Try Living With ADHD Before You Call It Trendy

Call it a trend again, and I’ll show you the years it stole from me

If you’ve ever had to defend your diagnosis to someone who should have known better, if you’ve ever felt erased by the very people meant to help you, then this is yours too. And if it feels right, becoming a paid subscriber helps keep this space real and free for anyone who’s still fighting to be believed. No polish. No gatekeeping. Just the truth we were never supposed to say out loud.

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A woman messaged me. Her child was denied an ADHD evaluation because the doctor said

“This diagnosis is everywhere now.”

That’s what so many of them reduced it to: a trend.

Not all doctors, of course. But it only takes one to do serious damage. One doctor, with the wrong attitude, can derail someone’s life.

Because that’s exactly what happens when a specialist denies a diagnosis just to protect their personal beliefs instead of following the science.

And let’s not pretend it’s rare. It’s 2025, and there are still doctors who don’t believe ADHD is real. Again, not all of them.

Sorry to the good doctors, and I do believe they’re the majority. But again, one is enough.

I want to be clear. That’s not caution. That’s failure.

That’s what it looks like when someone forgets why they chose this profession to begin with. And I’m not going to stay quiet about it.

I am furious.

Because I’ve spent so many years here fighting for awareness. For understanding. For respect. And now I’m watching trained professionals, the ones we’re supposed to trust, dismissing ADHD like it’s a phase. A fad. A “punchline.”

They’re not being skeptical. They’re being reckless.

People are listening. Some are finally close to understanding themselves. And then someone calls it a trend and builds another wall.

Every time someone calls ADHD trendy, they plant doubt where clarity was about to grow. They close a door right as someone was reaching for the handle.

And let’s not pretend this is harmless.

When you repeat the lie that ADHD is overdiagnosed, this is what you’re really saying: that the struggling adult in your office might be imagining things.

That the teenager who can’t keep up in school is just part of some new attention trend.

That the woman who’s been misdiagnosed five times should probably stop reading TikTok and grow up.

Imagine finally feeling seen, and then being told you imagined it.

If you’ve ever had to convince someone your pain was real, you know how deep the cut goes.

This isn’t about being angry at a few loud voices online. This is about the slow damage done by people in positions of power and full of credentials who say things that sound smart but leave others unseen.

And once that damage is done, it’s hard to undo.

You can’t unhear a diagnosis dismissed.

ADHD is not a fashion. It’s not a phase. And it’s not a personality trend for people who talk fast and forget their keys.

It’s a neurological reality.

It affects the way we think, the way we plan, the way we move through the world.

It shapes our days and our nights. It disrupts everything, and we still have to live.

Our brains don’t shut off. Our minds jump tracks before we’ve even realized what we were supposed to be focusing on. And guess what, we are still accused of being distracted on purpose.

Lazy on purpose. Messy on purpose.

We are not lazy. We are tired. And many of us are tired of being kind to professionals who refuse to listen.

And it’s not just one or two of them. It’s doctors. Therapists. Psychologists.

People who have read the research. People who have seen the evidence. People who should know better, and still choose to doubt.

It’s the refusal to believe anyone who doesn’t fit the mold. It’s the woman in her 40s who gets labeled anxious. The quiet kid who gets ignored. The adult who’s told they’re just burned out.

And it’s always the same story: someone knew something was wrong, but no one would listen.

If you’ve been there, you know the moment when you stop asking. When you start assuming that maybe this is just who you are. Broken. Inadequate. Impossible to explain.

That’s what they’re reinforcing, every time they say ADHD is everywhere. Every time they suggest it’s being handed out too freely.

Let me ask you this: if someone told you their house was on fire, would you complain that too many people are calling the fire department? Or would you ask what took them so long?

Social media didn’t invent ADHD, it just gave people a mirror.

And if they finally saw their reflection in a stranger’s post, that’s not a symptom of overdiagnosis. That’s a symptom of being ignored for too long.

If TikTok taught someone the language they needed to explain their struggle, the problem isn’t the platform. The problem is that no one else taught them sooner.

When someone finds themselves in a 60-second video, it’s not because they’re looking for excuses, but because no one ever gave them answers.

Not self-diagnosis, but the relief of knowing they’re not the only one.

People aren’t self-diagnosing because they want attention. They’re doing it because they were never given the tools to understand themselves. And when professionals dismiss those discoveries, they’re not protecting science.

They’re protecting their own discomfort.

And let’s not forget the practical side. An ADHD evaluation isn’t cheap. It’s not fast. It’s not accessible. The idea that people are being diagnosed too easily is laughable to anyone who’s tried to get a real evaluation.

You have to wait months. Pay thousands. Fight insurance. Travel for hours. And even then, you might walk away empty-handed, told you’re “borderline” or “high-functioning” or “just anxious.”

It’s not overdiagnosis that’s the problem. It’s how hard we make it for people to get help.

And while so many around argue about whether ADHD is real enough or rare enough, people are losing years of their lives. Years of confidence. Years of possibility.

Because someone else decided they didn’t look the part.

This isn’t for people who won’t listen. It’s for you, so you remember their doubt isn’t the final word.

You don’t need to match their idea of what ADHD is supposed to look like. You don’t need to explain your life in perfect clinical terms. If you are struggling and you finally found a name for what you’ve been carrying, that name belongs to you.

If you’re a professional and you’ve said these things, I want you to sit with what it costs. Not to you, but to the people who listened. You don’t have to like how people are learning about ADHD. But you do have to ask yourself why they had to learn it anywhere else but from you.

If you’ve ever felt dismissed, erased, or told you’re late to the conversation please know you’re not. You’re right on time. You belong here. Your story counts, even if someone else decided not to listen.

They can keep their skepticism. We’ll keep speaking.

We’re not going anywhere.

💚 If this hit too close, or made you roll your eyes and think, “yep, I’ve been dismissed like that too”, I’d love if you shared it with someone who gets it (or someone who seriously needs to).

💚 And if you’ve got something to say, whether it’s “thank you” or “you forgot the worst part”, leave a comment. I’ve been dismissed by professionals, I can survive a comment section!