Unpopular Opinion

As a person with (yes, diagnosed) ADHD, this is pretty harmful. Idk how you're gonna go get tested if you don't at least think it's something that might apply to you.

No one ever thought I had ADHD except my ADHD wife, but the shame of thinking you're just useless and lazy is incredibly damaging. Even with a diagnosis I can't afford medication, so my quality of life hasn't improved at all because I can't access treatment. My parents said they would "never have thought" I had ADHD despite my assessor saying I fit the symptoms basically to a T.

Most clinicians won't suggest ADHD as a diagnosis because the patient might not even realize that they have executive dysfunction or problems noticing things. They might have come in for depression and anxiety, not knowing that those are side effects of not being able to manage their ADHD. This is why specialists are necessary, not because ADHD is uncommon.

Edit: Also this opinion is extremely popular, btw. It's kind of the dominant view everywhere except in very online spaces, where people with ADHD tend to congregate for support and community.

Not sure if I should upvote for being properly unpopular, or downvote for being absolutely fucking wrong.
In countries where people actually have easy access to ADHD testing, the numbers diagnosed are higher than anyone expected (~20%). It's still underdiagnosed in most countries IMO.
And the high numbers cast doubt on whether it's actually a disorder, or rather a symptom of our society being increasingly incompatible with human nature.

For many the symptoms mimic a lack of discipline so convincingly that they’ve spent their entire lives being reprimanded and disregarded this way.

That what one sees is all there is usually characterizes the easy, face-value opinion. How is it unpopular?

I mean, yeah it's an unpopular opinion. That's because it's utter bullshit, and a good bit douchey tbh.

You confuse self discipline with executive function. Most people with ADHD have plenty of self discipline, it just isn't always enough to overcome a neurological difference.

Self discipline is about building habits, and setting up tools to assist in executive function. That is where the self discipline comes in to adhd, and there's a shit ton of success at it.

But what if those people that claim having ADHD actually do have it but never have been diagnosed with it? What are you gonna say then, do they also only lack self discipline as demonstrated by not making an appointment?

Yup, I think that's genuinely my case as well. I know I can pull it off, I just don't want to for the time being.

I don't think most people enjoy feeling like a burden, judged as lazy, or living in filth and failing to achieve their goals.

Usually for someone to smoke weed all day and play video games or w/e without maintaining hygiene and health something has to be seriously wrong. Animals not maintaining themselves is like the biggest warning sign that something is wrong.

To simplify that as 'So and so lacks self discipline' is moronic. Maybe they claim they have adhd and they don't but something is fucking wrong with a brain in that state and they need help.

I'll toss in my 2cents. There are a few informed replies I think OP should go back and reread. I agree with OP that most of the comments are skewing AWAY from the actual topic. And, yes of course lazy dimwits are using the latest convenient terms to get out of doing whatever they ought to be doing.

Lazy will do what lazy can which I can personally corroborate. I know someone with severe ADHD who functions perfectly well in society, at home, and at work; they need patience, self-awareness, therapy, and a lot of medication that would melt my brain but let's them functional adequately. There are also periods where their house is a wreck because they can't get it together to clean up for a few days.

I know someone who celebrates when they "finally" get a diagnosis they know they've had for years but doctors "are so ignorant". This person just wants to smoke weed all day and watch D&D let's plays on YT; it's my niece btw, and they have issues-ADHD is not one of them.

My filter works like this: people with a genuine hidden disability will inform you instead of using it as an excuse for why something didn't get done. "I know I have been dropping the ball on kitchen duties. Could we swap household duties? Maybe I am more consistent with bathroom cleaning than the kitchen. And I will talk to my doctor about this at our next visit" OR "I have really bad ADHD. That's why we don't have any clean dishes and the kitchen stinks. But I will get right on it."

How is this not the mental health version of racism?

OP walks by black homeless person. "They might be black, but they are using their race as an excuse to be lazy. They are only getting in their own way"

OP walks by a disheveled person with ADHD. "They might have ADHD, but they are using it as an excuse to be a mess. They are only getting in their own way"

You are being judgemental, if not prejudicial AF.

ADHD is overdiagnosed, but I don't think laziness or a lack of self-discipline have anything to do with it.

This is to say that while ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, in our very stimulus rich world today a lot of people have disorders reminiscent of ADHD due to an excess of stimuli compared to the level their brain is capable of processing.

That's to say our world has gotten too fast for a lot of brains to keep up with, and when those brains compensate, they get symptoms similar to ADHD, despite those symptoms not being neurodevelopmental, per se. So similar meds help with the condition.

And that's fine.

Still, ADHD is way overdiagnosed. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4500182/

And to anyone saying they're not, I would like to point to the people who were vehement that opioids weren't being overprescribed.