Everyone online is convincing you that you have ADHD.
You watch a video, you relate to symptoms, and you think, oh my God, that's me.
I must have ADHD.
And I completely get why, because when someone describes your experience, it definitely feels like an answer to all the issues that you had so far must be explained by that condition.
But when you actually look into what the most popular ADHD content says about or how they describe ADHD, it's oftentimes just a regular human experience.
You know they list things like you forget where you put your keys, or you procrastinate often or You zone out in conversations.
Sure, these can be also a symptom of ADHD, that's true.
But the distinction that this content always leaves out is how much is it actually impairing your life?
Not just are you experiencing those things, but to what extent are you experiencing those things?
And there's actually a reason why this kind of content gets pushed by the algorithm because the broader it is, it's going to be relatable for more people.
And if more people react saying that, wait, I didn't know that this was ADHD, do I have ADHD?
And then they share it to other people and you basically got a reaction from people.
Then the algorithm is going to push that content to more people because it now knows that this is the type of content that gets the reaction and that gets the sharing.
And then the algorithm is going to feed you more and more content that is similar to that, which is almost inevitable to think that you might have ADHD.
The issue with this is that it makes self diagnosis almost inevitable.
You are being fed a constant stream of content designed to be relatable and your brain cherry picks what you relate to.
You notice every symptom that matches to your life and skip the ones that don't.
This is actually called confirmation bias, and it's so powerful that even professionals are trained to never self-diagnose like it was literally the first thing that i got taught in my psychiatry lecture when i was in med school.
They told us again and again saying that do not diagnose yourself.
If a trained psychiatrist is not supposed to assess their own symptoms, what makes us think that we can do it from a TikTok video?
And not only that.
The important thing is that ADHD is not a yes or no condition, even though a lot of people think it that way.
It exists on a spectrum.
What that means is that there's no clear line where you're either ADHD or not.
It's basically a gradient.
You could have some traits at a mild level, some at moderate level, and none of that automatically means you have a clinical condition.
Where you fall on that spectrum determines whether it qualifies as a disorder or whether it's just how your brain leans.
Assessing where you fall on the gradient is fundamentally harder than assessing a binary because, unlike a broken leg, it's not that you either, you know, have a broken leg or not.
It's not like that right.
So with a spectrum condition, the question is always how much, and how much compared to whom?
And basically, this compared to whom is the most important thing, and that's the reason why you should never self-diagnose yourself.
Because one of the things that are not talked enough in my opinion is that if ADHD is a spectrum, means the baseline is what we compare it to, whether it's a disorder or not.
Right?
If the entire population is increasingly struggling with focus, attention and task initiation because of constant stimulation, social media, or maybe the uncertainty of future because of ai or you know numerous of reasons, then the baseline of what normal is essentially shifting.
Because for ADHD to be diagnosed, you basically compare to the expected developmental stage that person should be or expected to be.
And you basically assess it compared to that.
But if 10 years ago the average person could focus 45 minutes and now the average person can barely do 15, then your I can only focus for 20 minutes or I can only focus for five minutes used to be maybe below average compared to a few years ago, but now maybe it's the average.
The spectrum did not actually change, but the population moved on it, which means a threshold for what qualifies as a disorder needs to move too.
Because by definition, if everyone has it, it is a norm. and not a condition.
So the question becomes do you actually have the disorder?
Or how we have developed is not really matching our current societal structure.
So you are doubly blind.
Confirmation bias makes you sure you only see the symptoms that match, and the baseline you're unconsciously measuring yourself against is shifting underneath you.
That is why actually, like self-diagnosis don't work, because the conditions for accurate self-assessment literally do not exist.
And also a lot of people think ADHD is only about focus and procrastination, even though it affects every single aspect of your life.
So if you should not self-diagnose, then what should you do?
I think like this actually applies for everyone.
But before you think about seeing a professional, i think in most cases it's way more helpful for the professional to have as much as data from you so that they can have a clear assessment.
If you can gather information that could help the professional, then it can help you as well.
Because most of the time, the issue with the ADHD diagnosis is that it's based on the self-related symptoms which we discussed, that it can be heavily biased.
So the more objective data you bring, the better it is for the professional as well.
What I personally recommend is getting a blood test before your psychiatrist appointment.
So check for iron, vitamin D B2, thyroid function, because this eliminates some of the most common mimics in one go.
If something comes back off, address it first and see if your symptoms changed.
And if they do not change?
Now you have useful information for the professional saying that.
You know I rule out all these efficiencies and it's not that.
And this is especially important if you're living in a country where it's very hard to get a psychiatrist appointment.
So the more data you can bring, the more efficient that one appointment can be.
