I hope one day people will understand two things: - you can relate to someone with a specific mental condition without having said mental condition - not all of your negative traits need a medical explanation Society puts a lot of demands on everyone, and if someone has anything going on in the background (trauma but also physical disabilities etc), it's pretty likely that they can feel overwhelmed or behind everybody else. Relating with some 'ADHD traits' is completely normal, because we're all human sharing experiences. At the same time, we have to be open to the idea that it's pretty easy to fall between the cracks of diagnosis when you have ADHD. I'm a textbook example of combined ADHD (I check all the traits without exception) yet I was still diagnosed as an adult, mostly because in my country it's not well-known and it requires seeing both a psychiatrist and a neurologist. That's a great way to avoid misdiagnosis, but it's also pretty ridiculous to expect families to go out of their way to seek a diagnosis they aren't even aware of by seeing multiple specialized doctors several times.
Great points! Here in Canada you can now get an ADHD diagnosis in 15mins of speaking to a psychiatrist 😐 I know 6 women with the diagnosis and on high doses of Vyvanse 🤔
@@joanna0988 we have ONE adhd specialist in my area of the province and my "test" was a clicking game and a survey. Considering the years in therapy, talking w different psychologists and doctors for other possible diagnoses, it felt almost absurd? I don't know. It certainly wasn't affirming.
@@astroblast2325 Omg where are you located? I'm in Vancouver, BC. And yes that's not a reassuring assessment?? I'm confused why they're allowing this unless their goal is just to pump more meds into people.
@@joanna0988 This is apparently not the case in Ontario, I saw 2 family doctors, 3 psychiatrists over the span of 10 years, and was only officially diagnosed by my current psychiatrist, who specializes in it. The others all agreed I probably have it, but said they didn't know enough to say for sure. Edit: Should also say, you can pay for an assessment yourself out of pocket, but that costs thousands of dollars. If you can't afford that, you'll be waiting a very long time like I did.
Please do a video like this for autism/ASD! I see so many tiktoks and videos about "this is what autism is," and it absolutely jumbles up my brain and makes it hard to distinguish "this is autism" vs "this is autism FOR ME" vs "this is something similar" vs "this is something completely different" vs "this is just normal human experience."
There's a youtuber named Yo Samdy Sam who has a video breaking down the diagnostic criteria for autism. She's not a psychologist and she doesn't really discuss misinformation as tiktok wasn't that big when she made the video, so I do think it would be helpful if Ana still made a video similar to this one, but Sam's video is a good place to start if you're wondering if you might be autistic.
@@isabellamorris7902 There are many channels that do this. If you think it’s adhd how to adhd is my favorite and has videos comparing it autism. Warning though autism and adhd are very similar at times. Mostly because adhd is one of the most common comorbidity. There is many studies trying to see why this occurs that are definitely worth the read.
and especially with sensory issues and people assuming having them means you are autistic too or you have to be autistic to have them. Its so stressful to watch people boil down debilitating things to something like noticing sounds other people don't.
I think the important distinction to be made is that many of these symptoms might result from ADHD, but those symptoms on their own don’t mean you have ADHD
Yup. I only got diagnosed because there’s a giant pile of things I’ve found wild workarounds for actually are most of the symptoms of ADHD. I think a small amount of it is actually from PTSD… and it looks *a lot* like OCD and ASD but after talking with professionals and getting tests those were ruled out.
This is the comment I was looking for! Like yes, the core symptoms are necessary for diagnosis, but how do things evolve and affect each person as time goes on?
And a lot of ADHD symptoms are things that people who don't have it might experience. The difference is that people with ADHD experience them more often and with greater intensity.
God i haven't been diagnosed with adhd only autism, but executive dysfunction is ruining my life too. I often spend half of my day not being able to do anything while feeling progressively worse about it. I wish i could get help with this but people don't believe me.
Executive function issues as far as i can tell from my own well ADHD are basicly like some kind of society killer. instead of being able to well sleep walk through what should be natural habits and rituals such as getting out of bed,choosing your new outfit, or brushing ones teeth you are basicly forced to manually take control and force the action because your own body doesnt take the initiative.
My brother has ADD, I'll never forget him crying and break down over stress over homework and chores. It had to be perfectly silent for him to focus and it was so hard for him, pre treatment, to do well in school too.
Emotional dysregulation is such a huge part of ADHD, these people seem to think not being able to focus is just some cute thing that happens once a day or whatever... you actually feel a sort of pain in your brain when you try to focus. Dr. Russell Barkely talks about ADHD in a very understandable way, and Dr. Gabor Maté talks about how ADHD symptoms can worsen or be caused by trauma.
I understand this so well, but for me it's that I need noise (certain types of noise, like podcasts or music) to concentrate, otherwise my mind wanders. This is why individualized treatment is so important. What works for one person might not work for the other, even though the symptoms/causes are the same. I hope your brother is doing much better now.
@@Myllkka I feel like so much of the 'emotional dysregulation' is really just a normal reaction to being told (either implicitly or explicitly) what an absolute f-up you are all the time. And yes, focusing can actually *hurt!* I sustained a brain injury that gave me ADHD like symptoms and I remember what a complete shock that was. Suddenly focusing actually hurt.
Omgosh yes! I would get so mad and want to scream and throw stuff bc ppl were making noise. The best thing for your brother is to get blise canceling headphones. That will help at least with schoolwork and reading.
My brother was thought to have had ADHD in elementary school, and pretty much the only reason he isn't diagnosed is because my mom fought the school counselor on it, saying "he's just bored". No, he was twice-exceptional. Many of these things mentioned in the videos are caused by ADHD in some cases, and it's noteworthy to say that while some of them are generally shared human experiences, it's much more extreme with ADHD. For example, watching the same shows over and over again. With my brother, it was watching Star Wars on repeat, then watching all the special features on repeat, over and over and over and over and over, and then one more time for good measure. I appreciate the route you went with this video, acknowledging people's experiences but also acknowledging that what they're attributing to ADHD could also be caused by other things. But I do have to say (since I share a lot of the symptoms my brother has plus others, and had a tested EQ of 70 at age 13), one of the *reasons* people go without getting diagnosed with ADHD as adults if it was missed in childhood is because of executive dysfunction. They aren't capable of planning and managing the sensory steps that are required to get a diagnosis (making appointments, going to the doctor, requesting time off, etc) and following through with them. I do wish you had made mention of some of the reasons people go elsewhere (like tiktok) for validation of their experiences.
Thank you for the comment. Interesting and true notice that executive dysfunction can lead to not being diagnosed because a person just can’t get there 🎃
Yes!! Getting a diagnosis for anything is difficult with poor executive function. As I realize I’m out of a medication and have no idea what I’m going to do to get it on time….
I feel like she's not interested in validating and understanding people who are really trying to get diagnosed but can't, she is only interested in portraying people who self-diagnose as well as people who use TikTok as "toxic" aka evil
@@raspberrytaegi as soon as she referenced ADD as separate I got the feeling she isn’t as experienced or as knowledgable as she would have us believe. This is why people often have to go through multiple psychiatrists before they find a good one who actually knows what they’re talking about.
I think people might benefit more if the tiktokers specify that this is their experience and may not directly be a symptom of ADHD. Example, I am autistic and I also have IBS, IBS apparently is common in autistic people, however, you can have IBS and not be autistic and vice versa. People always need to check the DSM for this stuff before they very least self diagnose or go to their doctor for referral. Also, I'm kinda confused on the weaponizing incompetence thing, how do you know that someone is doing it badly on purpose and they're not genuinely struggling with it? The most I can think of is the Gabbie Hanna situation from last year, eg. she would request a very special kind of food from her staff (while everything else is available to her) and the staff would work hard on the food, give it to her, but she wouldn't eat that, she would just eat something else and leave that special food to rot, to the annoyance of her staff. She actually blamed her ADHD on it when it's not the case. But other than that, it's extremely common for people with ADHD to procrastinate and not being able to do simple tasks due to their executive function, implying that they might avoid responsibility because they want to burden others is more dangerous imo than what's specified in the screenshot (which by the way, that article is not scientific evidence).
The only time anyone is weaponizing incompetence is with genuine malintent really IMO. If that doesn't exist, it's just actual incompetence and it isn't until someone is unwilling to change when told directly about a problem multiple times that it becomes weaponized. And I guess even then it could be viewed differently depending on the person. Also I totally agree with the first paragraph, I always try to use self-focused language when something is a personal experience for a reason. People have lost the ability to distinguish when an authoritative voice should and shouldn't be used. Mostly because the internet encourages us to all pretend to be experts on things because otherwise we're not credible and our points fall apart. Maybe that's a byproduct of all the cynical losers and debate lords who make their home here, but I digress.
Also - is it ADHD or is it trauma??? Plus we need to stop pathologicalizing like… every little thing people do. Sometimes it’s just normal to forget why we walked into a room to get something.
Agreed.. I will say though, I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and had symptoms all throughout childhood. My first restaurant job at 16, I would go to the back for something, and forget what I was going back for. The problem was I would go back to the front to remember, and as soon as I got to the back again I would forget (repeat 2 or 3 times). It annoyed my coworkers, and myself. It was so frustrating it would make me want to cry. I don't think these tiktoks are illustrating how challenging and frustrating some of these symptoms can actually be. I never thought it was funny. It made my life 1000× harder than it had to be.
Yeah I honestly hate that ppl assume that's an ADHD thing like no that's just a ppl thing. But yes the having to do that so much that it delays stuff and takes you off track significantly is something to be concerned of and maybe an executive dysfunction thing.
@AneMore Bingo, I have both. PTSD can appear like ADHD symptoms (ie, inattentiveness can be disassociating to escape from a distressing situation, hyperactivity can come from neglect, etc.). It takes me 5 hours to read a 30-page chapter because I’ll float off in my imagination and have to re-read something, but my “rejection dysphoria” comes from harsh and unforgiving parenting (trauma) and needing to constantly be perfect and expecting to be an adult as a growing child.
Eeehh. Yes and no. like no rewatching your fav shows over and over is not a symptom of adhd or any type of mental disorder. But at the same time a lot of these symptoms are something that most people experience, but it isn't causing dysfunction.
I'm so glad you're addressing this! I swear people view ADHD as the cute and quirky mental health disorder. As a person who was diagnosed with it as a child, I have complicated feelings towards it. It's 1000 percent apart of me but it also makes my life harder and I could've done my childhood without insomnia.
I have ADHD, but it was missed until a couple years into highschool because I don't jump around acting wild and crazy. Instead I did things like draw in class, bounce my leg, fiddle with with things at my desk, etc. My little sister has a much more obvious presentation of ADHD. She could never sit still, could never pay attention, was always running around, etc. My Mom only realized that I might have it when she was researching my sister's diagnosis and had me tested too. It explains so much and just being able to tell people that I have ADHD makes things so much easier. Professors, coworkers, and people around me have context for what I do now. I'm not a jerk who isn't paying attention, I'm not stupid and I'm not lazy. My brain works differently and I've learned how function this way. I'm not perfect, but I keep working towards new solutions every day
It’s great to finally get this information from legitimate sources, my instagram feed was filled with adhd content and I just couldn’t understand why the algorithms were pushing that down my throat. I’ve noticed this trend of people trying to put a diagnosis on their bad qualities and quite frankly that is doing more harm than good. thanks Ana❤
Crazy thing is that none of these people said these are symptoms of adhd. They're talking about consequences of ADHD. I feel like we kind of have enough of people telling diagnosed people that the things we talk about are invalid, so maybe don't do that. Re-watching things, she's talking about hyperfocuses Craving sweets, she's talking about the compulssion to eat, which is an actual symptom. We often go for snacks when we feel hyper and unable to focus ADHD is a GRAVELY missunderstood disorder. And most times, people who do have it also have other issues, mainly anxiety, depression and/or substance abuse. If the reason I have anxiety is because of my ADHD, isn't that a consequence? Could we please focus on people that are saying the crazy shit like "Oh sometimes I can't focus" instead of people talking about valid consequences of their diagnosis, or lack-there-of through their lives? Yes, undiagnosed ADHD shows differently, because it's untreated. Overall a bad look :/
My biggest issue- never tell someone not to self diagnose. Many people cannot afford therapy, and if self diagnosing and looking up how to deal with ADHD afterwards helps you deal with the symptoms, then good. I think it's more damaging to tell poor people they aren't allowed to have neurological disorders.
You can look for ways to cope with symptoms without self dx. Not being able to afford therapy doest magically grant you a PhD to be able to dx yourself
Thank you, a lot of my friends that are wealthy have been diagnosed since childhood and been taken care very early so they are doing well, but for other people like me symptoms are just worsening with time and impossibility to access healthcare. At this point I don't care if it's PTSD, ADHD, autism, OCD or even schizophrenia, I just take what I can (Well, I mean I obviously have PTSD, but I also could have other things).
In order to truly solve this problem, we (as a society) NEED to invest heavily in mental health resources. The fact that so many people CAN'T get a proper diagnoses mean they basically have no choice but to figure themselves out on their own with the resources available to them. As long as people are careful and thoughtful with how they go about this, it should be harmless, for example: instead of saying "I totally have ADHD", an undiagnosed person might say "I think I might have ADHD" or "I relate to a lot of people who have ADHD". Those little adjustments in how we speak and think about our mental health could make a big difference.
Your kitty is so cute!! Great video! I have seen so many ‘concerned’ videos on this toipic, and grateful to finally have someone with the proper background to speak on it. I think any videos with the ‘things I didn’t know were due to a mental illness. The videos always leave out the context- the difference between a symptomand the specific way that symptom manifests in their unique situation. And as you demonstrated, these videos ignore the universality of many of the claims, maybe due in part to the young age of most tic tockers; maybe they don’t realize how common these supposed signs are. Tictock’s short format really limits a creators ability to provide clear warnings, disclaimers and resources in a way that is easy to access for casual viewers.
