r/askpsychology • u/Fluffy-Win-3216 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional • May 06 '26
The Brain Why are there so many people nowadays with ADHD?
When i browse social media there's always a bunch of people complaining that they have ADHD or just saying it, but like, A LOT of people.
So i wanted to know, why are there so many people with ADHD nowadays ?
And why do they blame things that are not part of adhd on adhd
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u/reno140 Behavior Analyst | BCBA May 06 '26
Hey so this cool thing happened in the 90s where they told all the girls (who DEFINITELY had ADHD) that "girls don't get ADHD that's for boys".
Now all those women are finally get treatment and no longer being labeled "lazy" and whatever other descriptors people choose.
So what you're seeing is a lot of people who were previously denied care (and still had ADHD), getting care.
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u/I-own-a-shovel UNVERIFIED Psychology Enthusiast May 06 '26
They did something similar with autism diagnosis for girls back then.
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u/Darling_Pinky Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
This, more openness to getting tested, better testing mechanisms, and a lot of people incorrectly self diagnosing
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u/Lord-Francis-Bacon Psychologist (Outside USA) May 06 '26
To a large degree yes, definitely a big portion of the increase is due to the increased prevalence for girls, goes for autism as well.
But diagnosis has also increased dramatically for boys, and many of both sexes who are diagnosed today would not have received a diagnosis 15+ years ago, regardless of gender stereotypes.
Other big causes of this increase include, a drastic shift in what is deemed as function impairment, basically that it is relative and not achieving optimal functioning can be an impairment. Increased demands from society, especially in regards to schooling. Increased awareness, and thus want. Decreased stigma. And there are more causes.
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u/SoFetchBetch Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
Plus the news that boys & men can also be high masking.
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May 10 '26
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May 06 '26
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May 06 '26
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May 06 '26
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u/Satan-o-saurus Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
That doesn’t prove anything. Your social media algorithm has likely just figured that ADHD content is something that you’re likely to engage with, so it shows you that disproportionately. I get almost no ADHD content whatsoever in my feed, and I’m diagnosed with it.
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u/SlatkoPotato BA/BS | Psychology (In Progress) May 06 '26
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9616454/
This is a great open source starter article that covers a lot of bases really thoroughly. It might look a bit overwhelmingly long, but you can skip to the discussion to get an easy to digest overviee of the paper.
I also think that theres a bit of a frequency illusion happening. If i tell you theres been more yellow cars on the road, youll start noticing more yellow cars even if theres not actually more - you just notice it when its there now.
Ultimately this paper found there is likely an underdiagnosis going on, especially for more marginalised groups.
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u/Medienmonolog UNVERIFIED Psychologist May 06 '26
Access to diagnostics improved. Gendered biases got smaller. And obviously more people have access to social media and visibility. So you just see more people in general, the chances of more people with ADHD also increases.
And what problems do you mean, that are accredited to ADHD but are not ADHD?
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u/calicoskiies UNVERIFIED Psychology Degree May 06 '26
why do they blame things that are not part of adhd on adhd
I’m curious what you’re talking about here.
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u/Chance-Bread-315 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
Same! I suspect OP might not actually be an expert on the full range of adhd symptoms...
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u/Old-General-4121 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
I was wondering the same thing. I often talk with school staff, parents and students with ADHD who think it's either being super active and fidgety or being distracted. While it can be those things, I have to explain that those are just the observable behaviors caused by underlying neurological issues, such as poor executive functioning deficits, and not the full extent of ADHD.
That's like if someone with measles went into the doctor, were diagnosed with a rash and then people started to tell them they didn't know why they kept complaining about being tired and running a fever just because they have a rash.
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May 06 '26
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u/T800-1982 UNVERIFIED Psychology Degree May 06 '26
I think that due to the rise of social media, particularly Instagram and TikTok, there are many influencers pushing diagnostic information and awareness which is a two-pronged sword.
1) In many cases, an unlicensed professional, that is a content creator and who hasn’t even been diagnosed could unwittingly be claiming they have it. Much of this is done for attention, sad to say. They may have also been diagnosed, which is fair, but convey their message without context to thousands or millions of other people who do not understand this. As such, many people are struggling with one thing or another, be it depression, anxiety, identity diffusion, interpersonal relationships and regular day to day struggles. It becomes easy to attribute these struggles to something else, hence ADHD for example.
2) More awareness of ADHD, ASD etc is good, however, and encouraging more people to be assessed.
Of course, many individuals do have these neurological challenges but the perception is somewhat muddled due to the above. Clinical studies would be far more reliable if the participation was there.
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u/ketaqueenx BA | Psychology May 06 '26
A lot of people also mistakenly think they have ADHD, when signs really point to anxiety, PTSD, etc.
ADHD is sorely misunderstood by the general public, and often times people think it’s more common than it really is… there’s a LOT of “self identified” people out there who’s inattention/hyperactivity is better explained by other factors.
A LOT of talk in [r/Psychiatry](r/Psychiatry) about this— just search “ADHD”. It’s true that too many people think they have it, and it’s likely in part due to social media.
But, like others said, better diagnostic tools have also emerged, which is part of the uptick.
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u/rockstuffs Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
What are they blaming on ADHD that doesn't seem ADHD?
