This is such an interesting conversation Ella and I'm glad you covered it. Articles like the ones mentioned here frustrate me so much. I'm tired of the "they're faking it (for attention)" narrative! What we're mostly seeing are people finding out about themselves probably for the first time and instead of judging, people should try listening to what they have to say. More empathy and less apathy is needed.
When we gained true sentience, we became more brains than bodies. It's terrible that you can outlive your brain. A brain in a jar is more human that a body without a brain. This is part of why I think autistic people are so creepy and terrible. Like, I look into their oddly-spaced eyes and wonder what the fuck they are, and why we let them have this existence. Goes double if they're fat as fuck, too, which most of them are.
Excellent video, Ella, thankyou. I got diagnosed ASD last year age 47 (waiting for ADHD assessment); I don't receive any benefits or support as a result of this, but it has enormously changed my life for the better. Both my family & myself understand what makes me tick a whole lot better now, & the support I get beyond my family is from the autistic community. Thanks so much for all you do! Helen in Norfolk xx
65, diagnosed at 63. Well, since women and adults were left by the side of the autistic road for most of the 20th century, naturally it's going to seem like a lot of people are getting a diagnosis all of a sudden. We were never considered before and now have to catch up. Thank you for everything you do. You are truly amazing!
Hi Vivian - I was diagnosed last year at 58 after years of misdiagnosis - unmasking has been a challenge but it's so good to see Ella and other creators speak so candidly about this - and I agree, Ella is truly amazing
I'm a trans guy and similarly fell in that trap for ADHD. I spent decades basically being treated like I was hysterical by doctors, or having things brushed off as "anxiety" because I didn't express hyperactivity the way little boys stereotypically did.
Thank you for this video! I was diagnosed late with ADHD (at 54) when my teen was diagnosed, and self-diagnosed for autism (my teen got an official diagnosis to access school support). Hearing things like "Work is just boring, you need to deal with it" from people with Dr. before their name is so frustrating and doesn't account for my experience at all. I've been masking for decades, and it's cost me so much. I'm grateful for the self-awareness I've achieved over the last couple of years, and content like yours has helped me to understand myself so much better. My work is not "boring and repetitive" (I'm a university professor), and understanding my neurotype has really helped me to realize why I find my work draining. It has nothing to do with being bored and everything to do with the strain of having to perform for students and colleagues every day. Other people in my profession find it exhilarating because they don't need to mask like I do. Though I suspect a lot of undiagnosed folks find refuge in academia.
Being a professor isn't boring. It's utterly terrifying and utterly draining and has been for my last 30+ years. I enjoy repetitive tasks like converting classes to online-only formats., or judging creative writing contests, or writing curriculum. I enjoy writing out lecture notes. I enjoy reading for class. But if it involves people, I feel like it's the death of me. Do people really find it invigorating to have to lay in bed with a blanket over my head and noise-cancelling headphones on at the end of each day, week, semester, year? I've taken 3 different quickie tests and each says I'm definitely on the spectrum, yet when I mentioned it to my doctor the first time last year, after years of needing meds for crippling anxiety, after years telling him I hated my job, he said, "Apparently everyone is autistic on TicTok lately." I was like, "What do you mean? I don't watch TicTok. I'm 58. Why would anyone claim this?" My doctor is good about some things, but apparently not this.
When we gained true sentience, we became more brains than bodies. It's terrible that you can outlive your brain. A brain in a jar is more human that a body without a brain. This is part of why I think autistic people are so creepy and terrible. Like, I look into their oddly-spaced eyes and wonder what the fuck they are, and why we let them have this existence. Goes double if they're fat as fuck, too, which most of them are.
Thankyou so much for addressing this! It's something I've noticed, as a recently diagnosed autistic person, and you're totally right, it just adds to the shame, self-doubt & stigma I already feel. So there are more neurodivergent people in the world than we thought - yes - so how are we going to help these people to live healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives? Without these diagnoses, some of us may not even still be alive. It makes me so angry that anyone would think we would use this as an excuse. Thankyou for making these points.
Over the last 20 odd years I've been diagnosed with GAD, social anxiety, borderline personality disorder, cyclothmia, reccurrent depressive disorder...theyre just labels to describe a set of symptoms. On Wednesday i have an assessment for Autism...again, just a label to describe a set of symptoms...but this is the only label I feel best describes the challenges I have. Great video.
You've got to appreciate the irony of journalists - whose profession is probably an ADHDer magnet - doing these tests and writing headlines like "well according to these silly tests, I've got it too!" without even the slightest shred of self awareness.
I remember a long ago episode of Lou Grant, where a business and finance reporter was trying to explain a complex financial system to a colleague, who was struggling to grasp it, and he said something like “my definition of a general assignment reporter is someone who is equally ignorant in all fields.” And that was when reporters were at least paid enough to use the Chicago Manual of Style instead of Grammarly. 🤣
Absolutely yes to everything you said! There's just one thing I wish you could have also included. In addition to increased stimulation and choices possibly overloading autistic and ADHD brains, there is also a huge increase in demand in daily life on everyone! Work loads today are just unreasonable. We are expected to be available every hour of every day, immediately. People used to respond to letters, which could take weeks, or handle phone calls which could take days--but now we have email, and in a lot of work and school environments, we are required to check and respond to emails multiple times a day, every day. This is only one example in demand increase. You hear it from older workers all the time--things are different nowadays "and they want me to do way too much work." The obsession with productivity harms everyone, and neurodivergents who may have not had too many difficulties in the past are now unable to deal with the impossible demands. OH one more thing! The stress of the political environments and really horrible things like climate change are incredible stressors, and stress will definitely increase the obviousness of neurodivergents' difficulties. Ugh, a third thing! Capitalism. Seriously. Capitalism has forced our culture to place the burden on the individual, but humans work best as communities and families. I could explain more but I gotta stop writing at some point! Thank you for talking about this. Those types of articles make me so angry!
I'm sorry, I must say more! There is also this idea that autistic and ADHD struggles ARE "normal human behavior" and so humankind is becoming more "symptomatic" in response to unreasonable demands and environments. I don't think that this negates or autistic struggles or anything, that's not what I mean. It's a complex conversation! Too much to just type in RUclips comments!
@@winternightmarecrochet When my now 35 year-old son was 12, and was attempting to explain a hot-key function on his computer to me, as I attempted to puzzle out what he was saying and showing to me so that I could understand it, he looked at me in frustration and said, “Mom, you’re like a 1086 and I’m like a Pentium III!” You might need to be old enough to know what those were, in order to get his point, but it is something that has stuck with me since then, for I know that it takes *ages* for me to “get it” most of the time. This has hindered me in multiple aspects of my life, especially since I’ve only learned within the past few months that I have a Neurodivergent brain and am just beginning to realize the impact that things like masking and all of the negative self-talk over the years has had - all of which are things I’m now shifting my mindset about. Anyway, all of this to say that “slow processing” is something I very much understand. Now, I am starting to learn various ways to make that work in my favor. I hope you’re able to do so as well.
When we gained true sentience, we became more brains than bodies. It's terrible that you can outlive your brain. A brain in a jar is more human that a body without a brain. This is part of why I think autistic people are so creepy and terrible. Like, I look into their oddly-spaced eyes and wonder what the fuck they are, and why we let them have this existence. Goes double if they're fat as fuck, too, which most of them are.
I thank every person on the Autism Spectrum who has posted content on RUclips & TED Talks over the last 6 years. You have all helped me to discover why I have had such a struggle to keep jobs & friends. I now understand that I grew up in an era that abhorred any mention of a mental disorder no matter whether it was something you were born with or developed later in life. I think this is the reason why so many people are now getting assessed and diagnosed. There were so many thousands of people that hid their difficulties because it wasn't acceptable to be seen as different! I think it was survival instinct that drove us (particularly, women/girls) to hide our "oddness" to observe, copy & mask, to fit in with our peers & acceptable societal norms. It is only in the most recent decade that we are discovering that it is ok to be different! Just recently, I have been accepted on the NHS waiting list for an assessment aged 65. It may seem a bit late in life and something I could have done with earlier, to access help & support when younger, but just knowing will help me.
So totally agree and so glad that I hadn't read the article! Myself and my 3 grown up children have struggled so much over the years with no support and no understanding. If only we had know that we all have ADHD and 2 also have ASD... How much less stressful our life could have been with that knowledge. We now know that it's very likely that our grandson will also have ADHD and his parents will have a head start to give him the best possible chance of being a successful happy person...
Thank God that autism and ADHD can explain my symptoms and I don't need to be labelled with other fake fake diagnoses first. These diagnoses make sense of my life and it's enough for me. It's wonderful to have an explanation and then a community to tap into for mutual support. Thank you for your hard work Ella x
When we gained true sentience, we became more brains than bodies. It's terrible that you can outlive your brain. A brain in a jar is more human that a body without a brain. This is part of why I think autistic people are so creepy and terrible. Like, I look into their oddly-spaced eyes and wonder what the fuck they are, and why we let them have this existence. Goes double if they're fat as fuck, too, which most of them are.
Thank you for covering this topic. There has been an individual commenting repeatedly across ASD RUclips creators sites this same notion that “fake autistic people” are preventing him and his family, who truly “suffer” from autism, from getting their support needs met. I have been considering those arguments, and concluded as you did in this video, that the problems are systemic, and not the fault of people trying to understand or share their autistic experiences. I don’t share my autism outside of the autistic community, and I certainly do not receive any support or resources in response to my autism.
The old situation where those with more obvious autism (and possible learning difficulties) and their families seem to think those who are are less obviously affected do not need services.
The real reason they are not getting help is because there isn’t any. And most doctors and so called experts don’t know (literally) what they’re talking about.
@@camellia8625 yes this is the situation in my family as my two teenage daughters are autistic but are able to have mainstream education. They both struggle everyday with being at school & college in different ways to each other. Their classmates, teachers & lecturers do not understand how hard it is for them and this in itself is a daily & weekly hardship. Then we have parents of autistic children/adults that are non-verbal and unable to do anything on their own judging us and our children like we have it easier 🥺
I love reading everyone’s experiences here! The way these articles are written, it’s what I think a lot of us have already faced in our lives, either from school, work, people, and/or our selves. There’s a reason why we have learned more about these conditions, and why we are seeking diagnosis. It’s not because we get attention, or free anythings. We don’t. It’s because something in our lives didn’t click. And perhaps we were even falling apart. The things we noticed in our lives that never changed despite how hard tried to “just do better”, and push harder. It feels like people like these doctors who wrote the articles don’t really know the stories of people who are seeking/receiving an adhd or autism diagnosis.
I’ve just started the process to be assessed for an ADHD diagnosis, I’m doing this not for attention, but to get a better understanding of things that had happened throughout my life, things still unanswered by my autism diagnosis.
"Doing it for attention" doesn't really make sense when you don't post about it on social media and you don't really tell people. It's the nd influencers maybe that this accusation is directed at, but for them, they're really trying to bring attention to the topic, rather than themselves. If fame is your priority, you should attend a reality tv-show or something like that.
@@raapyna8544 My response was also in reaction to some reports in the British press written by those who seem to have little or no understanding of ADHD or any other ND conditions. I repeat, I'm seeking attention or fame, but to get a better understanding of things, and if it helps others then it will be for the better good of everyone.
ADHD and Autism perfectly explain my own lifelong symptoms. And of course a healthy dose of trauma because I didn't pick up on dangerous situations and people's intentions. What your average person needs to realize is that I'm not using these labels to make excuses for myself in the sense of "oh I just don't want to try to be a normal adult". I'm using these labels because I finally have words for why life has always been so incredibly challenging for me socially, etc. I may only look shy or mildly socially awkward when I'm masking heavily but inside I'm concentrating very hard to get through everyday interactions. I'm not lazy. I'm not being dramatic. I'm frustrated and struggling to process conversations and overwhelmed by sensory input that's always, always there. It's frightening and painful and I'm trying my very best.
My psychiatrist was talking like this in front of me while she was prescribing me Concerta 🤦♀ She added right away that she doesn't mean people who "really" have ADHD but I am shooketh anyway. Also she is my fourth psychiatrist. My first sent me to clinical psychologist to diagnose me and when I came back with ADHD diagnosis, he refused to treat me: "I don't do childhood illnesses". Then I found a gorgeous doctor, only he had ADHD too and he kept forgetting prescribe me meds and was constantly cancelling on me. My third one didn't believe my previous diagnoses and insisted that I have anxiety. He prescribed me anti-anxiety meds and almost stopped prescribing me ADHD meds. He also tried to influence another psychologist who was evaluating me for ASD that I don't have it. Needless to say I ended up with the ASD diagnosis regardless. This one was really special 🤨 This latest one is at least nice enough, believes me and prescribes me my meds when I need them. But like our lives are hard enough as is so why does so many people have to make it even harder ??? 🙄
Without your service, I would not have found videos explaining what makes me different. You changed my life, thank you. Right now we are living a time of change, as the exponential growth of neurodiversity awareness has permeated mainstream.
Autism is being over-diagnosed. When I sat through the assessment recap with my son psychologist I couldn't tell the difference between an introvert and autism. They clearly were on the perspective that you're either an extrovert or you have autism. Secondly they seem to be saying that being a boy and having male traits is just being a defective girl. I also saw that my wife wasn't satisfied with an ADHD diagnosis and continue to shop until she got a diagnosis she wanted
My take is if someone is "faking" to get support, it means they most definitely need support! Plus I fail to see why someone would bother faking autism just to get something out of it. Autism is such a stigmatised condition.
Faking autism apparently can pay off on TikTok where they can get money for faking autism and various disorders. But it doesn't pay off for most people.
@@Catlily5 my point exactly. If someone is faking a mental health condition, be it on tiktok or elsewhere, they are not okay. Those "attention seeking behaviors", as most people would label them, are a cry for help, a last resort to get people to care about them. It's not about just the money, like most people would believe. If it was just about the money, there is much more viral content on tiktok than autism. I still believe there is something affecting a person, that needs to be addressed, if they go as far as to fake a mental health condition.
