Danielle Elliott
Appearances
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
A new book written by, you guessed it, Ned and John. It's called ADHD 2.0. I read ADHD 2.0 shortly after my sister's wedding. My copy is full of notes, entire pages underlined, especially the part about a recent scientific advance in the understanding of negative self-talk. the type of self-talk that I was feeling before seeing extended family at the wedding.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I dreaded the questions about what I'm doing with my life. I figured I'd get ahead of it by standing up in front of a room full of people and starting the toast with the self-deprecating joke I'd written. I asked my cousins to laugh on cue, just in case the joke didn't land. I scribbled notes and rewrites up until the moment the DJ called me to the front of the room.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
The authors described this type of rumination as creativity applied to the past. Of course creative people also ruminate, pairs of opposites and all that. Thinking about this helped me tame my inner critic in ways that I never thought possible. So the book's great. At least it was for me. But I'm not sure it shifted public perception. The positive reframing of ADHD still needed a boost.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
And then it got one. A big one. One of Ned's patients wrote a memoir, Paris Hilton. On the cover, she called ADHD her superpower. On the first page, she quoted Ned. Around the same time, she and a few other celebrities appeared in a documentary called The Disruptors. In the film, they talked about ADHD as the thing driving their success.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles talked about her ADHD in media tours. Comedian Nicole Byer talked about it on her popular podcast. Filmmaker Greta Gerwig mentioned it as she was doing press for her blockbuster hit, Barbie. As celebrities opened up about their ADHD, and did so without shame, the shift in public perception was rapid and obvious.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
All this positive talk around ADHD had started to lift some of the stigma, which likely led to more people getting a diagnosis who needed it. And that's great, but I had concerns. This rosy reframing in the last few years, it seemed like it appealed to everyone I know. That's what worried me.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Is there any chance some people are hearing that creative people have ADHD and they want to be considered creative? That they hear career women have ADHD and they identify with that? Where is the line between having ADHD... attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and being a person who struggles to focus, or being a person who is extremely creative.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Ned told me I'm getting caught up in the diagnostic criteria. He doesn't want to throw out the accepted diagnostic criteria for ADHD. He just thinks it's flawed. He prefers what he calls a descriptive model, in which you describe the experience of ADHD and ask someone if this description feels familiar.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
And as he handed me the microphone and I looked at everyone staring back at me, something unexpected happened. For the first time since being diagnosed, I felt grateful for the way my brain works.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I have a hard time with this because the description seems all-encompassing. I don't know many people who wouldn't relate to at least some of this description. Everyone gets distracted sometimes. Everyone feels low sometimes. And if anyone who relates to it should consider ADHD, would that not lead to overdiagnosis? Reporters and experts debate over diagnosis whenever diagnosis rates rise.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
In the past, they focused on pharmaceutical marketing. They said it presented stimulants as a cure-all for basic human behaviors, that it stretched the definition of a mental health condition in pursuit of profits. Now, I wonder if some ADHD coaches, authors, speakers, and doctors have expanded the definition to the point that descriptions feel relatable to everyone. Ned has books to sell.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I thought, if ADHD is the reason I don't have this kind of classic life, it's probably also the reason I still love last-minute travel and like challenging the ways we're supposed to do things, and why I have a career in three fields, not one. Insatiable curiosity makes my life possible. All of this raced through my head, and then I started my speech.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
ADHD coaches need clients. Is it possible that, in an effort to sell these books and services, some experts are triggering overdiagnosis? And on the flip side of that, that they have painted such a rosy picture of ADHD that some people are led to believe it's not all that bad, or maybe not worth pursuing treatment. Ned told me he's not worried about overdiagnosis.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
He maintains that, if anything, ADHD is still wildly underdiagnosed.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I asked Ned to clarify his suggestion that 30 to 40 percent of the population has ADHD. And he reiterated that he does not think 30 to 40 percent meet the diagnostic criteria. Rather, he was talking about two distinct things. He was talking about ADHD, a serious disorder. And ADHD, a trait.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