THANK YOU. I was having a conversation with somebody (I’m clinically diagnosed btw) about adhd and they were like, “oh yeah my whole entire family has it my brother does I do too” (self diagnosed as you can guess) and man I was explaining something and they said, “Stop pretending please living with it isn’t even hard I have it you’re being a baby” and boy let me tell you how invalidating and just harmful that was to me and is to others. It invalidates my emotional breakdowns, my hours getting stuck on homework, every trouble as it’s not that hard everyone has it. ADHD has become too normalized in this society and for those with it it invalidates their experiences (I know I’m using invalidates a lot sorry lol my minds blanking on synonyms)
Also NO ADHD isn’t quirky and a cute character trait it is a DISORDER THAT IS HARD I wish people stopped making it seem like a cute thing that they’d want to identify with like 😑
Hi Ana! Great video and explanation. To me - seeing all these popular videos actually helped to become more aware. I definitely started noticing symptoms. And of course I scheduled a proper appointment with psychiatrist to be evaluated as I don’t want to self diagnose. So yes , those videos can point to a certain things but definitely it’s not a problem solving tool. Also, I liked how you mentioned that everyone jokes about adulting. It would be so great if you could do a video about it. Like what actually adult is? Maturity and etc. And I’m talking about not a parent part within us , but the actual adult. How to know that you are the one 😅 Thank you ❤
This is a great video, thank you for making it. I am diagnosed with ADHD and I get upset that it’s trendy to claim you have ADHD, because for most of my life I’ve been ashamed of it, made fun of because of my behavior when I was younger, and have had a lifetime worth of struggles suffering/learning to cope/managing my disorder and learning to overcome the shame of being different- if I only knew how cool it was to be ADHD when I was crying from the difficulties in school and life or when I have been unable to sit still when required to sit still and feel I’m going to burst if I don’t get up and move around or when I’ve made impulsive decisions that I’m lucky didn’t end up worse. People are overstimulated these days because of smart phones and social media and constantly being bombarded with stimuli- so it’s understandable most people have a hard time focusing - but that’s very different than the all day every day struggle of trying to stay on task and getting half of your to do list done, have constant thoughts swirling in your head, struggling with low confidence from feeling you just can’t do it, and trying to fit into environments where you are just different….it’s not trendy, it’s not a quirky trait, it’s a life struggle if you have ADHD.
One thing that I am happy about is that after pulling myself out of the spiralling, there were still things I related to like disorganization and struggling with time management. So I still found it helpful to try out some of the methods/tools people used in these videos to stay on top of things.
To the defense of the second video, she says it *can* look like that. She doesn't outright state that these things are ADHD which can come across as claiming it's 100% certainly an ADHD thing which most of these things werent. I must say it does get complicated when you also have ASD, MDD and PTSD, but I got an ADHD diagnosis anyway because I showed the signs before I had trauma enter my life and also certain things can't be explained by the ASD diagnosis that I already had so at age 24 I also got an ADHD diagnosis
I feel like the biggest issue with these is that they don't give enough detail on the experiences they're actually trying to describe. A lot of them sound like they're intending to describe a really specific experience, but it lacks so much detail that the essence of it is lost. Like with "feeling adult-ish" and constantly playing catch-up, more likely than not they're talking about how having ADHD or autism or another related disorder can sometimes make you feel like you're in a state of arrested development, or that you're never doing as well as your neurotypical peers, or that your social skills are really underdeveloped for your age group, etc. on a level that neurotypical people just don't really get. But the way they're describing it is so vague that it could apply to literally anyone. Part of it I think is due to lacking the language to be able to describe it and part of it is the more relatable your tiktoks are the more views they get.
I can confirm that its very calming to put a tag or having an explanation for behavior, because i used to be quite sure i was neurodivergent (i was just looking for an explanation for my behavior)
I have adhd, and the TikTok videos drive me insane. It’s like these people thing every single thing they do can be attributed with adhd. Adhd has made my life hard. It took me 7 years to get my bachelors degree from the struggle to focus and study and stay organized. Idk why anyone would WANT to have it like these kids
Exactly. Everyone reaches their limit, and sometimes folks have bad days, and sometimes people function a bit differently, but that doesn't make someone neurodivergent, traumatized, mentally ill, etc. People's issues are still valid even if they don't have a fancy label
A pet peeve of mine is that even mental health professionals on tiktok often leave out any mention of differential diagnosis for the symptoms or features they are discussing. There is so much symptom overlap with disorders related to trauma, anxiety, depression, autism, etc. As well as nutritional deficiencies (which I realize is probably not given enough attention in degree programs to begin with).
Thank you Ana! as someone who is diagnosed by my therapist, it can be frustrating when people self-diagnose based on social media. ADHD isn’t just a set of symptoms. it impacts every aspect of my life and i have to work hard to counteract the negative impacts my inattention has on my job, relationships, living space, etc.
@@mcchilde2903 the only real reasons you need diagnosis is to get a. sick leave b. commoditations c. treatment = therapy and or meds) not listed in any specific order. self diagnose cannot give you none of those, so why would you need to diagnose yourself ?
@@foliofolio um is self diagnoses not the first step to getting an actual diagnosis? 😭 as long as they aren’t parading the Illness and don’t use it as a “quirk” it’ll help ppl that are genuinely struggling
@@alexk4450 you can say you suspect something, with out telling people you have said illness, isnt that what self diagnosing is ? the first step is trying to get help cause ypu are suffering, you dont go to professionals to get specific diagnosis, but to get help. you can go diagnosis in mind you suspect, but the reasons should not be to get that specific diagnosis confirmed, but to get help for whatever you may have that severly harms you and or people aroung you and the guality of your life
@@mcchilde2903 I’m not invalidating anyone’s experience. you may have these symptoms, but unless someone who is qualified to diagnose does so, you cannot definitively say that those symptoms are from adhd. ptsd and adhd share symptoms. asd as well. you may have symptoms of adhd, but no one can objectively diagnose themselves.
Im thankful that i was diagnosed at age 7. Thank you for posting this though because im tired of people self diagnosing thanks to one TikTok. I hate that i have adhd, i wish i did not have it
Check the adult adhd checklist too, it manifests a bit differently due to lifetime of masking, stigma, and general trauma/meat grinder of neurotypical life. Also we got to be real to the DSM neglects dealing with the emotional ramifications of a dopamine deficit/hypermetabolism. It’s harder to categorize. Not to mention conflict of interest with pharmaceutical companies wanting to develop new mood stabilization medication’s and funding/development of DSM. You could also argue that people who claim they have ADHD as a way of not having to deal with some thing or putting the responsibility on to others, might actually have ADHD and are just overwhelmed and or self-centered due to their Nuro diversity. Just because they have comorbidities that makes him kind of narcissistic or incredibly immature Does not invalidate their ADHD experience.
One of the many things I've struggled with while having ADHD is talking over other people. I feel like If I have something to say, I have to say it now. And I have been able to notice signs of people I talk with annoyed at me. Of course that's not the only thing I go through with my diagnosis, but it all sucks. I've lost friends thanks to it. And it's so upsetting to see people fake it.
you said self diagnosing is bad and i shouldn’t do it. i related extremely to most/all of the symptoms in this video, and i’ve done research on medical websites. my symptoms affect my day-to-day life. unfortunately the waiting list to get tested is a year long and my mom might not want me to. i am a minor, so my mom has say in my medical stuff and she has final authority over whether or not i can get tested. what should i do?
I'm with you there. I'm not sure if I can really afford screening for anything at this point in my life, and I'm an adult. I wish I had some advice for your situation, but I'm betting there are other minors out there in a similar situation, so just know you're not alone. Once you're an adult, you can decide for yourself if you're going to get screened for anything. Hope this helps.
I'm newly diagnosed. I'm 53. I did not truly believe it or could fully grasp it until I took the meds( amfetamine dirvative). Then and only could I see and understand that something was wrong. I'm still stuggling, but now I can at least see a road to someplace better.
The DSM doesn't cover everything it's still playing catch up there's been an increase in diagnoses in recent decades but still only scratching the surface particularly in adults, it's a complicated picture there will be some self diagnosed who are wrong but most if they do make it to assessments are proven correct, it's usually not from a casual few watches of tiktok it's often from a series of events that made them question, family members diagnosed, many of their friends the people they get on with most were diagnosed etc. then tiktok fills in some pieces, good to provide full information but we also don't want to set people back by discouraging them from a journey that could help understand and alleviate difficulties they've suffered all their lives
thank you so much for making this video. it seems the internet has gone from overdiagnosing ADHD to GROSSLY overdiagnosing autism. i have multiple mental illnesses, and the only one i ever had a bit of a hard time coming to terms with was my diagnosis of autism because of the stigma, and for everyone to be claiming the diagnosis under false pretenses, backed by nothing, is so invalidating and upsetting. the presentation of misinformation as fact, *ENCOURAGING* self diagnosis, is so incredibly dangerous. and it's something that has been greatly distressing me lately. thank you for bringing light to this.
really appreciate this video, due to my depression I have attention and memory issues and thought thanks to tik tok I had adhd despite it not effecting my life to the extent that adhd typically does
My psychiatrist told me I had ADD but didn't give me an evaluation, he just said "you exhibit a lot of the symptoms, we should put you on medication" and that medication I'm pretty sure led me to developing a chronic pain disease that basically ruined my life. I had to forcibly tell him "I don't want to take this anymore, if you don't taper me off I'm just gonna stop taking it" because he kept wanting to put me on higher and higher doses. Pretty sure I just have really bad anxiety, there can be a lot of overlap between those two and I think he was getting paid by the company that made that medication to push it on patients (thankfully that's illegal now). Maybe he's right, maybe not, but that's why it's so important to have a proper evaluation done, especially if medication is involved. And if you can afford it a second opinion is always helpful. Thanks for your insight and education, it's important to know for sure if you have a diagnosed mental condition and seek proper treatment to help manage the disruption it causes in your life, but as you said a lot of people just use it as an excuse for their bad behavior without a diagnosis or intention on seeking treatment.
This has been something thats been bugging me for a while now and I’m so glad you talked about it!! It’s been feeling like ADHD is seen as “trendy” which is so frustrating as someone who has a very hard time dealing with actual ADHD symptoms (been diagnosed since I was 7).
I really appreciate you breaking all of this down! I'm 35 and finally got an autism diagnosis a few months ago, but ADHD was ruled out. It makes sense based on your explanation as well - lots of other things going on that affect my executive functioning and some impulsivity, ha! So much to learn about our brains and experiences! 😇
you were listing symptoms and I got distracted and forgot to listen and was like "oh no what if I have those symptoms she was talking about" forgetting I definitely do have ADHD
I had an official diagnosis as a kid around 2nd grade then again as an adult. My hyperactiveness decreased mostly because of being tired all the time, so I have no energy to be really active.
Anybody else test high but took hours to do homework and still not have the first assignment done because my imagination and daydreaming ran too deep? Now imagine driving and trying to function like an adult like that, being unable to keep a job or finish school or college. I have no idea why I seem to struggle 10x more than I should even with adhd. And I have comorbid bipolar which stimulants causes manics. Idky I'm ranting. It's been a bad day
I'm sorry you had a bad day. I experienced that too with homework. Driving is a nightmare for me, I'm terrified of it. I can empathize with those parts of your struggle
Everything that these people are saying can and is caused by ADHD for some people. I don’t think we should be holding ticktockers to the standards of psychologists. Many ticktockers also say that a lot of ADHD symptoms overlap with other conditions. Some of these are very generalized tho and I understand your point.
No wonder so many people get misdiagnosed. Thanks to Neurotypical doctors living a textbook. It's a spectrum, self diagnose is valid. To wait until people get officially diagnosed can take years, so why not trying to make yourself better. Tiktok makes many people realise, they might be Neurodiverse and seak a diagnose, but most adults are self diagnosed until they are actually diagnosed, that's the problem of late diagnosis. So thanks for devaluating people.
Weaponized incompetence😂 It is so true, I never use my Bipolar Disorder as an excuse for my behavior. The reason I have accomplished the progress in treatment is self accountability.
omg thank u for this video i'm so sick of seeing this stuff, I'm autistic and I feel like there's a lot of misinformation about that too, it's not some fun quirky thing, we literally can't function in society like most people, it's a disability that I've been bullied for all my life and there's people who are like oh I have one symptom I have autism lol
Thank you for this, as someone with ADD (and sensory processing disorder) the misinformation surrounding mental disorders makes it really hard to tell when my problems are actually being caused by my disorder or if it's something that happens to everyone and I need to push through. Before doing actual research on them (I'd been diagnosed at 13-ish but just assumed it was the same for everyone) I often felt like I was using it as an excuse for everything and was making up problems that didn't exist because my symptoms didn't line up with randos on the internet. It got to the point where I would break down in class or when I was with my friends because I would tell myself to "just snap out of it". If you have a mental disorder, don't be dumb like me and look up as much TRUSTWORTHY information on it as you can so you can learn to identify triggers and find out how to live your life in a way that helps you.
i was diagnosed with adhd when i was a kid and was recently UNdiagnosed and diagnosed with bpd. looking back i never met the criteria for adhd fully, just a lot of the inattentive criteria kind of related to me. the psychiatrist just didn't notice any of the trauma i was experiencing around me and didn't stop to consider that i was struggling heavily with dissociation, anxiety, and early BPD symptoms. many disorders can manifest similarly to ADHD
I have talked to 3 professionals about myself and the possibility of having ADHD. They all told me the same basic stuff you've said here. Thank you for going into the detail and examples, it really helped me understand what my doctors were saying. I feel a weight lifted. 😁
This was an excellent video. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was very young. I have lived a whole life realizing I can succeed at goals, but that I have to learn to cut myself a lot of slack while working on my goals. It's a complex condition that having it myself I often wonder how others have so many life examples to point to. the one thing for me is hitting the over stim point and then needing to burn it off and the challenges that come from that.
This is such an important video. I wasn’t diagnosed until last year, I went decades struggling. I finally got on a medication that helps my brain slow down so I can interpret all my thoughts more fully. If I miss my medication I feel like my brain is going off the rails. It makes constructive interactions difficult.