Thank you so much for this video! Our Boy Ezra has Autism and ADHD, and being able to get these diagnoses have been so helpful in getting us the support we needed to help him work toward more autonomy in his life. You are right; I think most people wait too long and doubt themselves too much to go and get the support and help they need through a diagnosis. Thanks for sharing! ❤
I'm 67, and was diagnosed with autism at 63. Last year I worked out for myself that I must also have inattentive type ADHD. The two conditions explain pretty much all the difficulties I've had for my whole life, most of which was lived before the invention of the smart phone! I've only recently switched from an old type mobile that only did calls and text (and was usually turned off), to a smart phone, by which time I was retired! So that disproves the playing with a phone when I should be working nonsense!!! I think until I was 50 I was coping with life reasonably well, but I can now see I missed out on a lot of things that are causing big regrets. Since then, life seems to have become more complicated due partly to the ways the world is changing. But a big part of it is due to having what I thought of at the time as a mid life crisis, that wasn't recognised as the autistic burnout it probably was. That led to wrong advice and my belief that I was well on the way to recovering from what had been troubling me all my life. So I went off and did new and exciting things, like thinking positive and going out of my comfort zone, and getting into a load of trouble I'm still stuck in 17 years later. I started to discover I might be autistic at 55, when things had already gone wrong, but it took another 8 years of stress before the NHS finally acknowledged it, and I'm still trying to get some support that makes a meaningful difference.
Thanks for sharing. I'm hearing from more and more people like me, who are in their 60s, did pretty well until around 50, and then things started to get tougher. I can see the reasons why for me now. It happens, whether experts believe it or not.
Isn't this the weird (and very frustrating) flipside to the (already frustrating) "Isn't everyone a little autistic/ADHD?" response? Like I would agree that it has become "trendy" to throw labels around, like talking about being depressed when you're feeling a little blue but clearly are not clinically depressed or saying you have the flu when you just had a bad cold and clearly never experienced an actual flu. Or saying I also don't like paying the bills (but you do and you don't manage to get your electricity cut off because you really cannot bring yourself to) I or also don't like crowds as if that was all there was to ADHD or autism. BUT! This is obviously not the same as mis-diagnosing and it is beyond frustrating that health professionals who should be able to grasp that the increase in diagnoses and this increase in trendy labeling of situations as xy traits has no connection. And who should contribute to better knowledge in the general poupulation on what ADH, autism, depression or the bloody flu actually mean and what impact they have. To stop the trendy thing and actually help all those who so far could not be diagnosed because they are not seen.
I find the idea of "identifying" as neurodivergent kind of strange. To me, being a football fan or a metalhead or a history nerd is an identity; having Aspergers and iADHD is a diagnosis. I can voluntarily stop watching football, or involuntarily lose my interest in football, or simply not like or watch football enough to identify as a fan. In contrast, I can't make my brain non-ASD or non-ADHD. However, I suppose those who grow up with ASD and/or ADHD are going to see them differently than someone who only gets diagnosed in middle age.
After being bombarded with countless videos on social media of lazy no discipline/respect teaching parents & claiming their kids are autistic as well as adults claiming this as a get me out of jail free card in life, I searched up “why so much autism” and stumbled across your vid. Well done… these parents are getting on my nerves
These parents get on my nerves too. How shameful that they would rather put a “re+@rd” label on their kids rather than do the work that is necessary to push to the next level.
Hi Ella! This Video came just at the exactly right Moment :D I am in Therapie for ten years now because of borderline and repetitive Depressions, sorry I don't know the english Term for this I am from Germany 😥 since a few month I suspect that I might be on the spectrum, borderline never felt right for me when I first heard of it but autism would make so much sense! And just today my therapist pointed out that there are so much more Diagnosis of autism today and I said yeah because the people are getting aware of it more. He wasn't Happy with that, because I am pretty sure he is someone that thinks medicine and vaccines are making more people autistic but that's another topic-_- So I did some Research and find some similar German articles with the same headlines like the ones you mention and it made me feel so helpless. I often feel like a total imposter for just thinking a little bit I could be autistic and such people make it so much harder to overcome this. Thank you very much for discussing this topic and your encouriging words! 😊
I have an ex sister in law in Germany. She is autistic and says it's much harder to be autistic in Germany as the awareness isn't there. So hang in there and keep going. The world is changing even if it's slow .
@@renabrown6107 Thank you very much! I can't say If it is harder to be autistic in Germany compared to other countrys because I have never been anywere else but it is true that there is very little understanding for autism right now. Germany is pretty slow in many Things xD I myself knew absolutely nothing about what it means to be autistic I Just stumbled upon it because my wife got diagnosed with ADHD Last year and I wanted to inform myself about it to understand her struggles better. And then the wonderful RUclips algorism came Up with a Video of autism in Girls and I thought 'Hm.' 😂 I'll definately will hang in there, next week I can try to get an Assessment and I hope I am lucky enough to get an Assessment altough I am scared of it too. But if my impostersyndrom kicks in to hard my wife always brings me back on track and remembers me why we think I could be autistic and than it's getting better 🤗
I find a huge problem is that the language people with ADHD use is the same language that everyone uses. I give people the analogy of everyone complaining how much gas costs. Everyone's complaining about it so you think it's normal. You don't realize your car actually burns 5X as much gas as everyone else. So when you complain about how much gas costs, and everyone agrees with you, you don't realize there's a problem. That's why I'm just getting diagnosed in my 40s - I just thought my struggles are normal. But then one day you actually talk specifics with someone and find out that most people are complaining about $200 - $300 /month and you're spending like $1,200/month and you finally realize why you can't afford to do all the things everyone else does. But when you try to tell people "Look, my car burns too much gas" they're like "Yeah, well it's probably just that you drive too much, have a lead foot, take the scenic routes, don't plan your trips so you do way more trips than you need to, buy the premium gas, etc. Everyone has the problem of gas being expensive, you're not special." And you're like "No, I'm barely covering the basic driving I absolutely need to do and sometimes not even that." and they just think you're attention seeking or being dramatic. So yes, everyone has a hard time focusing on things they don't want to do, everyone's mind races sometimes, etc. But there's a huge difference in what that *means* to someone with ADHD vs a NT person.
These narratives those people use to tell us, that we're completely normal and should just work harder on us seem to have a lot of similarities to gaslighting to me. Thank you for creating awareness to make it less possible to get violently confused by that kind of stuff
I have seen kids clearly with FAS labeled as autism. It's no different treating someone like a child their whole life they'll act like a child their whole life. If you tell someone they're disabled they'll live disabled.....
This perfectly put into words how I feel about those kind of articles! And the articles are sadly one reason for me to postpone my process of seeking help, because I'm afraid they will just think that I'm another person who is just seeking the "trendy" diagnosis. No, I'm just a person looking to make my life a bit easier and understand myself better.
What I find disturbing is how people insist on diagnosing children as early as 12-15 months of age. Everywhere I look more than half of children are now diagnosed with some kind of neurological disorder and people are readily (and rudely) pointing out supposed red flags 🚩 in other people’s children. It’s almost like the new rave and it is sad how so many people WANT their children to be diagnosed with something in order to be relatable to others or to find an excuse for why their child is having a tantrum at the playground, which is actually developmentally appropriate. Children, by and large, do not internalize every social rule nor do they see the importance in following our instructions if it doesn’t interest them.
And interestingly, the narrative of 'you just need to deal with boredom or repetitive things in life', it was the *lack* of boredom and repetition that caused me to investigate the issues that were making my life difficult. I have ADHD Inattentive, Severe Anxiety, and suspected ASD. Just considering those three things simultaneously explains so much about my life, particularly my struggles as a child into adulthood, and honestly even now. I do better in repetitive, and slower paced environments, with lowered social skill expectations.
1) If people are faking to get all this money and support, why do so many people I know (hi, I'm one of them) who *are definitely not* faking it not able to get money and support? 2) It's amazing to me that these people who have been alive on this planet as adults before just the past few years can say with a straight face that they're astounded by how prevalent Autism and ADHD "suddenly" are, when I was born in '82 and I'm distinctly aware of the vast number of people who were excluded from even being considered, especially because I was one of them. Were you a girl? Could you talk? Did you act like "Rain Man"? Did you have even one friend? Were you disruptive? Answer any of these in certain ways (in order: yes; yes; no; yes; no), and there was no way anyone would think you could have Autism or ADHD. You were, instead, just not trying hard enough or "awkward". People who have known me for decades or my entire life were *shocked* when I got diagnosed (at 33 for ADHD and 40 for Autism). I'd asked professionals about Autism assessments for *20 years* and they'd brush me off because I was "personable", I'd done "okay" at school, and I could hold down a job. Of course, they never had the bigger picture about how I struggled--and they didn't *want* to know. I got to get diagnosed far too late for any sort of help, and developed a personality disorder to boot from literal ongoing trauma related to lack of diagnosis. So, no, it's actually not concerning or a surprise that more people are getting diagnosed now--in part because the number of people who are being diagnosed now *as adults* is a lot, because of the sheer number of us who were never even considered as children.
Americans are blind to how many of them people in the country are functional alcoholics. They also ignore obvious mental health issues that contribute to violence. That Americans also have a failure to understand that people can have diagnosable mental conditions while remaining "functional" and scoffing at the idea they need any help or treatment is remarkably consistent. (And I make this observation as an American.)
Yeah, it's baffling. Why would I fake ADHD? It's cost me friendships, jobs, stability and I certainly can't get like, disability money for it. What do I get out of this? Nothing.
Basically women with autism have been largely misunderstood as the studies were all mainly about male autistic people, ajd didn't account for the fact its a big spectrum. Also a lot of knowledge is only now being understood and known more widely meaning a lot of people were not diagnosed at an appropriate time. Its a shame this doctor means it never existed
I, oddly enough, found your channel through your video about managing hypermobility because I too have HSD and daily chronic pain. Coupled with my ADHD and subconscious desire to sit like a pretzel or a jungle gym at any moment I've been trying to take a more proactive approach to managing my HSD and HSD pain. After watching this video though, you definitely have a new subscriber. Articles like Dr. Pemberton's upset me because people like that are the exact reason why I was not diagnosed with ADHD and subsequently treated until I was in my 30s, had dropped out of school (twice), and lost multiple jobs. It shouldn't have been that way, but people like him told me I was lazy, stupid, and just making excuses and once you hear that enough, it becomes your reality. I appreciate people like you using their platform to spread awareness as well as support for viewers to know that, no, it is not in fact a reality that they are lazy, stupid, etc... they just need to accept and care for what is a very real, and very debilitating condition.
I think a reasonable general model of the situation is: All people have trouble doing at least one thing that most people can do well. Acknowledging, understanding, and accommodating those limitations is universally good. Medical diagnosis is our society's way of doing that. This is not a good way of determining whether or not people deserve considerate treatment by society. So long as it is how our society works, however, expanding diagnoses to include more people is our society's way of figuring out how to be considerate to more people, within our current limitations. "We're being too considerate to too many people," is really not a possibility worth taking seriously. Supposing that possibility exists in the first place, surely it is a very long way off.
I'm 47 years old. We didn't have phones or other mobile devices when I was kid. In fact, I spent a great deal of my time outside being active. Regardless of this I had an exceptionally hard time concentrating in school and had behavioral problems that were just chalked up to me being a bad person by just about every adult I encountered outside of my family. These two "doctors" are publishing their opinions in newspapers, not in peer reviewed medical or psychiatric journals, and I put very little faith in what they have to say because of this. These opinions are dangerous, but newspapers don't care about that as long as they're selling their content. My late in life autism diagnosis explained all the awful things I've struggled with through my entire life, not just when mobile devices became a thing 20 or so years ago. My diagnosis makes me feel far less alone and is helping me accept who I am. And I've learned so much about myself from channels like this one where autistic people come together to share their experiences and strategies for coping. Had I not encountered channels like this when I was trying to figure out why I was so angry and tired all the time I would have just given up and would have continued to hate myself. Knowing what it is I've been struggling with gives me a solid foundation for bettering myself as a human being, and it does so in ways that I feel comfortable with rather than me trying to figure out better masking strategies. Masking is exhausting and demoralizing and I don't want to do it anymore. I'm infuriated by these two jackasses, too. Newspapers, regardless of how "reputable" they are (and I question how reputable publications sensationalizing all the wrong things can be anyway), are not the platform to explore this kind of topic. These two should be ashamed of themselves for violating the scientific method despite being medical 'professionals.' These people clearly write for dipshits, not the medical community or the neurodivergent community. I had 3 separate doctors tell me I was likely on the spectrum before getting the diagnosis from a clinical psychologist. I suspect that's because they don't waste their time writing garbage like this and instead focus on the people who come to them for help and read the peer reviewed literature relating to the neurodivergent condition. These two look and sound like a couple of self-absorbed, entitled white dudes who have experienced very little trauma in their lives. Pathetic.
"My diagnosis makes me feel far less alone and is helping me accept who I am. And I've learned so much about myself from channels like this one where autistic people come together to share their experiences and strategies for coping. Had I not encountered channels like this when I was trying to figure out why I was so angry and tired all the time I would have just given up and would have continued to hate myself." I probably never would have reached a diagnosis without YT channels where formally-diagnosed people describe their experiences and the experiences of others they've met. It's a relief to finally figure out "what my deal is" after decades and everyone I know being dismissive of the question. The channels have also provided some helpful strategies. However, I find it's a limited kind of relief. Now that I know ASD is the reason I notice things nobody else does it doesn't help me stop noticing them nor make those things bother me any less nor make anyone else care about them any more. Knowing I have trouble connect with people because of ASD doesn't help me meet people I can connect with. I now know how to better recognize ASD in others. That doesn't change people with low-functioning ASD from overstimulating me, and people with moderate-functioning ASD from sometimes making me mildly uncomfortable. A teenage volunteer with moderate ASD abruptly interrupted a conversation I was having with an off-topic question and my first thought afterwards was "Oh dear...did I do that when I was that age?" I can use strategies to try to deal with my short-term memory issues that I now know are caused by ADHD, but it doesn't solve the underlying problem that I can't trust myself to remember simple things. Using strategies to deal with ADHD-related focus issues and analysis paralysis helps, but doesn't solve the basic underlying problem. If I decide to do X today then I should do X today unless new information gives me good reason not to. I consider not being able to set my mind to a thing and do it, period, unacceptable; "sometimes I can't, because ADHD" may be an accurate explanation but it's not a way to live I consider acceptable. Knowing why I am doesn't stop me from hating a part of who I am because that part of me results in being less than I should be.
