In a feature by ABC News, psychologists noted that many people now come into assessments saying: “I think I have ADHD. I saw this on TikTok.” 

A 2024 BMJ EBM supplement study titled “The impact of social media on attention deficit hyperactivity…” (POD.93) also explores how health messaging on social media can influence self-diagnosis behaviours, pointing to a “prevalence inflation hypothesis,” where increased awareness leads to more people seeking diagnoses (and sometimes overdiagnosis). 

So yes, social media hasn’t caused ADHD in people who wouldn’t have had it, but it’s amplified awareness, making the journey to diagnosis more visible and accessible (for better or worse). Leaving medical practitioners overwhelmed with new patients enquiring about their symptoms.

But how do I view my symptoms? 

Do I wish I was ‘normal’? or ‘Neurotypical?’ 

To be honest, I don’t know life any other way. 

I know that when I was using, he prescribed medication that took away 10% of what I consider my personality. I stopped day dreaming and didn’t want to speak.

Sure, I was over focused and a great negotiator. But I like day dreaming, and I speak for a living. Those were the two things I wasn’t willing to compromise. So, I braved the symptoms the old-fashioned way. I ‘Raw dogged” my brain as the Gen z’s would say.

Instead of trying to ‘fit in’ to how society tells me I should operate, I decided to make life work around me.

For example, the idea of a 9-5 went out the window. Instead, every day I would do whichever work was looming over my head the most. You know how your teacher always told you to work on your essay weeks leading up to the due date? But instead, you would cram the work the night before and pull an all nighter? I found that the last-minute cramming is what works best for me.

Why?

Because it keeps me on my toes and ignites the engine that drives my creativity. I feel when you plan too much the excitement falls away and the effort isn’t sustainable. But when there is a risk factor involved. You are almost dialled in. like a rock climber without a safety rope. Or a ten pin bowler without the bumpers.

When I was tailing an inland taipan (tailing means holding it by the tail controlling the head) I was so hyper focused on where the head of the snake was angled, nothing else could interrupt my zone. Every slight move this snake made (which is the most venomous in the world. If it bit me I would be dead in 15 minutes) I was dialled in and 2 moves ahead of it, watching it, feeling it, controlling it. Because the risk was so high, I had no other option than to be completely present and focus on this situation.

With ADHD I feel it’s the same. We leave things to the last minute, then when we have to execute the task all of our energy goes into it and we pull off a magic trick. There is something to that. The magic that goes into that last minute scramble, your heart and soul, your creativity, your blood sweat and tears is all injected into that one project and sometimes it is just a work of art.

I have found my own way to rely on that natural ability to pull a rabbit out of my hat. I trust my ADHD brain to work when I need it to. I don’t like to plan, I like to keep on my toes, that anxiety of not fully knowing what will happen helps me keep sharp between the ears and dial into that hyperfocus when needed.

It keeps me present.