Complex trauma looks very similar to adult adhd, I can only imagine how not dealing with that and thinking you should be better because "now im getting treatment" would kill your self worth. I'm doing what the doctor says but I still fall short, Must be me.
damn the telephone metaphor was so so good!! thank you for educating people, it's horrible how much misinformation is flying around on the internet :))
As a young teen I was tested for adhd. I was told I had depression, anxiety, Borderline. Later Borderline was changed to bipolar, later bipolar was changed to cptsd. As an adult i was then again tested., and at 31 years I was then diagnosed with adhd. They said they were quite certain I have it. Basically it seems to me that professionals interpret symptoms subjectively with the dsm and just because one doctor diagnosises you with something doesn't mean another doctor will.
GREAT post! I resonate with a lot of the comments! FTR, I went to therapy for help with what my ADHD was causing BUT I didn’t think it was ADHD except for the “TikToks”. These videos are very irresponsible, but did point me in that direction. The DSM is a good guide if not taken too literally - the one mistake I find in your video. Would like your thoughts on this in a few years - keep at what you’re doing - you’re clearly dedicated 😁. I ended up with an ADHD specialist and it has been life changing. For me, menopause and a prolonged toxic stress environment kicked my ADHD into overdrive. Keep spreading the word, love, and remember it’s a spectrum. So tired of the “I have some ADHD too” hopefully, this will help!
Haha I like how tik tok really made me rethink my life. Stumbling across this video, I was initially relieved but now I’m considering getting evaluated for anxiety or ADHD. As in, I am even more convinced. For instance I feel like I carry myself well for the most part, but in my head there’s soooooo much going on. I used get in trouble in school for not paying attention or being easily distracted and talking a lot but my grades were phenomenal and I participated/ dabbled in a bunch of random creative hobbies but never really mastered anything. Long story short I need therapy lol Probably SOMETHING in there 🧠
I have had a suspicion that I may have ADHD for a while now, but with you going over the PROPER symptoms list I fully understand that I need to, at some point, get tested for it. I've always had issues with school (sometimes I just couldn't do work because it was too boring/i wouldn't pay attention in class then have no clue what to do) and emotional issues (i cry a LOT. when i was a kid i cried a lot too, over very small things, and get very angry over tiny annoyances and have some outbursts here and there) plus i heavily relate to the "not being able to do chores" (my parents get very annoyed at me when I don't complete tasks/get distracted from my train of thought/get too bored of cleaning the dishes or whatever chore im doing and then can't complete it) Plus I have a hard time following rules because of my impulsivity, which leads to me getting yelled at (most of the time). A few months ago I was able to be tested for depression (my mother has depression and most likely ocd), and possibly adhd and my parents only wanted to pay attention to the depression and not the possible adhd, and chalk all of the symptoms in the previous paragraph up to "oh, they're just a kid, that's why they're 'rebellious'." or "ah, angry little teenagers" even though i am trying my best to fit in. I don't mask any of my symptoms because I was never really taught that they were "not like other people", and when i just can't sit still or my emotions boil over because of something triggering said emotions, it feels a little awkward because I think of my friends and if they have the same issues I do. (only nowadays, though) I'm going to talk to my parents about possibly getting tested for ADHD sometime soon so I can at least have something to tell me why I have these issues, and possibly get medicated for said issues.
I have autism (diagnosed at 3) and ADHD (diagnosed at 20). I think my ADHD went undiagnosed so long because of my autism diagnosis, but from my childhood autism report you can clearly see the signs and the overlap. I suspected ADHD through my own research, however I booked an assessment appointment and got a professional assessment which led to a diagnosis. It’s okay to do your own research if you think you may have ADHD, but it’s really important to see a professional to see if your suspicions are accurate.
Thank uuuuu I only got diagnosed at 21 and even then I doubted it because I did relate to ADHD symptoms but I know people collect disorders like Pokémon cards these days. It feels like a joke when I say I have ADHD because of how TikTok had made it out to be even though it’s affected me freaking every day and it’s pretty annoying and on some days very frustrating. Man I used to just think I’m stupid but somehow did good in school, except for maths tho.
I have been diagnosed with Adhd is 2020. Being put on medicine and it had changed my life for the better but the rewatching tv shows over and over cracked me up! I cannot rewatch something and if I do it cannot be with in the same year I’m the complete opposite of that. Lol
i went for an ADHD/ASD diagnosis at age 15/16 and my inattentive ‘score’ was a 9 and hyperactivity score was an 8 however the person doing the diagnosis wouldn’t diagnose me bc i’d often have a coffee with me at my appointments. i also have been diagnosed with dyslexia, ‘almost ASD’ (he said if you need a 3 to be diagnosed with ASD your a 2.8), and sensory processing issues and anxieties. but trauma, anxiety, depression, ADHD and potential ASD, slowed processing all got confused, leading to no diagnosis’s bc they couldn’t pinpoint which causes what symptom… it’s so frustrating bc i find so many ASD/ADHD coping mechanisms beneficial, and significantly reduces how often i burnout, bc i understand myself but not getting an appropriate diagnosis makes me feel like i’m putting on an ADHD/ASD mask then realise i feel like alien pretending to be a person and worrying every step and facial expression is ‘normal’, and i genuinely can’t focus on my teachers words. AS A SMART KID THIS SET ME UP FOR FAILURE IN MY SENIOR SCHOOLING. try get diagnosed with adhd asd before 12.
I know this was made a year ago and hasn't really done anything to help the issue, But I really do appreciate you making this video. I cringe every time I see one of those videos talking about ADHD. It's not the fact that they're capitalizing on their disorder, it's more of how they present it as some quirky fun little thing... But also in a way that's just sooo... inaccurate.
Good point on the disassociating / daydreaming. Ima try and describe them cause i disassociate on occasion cause ✨ptsd✨ for me its depersonalization and i literally will have a whole meltdown cause i dont even recognize myself. Now when im daydreaming, my mind goes into very long tangents about really random things, to an extent which is probably why i got diagnosed with adhd. Like i come up with some wack things, and not everyone enjoys my sharing of for example today "we should send all our tech trash to pluto to confuse aliens and future humans" that went on for about 20+ minutes to my very patient bf c:
I was diagnosed at 17. Walking back through my childhood, I found a history of textbook traits of adhd in girls/women. Dismissed as me being lazy, careless, flighty, forgetfull, undisciplined, chatty, moody, excitable, distracted, and "selective" in my attention and listening.
Honestly, I always felt like something was off with me as a kid. Apparently I got diagnosed when I was in elementary school but was never treated. When I came across a TikTok that displayed Executive Dysfunction I cried. I suffer from that *heavily* and I body double so much now with y husband or friends. I got diagnosed back in January and it was the best thing for me. If I had been treated as a child I would have thrived. Tho, I will say sometimes I get tired of ADHD TikTok....
Yeah I get you. I've been on a wait list for about 2 years. I've had troubles as long as I remember. I have scars on my hand from stimming (I scratch my fingers when I get excited or nervous).. My mom had to buy me a fidget toy in 5th grade. I needed to do something at all times. I drew in class and if I wasn't I couldn't focus at all. I was always that gifted child though so people just kind of looked at be weird or laughed at my weird movements but by professionals nothing was wrong. When I couldn't just know the answers anymore and my focusing got really bad in beginning of highschool I told my mom.. a lot of my friends that have diagnosed adhd + their parents agree and my old therapist thought it was possible too. I think I have over 10 people in total think that that was the right diagnosis for me but I haven't had anything professionally to back it up. I'm not trying to self diagnose but I fit almost every symptom and have talked to people and researched and listened to videos by professionals and though I don't fit every experience I do fit enough.. and even my mom said that my brain works differently.. That I was tested for autism but it came back inconclusive. (I don't think I have asd but I am saying that even when I was very young I had symptoms of neurodivergency)
Not sure if you’ve already addressed this, but I’ve noticed a lot of the same treatment on TikTok of the idea of neurodivergence in general. There’s this idea floating around that everyone is neurodivergent or, more specifically, everyone is on the autism spectrum. Would you consider addressing this as well as the overload of misinformation regarding this topic?
Sorry if you have already talked about this, but I would absolutely love if you did a video like this about DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). There is so much misinformation, and as a diagnosed person with DID myself I just... i want to reach out wherever I can and get the conversation going. So many people with other disorders like BPD or Bipolar have claimed this disorder and it can be damaging for the community and the research being done in general. thank you for your content ^^
As someone who exhibits some symptoms but isn't diagnosed (my therapist and I are working on evaluation tho) I would never claim to have adhd unless I end up getting the diagnosis. What I've noticed tho is that i have similar enough experiences to people with adhd that adhd strategies tend to work well for me and I try to use them in my daily life
In some ways it’s not an exaggeration to say that ADHD has ruined my life. The associated issues have made me suicidal at some points. The fact that people are going online and making this stuff up for attention, or a need to feel special, or as some “cute” accessory is a total slap in the face.
I've been diagnosed with ADD and it's upsetting when people say they have ADD because they can't focus sometimes. I can't "just focus" as easily as other people and it hurts that people think I can. My whole life people thought I was lazy for not doing things that are so much harder for me than they understand.
As someone who was diagnosed as a child and still struggles with ADHD as an adult, I literally have had people who aren't diagnosed tell me that they have ADHD too because they can't focus sometimes and then turn around two seconds later and ask me wtf is wrong with me for exhibiting a very typical ADHD symptom lmao. This shit is driving me nuts. Edit: so this post seemed to resonate with a lot of people. Hope ya'll are doing okay. Don't let the bastards getcha down.✊
yes!!! I even had a 'friend' who was diagnosed with ADHD but her main diagnosis is CPTSD, I honestly believe she was misdiagnosed ADHD because she would literally bully me for my ADHD symptoms.... there is literally no way she is neurodivergent because my god she really looked down on me and my other neurodivergent friends for having such a hard time managing everyday things that she had no problem with 90% of the time. It was infuriating living with her, she made me feel SO useless and inferior bc of my symptoms.
@@boinkadoinkk some people experience adhd but it isn’t as bad due to their needs being met as a kid. My ex boyfriend, he had adhd, and has struggles, but does not relate to my symtoms due to him getting help as a kid. He was able to get medicated while I didn’t. And he was raised a lot better than I was. It was very hard for him to accommodate to my adhd becuase he himself was able to find a way to get over those struggles. I don’t think we should be doubting peoples diagnosis just becuase they don’t understand you, but I don’t agree with what your friend did either. ADHD is on a spectrum a lot of the time and some need more help than others. It is often common of parents with adhd to say “you don’t have adhd cuz I do that” and often shame the child cuz they themselves also struggle. Often times people put others down cuz it is something that someone else told them often
@@hermionetwo2739 my friend had cptsd due to an emotionally absent, neglectful, abusive mother. She had no other family. She was also only diagnosed with ADHD at 21, which was less than a year before we became friends. I definitely get what you're saying and I agree, but she absolutely did not have *any* of her needs met as a kid. If anything that should mean her ADHD symptoms are extremely pronounced.
@@boinkadoinkk yes I am the same way. I did not get diagnosed till 18 and experienced a lot of abuse as well. Remember you don’t remember what she was like as a kid, cuz I have always had this even during positive moments of my childhood
It took me until I was 23 until I got officially diagnosed because I'm a woman and I always had good grades 🙂🙂 I was just silently struggling and nobody took it seriously 🙂🙂🙂
I didn't have good grades and still nobody took it seriously except for one psych student when I was 16. (Ironically, one of the best psychologists I've ever met, though not yet qualified at the time. Excellent listening skills and created space so well and just had the best presence.) I think the girl/woman thing and not being hyperactive causes many to not be taken seriously and good grades would only make it worse.
I was diagnosed last year when I was 28 after struggling through nursing school and most of my master’s degree. I think I can relate to your frustration. I was good at masking, and had really good grades, although looking back, I don’t understand how someone didn’t notice.
I was like 6, but also had like, super boyish adhd? I guess i was a tomboy as a kid aswell. However they didn’t pay enough attention to my autism because of how prevelant my ADHD was.
There's an ADHD feeling I call "painful boredom" when I am so understimulated and bored that I actually would rather be dead than sit through the boredom.
Have you seen that ‘worlds quietest room’ place? Apparently the noise cancelling panels in it mean you can literally hear your own pulse and neurotypical people can’t spend more than a few minutes in it. I am genuinely curious what it could do to someone with ADHD but I am mildly worried it would kill them on the spot
Have had full on breakdowns at work because there was literally nothing to do except maybe push a broom for six hours. Management asked me what I needed to quit asking to leave early and I was like STUFF. GIVE ME SOMETHING TO DO AND I MIGHT STAY LATE! Nothing like standing in the middle of a warehouse, fantasizing about digging out your brain with a crochet hook because everything is bad and you're bored.
@@kyratompsett4409 I used to work at a theme park and rainy days at a small station by myself was absolute torture. There was NOTHING to do, the park was dead. Minutes felt like hours.
I feel so conflicted about the concept of self diagnosis. It took me almost a decade as an adult before I was diagnosed. My family doctor said "Well, you have most if the symptoms, but I'm not a specialist so I can't say for sure." I ask to see a specialist, they say they don't know any that treat adults. Then I finally got to see a psychiatrist for OCD, but they said they wanted me to see another psychiatrist at the same hospital who specialized in ADHD, and wouldn't even let me on the waitlist until I was completely discharged from the anxiety clinic first. I was finally diagnosed when I moved to a new city and started seeing a psychiatrist who treated both. Not only that, but I'm lucky enough to be in a country with universal healthcare, I can't imagine how difficult it would be with the financial hurdles too. Like in some cases, I think the barriers to getting diagnosed are bad enough that self diagnosis might be all someone has, possibly for years until they can get treatment. But there are definitely all the risks you mentioned in this video too.
I literally have a diagnosis by an ADHD specialized psychiatrist, and I was still told that it wasn’t good enough to get prescribed the proper medication (stimulants). So instead they put me on different SSRIs without telling me possible side effects of going on/off them, and I had severe negative effects with no help to my symptoms.
Self diagnosis is perfectly valid. I'd rather someone is self diagnose than live with the pressure of not living up to neurotypical standards. I think it's ableist to invalidate self diagnosis, as she did.