As in, there are people whose lives are truly disordered by ADHD who fit into the statistics on increased rates of incarceration, divorce, substance abuse, credit card debt, premature death, and the many other negative consequences associated with ADHD. And then there are people who have some of the elements of ADHD, even if not the full disorder.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Regardless of whether they have severe ADHD or mild symptoms that might not qualify as a disorder, Ned believes they would benefit from ADHD coaching or reading his books. What Ned was doing here, insisting on a distinction between the disorder and a trait, it helped me understand why so many people tell me they have a little bit of ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
It seems to line up with the idea that ADHD symptoms occur along a spectrum. But it also left me with more skepticism. Because if everyone with, quote, a little ADHD is now being diagnosed with ADHD the disorder, doesn't that indicate overdiagnosis? I'm not sure.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
It's a big question, and an important question, because the current rates of diagnosis have helped contribute to an unprecedented drug shortage. If people are being misdiagnosed, and that's limiting people with the disorder from accessing medications and treatment that they need in order to function, that's a huge problem. Overdiagnosis is a riddle we'll never solve.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
This is a subjective diagnosis. People can lie. Other people can feel too much shame to ever seek help. Still more might relate to descriptions, even if the symptoms don't impair their lives. There are likely tons of people with undiagnosed ADHD and tons with misdiagnosed ADHD. We could circle it all day.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
But while I had the ear of one of the leading experts on ADHD, I wanted to ask Ned a harder question, one that is less about his book sales and more about how he differentiates between the trait of ADHD and the disorder. What if the reason more people are seeking a diagnosis is actually because more people have moved from the trait part of the spectrum to the disordered part of the spectrum?
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Meaning, what if ADHD is actually becoming more prevalent? Part of the search that I'm on is sort of why the rise, not just the rise in diagnosis, but is there a rise in actual prevalence? And I'm curious if there's... I don't think so.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
as in a culture that creates ADD-like symptoms in people. Does this make your head spin? It made mine spin. I felt like he was saying, no, ADHD is not more prevalent. But yes, you're right, it is, because we've expanded the definition of ADHD to a point that it encompasses more than ADHD. Ned continued.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
He told me how to tell them apart. He suggested something he calls the Vermont test. Leave them on a farm in Vermont for a few weeks.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
He was only half serious, but his reasoning was completely serious. He said that a person with environmentally influenced ADHD will feel their symptoms ease now that they're in a quieter, less stimulating environment. They'll be able to relax. A person with true ADHD will continue to exhibit ADHD, regardless of their environment.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
If their symptom is hyperactivity, for example, they'll spend their weeks in Vermont turning a farm into an amusement park. They won't be able to sit still. Maybe they'll hyperfocus on a book for a little while, but not the entire time.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I agree. It's important to make that distinction. The current rates of ADHD diagnosis are not making that distinction. What do we do about this? Before I could ask this question, the sliding door opened behind me. Hello!
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Ned's wife, Sue Hollowell, was home from work.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
She shook out her umbrella and wiped her feet on the mat, then walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I was about to stop the recorder when Ned turned and said, She knows more about couples than anyone in the world. Sue is a therapist. When Ned's first book came out, couples started contacting her about ADHD. She moved around the kitchen as she explained this, then stopped to pour me a glass of wine.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
She said that back then, she had no idea how to offer couples therapy focused on ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Over dinner, we talked about ADHD and relationships and trends Sue is seeing in her practice.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
She said she's definitely seeing a rise in diagnosis in the last few years and that so many people really don't understand how much ADHD impacts relationships. Eventually, Ned stood up. He carried our plates to the sink and started washing the dishes. Sue asked if I had plans for July 4th. I told her I'd be in Michigan visiting friends. She said she'd be there, too.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
This was news to me. My brain started firing off in a million directions. When people say I have shiny ball syndrome, well, this is why. Sue and Ned started telling me about their camp, and I was already lost in my head, figuring out how I could go. How long have you had it? It's going to be our 19th year. When is it? It's July... It would start while I was in Michigan.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I don't think I could have handled that laughter an hour earlier. I was in such a dark place. And then I wasn't. The speech became a turning point. I stopped resenting my ADHD and started appreciating it. I think it's made my life a lot more interesting. I'd love to claim this is an original thought, but it turns out a lot of people were starting to feel the same way.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I was thinking that a camp for families with ADHD must be full of women with ADHD. Maybe women who were recently diagnosed. Maybe women who don't even know yet that they have ADHD. And I could be there the moment they figured it out.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I finally just came out with it. I asked if I could go to their camp.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