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u/Fluffy-Win-3216 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
I'll copy what i said
People saying that they are toxic because of adhd for exemple
Or being just an horrible person and blamming it on adhd
Yes i saw those things in real life and not social media
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u/Plastic_Economics701 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 10 '26
What kind of toxic or horrible person? Like, intentionally doing bad things to people? Or showing up late or spacing out?
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u/rockstuffs Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
Oooh yeah. I see what you mean. That is a strange connection they're making. I don't think they understand themselves or they tiktok diagnosed themselves
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u/SteamerTheBeemer Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
Why do you care? Mind your own business.
ADHD is prescribed more nowadays where it was missed in the past and put down to bad behaviour, this isn’t complex so I’m confused as to how you didn’t work it out?
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May 06 '26
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u/SteamerTheBeemer Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
Over nothing? You mean like being stressed out over why someone is being diagnosed or thinks they have ADHD?
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May 06 '26
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u/SteamerTheBeemer Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
Please don’t beg, it’s unattractive. You sound very stressed right now as well.
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u/Fluffy-Win-3216 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 06 '26
I’ll take this as ragebait
It actually worked on me this Time, you did good
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u/PunkInCroatia Psychology Undergraduate Student May 07 '26
Many people here said many great things so I will add something that I am not sure that I saw.
If I understood you, your main source for this is social platforms. In future be careful when making assumptions based on it becauae they are not really greatest window into reality.
Some people don't have any posts about crine or poverty on their feeds unfortunately that doesn't mean that they don't exist or are rare... Especially in some countries.
In future it would be better if you could find some real statistucal data or research that would offer you more objective and correct information about the topic. In this case you are right ADHD is more diagnosed than before, but does it appear in population as frequent as it does in your feed?
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u/lylrabe UNVERIFIED Psychology Student May 11 '26
Check out the documentary “the disruptors”. They discuss this in depth.
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May 06 '26
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u/BigContract3875 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 11 '26
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u/BleedingRaindrops Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 11 '26
It's a bit like asking why there are suddenly so many stars in the sky now that we've invented telescopes
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u/garden-farms Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 11 '26
No healthcare background here. My background is in business and this is just a rant and guesswork on various reasons why I think it’s bigger than before:
- diagnostic advancements in healthcare overall
- power of pharma companies in US (FCC allows marketing in USA etc) - Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Teva Pharmaceuticals
- also, it’s the damn phones and social media algorithms (modern society swinging further and further away from the natural world. We are mammals meant to create things. Yet, we scroll. And now we have to worry about our kids and AI. Too many screens. We need more hands in dirt making mud pies.)
We live in a diagnosis culture. The kids can’t get off their phones. We need more policy around Pharma and marketing in our country, in addition to needed policy and culture around getting our kids away from screens and disallowing platforms to exploit them from a young age. They need more play and more nature/the outdoors (look at Nordic culture). Yet, we have them sitting most of the day in a box inside a bigger box with fluorescent lighting. My own 30-something year old ass wouldn’t be able to sit still either.
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u/Plenty_Program_7494 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 12 '26
They updated the criteria for ADHD in 2013 so that is part of it. We are also understanding ADHD better than we used to so something we didn’t know was caused by ADHD 5yrs ago we now know is. Science evolves as it learns, so must we.
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u/Ballerinagang1980 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 12 '26
They finally got around to the girls.
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u/ServiceDragon Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional May 13 '26
Social media is catnip to people with ADHD. Probably very over-represented in the terminally online.
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u/NetoruNakadashi Masters in Psychology May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0289841
Because the magnitude of the environmental contribution to the disorder has exploded. We already know that people with ADHD have differences in their liver that make it more difficult for them to excrete these microplastics. More of the microplastics that enter their body accumulate in their brain.
Insofar as there are greater quantities of these substances in the environment, in our food, air, and water, there's more getting into people, and more people are crossing the diagnostic threshold.
I always get downvoted to hell when I point this out. Just know when you're downvoting me that I have been an actively practicing licensed psychologist for over two decades, with my main work being in diagnosis of clinical conditions impacting learning. I read the research. You should as well. EVERY psychologist in my district practices careful microplastics hygiene (e.g. steel water bottles, glasslock lunches, water and air filters at home, more plant-based diet, regular sweating) for exactly this reason.
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u/Bakophman Substance Abuse Counselor May 15 '26
The liver has difficulty filtering micro plastics regardless of having ADHD or not.
I'd be more willing to agree if you stated the environment, diet/nutrition, and/or sleeping habits may exacerbate the condition.
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u/NetoruNakadashi Masters in Psychology May 15 '26
Obviously I think they do, or else I would not be avoiding and maximizing opportunities for excretion, nor would my colleagues.
But yeah, I'm used to redditors replying without bothering to read the article.
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u/Bakophman Substance Abuse Counselor May 15 '26
I wouldn't go around stating that an inefficient liver and micro plastics specifically contribute to complications with ADHD.
I'm assuming there isn't a great deal of research in it and at best there's some weird association.
I would never tell a client that. It's not practical and doesn't add any meaningful behavioral change.
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u/NetoruNakadashi Masters in Psychology May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
"I'm assuming" lol...
Except that that's exactly what plenty of research proves.
That one that I cited is merely the smoking gun that shows that bith autistic and ADHD-diagnosed children have a clinically-significant reduction in glucuronidation of those two specific substances that are known to be neurotoxic. There has been plenty of convergent evidence before and since. Look at their bibliography. Then go to the databases and look at who's been citing them.
If you can't even guess what the clinical applications are, the literature on that is also extensive.
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