The irony of bashing self-diagnosis for ADHD while describing all the symptoms that make it hard for an adult with ADHD to manage all the steps to diagnosis is frustrating.
literally, i don’t condone the culture of needing to diagnose every issue one faces. but when it has interfered with your entire life and it’s difficult to have ever noticed it because of… so much… that’s when there could be some basis. i don’t understand why someone would *want* to have ADHD.
the only real reasons you need diagnosis is to get a. sick leave b. commoditations c. treatment = therapy and or meds) not listed in any specific order. self diagnose cannot give you none of those, so why would you need to diagnose yourself ?
Tiktok did help me get my diagnosis as ADHD as an adult, however, I had such glaringly obvious symptoms as a child. I have always been inattentive, lost things frequently, made careless mistakes, struggled with time management, with major exec functioning issues and inability to keep a room clean and been fired from jobs. As a child it was flagged that I was possibly Autistic but nothing happened with that. While there is a lot of misinformation, I am grateful for tiktok for showing me I'm not alone and empowering me to seek a diagnosis.
literally the same thing happened to me!! (not thetiktok part - I found out I had it before I got tiktok). I also had my mother thinking I was autistic, but all the 'signs' she saw were really just inattentive ADHD symptoms/behaviors. I would get into trouble at school for being forgetful, for always being late, for never finishing my work or not listening in class. Had a lot of trouble making and keeping friends. Always forgetting appointments/meetings/plans with people and losing important things. I was/am always 'in my own head' and didn't/don't always know what was going on around me lol. Horrifically bad at managing my own time and very bad with money.There were so many signs that she and my teachers picked up on but I was growing up in china in the early 2000s and there was zero medical awareness around ADHD. Even if the people around me knew about inattentive ADHD (they didn't), there was nowhere for me to go for diagnosis or treatment. Kids just didn't get diagnosed with stuff like ADHD or asperger's in Asia, even now it's pretty rare.
That's the same for me. It was glaringly obvious as a child for me I think too. Time management sucked. Struggled with keeping my room clean. My dad got so mad at me for not being able to vacuum the living room because I got frustrated with the vacuum not working super well and started pulling it apart trying to make it work better. He would say, "if you can't even vacuum the living room, how are you going to succeed in life and go to college or get a job?" Not being treated like my inattention was a medical issue and like I was just a weird burden was really what led to me not being diagnosed until I was 27.
Thank you for mentioning how saying "daydreaming" is dissociation is dangerous. I daydream frequently just because I am a creative and introverted person, but during a very abusive relationship I started having depersonalization and derealization episodes. They're a completely different and terrifying feeling. For me, daydreaming is pleasant but disassociation is NOT at all pleasant.
Oh gosh I empathize with this so hard. The depersonalization and derealization episodes are absolutely terrifying when I’m driving. It’s been happening less since I was diagnosed with ADHD and started stimulants, but the episodes will come out of nowhere and I get so confused because I don’t know why
When you have disassociation or depersonalization, are you completely unable to recognize yourself and your surroundings as familiar? I would have these moments where I would feel disconnected from myself and my surroundings but I wouldn’t say I was completely disconnected from them and I was still aware that it was me and it was real. I just want to know if I experienced something different or not.
Dissociation I would classify as zoning out. The problem is that's also what ppl call daydreaming, which honestly might be a form if dissociation but I agree that if someone has a problem with daydreaming too much it's often not the same thing. Maladaptive daydreaming is a thing.
I think I have some sort of dissociative issue as well, and it is terrifying 😢 it is almost always when I am walking and usually at work. I work in a hair salon, and I always dissociate in our breakroom if i have had a high stress day. I'll usually be walking across the room, then my vision goes black, I feel like I'm not real, I stand in place, and feel like I've essentially died and been revived. People around me usually ask "are you alright?" And tell me afterwards that I just go silent and stare off into space. After about 5 seconds of being "under," I suddenly remember where I am, what I was doing, and what happened. I usually try to ground myself in reality,by touching a wall, fidgeting with my clothes, etc. I tried telling a doctor about this as a child, and they didn't believe me, even though I was sure I was having absence seizures. 😢
The "rewatching TV shows a lot" thing cracks me up. I have ADHD and I actually have trouble finishing most shows that I start, cuz I can't sit in front of the TV for longer than an episode without getting distracted or bored.
Same with me. I can't rewatch shows. It makes me so bored my skin crawls looking for something else to do. It has to be something new each time. There have been times where I'd have one movie I'd obsessively watch a bunch of times but that's very rare.
I don't know if I have ADHD, but I have a similar thing. I rewatch most shows and films quite a lot, because the familiarity of knowing something is comforting. But I don't actually really watch them, they just play in the background while I'm drawing/reading/writing/playing games. Because if I only do one thing at a time I can't concentrate on that thing, unless it really uses up a lot of my brain capacity. So I do several things at a time, to concentrate on whatever it is I'm currently doing.
The rewatching shows is pretty valid actually. Because people with adhd can’t pay attention well it’s easier to watch something you’ve seen before so if you miss certain parts it still makes sense to you. It’s hard to focus on new shows and I get lost to the point where I have to restart things over and over. If I rewatch things I can more easily follow along. Just because it’s not a problem for you doesn’t mean it isn’t for others.
@@chellenicki2805 But different people have different viewing preferences whether they have ADHD or not. ADHD might contribute to your particular viewing preferences but viewing preferences are not a symptom in and of themself. It's not a problem to watch what you want - unless it's actually hindering you (in which case it doesn't matter if you're watching the same thing or something new, it's the watching TV when you should be doing something else entirely that's the problem).
I’m clinically diagnosed with ADHD and GAD however my anxiety is through the roof because of adhd symptoms. I’m constantly anxious that I’m forgetting something, finishing tasks at work is incredibly difficult and everyone wants things done in the morning which means I have to get it done the night before because mornings and I do not mix. Constantly being in a state of overwhelm and fear because I know I’m going to fail someone at some point is not an exciting or funny way to live. Even with medication and therapy I still struggle. Adhd isn’t a quirky little thing you can “relate” to. It’s debilitating, stressful, and ostracizing.
Me too! I’m doomed to carry my own inescapable, isolating hell, and there’s no way out of it. It’s not right for them to make light of a disability, I did not choose to be born with this brain. It is so humiliating how they diminish our struggles like this.
@@jackchop1576 We are genuinely not like the others and our lives are hell because of it. We can’t even make friends because we fall into the uncanny valley due to how different our mannerisms and body language is from that of a neurotypical. You have zero right to make fun of a disability! Our brain scans and our consistent testimonies prove that we are telling the truth. Be grateful that you were lucky enough to not have to bare our same burdens.
I appreciate this video, and understand you want to prevent misunderstanding of ADHD and thus reach for the DSM. But equally I went undiagnosed for a long time because I ascribed so many of my symptoms to the comorbid depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms. Many researchers in the field of ADHD diagnosis have a fair number of critiques of the DSM. Notably, emotional regulation problems have a strong research basis for inclusion. A lot of us get our diagnosis (based on the DSM-V) and then in our ongoing care will describe something to our psychiatrist, who then will say things akin to "oh yeah, that's pretty universal in my ADHD patients". I think this is a driver for at least some of these tik toks. Examples from my clinical care include: extremely disregulated emotions, poor sleep regulation, sensory issues, and cyclical changes in symptoms with my hormonal cycle.
Emotional dysregulation should definitely be included. I thought I had BPD for a moment because I couldn’t explain the rapid mood swings I would get sometimes. I was going from feeling depressed, hopeless, and worthless to happy and fine like nothing happened. Or overreacting to small things, getting more angry than I should. I also had other symptoms but I didn’t switch between loving or hating people and I didn’t see things in black and white so that was the red flag to me that it wasn’t bpd.
Even when diagnosed by a professional, they can sometimes be wrong. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid but always felt like the diagnosis didn’t completely fit me. It wasn’t until we’ll into adulthood that I was diagnosed with PTSD which much better fit my symptoms and can apparently look like ADHD sometimes. So definitely get professional help if you’re experiencing symptoms that greatly effect your life because the treatments aren’t always the same.
It's not uncommon to have a diagnosis change with age. My friends son was diagnosed with autism as a small child but at 16 they changed his diagnosis to ADHD and bipolar.
I agree with this! It’s very complex because often with autism and or ADHD has a comorbidity of CPTSD. Equally trauma can have the same symptoms as autism and/or ADHD. It all needs a thorough assessment to tease it out.
i have kind of a similar situation. i was diagnosed with “adhd and depression” with the depression actually just being excessive daytime sleepiness. i do have adhd and have had the diagnosis since i was a kid, but in my case the “depression” was actually narcolepsy as i have recently found out after years and years of constantly telling the doctors how tired i was all the time. it can often be misdiagnosed as “depression” and it’s one of those disorders that’s really hard to catch until you’re an adult and it starts interfering with your life- no one cares when a kid falls asleep in class but when you’re 21 and falling asleep on the floor in college then all of the sudden it’s time to see the neurologist because that’s a sleep disorder? i wish they would test for sleep disorders at a younger age because i wasted the formative years of my life being sleepy and miserable when my doctor should’ve taken it more seriously when i had been saying over and over how tired i was :( thankfully the treatment for both adhd and narcolepsy is stimulants so i just have to take higher doses than your typical adhd person and also modafinil which is still technically a stimulant but that one doesn’t help with the adhd it’s a lot milder and it just helps me not fall asleep during the day anymore.
"Before age ___ " always gets me in ANY of these DSM definitions - not everyone has the chance to be seen by a therapist as a child. I don't remember much. My folks also downplayed a lot of my experiences in general, so how do I know which is real and which isnt? Docs have narrowed GAD as a definitive, but my current therapist is having me tested.
It's less about the therapist seeing the person at that time and more about the onset of symptoms in the history. Like if you didn't have these symptoms from birth, outside of phenotypical expression and developmental onset, they aren't neurodevelopmental in nature.
@@mads9259 I think OP did say they don’t remember much of their childhood so having not had access to a therapist back then, it makes it harder to gauge
"It is not that hard to procure stimulants" unless you're actually legitimately diagnosed with ADHD and trying to get them from a pharmacy and have to jump through tons of hoops and insurance doesn't want to cover them and new doctors don't want to prescribe them and generally the entire system makes the thing that helps really difficult to get.
Yeah. I tried one pill, non-stimulant, which was alright but wasn't enough and there is side affects. No doctors I went to did listen to me, they didn't swap my medication prescription and some tried to cut me out of my medication which makes me completely disfuctional
Glad I live in Aus and my Dex is covered under our PBS since I was diagnosed as a child. I can get 200 Dex tablets for around $30aud which is pretty good compared to other meds
I do agree that you shouldn't self diagnose based on 'relatable' adhd things, but the diagnostic criteria is very lacking for most neurodivergent people, mostly because the mental health field is run by and large by neurotypicals, and they do not listen to us, I wasn't diagnosed until I was seventeen because my therapist said I was 'too smart' to have it Edit: I don't think the criteria themselves are bad, but they need to be expanded. They are much more about what neurotypical people see in people with ADHD and it needs to focus more on how we actually think/feel.
Id say that's not an issue of the DSM, more an issue of individual therapists? She mentions in the video due to masking its hard for some people to get diagnosed, plus some therapists are just super prejudiced :/
i'd say it like this, selfdiagnosing based on the dsm definitions after thoroughly thinking them through and looking at their effect on your life,, valid
Self diagnosis is a nuanced conversation. I was self diagnosed with ADHD for 4 years before my formal diagnosis, largely because of the failure of a clinician to properly assess me. I feel mistrustful of mental health professionals who say "never self diagnosis" because of this past experience. If the psychologist had given me a diagnosis the fish time I got evaluated, I would have accessed support earlier and wouldn't have had to self diagnose. That being said, it is important to rule out other factors and put a LOT of research and thought and self-reflection into any diagnosis, either one you give yourself, or one a mental health professional gives you.
Yeah i feel a lot of mental health professionals assume we DON'T do tons of research and/or are actively experiencing a barrier to a diagnosis.... before we self-diagnose. Most of us don't take the self-diagnose lightly, yet that doesn't seem to ever be taken into account.
I hope one day people will understand two things:
- you can relate to someone with a specific mental condition without having said mental condition
- not all of your negative traits need a medical explanation
Society puts a lot of demands on everyone, and if someone has anything going on in the background (trauma but also physical disabilities etc), it's pretty likely that they can feel overwhelmed or behind everybody else. Relating with some 'ADHD traits' is completely normal, because we're all human sharing experiences.
At the same time, we have to be open to the idea that it's pretty easy to fall between the cracks of diagnosis when you have ADHD. I'm a textbook example of combined ADHD (I check all the traits without exception) yet I was still diagnosed as an adult, mostly because in my country it's not well-known and it requires seeing both a psychiatrist and a neurologist. That's a great way to avoid misdiagnosis, but it's also pretty ridiculous to expect families to go out of their way to seek a diagnosis they aren't even aware of by seeing multiple specialized doctors several times.
Great points! Here in Canada you can now get an ADHD diagnosis in 15mins of speaking to a psychiatrist 😐 I know 6 women with the diagnosis and on high doses of Vyvanse 🤔
@@joanna0988 we have ONE adhd specialist in my area of the province and my "test" was a clicking game and a survey. Considering the years in therapy, talking w different psychologists and doctors for other possible diagnoses, it felt almost absurd? I don't know. It certainly wasn't affirming.
@@astroblast2325 Omg where are you located? I'm in Vancouver, BC. And yes that's not a reassuring assessment?? I'm confused why they're allowing this unless their goal is just to pump more meds into people.
@@joanna0988 NS! We're fucked accross the board healthcare-wise, here, though
@@joanna0988 This is apparently not the case in Ontario, I saw 2 family doctors, 3 psychiatrists over the span of 10 years, and was only officially diagnosed by my current psychiatrist, who specializes in it. The others all agreed I probably have it, but said they didn't know enough to say for sure.
Edit: Should also say, you can pay for an assessment yourself out of pocket, but that costs thousands of dollars. If you can't afford that, you'll be waiting a very long time like I did.
Please do a video like this for autism/ASD! I see so many tiktoks and videos about "this is what autism is," and it absolutely jumbles up my brain and makes it hard to distinguish "this is autism" vs "this is autism FOR ME" vs "this is something similar" vs "this is something completely different" vs "this is just normal human experience."
