Is ADHD a real disorder?

Incredible how an alternative to ADHD drugs is reducing sugar intake. GEE I WONDER WHY.

Maybe its because I'm missing the "hyper" part.

The issue is the fact that way too many GPs are diagnosing it in kids that don't have it. It gives the genuine condition a bad name.

Nowell, if you're concerned about it, should you see a psychologist [rather than a GP or psychiatrist]? They can help you without drugs, and can most likely shed light on what you're going through.

Real = Crabs

xpost: Chronic fatigue is sooo not fake.

OTM, I have an uncle who's like this. It led to his divorce.

Also: yes ADD is real, it has to do with certain neural pathways not being connected or something. I know that Ritalin does have a calming effect on me so that I concentrate more, although I don't have the "hyperactive" variant thank God. And I don't eat much sugar/junk food.

i haven't been able to finish writing a piece in _months_, ugh

i even switched to vyvanse again

Another way I've been thinking about it is that the scattered, confused attention and constant accumulation of new interests unwittingly creates this prison maze. I've been dismantling the prison maze for years now and I keep seeing new wings to it that I wasn't previously aware of.

The inability to organize my interests properly has stunted me terribly. Maybe this all sounds too vague but it's the best I can describe it right now.

There's a lot of things I'm on the edge of losing interest in but I'm not ready to let go of them just yet. I think the conventional logic would be to throw away too much and see what happens but I think that would create a vacuum and excitement that would confuse me further. So I'm going to slowly and steadily let go of things.

I've been on the same dose of my meds (15mg 2x a day) for over a decade despite needing an increased dosage because I have this irrational but very acute fear that if I bring up medication management to my (inattentive, elusive, shitty) doctor, I will be flagged as pill-seeking. And so I take my meds as usual despite both their efficacy and duration being barely worth the copay. Last week I took a pill at noon and promptly fell asleep on the couch.

When I take my regular dose plus half, it's effective, but when I do that, the end of the month pill deficit is too excruciating to handle, so I try to be judicious

Having returned to my job, I am very disappointed to find that the intense anxiety and restlessness I feel when I have to do a stack of marking, which was the thing that made me think OK maybe I do have this disorder, is completely unaffected by the medication. May even be worse.

Maybe you need anxiety meds instead

I guess so.

yes this worked for me. still utterly disorganised but I no longer worry about it.

Hm I have a query about ADHD but it's gonna go on another thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7g2FofhGN0
20 minutes so I'm not expecting anyone to watch but I thought this was very good. Her problems are way more extreme than anything I've had.
I only seen a small part of the channel 4 UK show she's disagreeing with but I knew it was going to be controversial (there was a pundit on it saying the ADHD diagnosis should be discarded, as she believed it was doing harm). I was also quite skeptical about why this tv show was being made.

I've started falling asleep in the middle of the day again, I don't want to fall back into this habit. It often seems like when you start progressing in one area, there's dangers of old problems returning.
I now read books like 10-20 pages without stopping and then reread more carefully, this has made it more fun. I've heard of some people reading whole books before rereading them more carefully but I really don't like the idea of finishing a book the first time only grasping 40% of it.

20 minutes so I'm not expecting anyone to watch

Lol at a 20 minute video about ADHD

Lol at a 20 minute video about ADHD

― leprechaundriac (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, August 26, 2026 2:02 PM (three hours ago)

joke's on you, part of ADHD for some of us is hyperfocus. i watch six hour video essays but can't pay attention to a two hour movie lol

