OPINION:
This week I have been consulting Dr TikTok, to discover I possibly have ADHD. According to the millions of diagnostic “tools” that proliferate across the platform, I seem to exhibit the vast majority of “signs”.
See user @neuronush (“sharing awareness” to her 95.5k followers), who explains that ADHD sufferers hate loud noises, noisy eating, slow walkers and making plans. Well, I fully loathe slow walkers. And I’m weirdly sensitive to bangs. Meanwhile, @doctorshepard_md red-flags the fact that I’ve been labelled “moody and sensitive” and that I “fidget in my chair”; @usamedical offers an adult ADHD test in which he asks whether I “have trouble remembering appointments” or feel “overly active”; while @connordewolfe suggests I might have “hyperfocus”, whereby I become obsessed with random tasks.
Despite having been first diagnosed in the late 18th century, attention deficit disorders are now the quintessential modern malaise. According to ADHD UK, some 2.6 million people in the UK have the condition, with adult incidence at 3-4 per cent of the population. Figures from the ADHD Foundation charity suggest a 400 per cent increase in the number of adults seeking a diagnosis since 2020. In the US, 9.8 per cent of children aged 3-17 years have received an ADHD diagnosis, according to a national survey of parents using data from 2016-19.
This week, a BBC Panorama documentary explored the rapid rise in adult diagnosis, via the boom in private clinics as well as the rise in use of powerful ADHD drugs. As waiting lists for treatment on the NHS can stretch to as long as five years, people are increasingly paying private specialists and clinics to be seen. Unsurprisingly, when you outsource healthcare and the use of expensive methylphenidates (the main component in Ritalin and Concerta), the probity of some private clinics might be slightly compromised. As the BBC documentarian discovered, he was thrice diagnosed with the condition over video calls, while a final appointment with an NHS consultant concluded he did not have ADHD.