Yes please. I'm working on figuring out if I'm some flavour of neurodivergent and would like some help sorting the useful signs from the useless ones
There's a youtuber named Yo Samdy Sam who has a video breaking down the diagnostic criteria for autism. She's not a psychologist and she doesn't really discuss misinformation as tiktok wasn't that big when she made the video, so I do think it would be helpful if Ana still made a video similar to this one, but Sam's video is a good place to start if you're wondering if you might be autistic.
Yessssss, we need a video about autism
@@isabellamorris7902 There are many channels that do this. If you think it’s adhd how to adhd is my favorite and has videos comparing it autism. Warning though autism and adhd are very similar at times. Mostly because adhd is one of the most common comorbidity. There is many studies trying to see why this occurs that are definitely worth the read.
and especially with sensory issues and people assuming having them means you are autistic too or you have to be autistic to have them. Its so stressful to watch people boil down debilitating things to something like noticing sounds other people don't.
I think the important distinction to be made is that many of these symptoms might result from ADHD, but those symptoms on their own don’t mean you have ADHD
You put words to my thoughts!! Well put!!
Yup. I only got diagnosed because there’s a giant pile of things I’ve found wild workarounds for actually are most of the symptoms of ADHD. I think a small amount of it is actually from PTSD… and it looks *a lot* like OCD and ASD but after talking with professionals and getting tests those were ruled out.
This is the comment I was looking for! Like yes, the core symptoms are necessary for diagnosis, but how do things evolve and affect each person as time goes on?
And a lot of ADHD symptoms are things that people who don't have it might experience. The difference is that people with ADHD experience them more often and with greater intensity.
@@BrieBoar Also very true!
I sought out my diagnosis because my lack of executive function was literally ruining my life and my gpa. I wish it was just fidgeting
Executive dysfunction is one of the hardest things to deal with. :/
Omgosh yes! I feel like ppl don't really talk about it enough or they casually mention it.
God i haven't been diagnosed with adhd only autism, but executive dysfunction is ruining my life too. I often spend half of my day not being able to do anything while feeling progressively worse about it. I wish i could get help with this but people don't believe me.
Executive function issues as far as i can tell from my own well ADHD are basicly like some kind of society killer. instead of being able to well sleep walk through what should be natural habits and rituals such as getting out of bed,choosing your new outfit, or brushing ones teeth you are basicly forced to manually take control and force the action because your own body doesnt take the initiative.
i feel s o ashamed of my executive dysfunction and i don't know how to break out of the cycle
My brother has ADD, I'll never forget him crying and break down over stress over homework and chores. It had to be perfectly silent for him to focus and it was so hard for him, pre treatment, to do well in school too.
Emotional dysregulation is such a huge part of ADHD, these people seem to think not being able to focus is just some cute thing that happens once a day or whatever... you actually feel a sort of pain in your brain when you try to focus. Dr. Russell Barkely talks about ADHD in a very understandable way, and Dr. Gabor Maté talks about how ADHD symptoms can worsen or be caused by trauma.
I understand this so well, but for me it's that I need noise (certain types of noise, like podcasts or music) to concentrate, otherwise my mind wanders. This is why individualized treatment is so important. What works for one person might not work for the other, even though the symptoms/causes are the same. I hope your brother is doing much better now.
I am the same. If my environment is not conducive to me learning, I find it emotionally difficult to stay focused and can have some meltdowns about it
@@Myllkka I feel like so much of the 'emotional dysregulation' is really just a normal reaction to being told (either implicitly or explicitly) what an absolute f-up you are all the time. And yes, focusing can actually *hurt!* I sustained a brain injury that gave me ADHD like symptoms and I remember what a complete shock that was. Suddenly focusing actually hurt.
Omgosh yes! I would get so mad and want to scream and throw stuff bc ppl were making noise. The best thing for your brother is to get blise canceling headphones. That will help at least with schoolwork and reading.
My brother was thought to have had ADHD in elementary school, and pretty much the only reason he isn't diagnosed is because my mom fought the school counselor on it, saying "he's just bored". No, he was twice-exceptional. Many of these things mentioned in the videos are caused by ADHD in some cases, and it's noteworthy to say that while some of them are generally shared human experiences, it's much more extreme with ADHD. For example, watching the same shows over and over again. With my brother, it was watching Star Wars on repeat, then watching all the special features on repeat, over and over and over and over and over, and then one more time for good measure. I appreciate the route you went with this video, acknowledging people's experiences but also acknowledging that what they're attributing to ADHD could also be caused by other things. But I do have to say (since I share a lot of the symptoms my brother has plus others, and had a tested EQ of 70 at age 13), one of the *reasons* people go without getting diagnosed with ADHD as adults if it was missed in childhood is because of executive dysfunction. They aren't capable of planning and managing the sensory steps that are required to get a diagnosis (making appointments, going to the doctor, requesting time off, etc) and following through with them. I do wish you had made mention of some of the reasons people go elsewhere (like tiktok) for validation of their experiences.
Thank you for the comment. Interesting and true notice that executive dysfunction can lead to not being diagnosed because a person just can’t get there 🎃
thank you. this exactly
Yes!! Getting a diagnosis for anything is difficult with poor executive function. As I realize I’m out of a medication and have no idea what I’m going to do to get it on time….
I feel like she's not interested in validating and understanding people who are really trying to get diagnosed but can't, she is only interested in portraying people who self-diagnose as well as people who use TikTok as "toxic" aka evil
@@raspberrytaegi as soon as she referenced ADD as separate I got the feeling she isn’t as experienced or as knowledgable as she would have us believe. This is why people often have to go through multiple psychiatrists before they find a good one who actually knows what they’re talking about.
I think people might benefit more if the tiktokers specify that this is their experience and may not directly be a symptom of ADHD. Example, I am autistic and I also have IBS, IBS apparently is common in autistic people, however, you can have IBS and not be autistic and vice versa. People always need to check the DSM for this stuff before they very least self diagnose or go to their doctor for referral.
Also, I'm kinda confused on the weaponizing incompetence thing, how do you know that someone is doing it badly on purpose and they're not genuinely struggling with it? The most I can think of is the Gabbie Hanna situation from last year, eg. she would request a very special kind of food from her staff (while everything else is available to her) and the staff would work hard on the food, give it to her, but she wouldn't eat that, she would just eat something else and leave that special food to rot, to the annoyance of her staff. She actually blamed her ADHD on it when it's not the case.
But other than that, it's extremely common for people with ADHD to procrastinate and not being able to do simple tasks due to their executive function, implying that they might avoid responsibility because they want to burden others is more dangerous imo than what's specified in the screenshot (which by the way, that article is not scientific evidence).
I know my husband weaponizes incompetence because he acts clueless about laundry in front of me but manages to do laundry for his aging mother.
The only time anyone is weaponizing incompetence is with genuine malintent really IMO. If that doesn't exist, it's just actual incompetence and it isn't until someone is unwilling to change when told directly about a problem multiple times that it becomes weaponized. And I guess even then it could be viewed differently depending on the person. Also I totally agree with the first paragraph, I always try to use self-focused language when something is a personal experience for a reason. People have lost the ability to distinguish when an authoritative voice should and shouldn't be used. Mostly because the internet encourages us to all pretend to be experts on things because otherwise we're not credible and our points fall apart. Maybe that's a byproduct of all the cynical losers and debate lords who make their home here, but I digress.
Also - is it ADHD or is it trauma??? Plus we need to stop pathologicalizing like… every little thing people do. Sometimes it’s just normal to forget why we walked into a room to get something.
Agreed.. I will say though, I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and had symptoms all throughout childhood. My first restaurant job at 16, I would go to the back for something, and forget what I was going back for. The problem was I would go back to the front to remember, and as soon as I got to the back again I would forget (repeat 2 or 3 times). It annoyed my coworkers, and myself. It was so frustrating it would make me want to cry. I don't think these tiktoks are illustrating how challenging and frustrating some of these symptoms can actually be. I never thought it was funny. It made my life 1000× harder than it had to be.
Yeah I honestly hate that ppl assume that's an ADHD thing like no that's just a ppl thing. But yes the having to do that so much that it delays stuff and takes you off track significantly is something to be concerned of and maybe an executive dysfunction thing.
That example is perfect because it's actually something that happens to the majority of people.
@AneMore Bingo, I have both. PTSD can appear like ADHD symptoms (ie, inattentiveness can be disassociating to escape from a distressing situation, hyperactivity can come from neglect, etc.). It takes me 5 hours to read a 30-page chapter because I’ll float off in my imagination and have to re-read something, but my “rejection dysphoria” comes from harsh and unforgiving parenting (trauma) and needing to constantly be perfect and expecting to be an adult as a growing child.
Eeehh. Yes and no. like no rewatching your fav shows over and over is not a symptom of adhd or any type of mental disorder. But at the same time a lot of these symptoms are something that most people experience, but it isn't causing dysfunction.
I'm so glad you're addressing this! I swear people view ADHD as the cute and quirky mental health disorder. As a person who was diagnosed with it as a child, I have complicated feelings towards it. It's 1000 percent apart of me but it also makes my life harder and I could've done my childhood without insomnia.
I have ADHD, but it was missed until a couple years into highschool because I don't jump around acting wild and crazy. Instead I did things like draw in class, bounce my leg, fiddle with with things at my desk, etc.
My little sister has a much more obvious presentation of ADHD. She could never sit still, could never pay attention, was always running around, etc. My Mom only realized that I might have it when she was researching my sister's diagnosis and had me tested too.
It explains so much and just being able to tell people that I have ADHD makes things so much easier. Professors, coworkers, and people around me have context for what I do now. I'm not a jerk who isn't paying attention, I'm not stupid and I'm not lazy. My brain works differently and I've learned how function this way. I'm not perfect, but I keep working towards new solutions every day
It’s great to finally get this information from legitimate sources, my instagram feed was filled with adhd content and I just couldn’t understand why the algorithms were pushing that down my throat. I’ve noticed this trend of people trying to put a diagnosis on their bad qualities and quite frankly that is doing more harm than good.
thanks Ana❤
Crazy thing is that none of these people said these are symptoms of adhd. They're talking about consequences of ADHD. I feel like we kind of have enough of people telling diagnosed people that the things we talk about are invalid, so maybe don't do that.
Re-watching things, she's talking about hyperfocuses
Craving sweets, she's talking about the compulssion to eat, which is an actual symptom. We often go for snacks when we feel hyper and unable to focus
ADHD is a GRAVELY missunderstood disorder. And most times, people who do have it also have other issues, mainly anxiety, depression and/or substance abuse. If the reason I have anxiety is because of my ADHD, isn't that a consequence? Could we please focus on people that are saying the crazy shit like "Oh sometimes I can't focus" instead of people talking about valid consequences of their diagnosis, or lack-there-of through their lives? Yes, undiagnosed ADHD shows differently, because it's untreated.
Overall a bad look :/
My biggest issue- never tell someone not to self diagnose. Many people cannot afford therapy, and if self diagnosing and looking up how to deal with ADHD afterwards helps you deal with the symptoms, then good. I think it's more damaging to tell poor people they aren't allowed to have neurological disorders.
You can look for ways to cope with symptoms without self dx. Not being able to afford therapy doest magically grant you a PhD to be able to dx yourself
Thank you, a lot of my friends that are wealthy have been diagnosed since childhood and been taken care very early so they are doing well, but for other people like me symptoms are just worsening with time and impossibility to access healthcare.
At this point I don't care if it's PTSD, ADHD, autism, OCD or even schizophrenia, I just take what I can (Well, I mean I obviously have PTSD, but I also could have other things).
In order to truly solve this problem, we (as a society) NEED to invest heavily in mental health resources. The fact that so many people CAN'T get a proper diagnoses mean they basically have no choice but to figure themselves out on their own with the resources available to them. As long as people are careful and thoughtful with how they go about this, it should be harmless, for example: instead of saying "I totally have ADHD", an undiagnosed person might say "I think I might have ADHD" or "I relate to a lot of people who have ADHD". Those little adjustments in how we speak and think about our mental health could make a big difference.
Your kitty is so cute!! Great video! I have seen so many ‘concerned’ videos on this toipic, and grateful to finally have someone with the proper background to speak on it. I think any videos with the ‘things I didn’t know were due to a mental illness. The videos always leave out the context- the difference between a symptomand the specific way that symptom manifests in their unique situation. And as you demonstrated, these videos ignore the universality of many of the claims, maybe due in part to the young age of most tic tockers; maybe they don’t realize how common these supposed signs are.
Tictock’s short format really limits a creators ability to provide clear warnings, disclaimers and resources in a way that is easy to access for casual viewers.
THANK YOU. I was having a conversation with somebody (I’m clinically diagnosed btw) about adhd and they were like, “oh yeah my whole entire family has it my brother does I do too” (self diagnosed as you can guess) and man I was explaining something and they said, “Stop pretending please living with it isn’t even hard I have it you’re being a baby” and boy let me tell you how invalidating and just harmful that was to me and is to others. It invalidates my emotional breakdowns, my hours getting stuck on homework, every trouble as it’s not that hard everyone has it. ADHD has become too normalized in this society and for those with it it invalidates their experiences (I know I’m using invalidates a lot sorry lol my minds blanking on synonyms)
Also NO ADHD isn’t quirky and a cute character trait it is a DISORDER THAT IS HARD I wish people stopped making it seem like a cute thing that they’d want to identify with like 😑
Hi Ana! Great video and explanation.
To me - seeing all these popular videos actually helped to become more aware. I definitely started noticing symptoms.
And of course I scheduled a proper appointment with psychiatrist to be evaluated as I don’t want to self diagnose.
So yes , those videos can point to a certain things but definitely it’s not a problem solving tool.
Also, I liked how you mentioned that everyone jokes about adulting.
It would be so great if you could do a video about it. Like what actually adult is? Maturity and etc.
And I’m talking about not a parent part within us , but the actual adult.
How to know that you are the one 😅
Thank you ❤
Using it as a quirky little behavior really does something to boil my blood and completely devalues those who have a actual nightmare living.
