r/psychology • u/a_Ninja_b0y • Oct 16 '24
In 2023, an estimated 15.5 million U.S. adults had an ADHD diagnosis, approximately one half of whom received their diagnosis in adulthood. Approximately one third of adults with ADHD take stimulant medication; 71.5% had difficulty filling their prescription because the medication was unavailable.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7340a1.htm45
u/Ok-Huckleberry-383 Oct 16 '24
an estimated 15.5 million U.S. adults had an ADHD diagnosis
kinda makes you think we're mushing together two things that aren't compatible with each other. Like modern society and the human condition.
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u/im_a_dr_not_ Oct 17 '24 edited Oct 17 '24
Modern living is completely unsuitable for humans. Even things like social media, tv m, and movies are bad for people because it tricks people into thinking those are potential mates and/or attainable ways of living, and acceptable behavior. Evolution is so far behind how far ahead we have progressed our technology.
Of course, realistically, there’s not much we can actually do aside from genetic adjustments in the future.
Even our whole food has been selectively bred to such a degree that some animals in zoos can’t eat the fruit they used to be fed because the fruit has become too sweet for them.
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u/Previous-Turnover-43 Oct 20 '24
i don't know what you're implying here? Do you believe the disorder is just manufactured due to how society is structered today, if so i would disagree, as someone with ADHD, i have ADHD due to how my brain developped not because im not up to par with our current day society, i would problably still qualify regardless of which society i am, due to it being an underlying neurological condition that we've identified/or categorized as, so i just dont understand whats being implied here, maybe youre questioning broad categorizations due humans being varied but i think i disagree (i must also add, 15 million adults with ADHD doesnt mean they just have ADHD, they could also have comorbid bipolar bpd, autism, usually people dont just have ADHD),
adhd is a net negative in most aspects of life even things unrelated to work culture(emotional dysregulation, addiction etc) , i mean damn -13 years less of life expectancy for something that seems uncurable seems more than just a society problem
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u/Regular_Independent8 Oct 16 '24
How many have ADHD undiagnosed? again 15.5 million or even maybe 30 Million? Any figures/ estimations on this?
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Oct 16 '24
The number of people that actually meet criteria for ADHD is well below the number of people with the diagnosis. I see the results of “testing” where people score very low in every category that would indicate ADHD, but end up with the diagnosis, because that’s what they paid to get. It’s a whole ass scam happening in front of our eyes, same as Autism. You wouldn’t believe the number of kids I see, where the parents insist that they’re autistic, but have never been diagnosed, or were improperly diagnosed by someone that lacks the credentials to do so. It’s absurd.
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u/Regular_Independent8 Oct 16 '24
Per definition the number of people undiagnosed is larger than the number of people diagnosed.
Now, are these “diagnostics” made by professional psychologists with the DSM-V? If yes the diagnostic is valid. If not then…
Yes many parents love to have their kids labelled with some kind of diagnostic indeed. Easy to explain why their kids have special needs.
And not to forget, the pharma industry is keen to sell medication….
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u/Empty-Win-5381 Oct 16 '24
Yeah, they meet the definition of diagnosed, the question is how significant or valuable these diagnosis are when they are so financially compensated and warped
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u/Regular_Independent8 Oct 16 '24
The question remains on who is doing the “diagnostic” (professional psychologist, doctor, etc..) and with which tools (DSM, ICD,…). Hence why we should be careful how to understand the word “diagnostic”.
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u/Empty-Win-5381 Oct 17 '24
I talked about that because you said undiagnosed is bigger than diagnosed by definition, which led me to assume you presumed some validity from diagnosis, otherwise that could not be the case if there was a large majority of wrong diagnosis
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u/jubru Oct 17 '24
I agree but you're not gonna get any love for that here. Everything and any behavior is adhd all the time. The amount of times you see posted that you had to go to 10 different psychiatrists to FINALLY get diagnosed. Bro you don't have adhd.
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Oct 17 '24
It’s fine, I’m used to the downvotes. The problem with forums like reddit is that the upvote of a subject matter expert counts the same as a downvote from a 14 year old that’s spent too much time on TikTok. And there’s a helluva lot more brain rot teens than subject matter experts here.
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u/jubru Oct 17 '24
Yup. I also like how the only studies posted are the ones that expand adhd diagnosis. Nothing about the absolutely insane amount of inappropriate and overdiagnosis in recent years.