@@jliller Yeah, I agree that the issues that come from ASD kinda suck to sort through. I often get upset with myself over my lack of communication skills; it makes me feel less than I should be in a pretty profound way. I think the area my ASD diagnosis has helped with is I'm not as fearful over everything because I finally have an explanation for what I'm experiencing. I quietly suffered from fear for 30 years or more because I knew something was off and different about me and I didn't want anyone to know. I was really ashamed of myself. Now when I'm struggling I don't feel the need to hide it, and am becoming comfortable with telling people I have ASD and I'm struggling in that situation. More often than not I can identify aspects of autism that are causing my struggle in most situations and I feel okay with explaining that. It sucks, but it has been better than quietly suffering with fear that people are going to figure out something is wrong with me. My hope is that with time I'll be even less harsh on myself for things I can't really control. I now know what the issue is, and I'm hoping with that knowledge I can learn better approaches and strategies to living my life in the best possible way.
@@JeremiahKellogg "I quietly suffered from fear for 30 years or more because I knew something was off and different about me and I didn't want anyone to know. " I went through the exact opposite. By the time I was an adult, and to some extent sooner, I knew something was 'off' and said so on a number of occasions. I was always told there could not possibly be anything wrong with me because I was functional - could keep a job, pay bills, have a conversation, didn't lead a reckless lifestyle. It was quite annoying at times. One of the few people who agreed with me was someone I knew in high school that majored in psychology in college. She suggested I was schitzotypal. One thing I've learned in the last year is that Asperger's and schitzotypal personality disorder have a fair amount of symptom overlap (much like ASD and ADHD), albeit from different causes. One of those little hints nobody picked up on at the time.
I will be 70 in May and psychologist has just agreed that I can get assessed for autism (Aspie). I am a Brit living in a small town in California's Eastern Sierra so may have to drive for hours just to get there. I hope the US test is similar to the one you did (great help BTW). Journalists are all about being sensational and the scoop!
They are being diagnosed more often because they are finally being talked about! People finally have a place where they can find out why they are feeling the way they are and why they are having the struggles they are. We just finally have proper recourses and a true understanding of this disabilities and types of neurodiversities
Finally being talked about AND finally being described correctly! I spent my life telling myself "sure I'm hyper and I have trouble paying attention and I'm easily distracted, but it's definitely not adhd because I do well in school, can sit still, etc." It wasn't until I learned about "executive function" and "hyperfocus" that I started to realize what was going on.
Great video Ella. I don’t think I’m autistic but started watching autistic and adhd youtubers to learn more and try and support a friend better. I was so surprised by how different peoples experiences are from the classic idea of autism I had got from the media (and I mean documentary science stuff, not just sitcoms.) On a side note I feel like a lot of these points also apply to people complaining that people are over diagnosing as trans.
I couldn’t agree more about it being good if it helps people to learn how to navigate the world! I’m dyslexic and have found some great tips for dealing with that and other issues from adhd and autism you tubers.
Thank you, Ella. I've just had a comment on one of my videos saying pretty much the same thing as these articles (from someone who actually has an ASD diagnosis, I think!)
F30, and just had confirmation of ASD. I feel like a bit of an impostor still, despite having a document on record from one of the best diagnostic services in my country saying I'm not. It's incredible how deep the stigma runs, even from self. And I can't understand why anyone would want this or fake it for attention, either--so why am I cross-examining myself?
This is a something that came to mind for ADHD (doesn't work for ASD) that if you take one of the stimulant medications and it makes you calm, grounded, content, you can stop fidgeting as much and just 'be' like you never could before, this basically means you for sure have ADHD because people who don't have ADHD get an energy kick or a buzz from it and actually get more fidgety and driven. At least this is how I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong!). But basically it's taking an ADHD brain from unregulated to regulated, while it will take a regulated brain and make it overstimulated.
I believe seeking the truth is important. I don't mind some people saying ADHD isn't real or autism/ADHD are over-diagnosed. Neuroscience is a very difficult subject and has seen much breakthrough continuously. (Autism spectrum only came into existence in 2016!) It's not difficult to understand people's knowledge are not up-to-date. Also, while neurological issues definitely affect behaviors, it is very difficult to understand/identify neurological issues just from observing behaviors, which are affected by so many other things. By these same reasons, ADHD is at the same time under-diagnosed. I said I don't mind some say over-diagnosis is the case. (Some of my friends don't believe ADHD is a thing or don't think I have ADHD/autism. They mean well.) What I do mind is, when some of the people making such statements, they are actually judging the motives of the people who seek help. This is NOT fine, regardless of where the science will take us in the understanding of our brains in the future. The issue isn't about autism/ADHD anymore. It's about being ignorant and judgemental.
If I would get off my phone in certain situations and try to focus I would probably be unable to focus because I'd be very likely to get a breakdown due to sensory overload.
Id love to have someone explain why being bored at work is "different for them" than it is for me. Or why being anxious in some social environments is worse for them than it is for me. Or why you can get distracted when there's highly stimulating things pulling ypu away from tasks but just its way worse for you or something. Im not saying autism doesnt exist. But i think the huge wave of people, normal people, who experience normal levels of distraction, anxiety and struggle want to label themselves with this because then they'll get a pat on the back for being a normal functioning adult.
Because they are making it up. Autism, adhd, body dsymorphia, depression gender dysphoria are extremely rare and debilitating. These people either self diagnosing or being overdiagnosed by therapists trying to make money.
The diagnosis does exist. And are very valid. But however the world is getting so complex, stressful and "less people should do more" that a huge percentage of people who can't fit in will need a diagnosis just to be able to support themselves financially. This makes me feel sick to my stomach. And explains why the people who use to be super great at masking are the ones that gets the least amount of help even if you as a masking person screams on top of your lungs for help you don't get it.
Yes, the 'squeaky wheel' corollary applies to people seeking help and it's really awful. If you're quiet, or shy, or people-pleasing, or afraid to rock the boat and consistently self-advocate for help, you're likely to be brushed aside and ignored.
I watched the video, and yes actually the definition criteria is so loose that there are people with ASD diagnosis that would not qualify for an ASD diagnosis based on criteria 20 years ago. CDC prevalence of ASD is 1 in 36. There is no way it's truly that high. ABA places are all booked up because of so many kids being diagnosed with ASD nowadays.
A very similar conversation is happening with EDS as well…I was diagnosed in 2007. Since then my best friend from college and my best friend from high school, along with my current best friend are all either diagnosed or seeking diagnosis. All of us also have autism, ADHD, or both. So I’m unsure…but then again I am an outlier because I don’t technically have hEDS which leads to my symptoms being different from my friends’ main symptoms.
Mental health is not about identity. Having ADHD (or other mental issues) is not an identity, it is a diagnosis. There are a lot of problems with a potential over diagnosis of mental issues. Over medication, putting too much pressure on the healthsystem and taking away resources that should be spent on more severe cases, the fact that treatment of mild cases often do worse than people with no treatment. Now that mental illness stigma has gone down, some people see a diagnosis as validation or an explanation of why they are felling bad or not doing well in life. I see a lot of comments in this section that says this explicitly. So to many people is not about getting to an accurate diagnosis and an effective treatment. Oddly, being diagnosed might even bring you into a community of people that you can fell part of and receive support. Doctors don't think patient are doing it in a malicious fashion or "faking it". But some patients with mild symptoms are convinced they have a syndrom or something and are going to go from doctor to doctor until they have a diagnosis. Not to mention the ones that just skip the doctor and self diagnosis.
You hit it "out of the park" PE!! -I was diagnosed ADHD/ dyslexic as a child and ASD age 59 (5 yrs ago). There is tremendous pressure on children/adults to be "normal" and conform to social expectations. Discovering and realizing my ASD recovered and released who I am as a "neurodivergent" person. I learned, as a child, to deny my needs, not seeking accommodations or support of any kind. I struggled in silence denying my true nature through adulthood. A diagnosis identifies and confirms what we've always known and professionals/society denied. The increased number of identified ND adults/children does not indicate something wrong with those being diagnosed. It exposes the professional and social failures to recognize and respect people who are different and have unique needs. My true life as a ND person is only beginning, now that my efforts are for me, and not that person society wanted me to be. Thank you PE!!
Thank Gad you're talking about this. No other autistic channels talk about this subject. I am autistic, but was first dx'd adhd about 21yrs earlier. I take stimulants & anti-anxiety end of day--this seems to be the ony way to balance for me. I don't take the anti-anxiety everyday bc of the bias crap I hear from Dr.'s--but it's a low dose & works for me. BLESS you so much for making this video...I need to go & watch the video about you taking meds. I wonder if they started you with Ritalin. I've been taking stimulants for my adhd for nearly 13 yrs with an 8yr break in there. I knew I was autistic before getting dx'd bc I never identified with ADHD people---they didn't seem to struggle with as many things as I did (at least that's how it appeared to me)....from my perspective they were alot more fun-loving/had zest than I did. Now having a dual-dx like you---I actually wonder how adhd I really am. I did see the underactivity in 3 parts of my brain in a SPECT scan....but the brain changes & I wonder if they hadn't had me do such a stupid/boring test--if my brain would have had more blood flow in that area. You are a hero in the community--I wish I had the gumption to do an autistic channel. I got dx'd this year--I just don't know how good I'd be talking to the camera by myself---I might surpsied me tho! MUCH HUGS/LOVE your way from the U.S.
Thank you for this video. I am currently on a waiting list to be assessed and the wait is agonising. I often feel stupid when the media portrays us like this. I also feel like I am doubting I am even autistic at all. I feel sad most of the time and I have to stay away from most social media.
I think most within the community agree that the increase in diagnoses is due to increased awareness and knowledge. The people who make the misinformed statements often overlook the fact that the vast majority of people diagnosed don't seek extra support, that is to say that they only sought out a formal diagnosis as part of self discovery and awareness, myself included!
Great points! I think the way we're starting to understand neurodivergence a bit better is a good explanation for the phenomenon personally. I've heard about people identifying traits in themselves following a family member's diagnosis is leading to more people being identified too. I get that it's easy for an outsider with minimal understanding to look at this phenomenon quite dismissively but I think it shows a lack of understanding to call this sort of thing anything like a fad personally. I'm wondering if certain places shifting away from a very medicalised 'deficit' based view of neurodivergence is also changing things. I can't help but see a stark difference between my dyslexia diagnosis in the early 2000s which made me feel as if I was crap at a load of stuff at school and my recent discovery that I'm autistic which has been much more a a reframing of how I'm just a bit different to most people in some areas. It's way easier to accept and want to explore this sort of thing about yourself when the discussions are about differences instead of deficits and difficulties.
There is so much that people misunderstand about having autism or ADHD, day after day I hear people make such closed minded comments everywhere I go. I want to be able to voice my struggles and others struggles to the greater population of my school so people would have a more clear and accurate definition of how my brain and many other brains work. I'm very happy that the amount of support for neurodivergent people has increased but I can't help but feel sorrowful that I can't personally help more with my own issues getting in the way of my everyday life.
Hi Purple Ella! I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your videos. You have helped me so much in coming to terms with my own autism self-diagnosis and understanding what that means for me and how I can better support myself. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and wisdom!
I love all the things you’re sharing here. Exactly, right! Not to mention proper diagnosis wasn’t even given to people of certain demographics/age/race and so forth. An an example, certain age groups wasn’t aware of masking in girls for instance, or there are quite a lot of older adults that just have never had been diagnosed, or had the opportunity, or knew of the specific ways symptoms can present. With ADHD, people can have internal hyperactivity intead of outward hyperactivity - and this is only seemingly getting traction now, or mimicking for autism, or people stuck in the idea that you “look people in the eyes” or can hold a leadership position, so therefore you aren’t on the autistic spectrum. I spent several years getting false things and misunderstandings thrown at me from mental health professionals when looking into this. I also have a MS in psychology and a BS cognate in psychology, and nobody listened. I began asking professionals directly about this in 2018/2019, and it took til 2022 to pay out of pocket for an assessment, because I could not get one through the professionals that I was requesting it from. This also doesn’t account for nearly 30 years of mental health treatment (off and on) that never led anywhere, because they didn’t find out what I was actually diagnosed with, or the ramifications I’ve had with those treatments they’ve tried. This is a very needed subjected.. and a very sore subject. I watched my mom struggle her whole life, and after she passed away, I now know nearly everything she was dealing with was likely autistic related…. or somehow comorbid. She had so many issues, and never received real help. I watched her difficulty. I can’t stand that she went through all that she did. I don’t want anyone else go through this.
As a woman diagnosed at age 39, almost every dr I’ve spoken to post diagnosis has started off with, “What made you think you had this?” In very judgemental and dismissive tone. This is not to mention the friends and family who assume you got your info from TikTok. What we’ve really been “faking” all this time is being neurotypical. Apparently we were just a little too good at it.
100% over diagnosed. I have chronic fatigue and haven’t been able to get adderall for a year, when i sure as hell need more than others. People prolly spending hours on hours on TikTok n wonder why they have a short attention span. ADHD is when u literally can’t control yourself, mtf could easily change but go further down in a adhd rabbit hole
Well something isn't right when a good portion of people I know and just about every other person on the internet say they have adhd...heck, even I supposedly have symptoms.
I wonder if Dr Max Pemberton has asked himself why he hasn't seen many patients asking for an ADHD assessments in his clinic? Attitudes like his are what put patients off speaking up and advocating for themselves, I imagine he's very dismissive. It's difficult enough trying to be heard especially when you get shot down by health professionals.
