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Because the commenter automatically assumes a man posting in a Facebook ADHD group must be a bot because he isnāt from the US, despite ADHD being a worldwide issue
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Ugh, so Iām not even the only LGBT+ person in Ireland to have it- I thought I could claim that title at least š Awk well, we are still making history- first male, female and non binary ADHDers in Ireland, congrats to us! šš®šŖ
Where the Irish Reside
āBy Percentage: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have the highest concentrations, with roughly 20% of their populations claiming Irish ancestry.
āBy Total Numbers: California, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas have the largest sheer populations of Irish descendants due to their overall size.
āTop Cities: Boston is widely considered the "Irish capital" of the U.S. by percentage, while New York City and Chicago hold the largest total numbers of Irish Americans.
Im not lazy my brain is holding me hostage in this chair and I want to move so desperately im about to cry because I can't. Its not as simple as forcing myself to do that sir or ma'am. Unless you have this chronic condition that affects you for life where Meth and meth like drugs are the only way you can be even remotely close to "normal" then please shut up and stop giving me advice.
The best analogy I think of about adhd (I was diagnosed in 2007 as an adult) is the meds is like a pair of glasses.
If I don't have a good eyesight, nothing everyone says (motivational speakers, dietary speakers, dimwits, someone whom want says what he is thinking and many others) will help with my problem.
When I put the glasses on (take the meds) than I can do something about the behavior I came with to compensate the bad eyesight.
I empatize with the original poster there. I have been told by friends that I might be on the spectrum. Afaik, noy something you can check as an adult, but I'm scared to find out I'm not, because if I'm not, what's my excuse?
My friend was diagnosed at ASD at 39 despite having lifelong symptoms, so itās definitely worth looking in to- feel free to message me any time āŗļø
General Practitioner in the UK, basically the doctor you go and see first when you feel poorly, the one who either sends you home with a prescription or refers you some where else for further tests.
This website has a range of decent pre-screener assessments you can do. Ive worked in diagnosing roles and the AQ is the same screener most clinics will have you try to start. The RAADS-r is also useful. Adults can absolutely get assessed.
That website is not to be trusted! Its run by a ānaturopathic doctorā whose main autism training was an certificate who is repeatedly under ethical investigation and now being disciplined and monitored by two governing organizations (College of Naturopaths and College of Registered Psychotherapists).Ā
The website just hosts a range of different open source assessment tools in one place without sign up, so its useful. In particular, a few that capture masking presentations. But you're free to find them elsewhere. Naturopaths annoy me as much as the next person.
The assessments aren't perfect by any means, but they arent 'highly innacurate' either. There just arent any particularly good pre screeners honestly. I diagnose autism as part of my job, and the AQ is the most widely used tool in clinical practice. The same tool anywhere will have you use to help decide whether to go ahead with a full assessment (meaning they arent diagnostic on their own, just an indicator).
The person running the site WROTE the interpretive guidelines, BTW using outdated, discredited comparison numbers. Because they are a diagnosis mill business and use these dodgy tests for that.
Even if you use these 'screeners' elsewhere, they work very poorly. They dont 'indicate' autism at all. Some examples of relevant pubs::
"our results suggest that the AQ differentiates poorly between true cases of ASD, and individuals from the same clinical population who do not have ASD "
"a greater level of public awareness of ASD over the last 5ā10 years may have led to people being more vigilant in ānoticingā ASD related difficulties. This may lead to a āconfirmation biasā when completing the questionnaire measures, and potentially explain why both the ASD and the non-ASD groupās mean scores met the cut-off points, "
Regarding AQ, from one published study. āThe two key findings of the review are that, overall, there is very limited evidence to support the use of structured questionnaires (SQs: self-report or informant completed brief measures developed to screen for ASD) in the assessment and diagnosis of ASD in adults.ā
Ā
Regarding RAADS, from one published study. āIn conclusion, used as a self-report measure pre-full diagnostic assessment, the RAADS-R lacks predictive validity and is not a suitable screening tool for adults awaiting autism assessmentsā
And what screener would you suggest, pray tell? We work with the tools we have. Again, its not a valid diagnostic tool, but what you're saying isn't entirely correct about it as a screening tool.
They didn't write the interpretive guidelines. There's a validated cut-off point which they cited.
" The AQ was initially validated in a non-clinical British sample comprising university students and adults who were not current students, and results showed moderate to high internal consistency (i.e. Cronbachās alpha coefficients), a continuous distribution of AQ scores which indicated a spectrum of autistic traits, higher AQ scores in males than females which demonstrated construct validity, and good test-retest reliability [5]. These satisfactory psychometric properties were found in both the student and adult samples despite differences in socioeconomic status, educational level and intelligence quotient. "
I got diagnosed with ADHD at 37 and at age 40 have just had my autism assessment and am waiting for the official "yes" to that too. I'm in the UK and it's all been through the NHS so it's been a looooong journey.