Id say I'm likely neuro divergent, went through a period of wondering if I have ADHD, then decided maybe I don't need a diagnosis, better just to try and work with the symptoms (I mean I have lots of apparent ADHD traits but do I have them all the time and that acutely, I'm not sure). I'm sceptical about most ppl who think they have ADHD these days though, as it's so many. I accept there is a spectrum but do wonder if there being such a broad spectrum renders it somewhat meaningless. My conservative take on it is that the internet has caused many ppl to think and feel in a way that resembles ADHD symptoms, and ppl are desperate for an answer, so seek it in ADHD diagnosis, which enforces belief that it is a condition, a medical issue, rather than something behavioural. I also even more conservatively, can't help thinking there is something like disability envy (for lack of a better term), where ppl want something to be wrong with them, so they can ascribe certain things to something bigger, rather than simply find ways to manage what's happening for them. I think some ppl just want an identity in a way too, something to help explain things for them. Then theres the simple fact that because ADHD can be such a broad spectrum which means so many ppl can be seen to have it that you can make a lot of money if you're a private clinic both for psychiatrists/psychologists diagnosing and drug companies can also make a lot of money obv. I guess I'm just sceptical when so many ppl tell me they have it.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to write that, wasn't sure if this was an ADHD support thread, or general discussion.

how about get fucked

One thing that is hard to escape is taking ADHD traits as moral failings, once you start thinking about this you see it absolutely everywhere, you are judged constantly for being clumsy or not doing things you said you would do, and we all internalise this deeply, our society is just not set up for people with ADHD. If you point this out to many people then they will often shift tack to "you're just making excuses for yourself" but this really means "I benefit from the way society is set up and I do not want to concede my moral high ground" - I don't think there are too many people saying they have ADHD, the true number might be as high as 20%, but most of those people currently just think they are shit people, as I once did.

xp yeah also that

would also point out that diagnosis and medication sales are not connected, ADHD meds are just generic stimulants, not some new wonder drug.

I think that post has shown why this thread title needs changing, also NickB otm

- someone struggling through diagnostic hell whose life is undoubtedly worse as a result of not receiving proper treatment, if only I’d had midnightmarauder to earnestly explain it’s all in my head.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to write that

The right place to write that would be on your favourite right wing talking points site

or not at all

Well yeah obv

It’s still ok not to post

I'm just mildly intrigued that Daily Mail journos bother posting to ILX

it was also particularly cruel to post it all in one fucking sentence i mean some of us have adhd fyi

look over there

Honestly that by now much f-ed p is a great post for the Uncool Conservative Beliefs thread …

nice little dopamine hit pressing that button though

Oh shit! Thanks for the reminder!

A while back I read ADHD 2.0 (useful book worth reading) on the recommendation of my ADHD coach; and the psychiatrist who wrote it makes the distinction between ADHD, the congenital condition and VAST (Variable Attention Stimulus Trait) the condition induced by the attention/stimulus economy, which is driving the rise in diagnoses, along with much better awareness and understanding of the condition. The author also points out that the experience of both conditions, neurological, physical and psychological symptoms along with, management, treatment etc. are pretty much the same or the same sets and subsets.

So perhaps, maybe, go and do some reading before spouting uneducated drivel.

Oh and get fucked.

i try to distinguish between the available unending stimulus element and my own dwindling capacity to not seek the whackamole check hit across all available stimuli in ever decreasing circles because i do think it's worthwhile to remember and to try to attempt to manage as behaviour and habit whatever parts of me that can be trained to withstand and ignore that temptation

I've been meaning to research my private vocal outbursts for a long time, I've only spoke to one other person who does this and it seldom comes up in ADHD discussions. It turns out it's called Vocal Stimming, that makes sense.

Oh i definitely do that a lot and moreso now that im not working in an office with other people. Muttering to myself if i get a bit agitated when im trying to get stuff done, involuntarily repeating certain words outloud if im a bit overstimulated, making stupid boops and beeps like flipping Keyop from Battle Of The Planets, generally saying fuckfuckfuck a lot, scatting, loads of annoying stuff. Probably more of an autism thing than ADHD for me though

oh right i thought this was just me

Deems could you expand on the whackamole thing you mentioned? It sounds like something I’ve noticed in my own panic modes.

oh its just the very common thing i think of having ten different things i reach for across daily puzzles, sites, apps distractions that have to be done instead of deep reading or thought or any task that needs concentrating on

same trait at work, whirr of checks for updates/new alerts when what i need to do is spend an hour on a document

oh right i thought this was just me

― Wichita Referee's Assistant (darraghmac), Monday, September 21, 2026 2:15 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

no actually its just me fr fr

Posting this in case it’s useful to anyone coming to this thread in the future:

I don’t have ADHD but my husband does, so I’ve been tuned into online discussion of autism and ADHD for a long time and noticed some behaviors were familiar to me. But even though I read a lot about how ADHD is underdiagnosed in women/girls, I knew that wasn’t my diagnosis.

