Simon Says “You have ADHD”

     In the five years between 2019 and 2024 the number of people prescribed ADHD medication in the UK increased by 51 percent. Today 5 percent of the children in the UK are diagnosed with ADHD. 

     In the US it’s far worse: 10 percent of all children are told they have ADHD and are prescribed medication for it.

     Spoiler alert: despite all the genetic, neurochemical, and brain imaging research that has been done on ADHD, not one single biomarker has been found underlying this “condition.” There is no science behind ADHD. A psychiatrist’s diagnosis of ADHD is based solely on the subjective criteria voted on for the DSM, the reports of concerned (but uneducated) parents, and the results of those seven question surveys that ask a child about “symptoms.”

     “Have you had difficulty focusing your attention recently?
     “Have you felt unusually restless recently?”
     “Oh. Really? Simon says you have ADHD.”

     As long as Simon is a psychiatrist, you get to take two steps forward and consume a capsule of Adderall, Ritalin or Concerta.

     We’re all concerned with the overmedication of Americans – especially of our children and adolescents – but the real problem is overdiagnosis. The staggering increase of ADHD cases – and the subsequent number of prescriptions written – has occurred in the real world. However, the initial, aggressively cancerous growth of  “ADHD” first occurred only in the minds of psychiatrists.

     There still is no truth behind an ADHD diagnosis, but the idea of ADHD has unfortunately now metastasized from the minds of psychiatrists to the minds of otherwise well intentioned medical doctors. Sadly, too many general practitioners and pediatricians take it upon themselves to trigger-react to these bogus questionnaires their offices give out and prescribe harmful ADHD stimulants to our children.

     It’s a dangerous game of Simon Says.