ADHD: What's behind the recent explosion in diagnoses?

I BET I can make you roll your eyes: I think I have ADHD. I imagine you are thinking: “Of course you have. How kooky. How creative. Now, go away and post about it on social media.” If so, I totally understand. Since I first saw a list of ADHD symptoms in the mid-2000s and had an “aha” moment, I have lost count of the number of times I have talked myself in and out of seeking a diagnosis.

At first, it was because the idea felt ridiculous. Back then, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – to give it its full name – was for fidgety schoolboys. Fully grown women with a career and family need not apply.

Nearly 20 years later, I still feel ridiculous, but now it is because ADHD is so apparently fashionable. From celebrity interviews to conversations at the pub and between parents at the school gate, everyone is talking about it. These days, I am hesitating because I don’t want to jump on an increasingly crowded bandwagon.

Now, though, I have decided to finally find out what is going on – not only in my own brain, but in wider science and society. Is ADHD getting the recognition and understanding it deserves, or is the rise in interest a fad being pushed by drugs companies, online prescribers and attention-seeking influencers?

Getting answers matters. If ADHD is underdiagnosed we are letting huge numbers of people struggle. If the opposite, then we are pathologising, and drugging, normal human variation. And as new research questions the core nature of ADHD, we may even need to rethink this condition.

The first …