That night, I extended my trip to Michigan. After seeing friends for the Fourth of July, I'd drive north to their camp to see how much can happen in a week and how the women at the Hallowell camp might help me understand what's happened in the last four years. That's next time on Climbing the Walls. Climbing the Walls was written and reported by me, Danielle Elliott.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
It was edited by Neil Drumming. Sound design by Cody Nelson. Brianna Berry was our production director. Ash Beecher was our supervising producer. And Diana White was our associate producer. Fact-checking by Mary Mathis. Research by Karen Watanabe. Our music was composed by Kwame Brant Pierce, with additional music provided by Blue Dot Sessions, and our mixing was done by Justin D. Wright.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
This series was brought to you by Understood.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. From understood.org, our executive directors are Laura Key, Scott Cochier, and Seth Melnick. A very special thanks to Ray Jacobson, Julie Zietz, Jordan Davidson, Sarah Greenberg, and Kathleen Nadeau.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
If you want to help Understood continue this work, consider making a donation at understood.org.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Over the next year or so, the idea of ADHD as a strength seemed to take over the public conversation about this disorder. By 2023, it almost seemed cool, or at least trendy, to have ADHD. I watched this happen on social media and heard it in conversations with friends. Friends who'd never mentioned mental health issues were starting to call to tell me they had ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
And in those calls, they used a specific word, superpower. It's like ADHD was somehow rebranded in less than two years. I was confused. I still think of the stigma, and I've wondered two things. First, how'd this happen? I'd read that 84% of ADHD content on TikTok is misleading. Is all of this positivity and talk of superpowers driven by that 84%? My second question is about the impact.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Is the rebranding of ADHD one of the reasons so many women are being diagnosed? If so, what's the connection? And what does it mean to rebrand a mental health condition? Who does that benefit? As I started trying to answer these questions, I realized social media influencers didn't create this new way of thinking about ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
That, as far as I can tell, started at least 30 years ago and has been largely driven by a man determined to get the world to see ADHD through his eyes. For better or worse, I think he can now say, mission accomplished. This is Climbing the Walls, a podcast where I try to figure out why so many women are being diagnosed with ADHD. I'm Danielle Elliott.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Dr. Ned Hallowell opened the door with a giant smile on his face.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
It all got overwhelming at a time when I was already overwhelmed. I didn't have an apartment, a partner, or a job. There was nothing grounding me in New York. So I left. I went to South America, told myself I could do whatever I wanted until the wedding, and after that, I'd fly back to New York and figure things out.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
The doormat says, home to Ned, Sue, the names of their kids, and the names of their pets. It ends with a question mark, as though they're not sure if they'll have more kids or get more pets. Ned ushered me into the living room. Inside, the walls are covered with photos, massive frames with 20 or 30 photos each, maybe more. The kids all look grown, so I guess that question mark is about pets.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
He walked into another room and stood in front of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Writing is one of the ways he manages his ADHD. He stopped in the kitchen, and we sat down at a big table. I asked how ADHD became his specialty.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Early in Ned's child psychiatry fellowship, a professor gave a lecture about attention deficit disorder, as it was known at the time, and what Ned still calls it. As he listened to the professor describe kids who struggle with boredom, he understood. At the time, the medical model didn't mention adults. But that didn't sit right with Ned.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Over the next decade, Ned finished his training and started working at a hospital. He treated patients with severe cases of obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, schizophrenia, and other mental health conditions. He also treated many adults describing what he recognized as ADD.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
In his conversations with these patients, he became increasingly suspicious of the way the official diagnostic manual, the DSM, described ADD.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