I have struggled these past few years and am struggling to understand what 'symptoms' and experiences of mental health, mental diversity stuff, to identify what i am and what i have been going through. I cannot understand why, comprehend what the experience are like, how the internal experiences resulted to the 'symptoms', I can't check the box for the symptoms or mental experiences because i am uncertain if i have that, or if that is the thing i experienced. I can only be confident if i resonated with what's described, the internal narration, the reasons and the causes matches, the narration of the story resonated with me. And i struggle to realise and identify and matching my experiences with what mental health videos say, unless i felt it described what i have not or been able to described of my internal experience, i really struggle to identify if i have experienced an experience/symptom of a mental health thing, and therefore can't decide what mental health 'disorder' or the psychology things with names that i have
Hi Ella, thank you for addressing this issue. I am in complete agreement with what you are saying in the video and often find that people who think that these conditions are being overdiagnosed are overlooking the fact that these conditions are an area of open research. We are currently learning more about them and we are seeing how some people that don't fit the "Normal" fit here. We, neurodivergents are necessary and essential for our species development and we are not few. Maybe if we lived in a world that understood that and didn't demand that we fit a narrow set of expectations, many of us on the more Aspie end of the spectrum wouldn't need any government funded help or accommodations. But that's not the current reality of the situation. Thanks for talking about this 😊
Are people being over diagnosed with ADHD, and Autism, YES, are we excusing difficult behaviour YES, i think my generation was the last of the Adult generation, we had the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to deal with and were more concerned with stray 5.56 rounds and getting blown up, this new generation it seems 99 out of a 100 wouldn't be able to serve because they are all Autistic or ADHD or have DID all of a sudden, i knew maybe 1 person when i was 16-20 with Autism, now if you ask 20 young people 17 of them will say they are Autistic. We are also not talking about a slight increase of like 1% either, in the last 10 years Autism diagnosis has tripled in number.
The first thing I thought when I heard the Dr Pemberton quote is if he thinks most or maybe all the ADHD traits are normal then maybe he has ADHD and not realise. The thing I question though is if the increase in media attention has an effect on people getting psychosomatic symptoms or subconsciously exaggerating symptoms resulting in a situation that looks like ADHD or ASD.
For many years I didn't think ADHD was a thing because I has trouble with all of the criteria and everyone around me said that those things were normal. So, I gaslit myself into thinking I was just a lazy, unorganized slob who couldn't "Get it right." Turns out, I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 7 and my mom didn't tell me until I was 40 and directly asked her. I thought everyone struggled with the things I struggle with but that isn't the case. Maybe the "gents" writing the articles should be screened for ADHD, too lol
Thank you Ella. I admit, these types of uncharitable notions pop intrusively into my head. Like, HOW can everyone I know suddenly have ADHD? SURELY not. But then my rational, compassionate mind kicks in and I decide that yes, they certainly can be neurodivergent, as am I. But maybe we need to stop talking about "neurotypical" being the default. Maybe there IS no neurotypical.
Hi Ella, I'm not sure about this. I don't like the insulting tone of the articles you mentioned but, as someone who has been wondering for years (perhaps a lifetime; I'm 54), whether or not I am 'neurodivergent' and whether or not neurodivergence itself is a valid and helpful concept... I think it is more a knottier problem than you indicate. I think questioning over-diagnosis could well be valid - or at least worth looking into very carefully, and perhaps without the possibility of any firm answers. I currently feel I am drowing in alphabet soup! It seems fairly likely that 'some people' have always had more troubled minds and life experiences than others. (I just read an essay on Coleridge's work which basicallly gave him various mental health diagnoses - which may or may not be 'true' but to me they seem like a 21st century lens, which doesn't necessarily mean a better lens, through which human experience - or some humans' experiences .) Anyway, I don't know. I just think that, if people (whether journalists, individuals, 'professionals') have a gut-felt resistance to a new and burgeoning idea, that gut-felt resistance may have something important behind it. And that by demonising that resistance (in itself; rather than the way it is expressed), could mean missing things and oversimplifying them. Personally, I'm not yet ready to come down on one side or the other. Not for a while. It needs more time. Those journalists/experts in the taboilds (in which I include the Telegraph) could express it more carefully, though!
I do agree that greater awareness of the traits or symptoms of these conditions has naturally increased the number of people seeking diagnoses or self-diagnosing. However I do also think certain over-generalised portrayals of autism or ADHD on platforms like TikTok or IG means a lot of younger people are convinced they have one of these disabilities because they experience one or a couple of minor traits that actually exist in the general population anyway. The diagnostic criteria for autism especially emphasises the fact that autistic traits have a detrimental impact on quality of life and ability to live independently so it’s not just “oh I don’t like the feeling of wet socks” or “I dont have a varied diet” therefore I must be autistic. Autism is more than any single trait, it’s a complex interaction of various social, sensory, emotional and developmental traits that negatively affect a persons ability to live in our society. It’s a bit like how people think if they’re perfectionistic and like cleaning they must have OCD when the reality of a person who suffers from OCD is so much more complex and difficult than that. So I’m just a little cautious of this sudden social media popularity of certain disabilities being portrayed as “quirky” or cute personality quirks when the reality of autism can be so very dark, isolating and difficult.
I will just say that I think being on the internet a lot sometimes warps our view of these things. I occasionally thing 'ugh everyone has adhd or autism nowadays' when really if I go outside, I'm surrounded by neurotypicals and I feel really lonely. I think tiktok is partly to blame for the whole making it seem like a fun quirky thing when really it can be debilitating. But also I've seen someone from school who used to bully me for my autistic and ADHD behaviours and now apparently she has ADHD cos it says that she does in her instagram bio so things like that confuse me because how is she ADHD when she bullied the crap out of me for behaviours of it myself
This is so true! Trying to get a diagnosis as an adult (at 64) after my adult son was diagnosed with both ASD and ADHD I have encountered all kinds of obstacles and outdated opinions, both among doctors and those that I have called my friends (but I do not have close friends except my family). The medical people think that I should be suicidical to be diagnosed (”your case is not serious enough”). Others say: oh you are not at all like an autistic (like Rain Man?). You are faking and malingering to get attention (like teens in TikTok). I do not want to get attention. I want a diagnosis to understand myself better and forgive myself, because for so so long I have thought it is all my fault and I must change to be accepted.
Love this. I am 53 and discovered Asperger's syndrome when I was in my early thirties. It explained so much about how I was in my youth. I was formerly diagnosed when I was 38. I prefer the tag Asperger's because it helps neurotypical people distinguish between "classic" autism and milder expressions of the condition. PS. I can't help noticing you have a drawing of the TARDIS next to your electric plug sockets. 🙂
frankly i think it is overdiagnosed, or ASSUMED WITHOUT DIAGNOSIS, in cis men. it feels like so many people in society blame men's bad behavior on autism, and often the person isn't diagnosed and displays practically no symptoms/traits aside from the stereotypical symptoms. i think it is UNDERDIAGNOSED in AFAB/women/girls. autism is so misunderstood because of this in my opinion. just because a man doesn't like to participate in his family's life and is also obsessed with baseball cards doesn't mean he's autistic. women/AFAB, especially those who are disadvantaged, are likely to be labelled as "bipolar" or "crazy" and looked down upon for their behavior that is clearly autistic or ADHD or ND. its the same thing and you see people in general society doing it all the time. the older i get the more i see how sexist everything truly is and it disturbs me.
Agreed but also think women and girls are being overdiagnosed with autism. A lot of these people have bad social skills because of bad parenting and lack of proper etiquette training.
Of course some people are diagnosed who don't really have it.....however, my take is that in the vast majority of cases those people are struggling with SOMETHING and if this helps them get help then good. It's not like a false diagnosis is then treated with brain surgery...and most things that help nd people are good for everyone and helpful in general!
"Neurodivergent" is disability. Changing terms doesn't alleviate that autistic folk often suffer from sensory overload, and people with ADD arent able to concentrate as well. Also, ADHD is overdiagnosed, because children are supposed to have underdeveloped prefrontal cortexes, but teachers can't be bothered to accommodate rowdy children. They'd rather inject them with chemicals.
I think articles like those also fail to articulate the crucial difference between researchers maintaining the rigor of enquiry by continually checking whether over-diagnosis is occuring in the field (which, i imagine, is part of what generates better, more consistent, more accessible and accurate diagnostic criteria) and a public article ranting about 'people these days...put your phones down...get over it and focus' which is a misunderstanding of diagnositc criteria and based on prejudicial reactions to quiz material. "Are we over-diagnosing?" is a worthy question if it is used to better the medical field and applied with vetted scientific and sociological methods.
Your lucky if you can even get an assessment for either been waiting for my daughters assessment since she was 3 she's 9 now and still waiting. Only reason it's being more diagnosed is because it is now more understood. I would love for this person to tell me my daughters difficulties is an excuse to my face. Let him spend a month living with someone with autism maybe then he would have an idea
Growing up I barely knew anyone with an ADHD diagnose, but multiple people who showed signs of ADHD. There seems to be such a big fear of overdiagnose and overprescription in children, that some people seem to see an ADHD diagnose almost as "getting caught" and getting treated against your will, like children are getting chemically lobotomised with ADHD meds. You pretty much needed to show "behavioral problems" to the point, where you were considered for a special needs school, but seem too smart for a special needs school, to get an ADHD diagnose, when I was young, so I'm not surprised, that many people start self diagnosing as adults, when they finally find out, what ADHD actually is. With Autism it seems to be even worse, at least in the cases I've herd of, because as an adult you can be denied the diagnose for "not looking autistic enough", similar to trans people who get denied gender recognition, because they don't dress like a stereotype.
For me the key problem with autism diagnosis (maybe ADHD as well) is its inconsistency. Clinicians can vary significantly in their willingness to diagnose autism and there probably are some false positives from those who interpret the condition very widely; on the other hand there will be other clinicians who are too restrictive in their diagnosis. Just as big a problem is inconsistency in access to diagnosis - some will be given a very supportive hearing and maybe even fast-tracked but others will find their path blocked sometimes even at GP level. Patients who have reached middle-age or even older are especially likely to meet with opposition, the view of some clinicians that they are a low priority for support and have supposedly managed for so long without a diagnosis they don't need one. This overlooks the severe struggles most of these people have had, their conditions unrecognised. Let's not forget there will still be many people who don't even know what autism is even though they actually have the condition. There is often stigma in seeking diagnosis for psychological conditions such as autism and ADHD and articles like the ones you cited can only have the effect - or maybe it was the intention? - of deterring struggling individuals from coming forward.
I do feel like ASD and ADD/ADHD have become this sort of umbrella type diagnosis because it's such a wide spectrum and it's kind of convenient if you want to diagnose anyone who doesn't "function" the way they are expected to with something. I (probably ADD myself but also a synesthete, a very shy child, maybe hyper sensitive...) have two long term foster sons, both of which showed classic signs of autism when they were toddlers. I'm pretty sure the younger one will be diagnosed with ADHD along the way but the older one shows no signs apart from doing poorly at school in spite of a normal IQ. He understands everything but has trouble focusing and writing things down and he's also emotionally immature for his age. So everyone from his teacher to his counselors to... well everyone wants to slap an ADHD diagnosis on him and start him on some meds to help him focus. But the thing is, I don't think that they'll work. Because there is this other thing that gets under diagnosed across the board and it's ARND, alcohol related neurological disease (FASD). Because of the stigma attached to it. Just speaking from the community of foster parents, there are so many children who showed some autism or ADHD like symptoms in early childhood, then seemed to thrive until they started school and suddently hit a brick wall and started to act out and, well, not function as expected. So they often get diagnosed with both autism and ADHD and learning disability when in reality there is a different cause noone wants to talk about. It's a spectrum as well and it affects a significant part of the population...
Yes, psychiatrist sent an Autism assessment that I thought it was a little bit weird as I'm the opposite and fully functional, I have two friends with kids with "Real" Autism. Anyway the assessment is around am hour or two with letters from my mother about my childhood. Anyway the said I was on the spectrum, I said OK give me the documents as I may as well use it for extra money from the government. How long is a Schizophrenia assessment....... minimum 6 months of symptoms before the diagnosis can be made. I have many egos for different times and different occasions, we all do, why are these people getting stuck on one part of consciousness, is normal classed as being a drone and following orders ? What's the baseline to measure against. Whole thing gets right on my tits
I totally agree with you. I got diagnosed with ADHD but I don’t believe I have it. That was because I told the nhs therapist to stop shoving paper with a myriad of words on it in my face. 🎉duh. Yes I do have borderline personality disorder. 😢
This is such an interesting conversation Ella and I'm glad you covered it. Articles like the ones mentioned here frustrate me so much. I'm tired of the "they're faking it (for attention)" narrative! What we're mostly seeing are people finding out about themselves probably for the first time and instead of judging, people should try listening to what they have to say. More empathy and less apathy is needed.
When we gained true sentience, we became more brains than bodies. It's terrible that you can outlive your brain. A brain in a jar is more human that a body without a brain.
This is part of why I think autistic people are so creepy and terrible. Like, I look into their oddly-spaced eyes and wonder what the fuck they are, and why we let them have this existence.
Goes double if they're fat as fuck, too, which most of them are.
@@whiteyfisk9769 please seek appropriate help to unravel your ableism. None of what you said is okay
Excellent video, Ella, thankyou. I got diagnosed ASD last year age 47 (waiting for ADHD assessment); I don't receive any benefits or support as a result of this, but it has enormously changed my life for the better. Both my family & myself understand what makes me tick a whole lot better now, & the support I get beyond my family is from the autistic community. Thanks so much for all you do! Helen in Norfolk xx
65, diagnosed at 63. Well, since women and adults were left by the side of the autistic road for most of the 20th century, naturally it's going to seem like a lot of people are getting a diagnosis all of a sudden. We were never considered before and now have to catch up. Thank you for everything you do. You are truly amazing!
It's seems More like It was being under disgnosed
Hi Vivian - I was diagnosed last year at 58 after years of misdiagnosis - unmasking has been a challenge but it's so good to see Ella and other creators speak so candidly about this - and I agree, Ella is truly amazing
@@raecampbellsstudio Hi Helen!
