Youtube

[Mentens]

Hey all. I came across this video from a YouTuber called "JaidenAnimations". The video appears well-meaning and the creator seems to have considered other avenues prior to seeking a diagnosis. However, the way the creator describes her adult onset of symptoms is a bit unnerving given the audience this has reached. I'm not making any comment on her specific diagnosis, but rather the message it conveys to viewers. Already many online ADHD communities fail to acknowledge that "adult ADHD" describes a neurodevelopment disorder that went undiagnosed in childhood, rather than an adult onset of ADHD. This video, although well-meaning, effectively propagates this misconception to millions of young, impressionable viewers.

This certainly isn't on the same level as those "Hypersexuality is a trauma response in ADHD" ads, but it got me thinking about the continued ADHD criteria creep that has occurred in public perception of the condition over the past decade.
Thoughts?

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[ObsequiousAplomb]

Man, do I wish I could bill people for 10 sessions before giving them a simple diagnosis.

 

[FlowRate]

Man, do I wish I could bill people for 10 sessions before giving them a simple diagnosis.

Sounds like you need to hire someone to do neuropsych testing on every patient who mentions concern for ADHD. Which many patients think is standard of care, anyway.

(Not actually advocating for this, but there are definitely clinics and systems where that's the norm.)

 

[Ceke2002]

It certainly sounds as if her diagnosis doesn't really align with best practice. That's me being extremely polite about the situation.

 

[Stagg737]

Maybe controversial take, but I watched the video and while how she presents some of the info could definitely lead some people to believe the wrong thing, she sounds like she probably does have ADHD and had symptoms as a kid she wasn't aware of. Doesn't sound like symptoms started in college, just that she started noticing them because her structured environment changed.

I don't like how she described the Adderall as a magical pill that made her "normal", even though this is some patients experience. It kind of sets people up to expect that it will do the same for them, and oftentimes, maybe most of the time, it doesn't even when someone has classic ADHD. I'll also add that if that's her actual voice then based on the intonation, inflection, and choice of words does come across as possibly autistic to me.

ETA: I also hate the whole "neurotypical" vs "neurodivergent" conversation. Feels like just another label for the sake of having a label/community for something. Which I get having a supportive community can help, but I've also seen plenty of problems arise from it as well.

 

[ObsequiousAplomb]

Maybe controversial take, but I watched the video and while how she presents some of the info could definitely lead some people to believe the wrong thing, she sounds like she probably does have ADHD and had symptoms as a kid she wasn't aware of. Doesn't sound like symptoms started in college, just that she started noticing them because her structured environment changed.

I don't like how she described the Adderall as a magical pill that made her "normal", even though this is some patients experience. It kind of sets people up to expect that it will do the same for them, and oftentimes, maybe most of the time, it doesn't even when someone has classic ADHD. I'll also add that if that's her actual voice then based on the intonation, inflection, and choice of words does come across as possibly autistic to me.

She sounded autistic to you? She sounded like every other youtuber to me.

 

[clausewitz2]

Yeah, this video definitely explicitly does not claim that ADHD is adult onset. She even uses the phrase "neurogenetic developmental disorder" to describe it.

 

[Stagg737]

She sounded autistic to you? She sounded like every other youtuber to me.

Very different from many to me, but I've also seen her in videos thanks to my 6 yo watching too many Mr. Beast challenges and other videos (Unspeakable is actually pretty fun/tolerable for adults as well). Looks like she's actually a voice actress and manipulating her voice in that video, so that could be part of it as I looked up on of the videos and her normal voice is different. So some of the forced inflection and breaks in prosody are probably being done intentionally.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

This topic has been beaten to death OP. Anyone can say whatever on YouTube. There are many other things that young impressionable viewers see online I'm also concerned about.

Was there some specific point to be made here?

 

[Stagg737]

This topic has been beaten to death OP. Anyone can say whatever on YouTube. There are many other things that young impressionable viewers see online I'm also concerned about.

Was there some specific point to be made here?

I think they're just upset about the "adult onset" part and that it may further exacerbate college and post-graduate age kids to seek an ADHD diagnosis because "adulting is hard". Which imo is kind of hard to make worse at this point as ADHD isn't really the in vogue diagnosis anymore anyway.

 

[thelastpsych]

I think they're just upset about the "adult onset" part and that it may further exacerbate college and post-graduate age kids to seek an ADHD diagnosis because "adulting is hard". Which imo is kind of hard to make worse at this point as ADHD isn't really the in vogue diagnosis anymore anyway.

Really? What is the New diagnosis then? Autism?

 

[Stagg737]

Really? What is the New diagnosis then? Autism?

Definitely. And as of 3-4 years ago DID as well per TikTok, but that seems to have died down a bit.