This is a great video, thank you for making it. I am diagnosed with ADHD and I get upset that it’s trendy to claim you have ADHD, because for most of my life I’ve been ashamed of it, made fun of because of my behavior when I was younger, and have had a lifetime worth of struggles suffering/learning to cope/managing my disorder and learning to overcome the shame of being different- if I only knew how cool it was to be ADHD when I was crying from the difficulties in school and life or when I have been unable to sit still when required to sit still and feel I’m going to burst if I don’t get up and move around or when I’ve made impulsive decisions that I’m lucky didn’t end up worse. People are overstimulated these days because of smart phones and social media and constantly being bombarded with stimuli- so it’s understandable most people have a hard time focusing - but that’s very different than the all day every day struggle of trying to stay on task and getting half of your to do list done, have constant thoughts swirling in your head, struggling with low confidence from feeling you just can’t do it, and trying to fit into environments where you are just different….it’s not trendy, it’s not a quirky trait, it’s a life struggle if you have ADHD.
One thing that I am happy about is that after pulling myself out of the spiralling, there were still things I related to like disorganization and struggling with time management. So I still found it helpful to try out some of the methods/tools people used in these videos to stay on top of things.
To the defense of the second video, she says it *can* look like that. She doesn't outright state that these things are ADHD which can come across as claiming it's 100% certainly an ADHD thing which most of these things werent. I must say it does get complicated when you also have ASD, MDD and PTSD, but I got an ADHD diagnosis anyway because I showed the signs before I had trauma enter my life and also certain things can't be explained by the ASD diagnosis that I already had so at age 24 I also got an ADHD diagnosis
I feel like the biggest issue with these is that they don't give enough detail on the experiences they're actually trying to describe. A lot of them sound like they're intending to describe a really specific experience, but it lacks so much detail that the essence of it is lost. Like with "feeling adult-ish" and constantly playing catch-up, more likely than not they're talking about how having ADHD or autism or another related disorder can sometimes make you feel like you're in a state of arrested development, or that you're never doing as well as your neurotypical peers, or that your social skills are really underdeveloped for your age group, etc. on a level that neurotypical people just don't really get. But the way they're describing it is so vague that it could apply to literally anyone. Part of it I think is due to lacking the language to be able to describe it and part of it is the more relatable your tiktoks are the more views they get.
I can confirm that its very calming to put a tag or having an explanation for behavior, because i used to be quite sure i was neurodivergent (i was just looking for an explanation for my behavior)
I have adhd, and the TikTok videos drive me insane. It’s like these people thing every single thing they do can be attributed with adhd. Adhd has made my life hard. It took me 7 years to get my bachelors degree from the struggle to focus and study and stay organized. Idk why anyone would WANT to have it like these kids
Exactly. Everyone reaches their limit, and sometimes folks have bad days, and sometimes people function a bit differently, but that doesn't make someone neurodivergent, traumatized, mentally ill, etc. People's issues are still valid even if they don't have a fancy label
And guess what? The labels change. What labels will the DSM add next edition? All manmade constructs to make ourselves feel better/more in control.
A pet peeve of mine is that even mental health professionals on tiktok often leave out any mention of differential diagnosis for the symptoms or features they are discussing. There is so much symptom overlap with disorders related to trauma, anxiety, depression, autism, etc. As well as nutritional deficiencies (which I realize is probably not given enough attention in degree programs to begin with).
I have ADHD. I hated medication. I wasn't able to take them regularly because I'd forget. It messed with my mood and emotional state.
as far as im concerned that shiny black and fluffy telephone you got there laying on the bed is pretty adorable
Thank you Ana! as someone who is diagnosed by my therapist, it can be frustrating when people self-diagnose based on social media. ADHD isn’t just a set of symptoms. it impacts every aspect of my life and i have to work hard to counteract the negative impacts my inattention has on my job, relationships, living space, etc.
You're ableist for invaliding self diagnosis.
@@mcchilde2903 the only real reasons you need diagnosis is to get a. sick leave b. commoditations c. treatment = therapy and or meds) not listed in any specific order. self diagnose cannot give you none of those, so why would you need to diagnose yourself ?
@@foliofolio um is self diagnoses not the first step to getting an actual diagnosis? 😭 as long as they aren’t parading the Illness and don’t use it as a “quirk” it’ll help ppl that are genuinely struggling
@@alexk4450 you can say you suspect something, with out telling people you have said illness, isnt that what self diagnosing is ? the first step is trying to get help cause ypu are suffering, you dont go to professionals to get specific diagnosis, but to get help. you can go diagnosis in mind you suspect, but the reasons should not be to get that specific diagnosis confirmed, but to get help for whatever you may have that severly harms you and or people aroung you and the guality of your life
@@mcchilde2903 I’m not invalidating anyone’s experience. you may have these symptoms, but unless someone who is qualified to diagnose does so, you cannot definitively say that those symptoms are from adhd. ptsd and adhd share symptoms. asd as well. you may have symptoms of adhd, but no one can objectively diagnose themselves.
Im thankful that i was diagnosed at age 7. Thank you for posting this though because im tired of people self diagnosing thanks to one TikTok. I hate that i have adhd, i wish i did not have it
I know, right? It can be so debilitating, and I feel like people are dismissing how awful it can be when they diagnose themselves all willy-nilly
Check the adult adhd checklist too, it manifests a bit differently due to lifetime of masking, stigma, and general trauma/meat grinder of neurotypical life. Also we got to be real to the DSM neglects dealing with the emotional ramifications of a dopamine deficit/hypermetabolism. It’s harder to categorize. Not to mention conflict of interest with pharmaceutical companies wanting to develop new mood stabilization medication’s and funding/development of DSM. You could also argue that people who claim they have ADHD as a way of not having to deal with some thing or putting the responsibility on to others, might actually have ADHD and are just overwhelmed and or self-centered due to their Nuro diversity. Just because they have comorbidities that makes him kind of narcissistic or incredibly immature Does not invalidate their ADHD experience.
One of the many things I've struggled with while having ADHD is talking over other people. I feel like If I have something to say, I have to say it now. And I have been able to notice signs of people I talk with annoyed at me. Of course that's not the only thing I go through with my diagnosis, but it all sucks. I've lost friends thanks to it. And it's so upsetting to see people fake it.
Tiktok adhd posts make me fairly mad. It’s living hell 99% of the time. I am diagnosed, most posting are not. It’s not cute or quirky.
I finally got diagnosed last year and I'm 37. It helps to label but I think a lot of people don't realize how bad it really is and how much it sucks.
Exactly
you said self diagnosing is bad and i shouldn’t do it. i related extremely to most/all of the symptoms in this video, and i’ve done research on medical websites. my symptoms affect my day-to-day life. unfortunately the waiting list to get tested is a year long and my mom might not want me to. i am a minor, so my mom has say in my medical stuff and she has final authority over whether or not i can get tested. what should i do?
I'm with you there. I'm not sure if I can really afford screening for anything at this point in my life, and I'm an adult. I wish I had some advice for your situation, but I'm betting there are other minors out there in a similar situation, so just know you're not alone. Once you're an adult, you can decide for yourself if you're going to get screened for anything. Hope this helps.
I'm newly diagnosed. I'm 53. I did not truly believe it or could fully grasp it until I took the meds( amfetamine dirvative). Then and only could I see and understand that something was wrong. I'm still stuggling, but now I can at least see a road to someplace better.
The DSM doesn't cover everything it's still playing catch up there's been an increase in diagnoses in recent decades but still only scratching the surface particularly in adults, it's a complicated picture there will be some self diagnosed who are wrong but most if they do make it to assessments are proven correct, it's usually not from a casual few watches of tiktok it's often from a series of events that made them question, family members diagnosed, many of their friends the people they get on with most were diagnosed etc. then tiktok fills in some pieces, good to provide full information but we also don't want to set people back by discouraging them from a journey that could help understand and alleviate difficulties they've suffered all their lives
Ah yes, the DSM. No history of absolutely terrible takes in that one. I'm sure V got it all right by now.
thank you so much for making this video. it seems the internet has gone from overdiagnosing ADHD to GROSSLY overdiagnosing autism. i have multiple mental illnesses, and the only one i ever had a bit of a hard time coming to terms with was my diagnosis of autism because of the stigma, and for everyone to be claiming the diagnosis under false pretenses, backed by nothing, is so invalidating and upsetting. the presentation of misinformation as fact, *ENCOURAGING* self diagnosis, is so incredibly dangerous. and it's something that has been greatly distressing me lately. thank you for bringing light to this.
really appreciate this video, due to my depression I have attention and memory issues and thought thanks to tik tok I had adhd despite it not effecting my life to the extent that adhd typically does
you get it pretty spot on with the telephone metaphor, the properties of an object don't make the object what it is. very good video :)
My psychiatrist told me I had ADD but didn't give me an evaluation, he just said "you exhibit a lot of the symptoms, we should put you on medication" and that medication I'm pretty sure led me to developing a chronic pain disease that basically ruined my life. I had to forcibly tell him "I don't want to take this anymore, if you don't taper me off I'm just gonna stop taking it" because he kept wanting to put me on higher and higher doses. Pretty sure I just have really bad anxiety, there can be a lot of overlap between those two and I think he was getting paid by the company that made that medication to push it on patients (thankfully that's illegal now).
Maybe he's right, maybe not, but that's why it's so important to have a proper evaluation done, especially if medication is involved. And if you can afford it a second opinion is always helpful. Thanks for your insight and education, it's important to know for sure if you have a diagnosed mental condition and seek proper treatment to help manage the disruption it causes in your life, but as you said a lot of people just use it as an excuse for their bad behavior without a diagnosis or intention on seeking treatment.
thank you so much for adjusting the frame for the cat you are a saint
This has been something thats been bugging me for a while now and I’m so glad you talked about it!! It’s been feeling like ADHD is seen as “trendy” which is so frustrating as someone who has a very hard time dealing with actual ADHD symptoms (been diagnosed since I was 7).
I really appreciate you breaking all of this down! I'm 35 and finally got an autism diagnosis a few months ago, but ADHD was ruled out. It makes sense based on your explanation as well - lots of other things going on that affect my executive functioning and some impulsivity, ha! So much to learn about our brains and experiences! 😇
you were listing symptoms and I got distracted and forgot to listen and was like "oh no what if I have those symptoms she was talking about" forgetting I definitely do have ADHD
I had an official diagnosis as a kid around 2nd grade then again as an adult. My hyperactiveness decreased mostly because of being tired all the time, so I have no energy to be really active.
"or it could be nothing". Strikes me as an yellow flag because it conflates dsm5 diagnoses with the existence/ validity of a disorder.
The amount of people that have been self diagnosing in recent years is staggering.
Anybody else test high but took hours to do homework and still not have the first assignment done because my imagination and daydreaming ran too deep?
Now imagine driving and trying to function like an adult like that, being unable to keep a job or finish school or college.
I have no idea why I seem to struggle 10x more than I should even with adhd. And I have comorbid bipolar which stimulants causes manics.
Idky I'm ranting. It's been a bad day
I'm sorry you had a bad day. I experienced that too with homework. Driving is a nightmare for me, I'm terrified of it. I can empathize with those parts of your struggle
Everything that these people are saying can and is caused by ADHD for some people. I don’t think we should be holding ticktockers to the standards of psychologists. Many ticktockers also say that a lot of ADHD symptoms overlap with other conditions. Some of these are very generalized tho and I understand your point.
No wonder so many people get misdiagnosed. Thanks to Neurotypical doctors living a textbook.
It's a spectrum, self diagnose is valid.
To wait until people get officially diagnosed can take years, so why not trying to make yourself better.
Tiktok makes many people realise, they might be Neurodiverse and seak a diagnose, but most adults are self diagnosed until they are actually diagnosed, that's the problem of late diagnosis. So thanks for devaluating people.
I havent even watch the video yet but I still feel the need to put this here.
ADHD is an acronym standing for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Weaponized incompetence😂 It is so true, I never use my Bipolar Disorder as an excuse for my behavior. The reason I have accomplished the progress in treatment is self accountability.
omg thank u for this video i'm so sick of seeing this stuff, I'm autistic and I feel like there's a lot of misinformation about that too, it's not some fun quirky thing, we literally can't function in society like most people, it's a disability that I've been bullied for all my life and there's people who are like oh I have one symptom I have autism lol
As someone who wasn't diagnosed until I was 19, such a good video. I thought I was just broken for so long.
Thank you for this, as someone with ADD (and sensory processing disorder) the misinformation surrounding mental disorders makes it really hard to tell when my problems are actually being caused by my disorder or if it's something that happens to everyone and I need to push through.
Before doing actual research on them (I'd been diagnosed at 13-ish but just assumed it was the same for everyone) I often felt like I was using it as an excuse for everything and was making up problems that didn't exist because my symptoms didn't line up with randos on the internet. It got to the point where I would break down in class or when I was with my friends because I would tell myself to "just snap out of it".
If you have a mental disorder, don't be dumb like me and look up as much TRUSTWORTHY information on it as you can so you can learn to identify triggers and find out how to live your life in a way that helps you.
i was diagnosed with adhd when i was a kid and was recently UNdiagnosed and diagnosed with bpd. looking back i never met the criteria for adhd fully, just a lot of the inattentive criteria kind of related to me. the psychiatrist just didn't notice any of the trauma i was experiencing around me and didn't stop to consider that i was struggling heavily with dissociation, anxiety, and early BPD symptoms. many disorders can manifest similarly to ADHD
I have talked to 3 professionals about myself and the possibility of having ADHD. They all told me the same basic stuff you've said here. Thank you for going into the detail and examples, it really helped me understand what my doctors were saying. I feel a weight lifted. 😁
This was an excellent video. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was very young. I have lived a whole life realizing I can succeed at goals, but that I have to learn to cut myself a lot of slack while working on my goals. It's a complex condition that having it myself I often wonder how others have so many life examples to point to. the one thing for me is hitting the over stim point and then needing to burn it off and the challenges that come from that.
This is such an important video. I wasn’t diagnosed until last year, I went decades struggling. I finally got on a medication that helps my brain slow down so I can interpret all my thoughts more fully. If I miss my medication I feel like my brain is going off the rails. It makes constructive interactions difficult.
