Jan 21, 2020
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With limited access to mental health care, people looking for answers about ADHD are turning to TikTok, where information is frequently misl
Fair warning- this is going to be a bit of an essay/rant that no one asked for, but I feel is necessary given the misinformation being spewed by Dr. Gabor Maté and Prince Harry on that ridiculous livestream thing. (tl;dr ADHD can't be diagnosed this casually, it's a whole process. ADHD can't be cured and anyone who says it can is a lying liar who lies. And ADHD is a genetic neuro-developmental disorder, not caused by trauma.)
ADHD cannot be diagnosed in one sitting, especially not by casual observation during a livestream. It requires testing and extensive discussion of diagnostic criteria. (source: CHADD) I have ADHD and got diagnosed in high school. It has been debilitating at times. I have had to leave university and restart a degree due to my executive dysfunction (part of ADHD). It affects my relationships, my employability, everything.
This doctor is seen as controversial in the world of psychiatric research and treatment (for more than a few good reasons, imo. like being pretty dismissive of methodologically sound research and discoveries.) He writes a lot about ADHD but can't manage to get some things right. ADD isn't even a thing. It was updated in the DSM-V to be a second type of ADHD. It's not just "trouble focusing", it's an overactive mind. The mind is the hyperactive part of ADHD. And most importantly, IT CANNOT BE CURED!!! IT IS A NEURO-DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER. OUR BRAINS ARE PHYSIOLOGICALLY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER PEOPLE. OUR FRONTAL LOBES ARE UNDERDEVELOPED. IT CAN ONLY BE MANAGED, NOT CURED. (source: Mayo Clinic)
Symptom management is the only treatments available for ADHD. For some, medication in combination with therapy (such as cognitive behavioral therapy) is helpful. Others prefer just therapy or just medication. Routines and support are crucial. Developing tools and strategies to combat symptoms are so important. For example, I have two whiteboards by my desk that have my due dates listed out visually in columns. One whiteboard is a semester view, the other is a weekly view for four weeks. Part of my ADHD is time-blindness (which means that I have a hard time conceptualizing how much time something will take and how far away a due date is), so the whiteboards help me visualize how far away a due date actually is. I have several other strategies and redundancies built into my routines so that nothing falls out of my view.
ADHD is an executive functioning disorder. According to Harvard's Center on the Developing Child, this includes things like "working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control". The University of California San Francisco's Memory and Aging Center divides executive functions into 2 groups: organizational and regulatory abilities. Organizational is things like "attention, planning, sequencing, problem-solving, working memory, cognitive flexibility, abstract thinking, rule acquisition, selecting relevant sensory information." Regulatory abilities are skills such as "initiation of action, self-control, emotional regulation, monitoring internal and external stimuli, initiating and inhibiting context-specific behavior, moral reasoning, decision-making." Both of these groups of skills are extremely important for successful day-to-day functioning and achieving long-term goals. Obviously, not every person with ADHD experiences the same symptoms or the same levels of disability, but we all struggle with these skills to some extent.
Now, I could totally see Prince Harry having ADHD. I think a lot of his behaviors could point to it, along with things he has said about his life experiences. However, I am not a psychiatrist. I can also think of several other disorders that could be an explanation for some of Prince Harry's behaviors. Dr. Maté has a history of controversial views on his specialties of addiction, trauma, and ADHD. He has been rightly criticized for his "reductionist views" on trauma and has incorrectly stated that ADHD is trauma-based, not genetic. Which again, is wrong. The Mayo Clinic lists the causes as "genetics, environment, and problems during development" while also acknowledging that we don't know the exact cause of ADHD. Dr. Maté seems to get the trauma caused to undiagnosed ADHD children for not functioning "correctly" confused for being the actual cause of ADHD. Because man oh man do I have some trauma from being an undiagnosed neurodivergent child. But it didn't cause my ADHD. I was born with that. As was my dad, his dad, his mom, and probably several other people on that side of the family. They just lived in a time before diagnoses were readily available (or even existed) and had to learn how to cope on their own (while probably dealing with their own trauma from doing so.) After I got diagnosed, my dad realized that a lot of the things that I experienced that met the diagnostic criteria were things that he had dealt with his whole life, too. This apparently happens a lot with ADHD kids and parents. Because it's genetic.
Anyway. All that to say, this whole conversation between Harry and Dr. Maté was deeply not okay on multiple levels and only served to spread misinformation about ADHD (and trauma and PTSD, etc.) and induced the rage of a thousand suns. If anyone wants more resources for info about ADHD, check out the links above, as well as ADDitudemag, which is a resource for parents, children, and adults with ADHD. Also, the charity from the tweet that brought this whole stupid mess to my attention: ADHD Foundation. There are a bunch of quacks out there who claim to have a cure or magic fix for ADHD, like some special diet or whatever. But you can't cure or fix it. We're not broken. We're just different. I'm not one to push any specific treatment, but just work with a doctor to use evidence-based treatments and therapies for help with your mental health. Untested quackery causes more harm than good.
the reason I'm getting more and more passionate about ADHD misinformation is because of how vastly overlapped so many of these conditions are.
a psychiatrist did a TikTok where she was like, "think you have ADHD? you might if you answer yes to these three questions." I don't even remember the questions and TikTok isn't searchable in any meaningful way to find stuff, but the three questions were screening for bipolar disorder and she revealed that at the end to point out that it's very easy to be misinformed and in some cases, misdiagnosed.
it's also worth knowing that a lot of anxiety disorders look a lot alike with unique key signifiers or root causes. and anxiety can disrupt executive function, which can look so much like ADHD but it's not.
this is why, while I know economic access is a factor for many people, it's important to at least have a conversation with a professional about your personal experiences to rule some things out.