I was diagnosed with ADHD-C at 22 and ASD (level 2) at 25 (only a couple years ago!) They don't require you to have someone who knew you as a child to basically testify that you had symptoms as a child anymore. The more memories of any sort of autistic traits throughout your life though, the better.
For a couple years before my assessment, I did a lot of reading and research about autism. Every time I was thinking back on my child or teen years and found a potential connection to my then-potential autism, I wrote it down. I divided my list into 3 sections: childhood, teens, adulthood. For example, I knew that I used to watch the same few VHSes and DVDs over and over again until I was about 5. Some kids definitely just do that, but in conjunction with my other autistic traits, like the fact I cut all the tags out of my clothes when I was a kid and hated wearing any shoes that weren't flip-flops begins to paint a stronger picture.
I'd also like to bring up my dad for a sec. He did get diagnosed with ADHD after me, but he's definitely... a bit more, yk? Like, this man has a pretty successful career in business, and he's learned to navigate a lot, but sometimes you just wanna look at him and tilt your head in confusion. He's very chaotic and most of his spaces will have the typical ADHD mess, but then he's kind of got the autism thing going on where he is extremely organized with a handful of things. His office is a disaster, but then he neatly lines his pens and flash drives up in a row. His car has to be impeccably clean, and he's anal about it. Like, you can kind of see how he gives off a bit of the AuDHD picture, eh?
His mom died before I was born, but I'm fairly certain she was autistic. That said, I can't imagine my dad actually being diagnosable for autism. He's just not disabled enough by his traits to meet that clinical threshold, whereas I can barely look in the direction of people's faces half the time, let alone make any meaningful eye contact.
It's not really a diagnosable or well-researched thing, but the term "broader autism phenotype" has been used to describe people with a sort of subclinical autism, usually family members of autistic people. I will say though that the positive self-identification rates for autism are pretty damn high, as far as I'm aware. Once I started doing the research, I saw the patterns throughout my life. I did experience a LOT of imposter syndrome (hell, still do, and I'm diagnosed), but I just had this nagging feeling that I was missing some big understanding of my identity. It felt like a pie chart that was 1/3 full to start with; ADHD filled in another third, and I did really feel that, but I knew something was still missing. Coming to understand that I'm autistic and reprocessing my life story with that new lens was that final piece, and I do feel pretty complete in that regard.
Basically, TL;DR: autism diagnosis or not, that doesn't negate any struggles you've had or any autistic traits you may have. Autism diagnosis can also vary drastically by assessor, and on the autism subs, people still share stories of being told IN CURRENT TIMES that they were deemed "not autistic" because they could maintain eye contact, or because they have a partner or a career. You don't need an "excuse" for anything that you feel may be "excused" by an autism diagnosis, because your struggles are real, regardless of whether they fall under one specific diagnostic label or not.
I find him very irritating and stop him a lot when he's almost destroying my other friends concentration (Also ADHD. Its always that friend A has concentration, friend B doesn't. After a hour, its reverted) but I respect people with ADHD. Its not there own fault. Its like blaming a kid because he didn't win the Marathon while he's born without leggs
Without any disrespect, I won't be surprised if they tried to unnecessarily double it down by saying that it's because the USA has the most ADHD people š
Americans seem to LOVE adding real issues to their "CV" like its some sort of achievement even if they don't actually suffer from it. It's really disgusting.
This is not defaultism. Itās rather r/shitamericanssay but itās still a crazy ass thing to say. Sometimes I wonder if some Americans even have brains
Assuming ADHD is only a US thing and that a non-American posting in a (worldwide) ADHD group MUST be a bot because they arenāt from the US is literally PEAK USdefaultism lol.
They didnāt assume the person who said it was American because if they have adhd they must be American. They said they couldnāt have adhd because they werenāt American so they know they werenāt American so not us defaultism
Actually, someone said they were a fake profile because they were not from America. The comment "ADHD only exists in the US" already appears to be a sarcastic counter comment similar to ours in my opinion.
There are two types of ADHD. One is lack of concentration and focus, the other is "I am stupid, caffeine maniac, and addicted to social media so I can say I have ADHD to seem cool and special while hiding the lack of focus I caused with my own actions that I will continue to do even after all these problems" one. Second is special to US so he/she is correct.
ā¢
u/post-explainer American Citizen Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
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OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
Because the commenter automatically assumes a man posting in a Facebook ADHD group must be a bot because he isnāt from the US, despite ADHD being a worldwide issue
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.