He shared his suspicions with a colleague, Dr. John Rady, and they realized they were reaching the same conclusions.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Three weeks before the wedding, I flew into Dallas and spent the weekend with my sister. I bought a dress off a department store sale rack. Then I flew to Nicaragua to learn to surf. I know it sounds erratic, maybe like a 37-year-old refusing to grow up, but my choices made sense to me, kind of. I mean, if you need dopamine, learn to surf. Then came the wedding.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Ned and John were the first to put all of this into a book. Published in 1994, it's called Driven to Distraction.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Driven to Distraction helped Sari Solden recognize her ADHD. It helped Emily Mitchell understand herself. It sold more than 2 million copies. And it's still selling strong. It changes everything for people who read it, which for a long time meant it changed everything within ADHD circles or for people who were already diagnosed with ADHD and looking for more information.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I'm not convinced it changed the public perception of ADHD, at least not at first. And it definitely did not change the minds of the ADHD gatekeepers. One prominent expert, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center named Dr. Russ Barkley, did not hide his dismay.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I reached out to Dr. Barkley. He told me he remembers this slightly differently. He said that, quote, championing ADHD as a gift risks losing the hard-won protections and entitlements that exist with the diagnosis because it is a disorder. Over the next two decades, research started to support the idea that there are benefits to having ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Granted, most of this research was conducted in other fields. Geneticists identified genetic mutations that were strongly correlated with ADHD. Evolutionary scientists hypothesized that in the past, there could have been evolutionary advantages to having this type of brain. One psychiatrist told me that the benefits may not have always been experienced individually.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
He said ADHD exists because humans evolved in groups, and groups need risk-takers in order to learn anything new. Someone had to light the first fire. Someone had to be the first to swim. Someone had to try eating different foods. And when they did, it didn't always go well. People lit themselves on fire. People drowned or got eaten by sharks. People ate poisonous berries.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
That's me, giving the maid of honor toast at my sister's wedding. And my mom, laughing as she records on her phone. It's May 2022, about four months after I was diagnosed with ADHD. I'd love to say the diagnosis helped me get my life in order, but that would be a lie. Instead, it sent me down the rabbit hole of ADHD social media, learning all the ways the disorder has likely impacted my life.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
But someone else cooked food, someone else caught a fish, and someone else discovered that we can eat strawberries. Whether they lived or died, the risk-takers taught everyone something. Not all scientists agreed with the research on potential evolutionary benefits. At a 1999 CHAD conference, Dr. Barclay gave the keynote address.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
He told attendees he strongly believed that there is no evidence to support the idea of evolutionary advantages and that talking about them trivializes the disorder. He said that you cannot claim to benefit from ADHD and then want to call it a disorder. Ned agrees. Sort of.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
I had to leave the welcome party early to pick up the dress from the tailors. I almost forgot, then got lost and missed most of the dinner. A little voice in my head kept telling me I'm an idiot, that I can never get anything right, and I never will because I have ADHD. The wedding would be my first time seeing extended family in more than two years because of the pandemic.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
For years, this liberation came to those who happened to read Ned and John's books, or Sari Solden's, or a slew of others written by people who treat adult ADHD. The strengths did not enter the medical conversation. But the evidence of potential advantages only grew.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
In 2008, a pair of anthropology students traveled to northern Kenya to spend time with one of the few groups that still lives in the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Many in the group carry a genetic mutation that is strongly associated with ADHD. The researchers determined that, when living nomadically, those with the genetic mutation exhibit better health than those who live a settled life.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
And when living in a more settled life in a village, those with the genetic mutation show greater malnourishment. Conversely, people without the mutation are more healthy in a settled lifestyle and more malnourished when living nomadically.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Summarizing their findings, the authors of the study wrote, There is good reason to believe that in our evolutionary past, ADHD was often not much of a problem and was perhaps even an asset. Several studies have since supported their findings. Still, the medical model continues to describe ADHD as a deficit, and it continued to carry a stigma. Ned sees this as a great tragedy.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
Ned spent more than 40 years attempting to rebrand ADHD. The idea never seemed to reach the general public. Then, sometime during the pandemic, ADHD transformed from a stigmatized disorder into something people casually refer to as a superpower. I've tried to dissect this transformation. ADHD content on social media definitely helped destigmatize the disorder.