 

[Ceke2002]

Really? What is the New diagnosis then? Autism?

Definitely. And as of 3-4 years ago DID as well per TikTok, but that seems to have died down a bit.

All of the above by the latest neurospicy trend is AuDHD (Autism and ADHD), because why not have both. (I do know it's possible to be diagnosed with both, I just highly doubt it's as common as TikTok et al would have you believe.

 

[thelastpsych]

Definitely. And as of 3-4 years ago DID as well per TikTok, but that seems to have died down a bit.

DID from what I recall is a construct pushed mostly by American psychiatry, which got a mixed reception around the world, with a very skeptic reception by european psychiatrists. Havent seen that big of a push for this diagnosis by lay people outside the US, except by maybe a few VERY borderline patients with their dissociative episodes and self diagnosed DID.

 

[Stagg737]

DID from what I recall is a construct pushed mostly by American psychiatry, which got a mixed reception around the world, with a very skeptic reception by european psychiatrists. Havent seen that big of a push for this diagnosis by lay people outside the US, except by maybe a few VERY borderline patients with their dissociative episodes and self diagnosed DID.

I'm in the US, but that is the crowd that typically pushes it...

 

[Merovinge]

DID from what I recall is a construct pushed mostly by American psychiatry, which got a mixed reception around the world, with a very skeptic reception by european psychiatrists. Havent seen that big of a push for this diagnosis by lay people outside the US, except by maybe a few VERY borderline patients with their dissociative episodes and self diagnosed DID.

That's correct, it is largely a US psychodynamic diagnosis. Rush university was falsifying data to support the diagnosis historically. However, there are a few psychodynamically oriented institutes outside of the US, at least 1 in Germany, that continue to research DID.

 

[Ceke2002]

Maybe controversial take, but I watched the video and while how she presents some of the info could definitely lead some people to believe the wrong thing, she sounds like she probably does have ADHD and had symptoms as a kid she wasn't aware of. Doesn't sound like symptoms started in college, just that she started noticing them because her structured environment changed.

I don't like how she described the Adderall as a magical pill that made her "normal", even though this is some patients experience. It kind of sets people up to expect that it will do the same for them, and oftentimes, maybe most of the time, it doesn't even when someone has classic ADHD. I'll also add that if that's her actual voice then based on the intonation, inflection, and choice of words does come across as possibly autistic to me.

ETA: I also hate the whole "neurotypical" vs "neurodivergent" conversation. Feels like just another label for the sake of having a label/community for something. Which I get having a supportive community can help, but I've also seen plenty of problems arise from it as well.

Maybe I need to give the video another watch. I will admit to initially watching it with a lot of projection and comparison to my own case. I personally found the diagnosis of ADHD suspicious when she described being well behaved as a child. Not saying a child with ADHD can't be well behaved, it's just in my experience it wasn't something I was able to consistently manage despite trying my level best. Having said that I did have much more of a classic, and obvious, presentation of ADHD, so maybe it's just more difficult for me to recognise the subtle signs (as opposed to, for example, taking far longer than your peers to learn to ride a bike, because you keep getting distracted by birds and riding into Stobie poles, randomly walking out of class at school for no apparent reason, or wandering off at the zoo and being found up a tree attempting to climb into the Giraffe enclosure).

Totally agree with the medication stuff as well. I've mentioned this several times, but whilst ADHD medication (dextroamphetamine in my case) absolutely worked for me, I was not prepared for the side effects to outweigh the benefits. I had had some behavioural modification type treatment as a child, but after that I had ended up hanging all my hopes on medication, to the point that I didn't really bother even trying to work on other ways I could manage symptoms (not at least until I was essentially forced to when medication didn't turn out to be the miracle fix).

 

[annoyedpsychiatrist]

i find all of these people annoying

 

[ObsequiousAplomb]

So is AuDHD pronounced like Audi with high definition?

I categorically just tell people I don't do diagnostics for autism in adults. If it was mild enough to have not been picked up before they come to me, there's no chance I'm going to be the one seeing it.

Oddly enough, I'm not as bothered by the ADHD diagnosis seekers. Probably because ADHD at least has the potential for me to treat, if it does exist. I admit that it's a little frustrating spending an entire 90 minute appointment to essentially tell them to see sleep medicine.

 

[aim-agm]

I categorically just tell people I don't do diagnostics for autism in adults. If it was mild enough to have not been picked up before they come to me, there's no chance I'm going to be the one seeing it.

I saw a septogenarian veteran who was seeking evaluation for what he suspected was autism and ADHD...I couldn't determine if he met criteria for ASD or ADHD because his ASD and ADHD were bad enough I couldn't effectively interview him.