@@vivianstewart7523 hi
I'm a trans guy and similarly fell in that trap for ADHD. I spent decades basically being treated like I was hysterical by doctors, or having things brushed off as "anxiety" because I didn't express hyperactivity the way little boys stereotypically did.
Thank you for this video! I was diagnosed late with ADHD (at 54) when my teen was diagnosed, and self-diagnosed for autism (my teen got an official diagnosis to access school support). Hearing things like "Work is just boring, you need to deal with it" from people with Dr. before their name is so frustrating and doesn't account for my experience at all. I've been masking for decades, and it's cost me so much. I'm grateful for the self-awareness I've achieved over the last couple of years, and content like yours has helped me to understand myself so much better. My work is not "boring and repetitive" (I'm a university professor), and understanding my neurotype has really helped me to realize why I find my work draining. It has nothing to do with being bored and everything to do with the strain of having to perform for students and colleagues every day. Other people in my profession find it exhilarating because they don't need to mask like I do. Though I suspect a lot of undiagnosed folks find refuge in academia.
Haha, ::puts finger on nose:: That was never me... LOL. (hiding in academia in plain site)
Academia is a magical land I hope one day to return to as it feels like my one true home.
Being a professor isn't boring. It's utterly terrifying and utterly draining and has been for my last 30+ years. I enjoy repetitive tasks like converting classes to online-only formats., or judging creative writing contests, or writing curriculum. I enjoy writing out lecture notes. I enjoy reading for class. But if it involves people, I feel like it's the death of me. Do people really find it invigorating to have to lay in bed with a blanket over my head and noise-cancelling headphones on at the end of each day, week, semester, year? I've taken 3 different quickie tests and each says I'm definitely on the spectrum, yet when I mentioned it to my doctor the first time last year, after years of needing meds for crippling anxiety, after years telling him I hated my job, he said, "Apparently everyone is autistic on TicTok lately." I was like, "What do you mean? I don't watch TicTok. I'm 58. Why would anyone claim this?" My doctor is good about some things, but apparently not this.
When we gained true sentience, we became more brains than bodies. It's terrible that you can outlive your brain. A brain in a jar is more human that a body without a brain.
This is part of why I think autistic people are so creepy and terrible. Like, I look into their oddly-spaced eyes and wonder what the fuck they are, and why we let them have this existence.
Goes double if they're fat as fuck, too, which most of them are.
What is a self diagnosis lol
Thankyou so much for addressing this! It's something I've noticed, as a recently diagnosed autistic person, and you're totally right, it just adds to the shame, self-doubt & stigma I already feel. So there are more neurodivergent people in the world than we thought - yes - so how are we going to help these people to live healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives? Without these diagnoses, some of us may not even still be alive. It makes me so angry that anyone would think we would use this as an excuse. Thankyou for making these points.
Over the last 20 odd years I've been diagnosed with GAD, social anxiety, borderline personality disorder, cyclothmia, reccurrent depressive disorder...theyre just labels to describe a set of symptoms. On Wednesday i have an assessment for Autism...again, just a label to describe a set of symptoms...but this is the only label I feel best describes the challenges I have. Great video.
I was pinned with cylclothymia 20 years later autism I'm 60
You've got to appreciate the irony of journalists - whose profession is probably an ADHDer magnet - doing these tests and writing headlines like "well according to these silly tests, I've got it too!" without even the slightest shred of self awareness.
I remember a long ago episode of Lou Grant, where a business and finance reporter was trying to explain a complex financial system to a colleague, who was struggling to grasp it, and he said something like “my definition of a general assignment reporter is someone who is equally ignorant in all fields.” And that was when reporters were at least paid enough to use the Chicago Manual of Style instead of Grammarly. 🤣
It does make me wonder if Max Pemberton might have ADHD without realising it…
What inclination leads you to believe Journalism has that magnetizing affect? Such a strange, baseless start to a critical assumption…
Absolutely yes to everything you said! There's just one thing I wish you could have also included. In addition to increased stimulation and choices possibly overloading autistic and ADHD brains, there is also a huge increase in demand in daily life on everyone! Work loads today are just unreasonable. We are expected to be available every hour of every day, immediately. People used to respond to letters, which could take weeks, or handle phone calls which could take days--but now we have email, and in a lot of work and school environments, we are required to check and respond to emails multiple times a day, every day. This is only one example in demand increase. You hear it from older workers all the time--things are different nowadays "and they want me to do way too much work." The obsession with productivity harms everyone, and neurodivergents who may have not had too many difficulties in the past are now unable to deal with the impossible demands. OH one more thing! The stress of the political environments and really horrible things like climate change are incredible stressors, and stress will definitely increase the obviousness of neurodivergents' difficulties. Ugh, a third thing! Capitalism. Seriously. Capitalism has forced our culture to place the burden on the individual, but humans work best as communities and families. I could explain more but I gotta stop writing at some point! Thank you for talking about this. Those types of articles make me so angry!
I'm sorry, I must say more! There is also this idea that autistic and ADHD struggles ARE "normal human behavior" and so humankind is becoming more "symptomatic" in response to unreasonable demands and environments. I don't think that this negates or autistic struggles or anything, that's not what I mean. It's a complex conversation! Too much to just type in RUclips comments!
@@uberrapidash2556 dont be sorry ! Youve got great things to add! We all get to speak. Speak up. Thanks for being, sincerely
So true! My brain takes longer to process things. This makes it difficult to function in society.
@@winternightmarecrochet When my now 35 year-old son was 12, and was attempting to explain a hot-key function on his computer to me, as I attempted to puzzle out what he was saying and showing to me so that I could understand it, he looked at me in frustration and said, “Mom, you’re like a 1086 and I’m like a Pentium III!” You might need to be old enough to know what those were, in order to get his point, but it is something that has stuck with me since then, for I know that it takes *ages* for me to “get it” most of the time. This has hindered me in multiple aspects of my life, especially since I’ve only learned within the past few months that I have a Neurodivergent brain and am just beginning to realize the impact that things like masking and all of the negative self-talk over the years has had - all of which are things I’m now shifting my mindset about. Anyway, all of this to say that “slow processing” is something I very much understand. Now, I am starting to learn various ways to make that work in my favor. I hope you’re able to do so as well.
When we gained true sentience, we became more brains than bodies. It's terrible that you can outlive your brain. A brain in a jar is more human that a body without a brain.
This is part of why I think autistic people are so creepy and terrible. Like, I look into their oddly-spaced eyes and wonder what the fuck they are, and why we let them have this existence.
Goes double if they're fat as fuck, too, which most of them are.
I thank every person on the Autism Spectrum who has posted content on RUclips & TED Talks over the last 6 years. You have all helped me to discover why I have had such a struggle to keep jobs & friends. I now understand that I grew up in an era that abhorred any mention of a mental disorder no matter whether it was something you were born with or developed later in life. I think this is the reason why so many people are now getting assessed and diagnosed. There were so many thousands of people that hid their difficulties because it wasn't acceptable to be seen as different! I think it was survival instinct that drove us (particularly, women/girls) to hide our "oddness" to observe, copy & mask, to fit in with our peers & acceptable societal norms. It is only in the most recent decade that we are discovering that it is ok to be different! Just recently, I have been accepted on the NHS waiting list for an assessment aged 65. It may seem a bit late in life and something I could have done with earlier, to access help & support when younger, but just knowing will help me.
So totally agree and so glad that I hadn't read the article! Myself and my 3 grown up children have struggled so much over the years with no support and no understanding. If only we had know that we all have ADHD and 2 also have ASD... How much less stressful our life could have been with that knowledge. We now know that it's very likely that our grandson will also have ADHD and his parents will have a head start to give him the best possible chance of being a successful happy person...
Thank God that autism and ADHD can explain my symptoms and I don't need to be labelled with other fake fake diagnoses first. These diagnoses make sense of my life and it's enough for me. It's wonderful to have an explanation and then a community to tap into for mutual support. Thank you for your hard work Ella x
When we gained true sentience, we became more brains than bodies. It's terrible that you can outlive your brain. A brain in a jar is more human that a body without a brain.
This is part of why I think autistic people are so creepy and terrible. Like, I look into their oddly-spaced eyes and wonder what the fuck they are, and why we let them have this existence.
Goes double if they're fat as fuck, too, which most of them are.
Lmao
Fake diagnosis such as autism 😂😂😂
@@WockyXSlushtrue lol
Thank you for covering this topic. There has been an individual commenting repeatedly across ASD RUclips creators sites this same notion that “fake autistic people” are preventing him and his family, who truly “suffer” from autism, from getting their support needs met. I have been considering those arguments, and concluded as you did in this video, that the problems are systemic, and not the fault of people trying to understand or share their autistic experiences. I don’t share my autism outside of the autistic community, and I certainly do not receive any support or resources in response to my autism.
The old situation where those with more obvious autism (and possible learning difficulties) and their families seem to think those who are are less obviously affected do not need services.
The real reason they are not getting help is because there isn’t any. And most doctors and so called experts don’t know (literally) what they’re talking about.
@@camellia8625 yes this is the situation in my family as my two teenage daughters are autistic but are able to have mainstream education. They both struggle everyday with being at school & college in different ways to each other. Their classmates, teachers & lecturers do not understand how hard it is for them and this in itself is a daily & weekly hardship. Then we have parents of autistic children/adults that are non-verbal and unable to do anything on their own judging us and our children like we have it easier 🥺
I love reading everyone’s experiences here! The way these articles are written, it’s what I think a lot of us have already faced in our lives, either from school, work, people, and/or our selves. There’s a reason why we have learned more about these conditions, and why we are seeking diagnosis. It’s not because we get attention, or free anythings. We don’t. It’s because something in our lives didn’t click. And perhaps we were even falling apart. The things we noticed in our lives that never changed despite how hard tried to “just do better”, and push harder. It feels like people like these doctors who wrote the articles don’t really know the stories of people who are seeking/receiving an adhd or autism diagnosis.
I’ve just started the process to be assessed for an ADHD diagnosis, I’m doing this not for attention, but to get a better understanding of things that had happened throughout my life, things still unanswered by my autism diagnosis.
"Doing it for attention" doesn't really make sense when you don't post about it on social media and you don't really tell people.
It's the nd influencers maybe that this accusation is directed at, but for them, they're really trying to bring attention to the topic, rather than themselves. If fame is your priority, you should attend a reality tv-show or something like that.
@@raapyna8544 My response was also in reaction to some reports in the British press written by those who seem to have little or no understanding of ADHD or any other ND conditions. I repeat, I'm seeking attention or fame, but to get a better understanding of things, and if it helps others then it will be for the better good of everyone.
ADHD and Autism perfectly explain my own lifelong symptoms. And of course a healthy dose of trauma because I didn't pick up on dangerous situations and people's intentions. What your average person needs to realize is that I'm not using these labels to make excuses for myself in the sense of "oh I just don't want to try to be a normal adult". I'm using these labels because I finally have words for why life has always been so incredibly challenging for me socially, etc. I may only look shy or mildly socially awkward when I'm masking heavily but inside I'm concentrating very hard to get through everyday interactions. I'm not lazy. I'm not being dramatic. I'm frustrated and struggling to process conversations and overwhelmed by sensory input that's always, always there. It's frightening and painful and I'm trying my very best.
My psychiatrist was talking like this in front of me while she was prescribing me Concerta 🤦♀ She added right away that she doesn't mean people who "really" have ADHD but I am shooketh anyway. Also she is my fourth psychiatrist.
My first sent me to clinical psychologist to diagnose me and when I came back with ADHD diagnosis, he refused to treat me: "I don't do childhood illnesses".
Then I found a gorgeous doctor, only he had ADHD too and he kept forgetting prescribe me meds and was constantly cancelling on me.
My third one didn't believe my previous diagnoses and insisted that I have anxiety. He prescribed me anti-anxiety meds and almost stopped prescribing me ADHD meds. He also tried to influence another psychologist who was evaluating me for ASD that I don't have it. Needless to say I ended up with the ASD diagnosis regardless. This one was really special 🤨
This latest one is at least nice enough, believes me and prescribes me my meds when I need them. But like our lives are hard enough as is so why does so many people have to make it even harder ??? 🙄
Without your service, I would not have found videos explaining what makes me different. You changed my life, thank you. Right now we are living a time of change, as the exponential growth of neurodiversity awareness has permeated mainstream.
Autism is being over-diagnosed. When I sat through the assessment recap with my son psychologist I couldn't tell the difference between an introvert and autism. They clearly were on the perspective that you're either an extrovert or you have autism. Secondly they seem to be saying that being a boy and having male traits is just being a defective girl. I also saw that my wife wasn't satisfied with an ADHD diagnosis and continue to shop until she got a diagnosis she wanted
My take is if someone is "faking" to get support, it means they most definitely need support! Plus I fail to see why someone would bother faking autism just to get something out of it. Autism is such a stigmatised condition.
Faking autism apparently can pay off on TikTok where they can get money for faking autism and various disorders. But it doesn't pay off for most people.
@@Catlily5 my point exactly. If someone is faking a mental health condition, be it on tiktok or elsewhere, they are not okay. Those "attention seeking behaviors", as most people would label them, are a cry for help, a last resort to get people to care about them. It's not about just the money, like most people would believe. If it was just about the money, there is much more viral content on tiktok than autism. I still believe there is something affecting a person, that needs to be addressed, if they go as far as to fake a mental health condition.
@@winternightmarecrochet I agree, if you would fake having a mental disorder you probably have a different mental problem.
Thank you so much for this video! Our Boy Ezra has Autism and ADHD, and being able to get these diagnoses have been so helpful in getting us the support we needed to help him work toward more autonomy in his life. You are right; I think most people wait too long and doubt themselves too much to go and get the support and help they need through a diagnosis. Thanks for sharing! ❤
I'm 67, and was diagnosed with autism at 63. Last year I worked out for myself that I must also have inattentive type ADHD. The two conditions explain pretty much all the difficulties I've had for my whole life, most of which was lived before the invention of the smart phone! I've only recently switched from an old type mobile that only did calls and text (and was usually turned off), to a smart phone, by which time I was retired! So that disproves the playing with a phone when I should be working nonsense!!!