Climbing the Walls
ADHD: From stigma to superpower | 4
So did a general cultural shift towards accepting and understanding mental health differences. But when I look at ADHD content that was posted to social media in 2020, I don't see much, if anything, about superpowers. I talked to a popular ADHD coach. She can't remember people talking about superpowers until about 2021. She suggested it might have been linked to media coverage of a new book.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
She said that in one post, a woman cited a statistic about other Black women with ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
In these posts, she heard women describing why young Black girls are rarely diagnosed with ADHD. Or at least they were rarely diagnosed. Data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the largest increase in diagnosis from 2000 to 2010 happened among Black girls. But that statistic is tricky.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
It might have been the biggest increase because they were the most overlooked group of kids, and there was some catch-up happening. It doesn't mean there was enough diagnosis, and many young Black girls are still undiagnosed.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Another study, conducted by the Mayo Clinic and released in 2021, concluded that Asian, Black, and Hispanic children are significantly less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD compared with white children, and that many Black and Hispanic children go undiagnosed because of the ways their behavior is misinterpreted. This may be changing. The CDC releases data on ADHD diagnosis among kids every year.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
The latest numbers show that 12% of Black and white children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ADHD, compared to 10% of Native American and Hispanic kids, 6% of Pacific Islander kids, and 4% of Asian American kids. These numbers indicate more equity in diagnosis, and that's good news for kids. It doesn't mean much for adults, like Parker.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Some said they'd learned about ADHD on social media, and now they wanted to talk to their doctors about it. They wanted help navigating these conversations.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
It's harder to find data on adult diagnosis, but research indicates that Black and Latino women show symptoms of ADHD at the same rates as white women, but are far less likely to be diagnosed, and even then, less likely to receive treatment. I never think algorithms are helpful, but in this case, I'm actually like,
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
the algorithms figuring it out and getting the information, the not only getting information to you, but getting you information from the people who could be more helpful.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
All's well that ends well, right? Parker got her second opinion and found her people. But what about that King of Prussia doctor who tried to convince her that she didn't have ADHD? What was up with that? I looked into this issue of Black women being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder. I found that it's not only a problem for Black women with ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Doctors also fail to accurately diagnose Black women who actually have bipolar disorder. Often, according to what I read, emotional swings are dismissed as being those of angry Black women. For Parker, having the diagnosis of ADHD gives her a way to contend with this classic racial bias and others.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Like in meetings, if she's quiet and someone thinks she's not a team player, she can now tell them, No, I have ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
She handed me her phone to show me a photo. It was a spiral notebook. On the page, names of movies filled every line, top to bottom.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
But she was focusing. Writing out these filmographies made it easier to focus. And now it's easier to explain this.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Terry took this as a sign of progress. For decades, medical schools failed to educate psychiatrists and other doctors on the ways ADHD shows up in everyday life, especially for women. The lack of education and training led to years of misdiagnosis. She was happy to see that women were now more informed. She also worried about that information. In 2021, she joined TikTok to see if she could help.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
I lied when I said I was off social media for 2021. I had a couple of relapses here and there. Once, in April, I reactivated my Instagram account and a post caught my eye. It was a drawing of a woman in jeans and a sweatshirt. Across the top, it read, women and ADHD. Across the bottom of the page, it said, start a free assessment today. I looked at where the post was from.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Only then did I realize it was an ad. The account belonged to a company called Dunn. It seemed weird to me. An ADHD company? What even is an ADHD company? And why is it posting on social media? I didn't remember that from before the pandemic. Dunn and ADHD Online LLC are two of maybe a dozen ADHD-focused companies that appeared on social media during the pandemic. This is not a coincidence.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
