Why have so many people got ADHD?

Happy Neurodiversity Week! How are you and your loved ones planning to celebrate? It’s too early to tell how various companies, political figures and media organisations will be marking the occasion, but we can probably guess, judging from what they have been up to lately.

On Sunday, Wes Streeting was interviewed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on her flagship show. Asked repeatedly whether the “overdiagnosing” of some conditions was a problem, the health secretary agreed, and said that there “definitely” was an overdiagnosis issue. A few days earlier, the Evening Standard published a piece titled, “How the internet diagnosed the entire world with autism and ADHD”. Across the press, doctor Suzanne O’Sullivan’s new book, The Age Of The Diagnosis, also received rave reviews.

2025’s message to recently diagnosed neurodivergent people, then, seems to be: congratulations! We don’t believe you. Stop trying to be special; back into the box you go. To say that it’s a frustrating state of affairs would be something of an understatement. That the number of diagnoses for ADHD has dramatically risen over the past few years ought to be discussed – there is no doubt about that – but are denial and doubt really the best ways to go about it?

Though everyone agrees that something is clearly happening at the moment, simply refusing to address such a seismic change feels incredibly short-sighted. It also feels disappointingly uncurious. Good policy making, when faced with an intriguing question, ought to try and find answers before settling on solutions.

In this particular case, the question is: why are so many more adults getting diagnosed with ADHD? Streeting, the BBC et al assume that eager, quackish doctors are to blame. It’s possible that they are right, but it feels worth going through other hypotheses as well.

One obvious theory is that ADHD can present differently in women: that we now know this means that more female ADHD sufferers can recognise their symptoms for what they are, and thus end up seeking a formal diagnosis. Another one is that, more broadly, there is now more information about what ADHD looks like in adulthood, as it was once thought to be a disorder predominantly affecting children. The internet has many flaws, but it can still help people access resources they would have struggled to obtain otherwise.

Another potential explanation lies with recent events, and more specifically the pandemic. Neurodivergent people, especially undiagnosed and unmedicated ones, will usually have developed a number of coping mechanisms in order to get through life. When lockdowns got rid of most of them, those people collapsed, then sought answers.

Similarly, an interesting theory posits that, while good news elsewhere, the decrease in smoking rates can be partially blamed for the diagnoses increase. ADHD brains work more smoothly when bathed in nicotine, meaning that many people were self-medicating for decades without realising it.

In short: there are many potential reasons why more and more people may be getting diagnosed with ADHD right about now, and they all seem worth exploring. Why are we trying to sweep them under the carpet instead? Crucially, seeking those answers may lead us to some useful solutions.

As this neurodivergent person can happily tell you, today’s world isn’t always especially friendly to our kind. Workplaces don’t cater well to neurodiverse brains, and our lives are spent endlessly adjusting ourselves and our behaviours just so we can vaguely try to fit in. It’s an exhausting, alienating way to live.

It also seems worth saying that many of the things we’re asking for – more flexible hours, no endless meetings, no micromanagement, more career freedom – would benefit everyone else as well. It may be easier to treat us as demanding and attention-seeking, but taking our plight seriously wouldn’t make only our lives easier.

Really, the one thing I and others do have in common with those who seek to deny our existence is that we could do with a society that accepts us as who we are. You can think of it as a win-win; in a genuinely inclusive world, many neurodivergent people would no longer struggle to get through the day, and consistently feel like the odd one out. The neurotypical doubters would, as a result, no longer have to hear from us quite so often. Do you hear that, Wes Streeting? Our silence can so easily be bought. Just go chat to Starmer, won’t you? Then we’ll be out of your hair. Well, until the next Neurodiversity Week, at least.