I think until I was 50 I was coping with life reasonably well, but I can now see I missed out on a lot of things that are causing big regrets. Since then, life seems to have become more complicated due partly to the ways the world is changing. But a big part of it is due to having what I thought of at the time as a mid life crisis, that wasn't recognised as the autistic burnout it probably was. That led to wrong advice and my belief that I was well on the way to recovering from what had been troubling me all my life. So I went off and did new and exciting things, like thinking positive and going out of my comfort zone, and getting into a load of trouble I'm still stuck in 17 years later. I started to discover I might be autistic at 55, when things had already gone wrong, but it took another 8 years of stress before the NHS finally acknowledged it, and I'm still trying to get some support that makes a meaningful difference.
Thanks for sharing. I'm hearing from more and more people like me, who are in their 60s, did pretty well until around 50, and then things started to get tougher. I can see the reasons why for me now. It happens, whether experts believe it or not.
I think I was misdiagnosed with autism and this really traumatised me
I'm sorry you went through that
Have you been able to do anything to reverse that misdiagnosis? It can definitely be a traumatic experience.
Isn't this the weird (and very frustrating) flipside to the (already frustrating) "Isn't everyone a little autistic/ADHD?" response? Like I would agree that it has become "trendy" to throw labels around, like talking about being depressed when you're feeling a little blue but clearly are not clinically depressed or saying you have the flu when you just had a bad cold and clearly never experienced an actual flu. Or saying I also don't like paying the bills (but you do and you don't manage to get your electricity cut off because you really cannot bring yourself to) I or also don't like crowds as if that was all there was to ADHD or autism. BUT! This is obviously not the same as mis-diagnosing and it is beyond frustrating that health professionals who should be able to grasp that the increase in diagnoses and this increase in trendy labeling of situations as xy traits has no connection. And who should contribute to better knowledge in the general poupulation on what ADH, autism, depression or the bloody flu actually mean and what impact they have. To stop the trendy thing and actually help all those who so far could not be diagnosed because they are not seen.
I find the idea of "identifying" as neurodivergent kind of strange. To me, being a football fan or a metalhead or a history nerd is an identity; having Aspergers and iADHD is a diagnosis.
I can voluntarily stop watching football, or involuntarily lose my interest in football, or simply not like or watch football enough to identify as a fan. In contrast, I can't make my brain non-ASD or non-ADHD.
However, I suppose those who grow up with ASD and/or ADHD are going to see them differently than someone who only gets diagnosed in middle age.
After being bombarded with countless videos on social media of lazy no discipline/respect teaching parents & claiming their kids are autistic as well as adults claiming this as a get me out of jail free card in life, I searched up “why so much autism” and stumbled across your vid. Well done… these parents are getting on my nerves
These parents get on my nerves too.
How shameful that they would rather put a “re+@rd” label on their kids rather than do the work that is necessary to push to the next level.
I do love the video but I'm obssesed with your cardigan , its so cute :3 You've helped me so much, thank you!
Hi Ella! This Video came just at the exactly right Moment :D I am in Therapie for ten years now because of borderline and repetitive Depressions, sorry I don't know the english Term for this I am from Germany 😥 since a few month I suspect that I might be on the spectrum, borderline never felt right for me when I first heard of it but autism would make so much sense! And just today my therapist pointed out that there are so much more Diagnosis of autism today and I said yeah because the people are getting aware of it more. He wasn't Happy with that, because I am pretty sure he is someone that thinks medicine and vaccines are making more people autistic but that's another topic-_- So I did some Research and find some similar German articles with the same headlines like the ones you mention and it made me feel so helpless. I often feel like a total imposter for just thinking a little bit I could be autistic and such people make it so much harder to overcome this. Thank you very much for discussing this topic and your encouriging words! 😊
I have an ex sister in law in Germany. She is autistic and says it's much harder to be autistic in Germany as the awareness isn't there. So hang in there and keep going. The world is changing even if it's slow .
@@renabrown6107 Thank you very much! I can't say If it is harder to be autistic in Germany compared to other countrys because I have never been anywere else but it is true that there is very little understanding for autism right now. Germany is pretty slow in many Things xD I myself knew absolutely nothing about what it means to be autistic I Just stumbled upon it because my wife got diagnosed with ADHD Last year and I wanted to inform myself about it to understand her struggles better. And then the wonderful RUclips algorism came Up with a Video of autism in Girls and I thought 'Hm.' 😂 I'll definately will hang in there, next week I can try to get an Assessment and I hope I am lucky enough to get an Assessment altough I am scared of it too. But if my impostersyndrom kicks in to hard my wife always brings me back on track and remembers me why we think I could be autistic and than it's getting better 🤗
I find a huge problem is that the language people with ADHD use is the same language that everyone uses. I give people the analogy of everyone complaining how much gas costs. Everyone's complaining about it so you think it's normal. You don't realize your car actually burns 5X as much gas as everyone else. So when you complain about how much gas costs, and everyone agrees with you, you don't realize there's a problem. That's why I'm just getting diagnosed in my 40s - I just thought my struggles are normal. But then one day you actually talk specifics with someone and find out that most people are complaining about $200 - $300 /month and you're spending like $1,200/month and you finally realize why you can't afford to do all the things everyone else does. But when you try to tell people "Look, my car burns too much gas" they're like "Yeah, well it's probably just that you drive too much, have a lead foot, take the scenic routes, don't plan your trips so you do way more trips than you need to, buy the premium gas, etc. Everyone has the problem of gas being expensive, you're not special." And you're like "No, I'm barely covering the basic driving I absolutely need to do and sometimes not even that." and they just think you're attention seeking or being dramatic. So yes, everyone has a hard time focusing on things they don't want to do, everyone's mind races sometimes, etc. But there's a huge difference in what that *means* to someone with ADHD vs a NT person.
These narratives those people use to tell us, that we're completely normal and should just work harder on us seem to have a lot of similarities to gaslighting to me. Thank you for creating awareness to make it less possible to get violently confused by that kind of stuff
I have seen kids clearly with FAS labeled as autism.
It's no different treating someone like a child their whole life they'll act like a child their whole life. If you tell someone they're disabled they'll live disabled.....
This perfectly put into words how I feel about those kind of articles! And the articles are sadly one reason for me to postpone my process of seeking help, because I'm afraid they will just think that I'm another person who is just seeking the "trendy" diagnosis. No, I'm just a person looking to make my life a bit easier and understand myself better.
What I find disturbing is how people insist on diagnosing children as early as 12-15 months of age.
Everywhere I look more than half of children are now diagnosed with some kind of neurological disorder and people are readily (and rudely) pointing out supposed red flags 🚩 in other people’s children.
It’s almost like the new rave and it is sad how so many people WANT their children to be diagnosed with something in order to be relatable to others or to find an excuse for why their child is having a tantrum at the playground, which is actually developmentally appropriate.
Children, by and large, do not internalize every social rule nor do they see the importance in following our instructions if it doesn’t interest them.
And interestingly, the narrative of 'you just need to deal with boredom or repetitive things in life', it was the *lack* of boredom and repetition that caused me to investigate the issues that were making my life difficult.
I have ADHD Inattentive, Severe Anxiety, and suspected ASD.
Just considering those three things simultaneously explains so much about my life, particularly my struggles as a child into adulthood, and honestly even now.
I do better in repetitive, and slower paced environments, with lowered social skill expectations.
Yes..
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Enjoy your day..
1) If people are faking to get all this money and support, why do so many people I know (hi, I'm one of them) who *are definitely not* faking it not able to get money and support?
2) It's amazing to me that these people who have been alive on this planet as adults before just the past few years can say with a straight face that they're astounded by how prevalent Autism and ADHD "suddenly" are, when I was born in '82 and I'm distinctly aware of the vast number of people who were excluded from even being considered, especially because I was one of them.
Were you a girl? Could you talk? Did you act like "Rain Man"? Did you have even one friend? Were you disruptive? Answer any of these in certain ways (in order: yes; yes; no; yes; no), and there was no way anyone would think you could have Autism or ADHD. You were, instead, just not trying hard enough or "awkward". People who have known me for decades or my entire life were *shocked* when I got diagnosed (at 33 for ADHD and 40 for Autism). I'd asked professionals about Autism assessments for *20 years* and they'd brush me off because I was "personable", I'd done "okay" at school, and I could hold down a job. Of course, they never had the bigger picture about how I struggled--and they didn't *want* to know. I got to get diagnosed far too late for any sort of help, and developed a personality disorder to boot from literal ongoing trauma related to lack of diagnosis.
So, no, it's actually not concerning or a surprise that more people are getting diagnosed now--in part because the number of people who are being diagnosed now *as adults* is a lot, because of the sheer number of us who were never even considered as children.
Well said!
Americans are blind to how many of them people in the country are functional alcoholics. They also ignore obvious mental health issues that contribute to violence. That Americans also have a failure to understand that people can have diagnosable mental conditions while remaining "functional" and scoffing at the idea they need any help or treatment is remarkably consistent. (And I make this observation as an American.)
@@jliller Speaking as a Canadian--the same goes for us, too.
Yeah, it's baffling. Why would I fake ADHD? It's cost me friendships, jobs, stability and I certainly can't get like, disability money for it. What do I get out of this? Nothing.
Basically women with autism have been largely misunderstood as the studies were all mainly about male autistic people, ajd didn't account for the fact its a big spectrum. Also a lot of knowledge is only now being understood and known more widely meaning a lot of people were not diagnosed at an appropriate time. Its a shame this doctor means it never existed
I, oddly enough, found your channel through your video about managing hypermobility because I too have HSD and daily chronic pain. Coupled with my ADHD and subconscious desire to sit like a pretzel or a jungle gym at any moment I've been trying to take a more proactive approach to managing my HSD and HSD pain.
After watching this video though, you definitely have a new subscriber. Articles like Dr. Pemberton's upset me because people like that are the exact reason why I was not diagnosed with ADHD and subsequently treated until I was in my 30s, had dropped out of school (twice), and lost multiple jobs. It shouldn't have been that way, but people like him told me I was lazy, stupid, and just making excuses and once you hear that enough, it becomes your reality. I appreciate people like you using their platform to spread awareness as well as support for viewers to know that, no, it is not in fact a reality that they are lazy, stupid, etc... they just need to accept and care for what is a very real, and very debilitating condition.
I think a reasonable general model of the situation is:
All people have trouble doing at least one thing that most people can do well. Acknowledging, understanding, and accommodating those limitations is universally good. Medical diagnosis is our society's way of doing that. This is not a good way of determining whether or not people deserve considerate treatment by society. So long as it is how our society works, however, expanding diagnoses to include more people is our society's way of figuring out how to be considerate to more people, within our current limitations.
"We're being too considerate to too many people," is really not a possibility worth taking seriously. Supposing that possibility exists in the first place, surely it is a very long way off.
I'm 47 years old. We didn't have phones or other mobile devices when I was kid. In fact, I spent a great deal of my time outside being active. Regardless of this I had an exceptionally hard time concentrating in school and had behavioral problems that were just chalked up to me being a bad person by just about every adult I encountered outside of my family. These two "doctors" are publishing their opinions in newspapers, not in peer reviewed medical or psychiatric journals, and I put very little faith in what they have to say because of this. These opinions are dangerous, but newspapers don't care about that as long as they're selling their content. My late in life autism diagnosis explained all the awful things I've struggled with through my entire life, not just when mobile devices became a thing 20 or so years ago. My diagnosis makes me feel far less alone and is helping me accept who I am. And I've learned so much about myself from channels like this one where autistic people come together to share their experiences and strategies for coping. Had I not encountered channels like this when I was trying to figure out why I was so angry and tired all the time I would have just given up and would have continued to hate myself. Knowing what it is I've been struggling with gives me a solid foundation for bettering myself as a human being, and it does so in ways that I feel comfortable with rather than me trying to figure out better masking strategies. Masking is exhausting and demoralizing and I don't want to do it anymore. I'm infuriated by these two jackasses, too. Newspapers, regardless of how "reputable" they are (and I question how reputable publications sensationalizing all the wrong things can be anyway), are not the platform to explore this kind of topic. These two should be ashamed of themselves for violating the scientific method despite being medical 'professionals.' These people clearly write for dipshits, not the medical community or the neurodivergent community. I had 3 separate doctors tell me I was likely on the spectrum before getting the diagnosis from a clinical psychologist. I suspect that's because they don't waste their time writing garbage like this and instead focus on the people who come to them for help and read the peer reviewed literature relating to the neurodivergent condition. These two look and sound like a couple of self-absorbed, entitled white dudes who have experienced very little trauma in their lives. Pathetic.
"My diagnosis makes me feel far less alone and is helping me accept who I am. And I've learned so much about myself from channels like this one where autistic people come together to share their experiences and strategies for coping. Had I not encountered channels like this when I was trying to figure out why I was so angry and tired all the time I would have just given up and would have continued to hate myself."
I probably never would have reached a diagnosis without YT channels where formally-diagnosed people describe their experiences and the experiences of others they've met. It's a relief to finally figure out "what my deal is" after decades and everyone I know being dismissive of the question. The channels have also provided some helpful strategies.
However, I find it's a limited kind of relief.
Now that I know ASD is the reason I notice things nobody else does it doesn't help me stop noticing them nor make those things bother me any less nor make anyone else care about them any more.
Knowing I have trouble connect with people because of ASD doesn't help me meet people I can connect with.
I now know how to better recognize ASD in others. That doesn't change people with low-functioning ASD from overstimulating me, and people with moderate-functioning ASD from sometimes making me mildly uncomfortable. A teenage volunteer with moderate ASD abruptly interrupted a conversation I was having with an off-topic question and my first thought afterwards was "Oh dear...did I do that when I was that age?"
I can use strategies to try to deal with my short-term memory issues that I now know are caused by ADHD, but it doesn't solve the underlying problem that I can't trust myself to remember simple things.
Using strategies to deal with ADHD-related focus issues and analysis paralysis helps, but doesn't solve the basic underlying problem. If I decide to do X today then I should do X today unless new information gives me good reason not to. I consider not being able to set my mind to a thing and do it, period, unacceptable; "sometimes I can't, because ADHD" may be an accurate explanation but it's not a way to live I consider acceptable.