It actually happened because of the pandemic. Remember when I said diagnosis got easier? Early in the pandemic, states eased strict regulations around how doctors can diagnose and prescribe stimulant medications. For the first time, doctors could prescribe via telehealth.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
With the hassle removed, the roadblock eased, thousands of women who might have previously been deterred by the steps were now able to handle the process before they had a chance to get distracted. This policy shift definitely contributed to the rise in diagnosis. It also sparked questions around over-diagnosis. I told you I'd come back to this.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Once these strict telehealth policies changed, people took advantage. Not individuals, as far as I know, but entrepreneurs. People created ADHD companies and started advertising services on social media. Companies like the ones that sent ads to me and Parker. The algorithm sent these ads to millions of women who, like Parker, took the assessments.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
The companies contracted psychiatrists and hired them. It looked like an ad hoc improvement in the healthcare system. And it was, mostly. Then, in 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice received complaints about one of these new companies, a company called Cerebral. The complaints claimed Cerebral was pressuring clinicians to prescribe Adderall and Ritalin to increase patient retention.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
The investigation was settled in 2024, with Cerebral agreeing to pay millions of dollars for, quote, engaging in practices that encouraged the unauthorized distribution of controlled substances from 2019 to 2022. As of June 2024, the telemedicine company Dunn is also under investigation.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
The founder and CEO and the clinical president were arrested on allegations that they instructed Dunn prescribers to prescribe Adderall and other stimulants even if the Dunn member didn't qualify. The Justice Department alleges that the executives prioritized profits over customer health, leading to addiction, abuse, and overdoses.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
There's no way to know how many people were misdiagnosed through these telehealth companies or to determine the accuracy rate of diagnosis during the pandemic. I get that. But I believe the women seeking a diagnosis were genuinely seeking help. All these conversations that sprung up online about ADHD during the pandemic, they helped normalize such conversations in the real world as well.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Not only were more women talking to their doctors and therapists about ADHD, they were also discussing it openly with each other, their communities, and their families.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Parker is a podcast host herself. Inevitably, she turned the interview on me. Yeah. So I've talked to my mom about it. I was trying to not tell anyone. And of course, I shared because I just overshare everything.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
No matter how much I'm like, I'm not going to tell. I'm on the phone and then I'm telling. And I talked to my mom and she's like, that can't be possible. You did so well in school. That's the same thing. And she was like, maybe you have it. But my generation didn't have this.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Hello. Terry is one of many health professionals who jumped into the social media conversations. In 2021, the New York Times wrote about this phenomenon. A headline says, Therapists are on TikTok. How does that make you feel? A group of researchers in Dublin, Ireland, tracked 28 active social media accounts owned by mental health professionals. All of these accounts had at least 100,000 followers.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
As Parker learned more about ADHD and how it showed up in daily life, she started to see her mom in a sort of new way.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
This is so familiar. I had the same reaction with my mom. Different details. Same story.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Parker thinks her mother has undiagnosed ADHD. We're no doctors, but I think mine does, too. It's a thing. Honestly, I think this is yet another reason diagnosis rose among women during the pandemic. As more women recognized their own ADHD, they started to notice it in their moms. My mom didn't seek a diagnosis. Neither did Parker's. But many women did.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
I have two friends whose moms were recently diagnosed in their 60s. Sari Solden told me about a client who was diagnosed at 83. Regardless, conversations on TikTok and, yes, for-profit companies offering screeners on TikTok helped Parker and thousands of women begin to consider ADHD during the pandemic. The pandemic opened more doors to these conversations, and TikTok helped them spread.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
