I'm sure there are truly pathological cases of ADHD out there, and maybe taking amphetamines really is a magic pill for some folks. But there clearly is also an entire cottage industry cropping up around convincing perfectly normal people that they suffer from ADHD, and that this explains many unwanted aspects of the human condition.

Take this thread I stumbled across on X today by an "ADHD coach": The ADHD Basics. It lists five primary symptoms:

No wonder we've seen an explosion of ADHD diagnosis. This list applies to most humans at least part of the time! I would even say that all five applies to me much of the time. So does this mean I suffer from ADHD and should start taking Adderall? Come on.

This is usually when the hand waving starts: "Sure, you may recognize all those symptoms, but for true ADHD sufferers, they're just, like, worse!". Okay, but what kind of diagnostic standard is that?!

The official presentation of ADHD symptoms as listed on Wikipedia isn't much better than what the five from the ADHD coach either.  It includes markers such as:

Again, I can recognize myself in several of those from time to time. And if you include the entire list of markers from the DSM-5, I'm sure I can rack up the five+ necessary to earn an official designation of ADHD. That's just ridiculous.

It's even worse when it comes to kids, but Abigail Shrier already covered that topic expertly in Bad Therapy, so I won't repeat that here. If only to marvel at the collective insanity where being loud or animated during play is a pathological marker for children! Now that's crazy. 

But I know this is a touchy subject for plenty of parents of kids who struggle in ways that might fall under some of these rubrics. So let's leave the kids out of this for a minute and focus on the adults instead.

A total of 45 million Adderall prescriptions were written in the US in 2023. That's up from 35 million in 2019. A great many of these were surely made to people who got convinced that being "forgetful" or "attracted to novelty" isn't just part of being human, but an affliction requiring amphetamines to mitigate.

What this reminds me of is the concept of cold readings. Where a psychic slyly prods for revealing details from their subject while vaguely throwing out potential hooks left, right, and center. The subject is induced to ignore the vagueness that doesn't apply to their situation, but focus on the inevitable hits that convince someone that what they desperately want to hear is true.

I think a lot of people desperately want to hear that there's a medical reason for why they sometimes can't focus, don't feel motivated, forget things, or find breaking bad habits hard (and not something as boring as you need better sleep, regular exercise, and an improved diet). So when ADHD coaches show up to make them feel better with a medical label, it's compelling to partake in the cold reading, and get the answer you were hoping for.

But that's nonsense. You don't need a diagnosis to be a flawed human. It goes for all of us. So if you want to supercharge your morning's productivity routine by popping a pill or two of amphetamines, own it! Don't hide behind some label (or think you're immune to the long-term effects of taking speed either).