And you also have to be honest with your lifestyle and track it to show to the professional how much you're sleeping, not like when you're going to bed and you're inside of bed, but what kind of sleep are you getting.
Is it a high quality?
Do you have a sleep apnea maybe?
Maybe some sleep related issues that you haven't noticed.
So personally, I use WHOOP, I'm not sponsored by the way, to track my sleep.
And when you get a WHOOP you can also track, like your HRV, high grade variability resting, heart rate sleep, as well as daily stress and all other things.
And you can also notice the patterns in your hair and how it affects overall your performance as well.
And if you can bring those data to the professional, it's very helpful for them.
First, it will help them.
And two, they will take you way more seriously, because now there's so many patients thinking that just because they zoom scroll a few hours, they think they have ADHD.
So, you know, you have to think, Of course, a professional is a trained, but they're also human.
So if you show all these relatable things and all data, then they will take you more seriously as well, because they will understand how much you're willing to actually learn and how much you're not using this as an excuse to get a drug and I don't know, abuse it or something.
Just a recommendation.
And another important thing is like, how many hours are you spending on your phone as well?
I know like if you have ADHD and other kinds of symptoms, it's very hard to break that phone addiction.
It actually doesn't have to be that hard.
You can literally like download apps to block social media.
So for example, with me, if I would try to go on YouTube right now, it is blocked.
Like I'm not able to bypass this.
You can look for apps to set this up or I can make a video on how to set this thing up so that it basically eliminates social media over like doom scrolling, because Even with ADHD, on the days that I consumed too much social media, especially like short form, and I got information overloaded myself, then all the symptoms are way worse.
It's just so bad.
My hyperactivity, my impulsivity just goes over the roof.
And if you're spending your whole day after school or after work on your phone, then no matter, those symptoms are very bad.
So actually eliminating those things rules out a lot of symptoms that you might be associating with ADHD.
It's also very important to pay attention to how much exercise you're getting as well as your diet.
If you're not getting any exercise, you feel like you have no motivation.
You procrastinate a lot.
It is very natural, because our bodies are not designed to sit so long and not move at all.
I'm not really familiar with the American lifestyle because I never actually lived in the US, but as far as I like hear from my friends, it is no doubt that you see those symptoms.
So is it actually ADHD or is it the lifestyle?
That's a very hard differentiation to do and sometimes they overlap, that is for sure, because if you have adhd you might struggle with building those habits, establishing these lifestyles as well.
But you know at least trying to see, when you try to improve them, what happens, and gathering data, gathering information so that you can present it to your professional.
Then they can have way more information about you and your diagnosis and they will not misdiagnose you.
Because if you have never had a period where your sleep, exercise and nutrition were somewhat good or like were okay, then you do actually not know what your baseline brain function is without those variables missing with it.
Also, we have to think about like when it started, right?
Like this is one of the most important questions.
The clinical criteria says symptoms need to have been present before the age of 12.
Not necessarily like impairing, but they have to be present because ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition and it appearing suddenly on adulthood is oftentimes not adhd.
You might think that when i was a kid i had a support system.
My parents were supporting me and they were like doing all the executive function work for me.
Therefore i did not see any signs of it, which is valid.
But then it might be a mild adhd rather than severe adhd, because oftentimes, even with external support, if someone has a severe adhd, they can still see the symptoms very severely.
It also depends on what kind of adhd you have as well, but the signs should be still traceable.
You can ask your parents or, if you still have a contact to your teacher, you can find them on their email.
Maybe you can ask for them and you can also look for your scorecard or maybe the friends you had in your elementary school if they remember something about you, because sometimes you know you think you function normal and you know, when i asked my mom, i literally showed all the signs and i was like oh, i thought this was normal.
But obviously even for this, like the, the judgment of professional is important because you know you might not remember your childhood or your parents maybe don't remember about you or maybe they weren't that that present in your childhood as well.
So again, it's still best to go to a professional to understand the underlying issue.
Because if these symptoms happen after a major, big lifestyle change or a big stressor or maybe a trauma that you have forgotten about, then it might not be ADHD, but it might be PTSD.
So, but like, why does this even matter?
The reason is because ADHD symptoms overlap with a lot of other conditions like gut microbiome issues or thyroid dysfunction, sleep disorders depression OCD, even chronic stress or a major life change.
And even like some signs of PTSD really looks like ADHD, especially if it started in adulthood.
I'm going to actually make a separate video on all the other conditions that can mimic the ADHD symptoms.
But for now the point is basically by being fully convinced in your head that it's ADHD actually never getting properly diagnosed and you might be missing an underlying health condition.
