The Global Rise in Diagnosis

Everyone has ADHD now.

Tik Tok has made everyone think they are neurodivergent.

It’s trendy to be diagnosed with Autism.

Today I want to unpack the uptick in diagnosis of ADHD and Autism across the globe. It is complex and there is no single answer to why this is occurring. But here are a few reasons:

• Diagnostic tools (e.g. the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) have evolved, and studies have widened to include more participants. Not a single study on ADHD included a female participant until after the year 2000.
• Studies show that many women are ‘high masking’, and as expectations around how to ‘behave as a female’ are slowly dismantled young girls and those assigned as female at birth (AFAB) are masking less.
• ADHD and Autism were considered exclusive conditions until 2013. Meaning that ADHD or autistic people who may have experienced symptoms not fully explained by their singular diagnosis, may have since had ADHD or Autism added to their diagnosis.
• Until relatively recently, ADHD was viewed as a childhood condition, whereas we now know that while symptoms may change at different life stages, it is lifelong. In fact, Adult ADHD was not recognised in the DSM until 2013.
• There has been a long history of women being diagnosed with personality disorders such as bi-polar and borderline-personality disorder which have since been corrected to ADHD and/or Autism.
• There are arguments, in Australia, that the defunding of schools and consequent loss of supports that may have assisted and benefited children with these traits, mean that parents are seeking NDIS funding (National Disability Insurance Scheme) which, of course, requires a diagnosis which might not have been sought otherwise.

I am sharing this because, inevitably, parents of ND children have to combat things like ‘everyone seems to have a diagnosis these days’, ‘it’s just a tik tok fad right?’ ‘yeah, but we are all a little bit on the spectrum surely’.

Knowing some of the ‘whys’ can help inform how you respond.