Knowing why I am doesn't stop me from hating a part of who I am because that part of me results in being less than I should be.
@@jliller Yeah, I agree that the issues that come from ASD kinda suck to sort through. I often get upset with myself over my lack of communication skills; it makes me feel less than I should be in a pretty profound way. I think the area my ASD diagnosis has helped with is I'm not as fearful over everything because I finally have an explanation for what I'm experiencing. I quietly suffered from fear for 30 years or more because I knew something was off and different about me and I didn't want anyone to know. I was really ashamed of myself. Now when I'm struggling I don't feel the need to hide it, and am becoming comfortable with telling people I have ASD and I'm struggling in that situation. More often than not I can identify aspects of autism that are causing my struggle in most situations and I feel okay with explaining that. It sucks, but it has been better than quietly suffering with fear that people are going to figure out something is wrong with me. My hope is that with time I'll be even less harsh on myself for things I can't really control. I now know what the issue is, and I'm hoping with that knowledge I can learn better approaches and strategies to living my life in the best possible way.
@@JeremiahKellogg "I quietly suffered from fear for 30 years or more because I knew something was off and different about me and I didn't want anyone to know. "
I went through the exact opposite. By the time I was an adult, and to some extent sooner, I knew something was 'off' and said so on a number of occasions. I was always told there could not possibly be anything wrong with me because I was functional - could keep a job, pay bills, have a conversation, didn't lead a reckless lifestyle. It was quite annoying at times.
One of the few people who agreed with me was someone I knew in high school that majored in psychology in college. She suggested I was schitzotypal. One thing I've learned in the last year is that Asperger's and schitzotypal personality disorder have a fair amount of symptom overlap (much like ASD and ADHD), albeit from different causes. One of those little hints nobody picked up on at the time.
I will be 70 in May and psychologist has just agreed that I can get assessed for autism (Aspie). I am a Brit living in a small town in California's Eastern Sierra so may have to drive for hours just to get there. I hope the US test is similar to the one you did (great help BTW). Journalists are all about being sensational and the scoop!
They are being diagnosed more often because they are finally being talked about! People finally have a place where they can find out why they are feeling the way they are and why they are having the struggles they are. We just finally have proper recourses and a true understanding of this disabilities and types of neurodiversities
Finally being talked about AND finally being described correctly! I spent my life telling myself "sure I'm hyper and I have trouble paying attention and I'm easily distracted, but it's definitely not adhd because I do well in school, can sit still, etc." It wasn't until I learned about "executive function" and "hyperfocus" that I started to realize what was going on.
Great video Ella. I don’t think I’m autistic but started watching autistic and adhd youtubers to learn more and try and support a friend better. I was so surprised by how different peoples experiences are from the classic idea of autism I had got from the media (and I mean documentary science stuff, not just sitcoms.) On a side note I feel like a lot of these points also apply to people complaining that people are over diagnosing as trans.
I couldn’t agree more about it being good if it helps people to learn how to navigate the world! I’m dyslexic and have found some great tips for dealing with that and other issues from adhd and autism you tubers.
Thank you, Ella. I've just had a comment on one of my videos saying pretty much the same thing as these articles (from someone who actually has an ASD diagnosis, I think!)
F30, and just had confirmation of ASD. I feel like a bit of an impostor still, despite having a document on record from one of the best diagnostic services in my country saying I'm not. It's incredible how deep the stigma runs, even from self. And I can't understand why anyone would want this or fake it for attention, either--so why am I cross-examining myself?
This is a something that came to mind for ADHD (doesn't work for ASD) that if you take one of the stimulant medications and it makes you calm, grounded, content, you can stop fidgeting as much and just 'be' like you never could before, this basically means you for sure have ADHD because people who don't have ADHD get an energy kick or a buzz from it and actually get more fidgety and driven. At least this is how I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong!). But basically it's taking an ADHD brain from unregulated to regulated, while it will take a regulated brain and make it overstimulated.
I believe seeking the truth is important. I don't mind some people saying ADHD isn't real or autism/ADHD are over-diagnosed. Neuroscience is a very difficult subject and has seen much breakthrough continuously. (Autism spectrum only came into existence in 2016!) It's not difficult to understand people's knowledge are not up-to-date. Also, while neurological issues definitely affect behaviors, it is very difficult to understand/identify neurological issues just from observing behaviors, which are affected by so many other things. By these same reasons, ADHD is at the same time under-diagnosed.
I said I don't mind some say over-diagnosis is the case. (Some of my friends don't believe ADHD is a thing or don't think I have ADHD/autism. They mean well.) What I do mind is, when some of the people making such statements, they are actually judging the motives of the people who seek help. This is NOT fine, regardless of where the science will take us in the understanding of our brains in the future. The issue isn't about autism/ADHD anymore. It's about being ignorant and judgemental.
If I would get off my phone in certain situations and try to focus I would probably be unable to focus because I'd be very likely to get a breakdown due to sensory overload.
I love your perspective. Thank you for drawing attention to this topic.
Id love to have someone explain why being bored at work is "different for them" than it is for me. Or why being anxious in some social environments is worse for them than it is for me. Or why you can get distracted when there's highly stimulating things pulling ypu away from tasks but just its way worse for you or something. Im not saying autism doesnt exist. But i think the huge wave of people, normal people, who experience normal levels of distraction, anxiety and struggle want to label themselves with this because then they'll get a pat on the back for being a normal functioning adult.
Because they are making it up. Autism, adhd, body dsymorphia, depression gender dysphoria are extremely rare and debilitating. These people either self diagnosing or being overdiagnosed by therapists trying to make money.
The diagnosis does exist. And are very valid. But however the world is getting so complex, stressful and "less people should do more" that a huge percentage of people who can't fit in will need a diagnosis just to be able to support themselves financially. This makes me feel sick to my stomach. And explains why the people who use to be super great at masking are the ones that gets the least amount of help even if you as a masking person screams on top of your lungs for help you don't get it.
Yes, the 'squeaky wheel' corollary applies to people seeking help and it's really awful. If you're quiet, or shy, or people-pleasing, or afraid to rock the boat and consistently self-advocate for help, you're likely to be brushed aside and ignored.
Short answer, yes.
Unfortunately, it's easy to label ADHD instead of the PTSD it is.
Looks like you didn’t watch the full video friend
I watched the video, and yes actually the definition criteria is so loose that there are people with ASD diagnosis that would not qualify for an ASD diagnosis based on criteria 20 years ago. CDC prevalence of ASD is 1 in 36. There is no way it's truly that high. ABA places are all booked up because of so many kids being diagnosed with ASD nowadays.
A very similar conversation is happening with EDS as well…I was diagnosed in 2007. Since then my best friend from college and my best friend from high school, along with my current best friend are all either diagnosed or seeking diagnosis. All of us also have autism, ADHD, or both. So I’m unsure…but then again I am an outlier because I don’t technically have hEDS which leads to my symptoms being different from my friends’ main symptoms.
Mental health is not about identity. Having ADHD (or other mental issues) is not an identity, it is a diagnosis. There are a lot of problems with a potential over diagnosis of mental issues. Over medication, putting too much pressure on the healthsystem and taking away resources that should be spent on more severe cases, the fact that treatment of mild cases often do worse than people with no treatment.
Now that mental illness stigma has gone down, some people see a diagnosis as validation or an explanation of why they are felling bad or not doing well in life. I see a lot of comments in this section that says this explicitly. So to many people is not about getting to an accurate diagnosis and an effective treatment. Oddly, being diagnosed might even bring you into a community of people that you can fell part of and receive support. Doctors don't think patient are doing it in a malicious fashion or "faking it". But some patients with mild symptoms are convinced they have a syndrom or something and are going to go from doctor to doctor until they have a diagnosis. Not to mention the ones that just skip the doctor and self diagnosis.
I think ADHD and Autism is over diagnosed in boys, but under diagnosed in girls.
You hit it "out of the park" PE!! -I was diagnosed ADHD/ dyslexic as a child and ASD age 59 (5 yrs ago). There is tremendous pressure on children/adults to be "normal" and conform to social expectations. Discovering and realizing my ASD recovered and released who I am as a "neurodivergent" person. I learned, as a child, to deny my needs, not seeking accommodations or support of any kind. I struggled in silence denying my true nature through adulthood. A diagnosis identifies and confirms what we've always known and professionals/society denied. The increased number of identified ND adults/children does not indicate something wrong with those being diagnosed. It exposes the professional and social failures to recognize and respect people who are different and have unique needs. My true life as a ND person is only beginning, now that my efforts are for me, and not that person society wanted me to be. Thank you PE!!
Thank Gad you're talking about this. No other autistic channels talk about this subject. I am autistic, but was first dx'd adhd about 21yrs earlier. I take stimulants & anti-anxiety end of day--this seems to be the ony way to balance for me. I don't take the anti-anxiety everyday bc of the bias crap I hear from Dr.'s--but it's a low dose & works for me. BLESS you so much for making this video...I need to go & watch the video about you taking meds. I wonder if they started you with Ritalin. I've been taking stimulants for my adhd for nearly 13 yrs with an 8yr break in there. I knew I was autistic before getting dx'd bc I never identified with ADHD people---they didn't seem to struggle with as many things as I did (at least that's how it appeared to me)....from my perspective they were alot more fun-loving/had zest than I did. Now having a dual-dx like you---I actually wonder how adhd I really am. I did see the underactivity in 3 parts of my brain in a SPECT scan....but the brain changes & I wonder if they hadn't had me do such a stupid/boring test--if my brain would have had more blood flow in that area. You are a hero in the community--I wish I had the gumption to do an autistic channel. I got dx'd this year--I just don't know how good I'd be talking to the camera by myself---I might surpsied me tho! MUCH HUGS/LOVE your way from the U.S.
Thank you for this video. I am currently on a waiting list to be assessed and the wait is agonising. I often feel stupid when the media portrays us like this. I also feel like I am doubting I am even autistic at all. I feel sad most of the time and I have to stay away from most social media.
I think most within the community agree that the increase in diagnoses is due to increased awareness and knowledge. The people who make the misinformed statements often overlook the fact that the vast majority of people diagnosed don't seek extra support, that is to say that they only sought out a formal diagnosis as part of self discovery and awareness, myself included!
Great points!
I think the way we're starting to understand neurodivergence a bit better is a good explanation for the phenomenon personally. I've heard about people identifying traits in themselves following a family member's diagnosis is leading to more people being identified too. I get that it's easy for an outsider with minimal understanding to look at this phenomenon quite dismissively but I think it shows a lack of understanding to call this sort of thing anything like a fad personally.
I'm wondering if certain places shifting away from a very medicalised 'deficit' based view of neurodivergence is also changing things. I can't help but see a stark difference between my dyslexia diagnosis in the early 2000s which made me feel as if I was crap at a load of stuff at school and my recent discovery that I'm autistic which has been much more a a reframing of how I'm just a bit different to most people in some areas. It's way easier to accept and want to explore this sort of thing about yourself when the discussions are about differences instead of deficits and difficulties.
There is so much that people misunderstand about having autism or ADHD, day after day I hear people make such closed minded comments everywhere I go. I want to be able to voice my struggles and others struggles to the greater population of my school so people would have a more clear and accurate definition of how my brain and many other brains work. I'm very happy that the amount of support for neurodivergent people has increased but I can't help but feel sorrowful that I can't personally help more with my own issues getting in the way of my everyday life.
Hi Purple Ella! I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your videos. You have helped me so much in coming to terms with my own autism self-diagnosis and understanding what that means for me and how I can better support myself. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and wisdom!
I love all the things you’re sharing here. Exactly, right!
Not to mention proper diagnosis wasn’t even given to people of certain demographics/age/race and so forth.
An an example, certain age groups wasn’t aware of masking in girls for instance, or there are quite a lot of older adults that just have never had been diagnosed, or had the opportunity, or knew of the specific ways symptoms can present.
With ADHD, people can have internal hyperactivity intead of outward hyperactivity - and this is only seemingly getting traction now, or mimicking for autism, or people stuck in the idea that you “look people in the eyes” or can hold a leadership position, so therefore you aren’t on the autistic spectrum.
I spent several years getting false things and misunderstandings thrown at me from mental health professionals when looking into this. I also have a MS in psychology and a BS cognate in psychology, and nobody listened. I began asking professionals directly about this in 2018/2019, and it took til 2022 to pay out of pocket for an assessment, because I could not get one through the professionals that I was requesting it from. This also doesn’t account for nearly 30 years of mental health treatment (off and on) that never led anywhere, because they didn’t find out what I was actually diagnosed with, or the ramifications I’ve had with those treatments they’ve tried.
This is a very needed subjected.. and a very sore subject. I watched my mom struggle her whole life, and after she passed away, I now know nearly everything she was dealing with was likely autistic related…. or somehow comorbid. She had so many issues, and never received real help. I watched her difficulty. I can’t stand that she went through all that she did. I don’t want anyone else go through this.
❤❤❤Thank you 4 addressing this topic appreciate the points you brought out ❤️.
As a woman diagnosed at age 39, almost every dr I’ve spoken to post diagnosis has started off with, “What made you think you had this?” In very judgemental and dismissive tone. This is not to mention the friends and family who assume you got your info from TikTok. What we’ve really been “faking” all this time is being neurotypical. Apparently we were just a little too good at it.
Doctors ugh. We are good at masking because it is a way to survive in a neurotypical world. That is how I have lived my entire life.
100% over diagnosed. I have chronic fatigue and haven’t been able to get adderall for a year, when i sure as hell need more than others. People prolly spending hours on hours on TikTok n wonder why they have a short attention span. ADHD is when u literally can’t control yourself, mtf could easily change but go further down in a adhd rabbit hole
This trend goes back to a period prior to tiktok
Well something isn't right when a good portion of people I know and just about every other person on the internet say they have adhd...heck, even I supposedly have symptoms.