And that condition might be getting worse while you're busy managing something that you do actually not have.
For example, if it's a gut issue and if it's actually treatable, but by convincing yourself that it is ADHD, then your gut may be getting worse and worse day by day and your symptoms are getting worse and you're Spending all your energy and time to manage your ADHD that is non-existent.
You basically lose that self-confidence day by day more, because everything that you try doesn't work.
So you start to question your ability and you start to give up on those things.
But it might not be even ADHD.
So by self-diagnosing yourself like, I understand if you're thinking I'm not gonna use the medication.
Like getting a psychiatrist appointment takes so much time, like why should I even bother?
The reason is because it can be something else.
You might be missing it because the conditions, the definition and symptoms of adhd are so broad that it can overlap with literally anything.
Almost i mean anything is obviously a stretch, but it can overlap with so many things.
But how do i know this?
I know this because When I first went to a psychiatrist and my psychiatrist was questioning about me having ADHD, I literally could not handle it with my ego that I started to research for all other things that I could have.
That was mimicking ADHD.
Be thinking like why like why, why were you so hesitant towards adhd diagnosis?
Maybe it's because of the negative like connotation it has in japan.
Like it affects a lot of areas in your life.
Like i think if you're like officially diagnosed in japan and if your workplace knows that it's like socially not very positive experience okay, if you are, for example, maybe buying a house, getting a loan for your home, then it can affect all those things.
So i really did not want to have that having that negative like connotation as well as a name in Japan.
I mean ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
It's the same in English, but in Japan they put a lot of emphasis on disability.
It has a very negative image in Japan as well.
And when you think about all the things that ADHD brings, it is the opposite of a Japanese society, right?
Like what Japan expects from you versus an ADHD person is the opposite.
So you do not belong to any social structure in Japan, which makes sense why my mom left Japan, because she also has ADHD and she does not really fit the cultural norm.
So I really did not want to have that, because my ego could not really handle that.
I am not built for the society.
So I basically got checked for my gut, all the deficiencies, all the other potential issues.
And I actually have an appointment in about a month or so for other sleep related issues.
But still, my doctor is very convinced that I have ADHD and any other thing that can be just coexist with ADHD as well.
But I wanted to be sure that it was not ADHD.
And I spent actually years, even before my appointment, to figure out that it's something else that I might be missing.
But it turns out I have ADHD.
And you know, the good thing about this is that the conditions can also overlap with ADHD as well.
Like you might have ADHD and a thyroid issue.
You might have ADHD and PTSD.
A lot of people actually with ADHD also do have secondary issues as well.
So getting tested for a potential underlying issue is just a smart move, regardless of whether you end up having ADHD or not.
And also, You might be thinking like, it's expensive, I have to wait a lot.
But if it's actually impairing your life because by definition if you have ADHD it has to impair two or more areas of your life then it is really worth it to save up money to see a psychiatrist that is trained in ADHD and related neurodevelopmental conditions not just a random psychiatrist, but a psychiatrist that is trained in it.
Because even in medical school I know this for myself because I was in medical school in psychiatry training adhd is not that extensively covered.
I even have like the dsm-5 book.
It's not with me right now because i'm in japan, but even in dsm-5 you can see the the symptoms of adhd and how to diagnose it is not that discussed in detail.
So even a psychiatrist if it's not there like an area of interest, they might not be that knowledgeable about it.
So It's always best to look for psychiatrists that are specializing in ADHD and neurodevelopmental conditions if you want to avoid the misdiagnosis.
So I'm not saying all these to gatekeep ADHD or treat like you're not ADHD enough bro, try harder, or something like that.
But I want to raise an awareness towards this and also i want to inform people because i think, like on social media oh, you have this condition, you have this condition and it's so easy to miss spread information as well.
Maybe i have also contributed in the past, but it's important to know the distinction and it's important to raise awareness towards it, because it is a thing that will affect your life, like your whole life, because it will never go away.
It's just to have you function, and living with it on a day-to-day basis can be literally traumatic, like you can literally question your ability every single freaking day and you might feel like you're gonna lose everything and there's no hope in you to exist in a society.
So ADHD is actually that serious.
And when a lot of people just treat it as a focus and procrastination problem, then the actual people who have it and struggling with it, they don't get the right treatment and they don't get the right help.
So by spreading the wrong kind of information, we're actually preventing people who need help to not get the help that they need.
So, before you think you have it and you convince with it and you talk everyone around it, I think it's always better to go to a professional, get assessments, but also prepare yourself to help the professional to have a more informed decision.
And if you want to learn more about ADHD medication, how it affects my experience with it, then watch this video next.
See you soon.
