At ADHD Wise UK, we welcome thoughtful, evidence-informed discussion about ADHD. We share Psychology Now’s commitment to accuracy, nuance, and responsible practice. However, we were concerned by the framing of their recent feature asking whether ADHD is being “overdiagnosed”. Not because diagnostic rigour is unimportant (it is), but because the article misses a critical context that fundamentally alters how rising demand should be understood.
Rising demand is not simply a contemporary trend
It is, in significant part, a long overdue correction.
ADHD diagnostic criteria were shaped around typically male, externalised presentations. Girls and women, particularly those who were academically able, compliant, or highly masked, were routinely overlooked. Their difficulties were reframed as anxiety, low confidence, perfectionism, emotional sensitivity, or “coping but struggling”.
Many received years of mental health intervention without ever being assessed for ADHD.
What we are now seeing is, in part, female redress:
- Women recognising themselves through their children’s assessments
- Burnout and life transitions exposing the limits of masking
- Late diagnosis finally providing a coherent explanation for lifelong patterns of difficulty
To frame this shift primarily through the lens of “overdiagnosis” risks misinterpreting correction as excess.
For many women, the question “Is it really ADHD, or just anxiety?” is a familiar narrative of dismissal.
ADHD and anxiety frequently co-occur. In many cases, untreated ADHD drives chronic anxiety. When public discourse repeatedly positions anxiety as the more likely explanation, it reinforces self doubt and delays appropriate support.
This matters, because the harm of false negatives, missed or delayed diagnosis, is profound:
- Educational and occupational underachievement
- Chronic shame and self blame
- Mental health deterioration
- Repeated engagement with services that do not address the underlying issue
These harms deserve equal weight in any discussion of diagnostic caution.
System pressure is not caused by recognition
Increased demand does not overwhelm services because people are suddenly “seeking labels”. It overwhelms services because systems were not designed to meet needs that were historically ignored.
Framing rising diagnosis as a risk to be contained subtly shifts responsibility away from structural underinvestment and onto individuals seeking understanding.
That is neither clinically fair nor socially responsible.
A missed opportunity
The Psychology Now article could have played an important role in reframing this moment as one of historical correction, gender equity, and learning. A single acknowledgement that rising demand reflects what psychology and psychiatry failed to see before would have transformed the piece.
We believe Psychology Now has the influence and credibility to lead this conversation more fully.
ADHD does not need defending from scrutiny. But women and girls need protecting from narratives that redress long delayed recognition as excess.
We invite continued, open, and balanced discussion that holds diagnostic rigour and historical accountability side by side.
With respect,
ADHD Wise UK