Complex trauma looks very similar to adult adhd, I can only imagine how not dealing with that and thinking you should be better because "now im getting treatment" would kill your self worth. I'm doing what the doctor says but I still fall short, Must be me.
damn the telephone metaphor was so so good!! thank you for educating people, it's horrible how much misinformation is flying around on the internet :))
As a young teen I was tested for adhd. I was told I had depression, anxiety, Borderline. Later Borderline was changed to bipolar, later bipolar was changed to cptsd. As an adult i was then again tested., and at 31 years I was then diagnosed with adhd. They said they were quite certain I have it. Basically it seems to me that professionals interpret symptoms subjectively with the dsm and just because one doctor diagnosises you with something doesn't mean another doctor will.
GREAT post! I resonate with a lot of the comments!
FTR, I went to therapy for help with what my ADHD was causing BUT I didn’t think it was ADHD except for the “TikToks”. These videos are very irresponsible, but did point me in that direction. The DSM is a good guide if not taken too literally - the one mistake I find in your video. Would like your thoughts on this in a few years - keep at what you’re doing - you’re clearly dedicated 😁. I ended up with an ADHD specialist and it has been life changing. For me, menopause and a prolonged toxic stress environment kicked my ADHD into overdrive.
Keep spreading the word, love, and remember it’s a spectrum. So tired of the “I have some ADHD too” hopefully, this will help!
Haha I like how tik tok really made me rethink my life. Stumbling across this video, I was initially relieved but now I’m considering getting evaluated for anxiety or ADHD. As in, I am even more convinced.
For instance I feel like I carry myself well for the most part, but in my head there’s soooooo much going on. I used get in trouble in school for not paying attention or being easily distracted and talking a lot but my grades were phenomenal and I participated/ dabbled in a bunch of random creative hobbies but never really mastered anything.
Long story short I need therapy lol
Probably SOMETHING in there 🧠
I have had a suspicion that I may have ADHD for a while now, but with you going over the PROPER symptoms list I fully understand that I need to, at some point, get tested for it. I've always had issues with school (sometimes I just couldn't do work because it was too boring/i wouldn't pay attention in class then have no clue what to do) and emotional issues (i cry a LOT. when i was a kid i cried a lot too, over very small things, and get very angry over tiny annoyances and have some outbursts here and there) plus i heavily relate to the "not being able to do chores" (my parents get very annoyed at me when I don't complete tasks/get distracted from my train of thought/get too bored of cleaning the dishes or whatever chore im doing and then can't complete it) Plus I have a hard time following rules because of my impulsivity, which leads to me getting yelled at (most of the time).
A few months ago I was able to be tested for depression (my mother has depression and most likely ocd), and possibly adhd and my parents only wanted to pay attention to the depression and not the possible adhd, and chalk all of the symptoms in the previous paragraph up to "oh, they're just a kid, that's why they're 'rebellious'." or "ah, angry little teenagers" even though i am trying my best to fit in. I don't mask any of my symptoms because I was never really taught that they were "not like other people", and when i just can't sit still or my emotions boil over because of something triggering said emotions, it feels a little awkward because I think of my friends and if they have the same issues I do. (only nowadays, though)
I'm going to talk to my parents about possibly getting tested for ADHD sometime soon so I can at least have something to tell me why I have these issues, and possibly get medicated for said issues.
I have autism (diagnosed at 3) and ADHD (diagnosed at 20). I think my ADHD went undiagnosed so long because of my autism diagnosis, but from my childhood autism report you can clearly see the signs and the overlap. I suspected ADHD through my own research, however I booked an assessment appointment and got a professional assessment which led to a diagnosis. It’s okay to do your own research if you think you may have ADHD, but it’s really important to see a professional to see if your suspicions are accurate.
I'd love to see you do a deep dive on the DID and Autism self diagnosed/fakers online (especially tick tock)
Thank uuuuu I only got diagnosed at 21 and even then I doubted it because I did relate to ADHD symptoms but I know people collect disorders like Pokémon cards these days. It feels like a joke when I say I have ADHD because of how TikTok had made it out to be even though it’s affected me freaking every day and it’s pretty annoying and on some days very frustrating. Man I used to just think I’m stupid but somehow did good in school, except for maths tho.
I have been diagnosed with Adhd is 2020. Being put on medicine and it had changed my life for the better but the rewatching tv shows over and over cracked me up! I cannot rewatch something and if I do it cannot be with in the same year I’m the complete opposite of that. Lol
i went for an ADHD/ASD diagnosis at age 15/16 and my inattentive ‘score’ was a 9 and hyperactivity score was an 8 however the person doing the diagnosis wouldn’t diagnose me bc i’d often have a coffee with me at my appointments.
i also have been diagnosed with dyslexia, ‘almost ASD’ (he said if you need a 3 to be diagnosed with ASD your a 2.8), and sensory processing issues and anxieties.
but trauma, anxiety, depression, ADHD and potential ASD, slowed processing all got confused, leading to no diagnosis’s bc they couldn’t pinpoint which causes what symptom…
it’s so frustrating bc i find so many ASD/ADHD coping mechanisms beneficial, and significantly reduces how often i burnout, bc i understand myself but not getting an appropriate diagnosis makes me feel like i’m putting on an ADHD/ASD mask then realise i feel like alien pretending to be a person and worrying every step and facial expression is ‘normal’, and i genuinely can’t focus on my teachers words. AS A SMART KID THIS SET ME UP FOR FAILURE IN MY SENIOR SCHOOLING. try get diagnosed with adhd asd before 12.
'ADD' is no longer clinically recognised, it's ADHD inattentive type.
I know this was made a year ago and hasn't really done anything to help the issue, But I really do appreciate you making this video.
I cringe every time I see one of those videos talking about ADHD. It's not the fact that they're capitalizing on their disorder, it's more of how they present it as some quirky fun little thing... But also in a way that's just sooo... inaccurate.
I’ve been formally diagnosed for over a decade, why am I watching this?
Good point on the disassociating / daydreaming. Ima try and describe them cause i disassociate on occasion cause ✨ptsd✨ for me its depersonalization and i literally will have a whole meltdown cause i dont even recognize myself. Now when im daydreaming, my mind goes into very long tangents about really random things, to an extent which is probably why i got diagnosed with adhd. Like i come up with some wack things, and not everyone enjoys my sharing of for example today "we should send all our tech trash to pluto to confuse aliens and future humans" that went on for about 20+ minutes to my very patient bf c:
I remember I went down a rabbit hole of these and the one I related to the most was actually symptoms of autism.
I was diagnosed at 17. Walking back through my childhood, I found a history of textbook traits of adhd in girls/women. Dismissed as me being lazy, careless, flighty, forgetfull, undisciplined, chatty, moody, excitable, distracted, and "selective" in my attention and listening.
Honestly, I always felt like something was off with me as a kid. Apparently I got diagnosed when I was in elementary school but was never treated. When I came across a TikTok that displayed Executive Dysfunction I cried. I suffer from that *heavily* and I body double so much now with y husband or friends. I got diagnosed back in January and it was the best thing for me. If I had been treated as a child I would have thrived. Tho, I will say sometimes I get tired of ADHD TikTok....
Yeah I get you. I've been on a wait list for about 2 years. I've had troubles as long as I remember. I have scars on my hand from stimming (I scratch my fingers when I get excited or nervous).. My mom had to buy me a fidget toy in 5th grade. I needed to do something at all times. I drew in class and if I wasn't I couldn't focus at all. I was always that gifted child though so people just kind of looked at be weird or laughed at my weird movements but by professionals nothing was wrong. When I couldn't just know the answers anymore and my focusing got really bad in beginning of highschool I told my mom.. a lot of my friends that have diagnosed adhd + their parents agree and my old therapist thought it was possible too. I think I have over 10 people in total think that that was the right diagnosis for me but I haven't had anything professionally to back it up. I'm not trying to self diagnose but I fit almost every symptom and have talked to people and researched and listened to videos by professionals and though I don't fit every experience I do fit enough.. and even my mom said that my brain works differently.. That I was tested for autism but it came back inconclusive. (I don't think I have asd but I am saying that even when I was very young I had symptoms of neurodivergency)
Holy shit dude I have major callouses on both my hands (on knuckle) from constantly rubbing them due to anxiety and quite possibly even stimming
@@meghansullivan6812 mine is on the inside on my middle finger like the area next to my pointer. It spans almost that whole finger it's so bad lol
@@realbedo well shit! i've never seen another person w something similar. i've become increasingly self conscious by how fkn noticeable mine are!!
Not sure if you’ve already addressed this, but I’ve noticed a lot of the same treatment on TikTok of the idea of neurodivergence in general. There’s this idea floating around that everyone is neurodivergent or, more specifically, everyone is on the autism spectrum. Would you consider addressing this as well as the overload of misinformation regarding this topic?
Sorry if you have already talked about this, but I would absolutely love if you did a video like this about DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). There is so much misinformation, and as a diagnosed person with DID myself I just... i want to reach out wherever I can and get the conversation going. So many people with other disorders like BPD or Bipolar have claimed this disorder and it can be damaging for the community and the research being done in general.
thank you for your content ^^
As someone who exhibits some symptoms but isn't diagnosed (my therapist and I are working on evaluation tho) I would never claim to have adhd unless I end up getting the diagnosis. What I've noticed tho is that i have similar enough experiences to people with adhd that adhd strategies tend to work well for me and I try to use them in my daily life
In some ways it’s not an exaggeration to say that ADHD has ruined my life. The associated issues have made me suicidal at some points. The fact that people are going online and making this stuff up for attention, or a need to feel special, or as some “cute” accessory is a total slap in the face.
I've been diagnosed with ADD and it's upsetting when people say they have ADD because they can't focus sometimes. I can't "just focus" as easily as other people and it hurts that people think I can. My whole life people thought I was lazy for not doing things that are so much harder for me than they understand.
the hyperactivity in childhood from the inattention in adulthood was so real for me 🥲 it drains me out so darn much
As someone who was diagnosed as a child and still struggles with ADHD as an adult, I literally have had people who aren't diagnosed tell me that they have ADHD too because they can't focus sometimes and then turn around two seconds later and ask me wtf is wrong with me for exhibiting a very typical ADHD symptom lmao. This shit is driving me nuts.
Edit: so this post seemed to resonate with a lot of people. Hope ya'll are doing okay. Don't let the bastards getcha down.✊
yes!!! I even had a 'friend' who was diagnosed with ADHD but her main diagnosis is CPTSD, I honestly believe she was misdiagnosed ADHD because she would literally bully me for my ADHD symptoms.... there is literally no way she is neurodivergent because my god she really looked down on me and my other neurodivergent friends for having such a hard time managing everyday things that she had no problem with 90% of the time. It was infuriating living with her, she made me feel SO useless and inferior bc of my symptoms.
YES. I notice people claim neurodivergent then shit on people for their actual neurodivergence. How ironic.
@@boinkadoinkk some people experience adhd but it isn’t as bad due to their needs being met as a kid. My ex boyfriend, he had adhd, and has struggles, but does not relate to my symtoms due to him getting help as a kid. He was able to get medicated while I didn’t. And he was raised a lot better than I was. It was very hard for him to accommodate to my adhd becuase he himself was able to find a way to get over those struggles. I don’t think we should be doubting peoples diagnosis just becuase they don’t understand you, but I don’t agree with what your friend did either. ADHD is on a spectrum a lot of the time and some need more help than others. It is often common of parents with adhd to say “you don’t have adhd cuz I do that” and often shame the child cuz they themselves also struggle. Often times people put others down cuz it is something that someone else told them often
@@hermionetwo2739 my friend had cptsd due to an emotionally absent, neglectful, abusive mother. She had no other family. She was also only diagnosed with ADHD at 21, which was less than a year before we became friends. I definitely get what you're saying and I agree, but she absolutely did not have *any* of her needs met as a kid. If anything that should mean her ADHD symptoms are extremely pronounced.
@@boinkadoinkk yes I am the same way. I did not get diagnosed till 18 and experienced a lot of abuse as well. Remember you don’t remember what she was like as a kid, cuz I have always had this even during positive moments of my childhood
It took me until I was 23 until I got officially diagnosed because I'm a woman and I always had good grades 🙂🙂 I was just silently struggling and nobody took it seriously 🙂🙂🙂
I didn't have good grades and still nobody took it seriously except for one psych student when I was 16. (Ironically, one of the best psychologists I've ever met, though not yet qualified at the time. Excellent listening skills and created space so well and just had the best presence.) I think the girl/woman thing and not being hyperactive causes many to not be taken seriously and good grades would only make it worse.
I was diagnosed last year when I was 28 after struggling through nursing school and most of my master’s degree. I think I can relate to your frustration. I was good at masking, and had really good grades, although looking back, I don’t understand how someone didn’t notice.
you gotta ‘love’ the passive-aggressive smileys
Literally same
I was like 6, but also had like, super boyish adhd? I guess i was a tomboy as a kid aswell.
However they didn’t pay enough attention to my autism because of how prevelant my ADHD was.
There's an ADHD feeling I call "painful boredom" when I am so understimulated and bored that I actually would rather be dead than sit through the boredom.
Have you seen that ‘worlds quietest room’ place? Apparently the noise cancelling panels in it mean you can literally hear your own pulse and neurotypical people can’t spend more than a few minutes in it. I am genuinely curious what it could do to someone with ADHD but I am mildly worried it would kill them on the spot
You know i like how you named that horrible feeling
Have had full on breakdowns at work because there was literally nothing to do except maybe push a broom for six hours. Management asked me what I needed to quit asking to leave early and I was like STUFF. GIVE ME SOMETHING TO DO AND I MIGHT STAY LATE! Nothing like standing in the middle of a warehouse, fantasizing about digging out your brain with a crochet hook because everything is bad and you're bored.
@@kyratompsett4409 I used to work at a theme park and rainy days at a small station by myself was absolute torture. There was NOTHING to do, the park was dead. Minutes felt like hours.