I’ve always been a severe procrastinator, but through most of school this worked for me - last-minute pressure made me get the work done and done well. But that turned into actually NOT getting the thing done once I hit my late teens. I’ve also always had a minor issue with executive dysfunction, but the past ~8 years it’s gotten exponentially worse.

I finally talked to a psych nurse a few months ago and she immediately prescribed me lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse), which improved my quality of life significantly. But after checking in with her about a month ago, where she ran through an ADHD questionnaire with me and my score was low, and also explaining that while I think have disordered eating I definitely don’t think I have binge-eating disorder (I never eat to the point of feeling sick), she told me that she couldn’t refill my prescription. A bunch of stuff about how strict the prescribing guidelines are, etc.

I cried afterwards, and after talking to my husband I realized she had been subtly trying to keep me on it when she softly pushed the BED diagnosis (the other approved use of Vyvanse). But I was too dumb to notice and kept insisting I didn’t have it 🥴

So piece of advice #1: listen carefully to what your prescriber is saying, if it seems like they’re someone who actually gives a shit about helping you.

BUT my husband, seeing how devastated I was, went into hyper focus mode in the middle of his work day, found a bunch of legit medical papers etc that actually say it’s ‘legal’, or whatever the right term is, to prescribe Vyvanse for executive dysfunction disorders. He then called my psych office and convinced them to refill my prescription. Apparently they weren’t aware of this info??

So piece of advice #2: if some ADHD behaviors resonate with you, but you’re pretty sure you don’t have it, you can still try a stimulant medication to see if it helps.

glad you got it sorted just1n3

i binge eat, i shall now go google to check out what i should know here

Thanks Deems. My personal whackamole involves trying to deal with multiple tasks by starting all of them in quick succession, then stress-diverting to the kind of pattern you describe. Then repeat and repeat.

yes its great fun

it's a good way to describe how I work, too. I received a diagnosis decades ago, but mostly shrugged it off until these past few years after being promoted to a position where my work is mostly self-managed. It's been an issue.

BUT my husband, seeing how devastated I was, went into hyper focus mode in the middle of his work day, found a bunch of legit medical papers etc that actually say it’s ‘legal’, or whatever the right term is, to prescribe Vyvanse for executive dysfunction disorders.

this is so fuckin sweet

xp yeah I figured that was how everybody probably did it except I was lazy!

https://i.postimg.cc/9QNQpFqz/IMG-1044.jpg
Shocked that she holds a complete cunt opinion on this

We also had this today

https://i.postimg.cc/x1b16VG6/image.png

The worst people are still the worst people.

More about stimming: I've found that if I gibber freely, make long absurd noises, swing and stretch my body in any direction I feel like, then it really does alleviate stress, my stomach isn't churning so much and I can digest my food much better.
Only problem is about other people seeing or hearing me, don't want to scare or annoy anyone, so humming is sometimes better. Swinging limbs in a less alarming way.
I guess this is why so many men whistle, hum and sing in public toilets?

One of the things Ned Hallowell recommends is acting silly and I guess this might be what he was talking about.

My son has a thing where he holds a small object on his forehead when he needs to calm down. Like a pencil or a spoon or the TV remote. Sometimes repeating "I love remote, I love remote" (or whatever it is).

One of his doctors likes to say that the behavior "serves a purpose." It may not make sense to us, or be convenient at the grocery store, but it's serving a purpose.

Would getting a small stim toy to put in your pocket help?