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u/annapigna Oct 17 '24
Is ADHD a well known condition in the USA (where I assume most of such commenters live)? Like are most psychiatrists there well informed on it? I ask because in my country ADHD is a quite unknown and misunderstood condition, it's just started to gain more relevance in the last few years but many psychiatrists believe things that research debunked years ago, such that it's only a childhood condition that goes away in adulthood. I've heard of people being refused the diagnosis because of the most disparate reasons, from being able to sit on their chairs in school as a kid to "ADHD is not a real thing". I was almost denied mine because I didn't impulsively answer all the questions in the test but was confused and wanted examples and nuance. Many people here actively seek out a diagnosis from a few structures and doctors that they know will at least consider doing so, simply because they might suffer from quite severe symptoms but be labelled anything else from most psychiatrists here. I have oh so many more examples. Yet in my country we are already starting to see the overdiagnosis narrative in some spaces. I wonder if it isn't like that elsewhere.
On the other hand, I do recognize the issue with some practicioners that "specialize" in things like adhd but will actually pretty much give out diagnoses like candies. My own experience with such a psychiatrist was a mess.
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u/NonstopNightmare Oct 17 '24
And that's adults. Parents with kids? Child can't sit still for 8 hours a day: omg my kid has adhd. No your kid is just being a normal kid and normal kids struggle with the way our society is set up. Kids aren't experts at self control, focus, emotional regulation, literally anything because they are kids.
Puppies are very mouthy when they are growing. Imagine if we labeled puppies who bit people as aggressive left and right, and acted like puppies who were less mouthy than normal were the actual normal dogs. Fortunately we have the sense to be like "don't worry it's perfectly normal for puppies, just give them plenty of things to chew on and redirect to those items. Modify the environment.
Maybe we should change our society to match natural human nature instead of drugging children to fit into an unnatural school system and society.
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u/jubru Oct 17 '24
No one is diagnosing adhd in a kid displaying normal behavior
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u/NonstopNightmare Oct 17 '24
Yes, they are, because they don't define any of that as normal because expectations are ridiculously high. They think normal childhood development pace variations are abnormal. Expectations have been set to the highest end of the spectrum, making kids that develop their minds more slowly than others think they have something wrong with them and need drugs to be up there with those whose brains develop faster. Tasks, homework, the whole system is designed for the high end of the spectrum, because parents just can't stop comparing their kids to other kids. People in general just can't stop comparing themselves to others.
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u/jubru Oct 17 '24
It is by definition not adhd. What you described in developmentally appropriate. Children with adhd have far worse executive function compared to their peers. If you're looking at something most or even a minority of kids can't do attention-wise that's not adhd
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u/NonstopNightmare Oct 17 '24
And yet it is over diagnosed to hell
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u/jubru Oct 17 '24
That's quite different than it not existing or being a problem with the system.
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u/NonstopNightmare Oct 17 '24
No, I never said it didn't exist, and it has everything to do with the system that sets kids up to "fail", where by fail I mean they act like a kid and the parent thinks they have adhd because they didn't behave in the way they expected. If the school system was better suited to children there wouldn't be so many diagnoses
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u/Empty-Win-5381 Oct 16 '24
Do you do testing at all?
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Oct 16 '24
Yes, I do. My specialty is Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and I am routinely awestruck by the misconduct of many “professionals”. So many kids are labeled with these diagnoses that follow them for life, like ASD and Bipolar Disorder, but don’t meet a single criteria. It’s frustrating, and many parents get so attached to these labels, that they just doctor shop until they find someone willing to give a diagnosis. As long as there is financial incentive to diagnose and treat conditions with no definitive test, it will continue unabated. There’s a reason we have a shortage of stimulants after the DEA suspended the Ryan Haight Act, allowing every quack in the country to set up an online pill mill for Adderall.
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Oct 16 '24
Dude for real. I'm a school psychologist, I do all the testing for special education. We have a known doctor in my area that will diagnose any child with autism. Parents will tell each other if your child is denied special education services (because they don't need them), go get an autism diagnosis from this guy and then they have to give you an IEP. It sucks for them, because we don't and I won't, but he still gets paid for his faked assessments that the licensing board won't do anything about
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u/Empty-Win-5381 Oct 17 '24
WOW, that's insane. If you gave it to them it would be a huge problem. Financially too. It's silly and bad
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u/JuggaloEnlightment Oct 16 '24
They hate you because you’re speaking the truth
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Oct 16 '24
I’m used to it. My profession is full of unscrupulous folks who don’t care enough to do things correctly.