I haven't been diagnosed with ADHD but I definitely relate to this. I think I associate boredom with depression, so it's unbearable to me
I feel so conflicted about the concept of self diagnosis. It took me almost a decade as an adult before I was diagnosed. My family doctor said "Well, you have most if the symptoms, but I'm not a specialist so I can't say for sure." I ask to see a specialist, they say they don't know any that treat adults. Then I finally got to see a psychiatrist for OCD, but they said they wanted me to see another psychiatrist at the same hospital who specialized in ADHD, and wouldn't even let me on the waitlist until I was completely discharged from the anxiety clinic first. I was finally diagnosed when I moved to a new city and started seeing a psychiatrist who treated both.
Not only that, but I'm lucky enough to be in a country with universal healthcare, I can't imagine how difficult it would be with the financial hurdles too.
Like in some cases, I think the barriers to getting diagnosed are bad enough that self diagnosis might be all someone has, possibly for years until they can get treatment. But there are definitely all the risks you mentioned in this video too.
I literally have a diagnosis by an ADHD specialized psychiatrist, and I was still told that it wasn’t good enough to get prescribed the proper medication (stimulants). So instead they put me on different SSRIs without telling me possible side effects of going on/off them, and I had severe negative effects with no help to my symptoms.
Self diagnosis is perfectly valid. I'd rather someone is self diagnose than live with the pressure of not living up to neurotypical standards. I think it's ableist to invalidate self diagnosis, as she did.
The irony of bashing self-diagnosis for ADHD while describing all the symptoms that make it hard for an adult with ADHD to manage all the steps to diagnosis is frustrating.
literally, i don’t condone the culture of needing to diagnose every issue one faces. but when it has interfered with your entire life and it’s difficult to have ever noticed it because of… so much… that’s when there could be some basis. i don’t understand why someone would *want* to have ADHD.
the only real reasons you need diagnosis is to get a. sick leave b. commoditations c. treatment = therapy and or meds) not listed in any specific order. self diagnose cannot give you none of those, so why would you need to diagnose yourself ?
Tiktok did help me get my diagnosis as ADHD as an adult, however, I had such glaringly obvious symptoms as a child. I have always been inattentive, lost things frequently, made careless mistakes, struggled with time management, with major exec functioning issues and inability to keep a room clean and been fired from jobs. As a child it was flagged that I was possibly Autistic but nothing happened with that. While there is a lot of misinformation, I am grateful for tiktok for showing me I'm not alone and empowering me to seek a diagnosis.
literally the same thing happened to me!! (not thetiktok part - I found out I had it before I got tiktok). I also had my mother thinking I was autistic, but all the 'signs' she saw were really just inattentive ADHD symptoms/behaviors. I would get into trouble at school for being forgetful, for always being late, for never finishing my work or not listening in class. Had a lot of trouble making and keeping friends. Always forgetting appointments/meetings/plans with people and losing important things. I was/am always 'in my own head' and didn't/don't always know what was going on around me lol. Horrifically bad at managing my own time and very bad with money.There were so many signs that she and my teachers picked up on but I was growing up in china in the early 2000s and there was zero medical awareness around ADHD. Even if the people around me knew about inattentive ADHD (they didn't), there was nowhere for me to go for diagnosis or treatment. Kids just didn't get diagnosed with stuff like ADHD or asperger's in Asia, even now it's pretty rare.
I’m worried about being fired from my job right now not gonna lie.
Literally same with me
Same!
That's the same for me. It was glaringly obvious as a child for me I think too. Time management sucked. Struggled with keeping my room clean. My dad got so mad at me for not being able to vacuum the living room because I got frustrated with the vacuum not working super well and started pulling it apart trying to make it work better. He would say, "if you can't even vacuum the living room, how are you going to succeed in life and go to college or get a job?" Not being treated like my inattention was a medical issue and like I was just a weird burden was really what led to me not being diagnosed until I was 27.
Thank you for mentioning how saying "daydreaming" is dissociation is dangerous. I daydream frequently just because I am a creative and introverted person, but during a very abusive relationship I started having depersonalization and derealization episodes. They're a completely different and terrifying feeling. For me, daydreaming is pleasant but disassociation is NOT at all pleasant.
Oh gosh I empathize with this so hard. The depersonalization and derealization episodes are absolutely terrifying when I’m driving. It’s been happening less since I was diagnosed with ADHD and started stimulants, but the episodes will come out of nowhere and I get so confused because I don’t know why
I had a car accident because of daydreaming
When you have disassociation or depersonalization, are you completely unable to recognize yourself and your surroundings as familiar? I would have these moments where I would feel disconnected from myself and my surroundings but I wouldn’t say I was completely disconnected from them and I was still aware that it was me and it was real. I just want to know if I experienced something different or not.
Dissociation I would classify as zoning out. The problem is that's also what ppl call daydreaming, which honestly might be a form if dissociation but I agree that if someone has a problem with daydreaming too much it's often not the same thing. Maladaptive daydreaming is a thing.
I think I have some sort of dissociative issue as well, and it is terrifying 😢 it is almost always when I am walking and usually at work. I work in a hair salon, and I always dissociate in our breakroom if i have had a high stress day. I'll usually be walking across the room, then my vision goes black, I feel like I'm not real, I stand in place, and feel like I've essentially died and been revived. People around me usually ask "are you alright?" And tell me afterwards that I just go silent and stare off into space. After about 5 seconds of being "under," I suddenly remember where I am, what I was doing, and what happened. I usually try to ground myself in reality,by touching a wall, fidgeting with my clothes, etc. I tried telling a doctor about this as a child, and they didn't believe me, even though I was sure I was having absence seizures. 😢
The "rewatching TV shows a lot" thing cracks me up. I have ADHD and I actually have trouble finishing most shows that I start, cuz I can't sit in front of the TV for longer than an episode without getting distracted or bored.
Same with me. I can't rewatch shows. It makes me so bored my skin crawls looking for something else to do. It has to be something new each time. There have been times where I'd have one movie I'd obsessively watch a bunch of times but that's very rare.
I have soo much struggle with watching tv shows. Like a tv show has to grab my attention within the first 5 mins or I can’t watch it.
I don't know if I have ADHD, but I have a similar thing.
I rewatch most shows and films quite a lot, because the familiarity of knowing something is comforting. But I don't actually really watch them, they just play in the background while I'm drawing/reading/writing/playing games.
Because if I only do one thing at a time I can't concentrate on that thing, unless it really uses up a lot of my brain capacity. So I do several things at a time, to concentrate on whatever it is I'm currently doing.
The rewatching shows is pretty valid actually. Because people with adhd can’t pay attention well it’s easier to watch something you’ve seen before so if you miss certain parts it still makes sense to you. It’s hard to focus on new shows and I get lost to the point where I have to restart things over and over. If I rewatch things I can more easily follow along. Just because it’s not a problem for you doesn’t mean it isn’t for others.
@@chellenicki2805 But different people have different viewing preferences whether they have ADHD or not. ADHD might contribute to your particular viewing preferences but viewing preferences are not a symptom in and of themself. It's not a problem to watch what you want - unless it's actually hindering you (in which case it doesn't matter if you're watching the same thing or something new, it's the watching TV when you should be doing something else entirely that's the problem).
I’m clinically diagnosed with ADHD and GAD however my anxiety is through the roof because of adhd symptoms. I’m constantly anxious that I’m forgetting something, finishing tasks at work is incredibly difficult and everyone wants things done in the morning which means I have to get it done the night before because mornings and I do not mix. Constantly being in a state of overwhelm and fear because I know I’m going to fail someone at some point is not an exciting or funny way to live. Even with medication and therapy I still struggle. Adhd isn’t a quirky little thing you can “relate” to. It’s debilitating, stressful, and ostracizing.
Me too! I’m doomed to carry my own inescapable, isolating hell, and there’s no way out of it. It’s not right for them to make light of a disability, I did not choose to be born with this brain. It is so humiliating how they diminish our struggles like this.
"I'm not like other girls!"
@@jackchop1576 We are genuinely not like the others and our lives are hell because of it. We can’t even make friends because we fall into the uncanny valley due to how different our mannerisms and body language is from that of a neurotypical.
You have zero right to make fun of a disability! Our brain scans and our consistent testimonies prove that we are telling the truth. Be grateful that you were lucky enough to not have to bare our same burdens.
Agreed!!! I’m in a rough spot at work because of my own symptoms I struggle with.
Pp
I appreciate this video, and understand you want to prevent misunderstanding of ADHD and thus reach for the DSM. But equally I went undiagnosed for a long time because I ascribed so many of my symptoms to the comorbid depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms.
Many researchers in the field of ADHD diagnosis have a fair number of critiques of the DSM. Notably, emotional regulation problems have a strong research basis for inclusion.
A lot of us get our diagnosis (based on the DSM-V) and then in our ongoing care will describe something to our psychiatrist, who then will say things akin to "oh yeah, that's pretty universal in my ADHD patients". I think this is a driver for at least some of these tik toks.
Examples from my clinical care include: extremely disregulated emotions, poor sleep regulation, sensory issues, and cyclical changes in symptoms with my hormonal cycle.
Emotional dysregulation should definitely be included. I thought I had BPD for a moment because I couldn’t explain the rapid mood swings I would get sometimes. I was going from feeling depressed, hopeless, and worthless to happy and fine like nothing happened. Or overreacting to small things, getting more angry than I should. I also had other symptoms but I didn’t switch between loving or hating people and I didn’t see things in black and white so that was the red flag to me that it wasn’t bpd.
Even when diagnosed by a professional, they can sometimes be wrong. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid but always felt like the diagnosis didn’t completely fit me. It wasn’t until we’ll into adulthood that I was diagnosed with PTSD which much better fit my symptoms and can apparently look like ADHD sometimes. So definitely get professional help if you’re experiencing symptoms that greatly effect your life because the treatments aren’t always the same.
It's not uncommon to have a diagnosis change with age. My friends son was diagnosed with autism as a small child but at 16 they changed his diagnosis to ADHD and bipolar.
I agree with this! It’s very complex because often with autism and or ADHD has a comorbidity of CPTSD. Equally trauma can have the same symptoms as autism and/or ADHD. It all needs a thorough assessment to tease it out.
i have kind of a similar situation. i was diagnosed with “adhd and depression” with the depression actually just being excessive daytime sleepiness. i do have adhd and have had the diagnosis since i was a kid, but in my case the “depression” was actually narcolepsy as i have recently found out after years and years of constantly telling the doctors how tired i was all the time. it can often be misdiagnosed as “depression” and it’s one of those disorders that’s really hard to catch until you’re an adult and it starts interfering with your life- no one cares when a kid falls asleep in class but when you’re 21 and falling asleep on the floor in college then all of the sudden it’s time to see the neurologist because that’s a sleep disorder? i wish they would test for sleep disorders at a younger age because i wasted the formative years of my life being sleepy and miserable when my doctor should’ve taken it more seriously when i had been saying over and over how tired i was :( thankfully the treatment for both adhd and narcolepsy is stimulants so i just have to take higher doses than your typical adhd person and also modafinil which is still technically a stimulant but that one doesn’t help with the adhd it’s a lot milder and it just helps me not fall asleep during the day anymore.
But also often bipolar and adhd are misdiagnosed for eachother
❤️
"Before age ___ " always gets me in ANY of these DSM definitions - not everyone has the chance to be seen by a therapist as a child. I don't remember much. My folks also downplayed a lot of my experiences in general, so how do I know which is real and which isnt? Docs have narrowed GAD as a definitive, but my current therapist is having me tested.
It's less about the therapist seeing the person at that time and more about the onset of symptoms in the history. Like if you didn't have these symptoms from birth, outside of phenotypical expression and developmental onset, they aren't neurodevelopmental in nature.
@@mads9259 I think OP did say they don’t remember much of their childhood so having not had access to a therapist back then, it makes it harder to gauge
"It is not that hard to procure stimulants" unless you're actually legitimately diagnosed with ADHD and trying to get them from a pharmacy and have to jump through tons of hoops and insurance doesn't want to cover them and new doctors don't want to prescribe them and generally the entire system makes the thing that helps really difficult to get.
i laughed at that part, too. I had my diagnosis for at least a year before I was actually prescribed any
Yeah. I tried one pill, non-stimulant, which was alright but wasn't enough and there is side affects. No doctors I went to did listen to me, they didn't swap my medication prescription and some tried to cut me out of my medication which makes me completely disfuctional
Glad I live in Aus and my Dex is covered under our PBS since I was diagnosed as a child. I can get 200 Dex tablets for around $30aud which is pretty good compared to other meds
It’s like this video was made in the 90s…
I do agree that you shouldn't self diagnose based on 'relatable' adhd things, but the diagnostic criteria is very lacking for most neurodivergent people, mostly because the mental health field is run by and large by neurotypicals, and they do not listen to us, I wasn't diagnosed until I was seventeen because my therapist said I was 'too smart' to have it
Edit: I don't think the criteria themselves are bad, but they need to be expanded. They are much more about what neurotypical people see in people with ADHD and it needs to focus more on how we actually think/feel.
THIS
The criteria for autism/ADHD has been built based on white people, specifically boys.
Yes! Exactly
Id say that's not an issue of the DSM, more an issue of individual therapists? She mentions in the video due to masking its hard for some people to get diagnosed, plus some therapists are just super prejudiced :/
i'd say it like this, selfdiagnosing based on the dsm definitions after thoroughly thinking them through and looking at their effect on your life,, valid
Self diagnosis is a nuanced conversation. I was self diagnosed with ADHD for 4 years before my formal diagnosis, largely because of the failure of a clinician to properly assess me. I feel mistrustful of mental health professionals who say "never self diagnosis" because of this past experience. If the psychologist had given me a diagnosis the fish time I got evaluated, I would have accessed support earlier and wouldn't have had to self diagnose.
That being said, it is important to rule out other factors and put a LOT of research and thought and self-reflection into any diagnosis, either one you give yourself, or one a mental health professional gives you.
I agree 10000%
Yeah i feel a lot of mental health professionals assume we DON'T do tons of research and/or are actively experiencing a barrier to a diagnosis.... before we self-diagnose. Most of us don't take the self-diagnose lightly, yet that doesn't seem to ever be taken into account.