I wonder if Dr Max Pemberton has asked himself why he hasn't seen many patients asking for an ADHD assessments in his clinic? Attitudes like his are what put patients off speaking up and advocating for themselves, I imagine he's very dismissive. It's difficult enough trying to be heard especially when you get shot down by health professionals.
Thanks for uploading. Knowing I'm autistic helped me understand and love myself and no one should be against that.
I have struggled these past few years and am struggling to understand what 'symptoms' and experiences of mental health, mental diversity stuff, to identify what i am and what i have been going through. I cannot understand why, comprehend what the experience are like, how the internal experiences resulted to the 'symptoms', I can't check the box for the symptoms or mental experiences because i am uncertain if i have that, or if that is the thing i experienced. I can only be confident if i resonated with what's described, the internal narration, the reasons and the causes matches, the narration of the story resonated with me. And i struggle to realise and identify and matching my experiences with what mental health videos say, unless i felt it described what i have not or been able to described of my internal experience, i really struggle to identify if i have experienced an experience/symptom of a mental health thing, and therefore can't decide what mental health 'disorder' or the psychology things with names that i have
Hi Ella, thank you for addressing this issue. I am in complete agreement with what you are saying in the video and often find that people who think that these conditions are being overdiagnosed are overlooking the fact that these conditions are an area of open research. We are currently learning more about them and we are seeing how some people that don't fit the "Normal" fit here. We, neurodivergents are necessary and essential for our species development and we are not few. Maybe if we lived in a world that understood that and didn't demand that we fit a narrow set of expectations, many of us on the more Aspie end of the spectrum wouldn't need any government funded help or accommodations. But that's not the current reality of the situation. Thanks for talking about this 😊
Are people being over diagnosed with ADHD, and Autism, YES, are we excusing difficult behaviour YES, i think my generation was the last of the Adult generation, we had the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to deal with and were more concerned with stray 5.56 rounds and getting blown up, this new generation it seems 99 out of a 100 wouldn't be able to serve because they are all Autistic or ADHD or have DID all of a sudden, i knew maybe 1 person when i was 16-20 with Autism, now if you ask 20 young people 17 of them will say they are Autistic. We are also not talking about a slight increase of like 1% either, in the last 10 years Autism diagnosis has tripled in number.
💯
I do by hyperactive with ADHD BUT I get better when I stim with fidgets or stuffies like emy bid teddy! It's possible to have both!
The first thing I thought when I heard the Dr Pemberton quote is if he thinks most or maybe all the ADHD traits are normal then maybe he has ADHD and not realise.
The thing I question though is if the increase in media attention has an effect on people getting psychosomatic symptoms or subconsciously exaggerating symptoms resulting in a situation that looks like ADHD or ASD.
For many years I didn't think ADHD was a thing because I has trouble with all of the criteria and everyone around me said that those things were normal. So, I gaslit myself into thinking I was just a lazy, unorganized slob who couldn't "Get it right." Turns out, I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 7 and my mom didn't tell me until I was 40 and directly asked her. I thought everyone struggled with the things I struggle with but that isn't the case. Maybe the "gents" writing the articles should be screened for ADHD, too lol
Yes, that is how I responded to the guy Ella quoted. I thought maybe he has it himself.
I think they should be screened for A-Holism.
@@tracik1277 That too!
Thank you Ella. I admit, these types of uncharitable notions pop intrusively into my head. Like, HOW can everyone I know suddenly have ADHD? SURELY not. But then my rational, compassionate mind kicks in and I decide that yes, they certainly can be neurodivergent, as am I. But maybe we need to stop talking about "neurotypical" being the default. Maybe there IS no neurotypical.
Everyone you know has ADHD because you have ADHD... we tend to flock together 😊
@@ladyvelkor normally I'd agree, but these aren't all friends. In fact, I avoid lots of them.because they're TERFS.
Hi Ella, I'm not sure about this. I don't like the insulting tone of the articles you mentioned but, as someone who has been wondering for years (perhaps a lifetime; I'm 54), whether or not I am 'neurodivergent' and whether or not neurodivergence itself is a valid and helpful concept... I think it is more a knottier problem than you indicate. I think questioning over-diagnosis could well be valid - or at least worth looking into very carefully, and perhaps without the possibility of any firm answers. I currently feel I am drowing in alphabet soup! It seems fairly likely that 'some people' have always had more troubled minds and life experiences than others. (I just read an essay on Coleridge's work which basicallly gave him various mental health diagnoses - which may or may not be 'true' but to me they seem like a 21st century lens, which doesn't necessarily mean a better lens, through which human experience - or some humans' experiences .) Anyway, I don't know. I just think that, if people (whether journalists, individuals, 'professionals') have a gut-felt resistance to a new and burgeoning idea, that gut-felt resistance may have something important behind it. And that by demonising that resistance (in itself; rather than the way it is expressed), could mean missing things and oversimplifying them. Personally, I'm not yet ready to come down on one side or the other. Not for a while. It needs more time. Those journalists/experts in the taboilds (in which I include the Telegraph) could express it more carefully, though!
I do agree that greater awareness of the traits or symptoms of these conditions has naturally increased the number of people seeking diagnoses or self-diagnosing.
However I do also think certain over-generalised portrayals of autism or ADHD on platforms like TikTok or IG means a lot of younger people are convinced they have one of these disabilities because they experience one or a couple of minor traits that actually exist in the general population anyway.
The diagnostic criteria for autism especially emphasises the fact that autistic traits have a detrimental impact on quality of life and ability to live independently so it’s not just “oh I don’t like the feeling of wet socks” or “I dont have a varied diet” therefore I must be autistic.
Autism is more than any single trait, it’s a complex interaction of various social, sensory, emotional and developmental traits that negatively affect a persons ability to live in our society.
It’s a bit like how people think if they’re perfectionistic and like cleaning they must have OCD when the reality of a person who suffers from OCD is so much more complex and difficult than that.
So I’m just a little cautious of this sudden social media popularity of certain disabilities being portrayed as “quirky” or cute personality quirks when the reality of autism can be so very dark, isolating and difficult.
I will just say that I think being on the internet a lot sometimes warps our view of these things. I occasionally thing 'ugh everyone has adhd or autism nowadays' when really if I go outside, I'm surrounded by neurotypicals and I feel really lonely. I think tiktok is partly to blame for the whole making it seem like a fun quirky thing when really it can be debilitating. But also I've seen someone from school who used to bully me for my autistic and ADHD behaviours and now apparently she has ADHD cos it says that she does in her instagram bio so things like that confuse me because how is she ADHD when she bullied the crap out of me for behaviours of it myself
This is so true! Trying to get a diagnosis as an adult (at 64) after my adult son was diagnosed with both ASD and ADHD I have encountered all kinds of obstacles and outdated opinions, both among doctors and those that I have called my friends (but I do not have close friends except my family). The medical people think that I should be suicidical to be diagnosed (”your case is not serious enough”). Others say: oh you are not at all like an autistic (like Rain Man?). You are faking and malingering to get attention (like teens in TikTok). I do not want to get attention. I want a diagnosis to understand myself better and forgive myself, because for so so long I have thought it is all my fault and I must change to be accepted.
Dominic Lawson - what on earth would he know about what is in fact a neurological condition?
Love this. I am 53 and discovered Asperger's syndrome when I was in my early thirties. It explained so much about how I was in my youth. I was formerly diagnosed when I was 38. I prefer the tag Asperger's because it helps neurotypical people distinguish between "classic" autism and milder expressions of the condition. PS. I can't help noticing you have a drawing of the TARDIS next to your electric plug sockets. 🙂
Thank you for your work
frankly i think it is overdiagnosed, or ASSUMED WITHOUT DIAGNOSIS, in cis men. it feels like so many people in society blame men's bad behavior on autism, and often the person isn't diagnosed and displays practically no symptoms/traits aside from the stereotypical symptoms. i think it is UNDERDIAGNOSED in AFAB/women/girls. autism is so misunderstood because of this in my opinion. just because a man doesn't like to participate in his family's life and is also obsessed with baseball cards doesn't mean he's autistic.
women/AFAB, especially those who are disadvantaged, are likely to be labelled as "bipolar" or "crazy" and looked down upon for their behavior that is clearly autistic or ADHD or ND. its the same thing and you see people in general society doing it all the time. the older i get the more i see how sexist everything truly is and it disturbs me.
Agreed but also think women and girls are being overdiagnosed with autism. A lot of these people have bad social skills because of bad parenting and lack of proper etiquette training.
damn this is some interesting cognitive dissonance going on
Of course some people are diagnosed who don't really have it.....however, my take is that in the vast majority of cases those people are struggling with SOMETHING and if this helps them get help then good. It's not like a false diagnosis is then treated with brain surgery...and most things that help nd people are good for everyone and helpful in general!
Thanks for making this video Ella it makes my blood boil when I hear things like the statements written in that article.
"Neurodivergent" is disability. Changing terms doesn't alleviate that autistic folk often suffer from sensory overload, and people with ADD arent able to concentrate as well.
Also, ADHD is overdiagnosed, because children are supposed to have underdeveloped prefrontal cortexes, but teachers can't be bothered to accommodate rowdy children. They'd rather inject them with chemicals.
I'm surprised this video is longer than a couple of seconds to say: "Yes".
I think articles like those also fail to articulate the crucial difference between researchers maintaining the rigor of enquiry by continually checking whether over-diagnosis is occuring in the field (which, i imagine, is part of what generates better, more consistent, more accessible and accurate diagnostic criteria) and a public article ranting about 'people these days...put your phones down...get over it and focus' which is a misunderstanding of diagnositc criteria and based on prejudicial reactions to quiz material. "Are we over-diagnosing?" is a worthy question if it is used to better the medical field and applied with vetted scientific and sociological methods.
Some good points made and a nice cardie!
Over self diagnosed
🌟Thank you🌟 so much, Ella! I couldn’t have put it better, myself!♥️
Your lucky if you can even get an assessment for either been waiting for my daughters assessment since she was 3 she's 9 now and still waiting. Only reason it's being more diagnosed is because it is now more understood. I would love for this person to tell me my daughters difficulties is an excuse to my face. Let him spend a month living with someone with autism maybe then he would have an idea
Not to mention how expensive it is to get diagnosed. Also, who in the world would fake having ADHD and Autism!? Thank you for posting this.
Absolutelly perfect. I felt represented in this video.
absolutely over diagnosed.
Growing up I barely knew anyone with an ADHD diagnose, but multiple people who showed signs of ADHD.
There seems to be such a big fear of overdiagnose and overprescription in children, that some people seem to see an ADHD diagnose almost as "getting caught" and getting treated against your will, like children are getting chemically lobotomised with ADHD meds.
You pretty much needed to show "behavioral problems" to the point, where you were considered for a special needs school, but seem too smart for a special needs school, to get an ADHD diagnose, when I was young, so I'm not surprised, that many people start self diagnosing as adults, when they finally find out, what ADHD actually is.
With Autism it seems to be even worse, at least in the cases I've herd of, because as an adult you can be denied the diagnose for "not looking autistic enough", similar to trans people who get denied gender recognition, because they don't dress like a stereotype.
For me the key problem with autism diagnosis (maybe ADHD as well) is its inconsistency. Clinicians can vary significantly in their willingness to diagnose autism and there probably are some false positives from those who interpret the condition very widely; on the other hand there will be other clinicians who are too restrictive in their diagnosis. Just as big a problem is inconsistency in access to diagnosis - some will be given a very supportive hearing and maybe even fast-tracked but others will find their path blocked sometimes even at GP level. Patients who have reached middle-age or even older are especially likely to meet with opposition, the view of some clinicians that they are a low priority for support and have supposedly managed for so long without a diagnosis they don't need one. This overlooks the severe struggles most of these people have had, their conditions unrecognised. Let's not forget there will still be many people who don't even know what autism is even though they actually have the condition. There is often stigma in seeking diagnosis for psychological conditions such as autism and ADHD and articles like the ones you cited can only have the effect - or maybe it was the intention? - of deterring struggling individuals from coming forward.
I do feel like ASD and ADD/ADHD have become this sort of umbrella type diagnosis because it's such a wide spectrum and it's kind of convenient if you want to diagnose anyone who doesn't "function" the way they are expected to with something.
I (probably ADD myself but also a synesthete, a very shy child, maybe hyper sensitive...) have two long term foster sons, both of which showed classic signs of autism when they were toddlers. I'm pretty sure the younger one will be diagnosed with ADHD along the way but the older one shows no signs apart from doing poorly at school in spite of a normal IQ. He understands everything but has trouble focusing and writing things down and he's also emotionally immature for his age. So everyone from his teacher to his counselors to... well everyone wants to slap an ADHD diagnosis on him and start him on some meds to help him focus. But the thing is, I don't think that they'll work.
Because there is this other thing that gets under diagnosed across the board and it's ARND, alcohol related neurological disease (FASD). Because of the stigma attached to it. Just speaking from the community of foster parents, there are so many children who showed some autism or ADHD like symptoms in early childhood, then seemed to thrive until they started school and suddently hit a brick wall and started to act out and, well, not function as expected. So they often get diagnosed with both autism and ADHD and learning disability when in reality there is a different cause noone wants to talk about. It's a spectrum as well and it affects a significant part of the population...
Yes, psychiatrist sent an Autism assessment that I thought it was a little bit weird as I'm the opposite and fully functional, I have two friends with kids with "Real" Autism. Anyway the assessment is around am hour or two with letters from my mother about my childhood. Anyway the said I was on the spectrum, I said OK give me the documents as I may as well use it for extra money from the government.
How long is a Schizophrenia assessment....... minimum 6 months of symptoms before the diagnosis can be made.
I have many egos for different times and different occasions, we all do, why are these people getting stuck on one part of consciousness, is normal classed as being a drone and following orders ? What's the baseline to measure against.
Whole thing gets right on my tits
I totally agree with you. I got diagnosed with ADHD but I don’t believe I have it. That was because I told the nhs therapist to stop shoving paper with a myriad of words on it in my face. 🎉duh. Yes I do have borderline personality disorder. 😢
The uptake in these type of articles is do frustrating. It just adds to the ableism we face.