But ultimately, it's the conversations themselves, the normalizing of talking about ADHD, that helped women from all different communities access information that they took to their doctors or to their therapists and said, please help me consider if I have ADHD. These conversations are still happening. I hear them everywhere. On the train, in bars, at birthday parties.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
I always wonder if this is some sort of Brooklyn phenomenon. I remember Parker once telling me she's sort of the cool cousin in the big city. I ask if that role has come into play in terms of ADHD. Does she bring it up when she's back in Baltimore? Though her mother didn't bite, Parker has become a role model for others in her family.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Not just because she's a self-determined, professional woman with an impressive career, but because she's open about her ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
They will all be fine. Perhaps more than fine. Because they're years ahead of either of us in knowing they have ADHD. They're years ahead of the many women diagnosed during the pandemic. many with the help of something they saw on TikTok. Parker doesn't know it, but this advice she gave her family member, I think it explains one other element of this massive rise in diagnosis. Listen closely.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Believe it or not, I wasn't on social media during the height of the pandemic. Instagram got boring. No one was going anywhere or doing anything. There was nothing to be mindlessly voyeuristic about. I deleted my accounts and wasn't really on from March 2020 to November 2021, except a few days here and there. I never join TikTok because I'm afraid I'll get addicted.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
The little kid's fine. They got superhuman strength. Superhuman strength. Before I was diagnosed, I don't remember hearing anyone describe ADHD as a strength. Maybe that's because I wasn't paying attention. Regardless, I don't know where that rhetoric started, but it gained a ton of popularity during the pandemic.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
When I first considered that I might have ADHD, I read about the common aspect of the condition called hyperfocus. Some people consider that to be a strength. By 2023, though, public perception of ADHD on a whole seemed to have shifted. People were calling it a superpower. And I'm pretty certain that this new way of looking at ADHD contributed to the rise in diagnosis during the last few years.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
And according to the study, a third of the creators' posts aimed to educate people about mental health concerns. The value of all this mental health content is up for debate. Whether it contributed to the sudden rise in diagnosis is not. There is no question that TikTok and the pandemic sparked something. Social media made it easier for information to spread to more people.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
In many people's eyes, it went from an affliction, a source of shame, to a desirable attribute. Again, I can't say who started this, but after a little digging, I can point to one man who has taken it upon himself to rebrand ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
In the next episode, I'm going to try to see it through his eyes and to try to understand how that might have impacted the rise in diagnosis.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
That's next time on Climbing the Walls. Climbing the Walls was written and reported by me, Danielle Elliott. It was edited by Neil Drumming. Sound design by Cody Nelson. Brianna Berry was our production director. Ash Beecher was our supervising producer. And Diana White was our associate producer. Fact-checking by Mary Mathis. Research by Karen Watanabe.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Our music was composed by Kwame Brant Pierce, with additional music provided by Blue Dot Sessions, and our mixing was done by Justin D. Wright. This series was brought to you by Understood.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
From understood.org, our executive directors are Laura Key, Scott Koshier, and Seth Melnick. A very special thanks to Ray Jacobson, Julie Zietz, Jordan Davidson, Sarah Greenberg, and Kathleen Nadeau. If you want to help Understood continue this work, consider making a donation at understood.org slash give.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Women started talking to each other, and they started understanding that they weren't the only ones struggling in the ways they were struggling.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
The few times I've looked at it, I've ended up scrolling through snowboarding videos for hours. So, no, I wasn't on social media during the pandemic. What'd I miss? The birth of ADHD social media, apparently. By the time I tuned in, in early 2022, there were millions of posts with the hashtag ADHD. They had more than 11 billion views on TikTok. They filled my entire Instagram discovery page.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
I wanted her to tell me her story because of how well it illustrates how many women came to their ADHD diagnosis through the explosive combination of the pandemic and social media, as well as the ups and downs of that process. So, Parker, can you introduce yourself?
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
How did you figure out that you have ADHD?
