or hysterical. Saying someone doesn't have ADHD is a violation of their civil rights and basically genocide. You're denying their existence. The only justifiable grounds for denying someone ADHD medication is that they can't pay for it.

louissan2• 3 years ago

I cannot help but wonder.

When did everyone suddenly start spending what seems to be a non negligible amount of time worrying if they are affected by this or that or that or this?

To be clear: I do not mean to belittle / deny the right or need of people who are genuinely affected by certain conditions. But I do worry (as a parent of teenage children) as to whether this sudden (a few years? max a decade old) wave of "I'm pretty sure I have <INSERT_ACRONYM>" or "I'd better get tested for <INSERT_ANOTHER_CODE> before X or Y happens" is real or not. In some cases, could it be a fad?

As the insensitive bastard that I am (to almost quote my eldest the other day... :) my god I love this child), I cannot help but conflate this with how overwhelmingly present "mental health" issues have become. Twitter? Check. The BBC? Check. Instagram and YT? Check. Everywhere. Like it or not, the "me-me-me-I'm-a-victim" also feels like a very trendy thing nowadays.

Whatever happened to toughing it out and becoming better/stronger in the process? Has such a view of things and self-betterment in adversity completely fallen out of fashion? Have we all become babies to be nannied? Is this now all viewed as "male, pale and stale"?

I cannot help but think (the "300x" is made up, but you will get the idea I hope): . either genuine mental conditions have started to plague humanity 300x times more in the past 30 years . or today's physicians have started to worry 300x more about it, hence diagnose it 300x more often . or physicians from 30 years didn't give a flying flamingo about it . or all of the above

What times we live in. We all have our small (or larger) problems -- and I do worry about the the system's influence on my children's ability to become beautiful, responsible and independent adults in the future.

To quote: "The busy bee has no time for sorrow".

ParetoOptimal15• 3 years ago

I cannot help but conflate this with how overwhelmingly present "mental health" issues have become.

Just because they are more present doesn't mean they are being faked. I believe that mental health issues were largely ignored before.

Now people are paying attention, so more cases are caught.

To quote: "The busy bee has no time for sorrow".

The busy bee I picture when you say this also lives with high stress, is easy to anger, and doesn't talk about their feelings in a health way or at all.

bluefirebrand2• 3 years ago

Whatever happened to toughing it out and becoming better/stronger in the process?

This literally is not possible with a lot of mental health problems.

When your brain chemistry or your literal brain development is messed up, how are you supposed to just tough it out?

It's crazy to think that people can just overpower their own brain chemistry.

louissan2• 3 years ago

Of course - actual medical conditions must be treated.

In case my original post was not clear, I wonder if the _idea_ of being affected by ailment X or Y has become fashionable. That's all.

seba_dos14• 3 years ago

When did everyone suddenly start spending what seems to be a non negligible amount of time worrying if they are affected by this or that or that or this?

I don't spend time "worrying if I may be affected". Who does?

My reaction to reading up on the topic was "oooooh, so many things that didn't make sense about my behavior suddenly make sense now". It was a happy moment.

Reading up more, I started to find advice that actually works. Which was extremely refreshing, as most of the advice I was getting before outright failed, regardless of how hard I tried to implement it. Now I know why.

Are you sure you aren't fighting a straw man?

Mindlessly "toughing it out" is exactly how you end up with people who aren't responsible and independent and have no slightest clue on why or how to change it.

heywherelogingo• 3 years ago

This happens with all sort of things. Gender is another example: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jul/28/nhs-closing-...

tbrockman• 3 years ago

Does it really matter if you have or don’t have ADHD? It seems like what should matter most is if taking the medication improves your overall health and well-being (after accounting for any side-effects). I could only imagine it being a negative if it masks some other underlying phenomenon which left unaddressed prevents you from attaining your global maximum of life satisfaction.

It seems likely the amount of harmful abuse prevented by stricter policies would be overshadowed by the amount of positive treatment which is no longer dispensed. If you’re diagnosed and you don’t find medication helpful, you’re not obligated to continue taking it. You discuss it with your provider, you look into alternatives, and you keep eliminating things until you find the best way to cope with whatever issue you have.

That being said I’m totally biased, I had a pretty bad experience with trying to find treatment myself. The first nurse practitioner I saw didn’t diagnose me with ADHD and I ended up dealing with it for another two years until being frustrated enough to follow up again. Then, the first appointment I made was abruptly canceled by the doctor, who sent a message saying that I can schedule another appointment but that they weren’t likely to disagree with their colleagues assessment. This put me off for another few months, led me to waste time seeking out-of-network alternatives who intended to charge me absurd amounts of money for assessments, until I finally managed to find a doctor at the original clinic who was pretty appalled at their colleagues message, and looked at my original responses and didn’t understand why the first practitioner hadn’t diagnosed me with ADHD. She figured exploring if medication would alleviate my symptoms and improve my quality of life that it was worth pursuing. I started on Vyvanse and life is definitely a lot more manageable now.

fzeroracer2• 3 years ago

So is there a new billionaire pushing this narrative or something? We've seen the US start to restrict access to Adderall in the US and now the BBC is funding and pushing narratives claiming that clinics are overprescribing and pushing Adderall on people.

I'm very curious where this sudden change in political opinions is coming from.

annie_muss3• 3 years ago

A lot of discussion in this thread is centered around whether ADHD is "real" or not.

When someone comes to me thinking that they might have ADHD I start by asking them how messed up their life is. How many jobs have you been through? How many colleges have you dropped out of? How many good relationships have you cycled through?

ADHD is a disorder and it can be debilitating. It's not about some 1% efficiency improvement at work. It's the difference between being able to function as an adult in society with a job or being homeless/in prison.

I don't have ADHD, but three private clinics say I do, and offered me medication

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