Dr. Kieran Kennedy

I think for people who have a diagnosis of ADHD or think they might, this can be one of the hardest parts about

living right now with neurodivergence you know i think there's so much online and in social media and there's all this misinformation i think people who are concerned they might have adhd can often kind of gaslight themselves a little bit to be honest and and say well you know everyone's saying they have it now or people are talking about having adhd if they you know

can't focus on their phone for five seconds.

And so that is really difficult.

I think in terms of how we might respond to someone saying that in terms of, oh, no, you don't have it.

Everyone's got ADHD.

That's definitely not the case.

Everyone might struggle with focus at points.

All of us might forget something or mix someone's name up.

Or if we're sitting in a car for two hours, we might feel a bit antsy and restless.

So everyone potentially struggles with features that can look and feel like ADHD, but not everyone has the certain clustering of those symptoms at a severe enough level to warrant an ADHD diagnosis.

Yeah, I don't know.

Without saying jog on, I mean, I think if people are kind of hearing that, it would be, you know, just politely letting them know that absolutely not everyone has ADHD.

About 2.6% of New Zealand adults have a diagnosis of ADHD.

So it's definitely not everyone, but it is a significant number.

And probably the number of adults that have it but don't have a diagnosis yet is quite a lot more than that.

So again, I think there's a bit of a misconception in terms of just we're hearing so much about it, it feels like everyone's bloody got it or thinking they've got it.

But it actually still is quite a subspecialised, kind of not overly common condition in a lot of ways too.

Yeah, I mean, it really depends on the person.

But for a lot of people, it can change and get better.