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
She is. Me too. This is Climbing the Walls, a podcast where I try to figure out why so many women are being diagnosed with ADHD. I'm Danielle Elliott. It was around 2020. My friend Parker was going through what she described to me as a mini breakdown. She couldn't focus on work. She'd be up all night procrastinating and then, at 10 o'clock, decide to whip up a batch of salmon croquettes.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Her own daily behavior didn't make any sense to Parker, but she was tuned into social media, and TikTok seemed to recognize exactly what was going on with her.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
I mean, I'm not sure. This was something that, up until then, Parker had not really considered. Parker had simply thought of herself as quirky. Though the medical community was slow to recognize ADHD in adult women, social media discussions among the women themselves go back almost as far as social media itself. Terry Matlin says she hosted AOL chat rooms about it in the 90s.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Women connected in Facebook groups. Instagram launched in 2010, Snapchat in 2011. At first, they were personal feeds, and later, people were using them to distribute information. But when TikTok launched in 2016, things started to ramp up. Popular accounts like Black Girl Lost Keys were openly discussing ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
By the height of the pandemic, the app's powerful, albeit mysterious algorithm was connecting thousands of women with ADHD-related content at a previously unheard-of rate. These were some of the same women who emailed Terry Matlin looking for guidance. Parker ran the idea by her own personal expert.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
TikTok wasn't done. Soon after her conversation with her therapist, the all-seeing algorithm changed. sent Parker a video in which someone takes an ADHD test. Parker asked her therapist again. It's like, should I take this thing? And they're like, you can. I mean, you got paid for it. Like, it's your money.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
I happen to know there's a free screener available online from the World Health Organization, the same screener my therapist suggested I use. I mentioned this to Parker.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
For women who were on social media during the pandemic, these posts sparked an explosion of interest in ADHD. Terry Matlin, author of The Queen of Distraction, has been treating women with ADHD since the late 90s. She told me she's never received such a sudden flood of emails from women looking for treatment.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Parker scrolled through her Gmail history to find the name of the organization that issued her test.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
As far as ADHD online was concerned, the results were conclusive. Oh, yeah, girl, you got ADHD. You have ADHD inattentive. Parker looked into what exactly inattentive ADHD entailed and what she learned tracked with her own life experience, especially when she read about the ways people with ADHD are able to hyper-focus.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
She took the test in November 2020. Parker sought out a psychiatrist who understood ADHD and could prescribe medications. That's when things got complicated. Her therapist gave her a list of names, but even with her existing health insurance coverage, the cost would be steep.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
A little over a year later, in 2022, Parker was thinking about leaving her job. That meant she was going to lose her health insurance. As everyone with ADHD knows, external motivation helps us do things. Knowing she might soon be without healthcare coverage drove Parker to finally address her ADHD. She found a psychiatrist, but he was located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Like me, Parker begrudgingly went ahead and booked a telehealth appointment. It was hardly her ideal situation.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
I felt the same way when I talked to a psychiatrist for the first time, also in early 2022. Neither of us knew at the time that this was really odd for a few reasons. I mean, it felt odd because it was odd. But it was also strange because, until the pandemic, this wasn't allowed. There were strict rules around prescribing stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
They could not be prescribed via telehealth. I'm not sure I would have gotten very far in the process if I'd had to wait for an in-person appointment. I haven't had an annual physical in years because I never get around to scheduling them. So even though the appointments could be awkward, telehealth made it easier. This is another reason for the rise in diagnosis.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
In the simplest terms, getting diagnosed got easier. That, of course, led to questions about our diagnosis. And we'll get back to those, I promise. But first, I want you to hear about Parker's bizarre video call and what happened after. Remember, it was early 2022, and she was working from home, waiting for her 7.30 appointment with the King of Prussia guy.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Parker was worried that the doctor might suspect her of trying to get her hands on prescription meds.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
I think the anxiety around all of this, the way the appointment feels, is a reason a lot of women never seek a diagnosis. Unfortunately, in Parker's case, that anxiety was well-placed, considering what happened when she tried to tell the doctor about her ADHD.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
It's just, like, I freeze, and I can't do anything. Parker went into the call hoping to get help with her ADHD. Instead, in less than 30 minutes, he'd suggested she was bipolar. I've heard many women report a misdiagnosis of anxiety or depression. Being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder seems like another level.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
Parker steered the conversation back to ADHD, and the doctor prescribed her the appropriate medication. Here's where it gets weird. The next time she looked at TikTok, it was as if the app had updated the dossier it was keeping on her.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
We like to talk about the algorithm, like it's some omniscient, even clairvoyant supermind. Probably because none of us know how it works. But it's not. It's more like some complex combination of statistics, probability, and soylent-fueled software engineering. The important point here is that it worked.
Climbing the Walls
How social media changed ADHD forever | 3
The algorithm started directing Parker to more and more accounts by Black women, specific and useful accounts like ADHD While Black, which she now follows. I didn't get these recommendations. The algorithm seems to know I'm white. But in 2022, Parker's feed spoke directly to her experience. These accounts offered helpful ways to manage her ADHD and encouragement.