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u/real-bebsi Oct 16 '24
I scored low on my ADHD exam because they didn't actually test me for inattentive ADHD, they tested me for intellectual disability. The tests don't mean shit.
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Oct 16 '24
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u/real-bebsi Oct 16 '24
A clinical setting doing full testing. The test included things like playing a reaction time mini-game, which I excelled at because I play lots of FPS games. Then I had to read some stories and answer questions about what happened in it, but I knocked that one out of the park because I've been able to read at a collegiate level since around middle school. Then I had to do an exercise where I connected dots with a line without crossing the line over itself and without leaving any dots unconnected, and I did really well on that because it was basically the kind of exercises and work assigned to me in AIG for elementary and middle school.
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Oct 16 '24
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u/real-bebsi Oct 16 '24
No, I got diagnosed with ADHD. They didn't test for things like not being able to keep track of my personal effects that I'm constantly losing, they didn't test for me to pay attention to verbal instructions for longer periods of time to see if I paid attention, and they didn't test me for my ability to change from one task to another.
Sounds like you just don't know what you're talking about.
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Oct 16 '24
[deleted]
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u/real-bebsi Oct 16 '24
They don't do teacher reports for 25 year olds. You seem to dislike my being defensive after you just tried to imply I have a fake diagnosis
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u/TheHappyTaquitosDad Oct 16 '24
Yep, too many people think they need amphetamines to clean or focus.
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u/Godofthechicken Oct 16 '24
I replaced adderall with Red Bull and a meditation routine. Not a perfect solution but it's a bandaid.
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u/SomewhereNo8378 Oct 16 '24
Energy drinks were the self-medication option before I got prescribed
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u/Jazzun Oct 17 '24
I did this until the caffeine gave me heart murmurs, then I finally got diagnosed and never looked back.
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u/clown_pants Oct 16 '24
Yeah I am really glad I pushed myself to go without medication in the 2010s. There's definitely days where I struggle and I find I get burned out quickly, but it's worth it to avoid the nasty side effects and these types of shortages.
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u/NuthinNewUnderTheSun Oct 17 '24
I’d speculate that amongst the people who genuinely have ADHD, many other people have figured out how to game psychiatrists to get a diagnosis so they can legally obtain amphetamines. The research indicates approximately 5% of the population have ADHD, which means many people are not only undiagnosed, but also untreated. ADHD is the leading cause of premature death in the USA (impulsivity leads to risky behaviours and things like higher propensity to drug addictions), with an average 13 years lower lifespan than those without it.
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u/PutNorth1122 Oct 17 '24
Drugged nation
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u/pwa09 Oct 17 '24
Not sure why you got downvoted. The real issue with America is its reliance on medication for everything. Taking medication long term for anything can’t be healthy for anyone
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u/Zestyclose-Emu-549 Oct 17 '24
Maybe, just maybe, ADHD is a convenient “diagnosis” for being human, with normal flaws.
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u/empireofadhd Oct 17 '24
I think its modern life having higher demands on the individual. There are no monasteries. It’s succeed or misery.
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u/DocumentOwn690 Oct 17 '24
Oh hey, I was one of those adults diagnosed last year! But, I take a non-stimulant and have never had a problem filling the prescription due to availability.
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u/AtYiE45MAs78 Oct 16 '24
I have not had this issue once.
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u/arabesuku Oct 16 '24
It seems pretty region dependent. Cities get hit by shortages the hardest. I live in a suburb, I never any problems filling my prescription even when the shortages were in the news. It wasn’t only until this month I actually got hit by one and was unable to fill my meds anywhere for a week.
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Oct 17 '24
Honestly, over half of these diagnoses are caused by the food ! Read your labels. If you can't read it, if you can apply it to your skin, if it's got a long list of ingredients, odds are it is not good for you. Stay healthy, traveling souls. We don't need medication we need to connect with out host planet and eat the things earth has for us not chemists!
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u/Gwynedhel7 Oct 16 '24
Yep. I just resigned myself to going unmedicated until this crisis is over, if ever.