Not a historian, but the Mino (women's regiments) of the kingdom of Dahomey seem like an instant disproof of Musk: two hundred plus years of Spartan-style slaving, massacring and town-storming. Or more cheerfully, there's the women's units of the Kurdish militia, defeating Islamic State in Kobani.
Yeah. I also think that the invention of drones and air support has made the sex of soldiers a more abstract question. If your army is fighting street to street with bayonets, you should get men in. But also if you’re doing that, the Americans will simply drop a daisy-cutter on you these days.
Agreed. But dear Elon's point had less to do with military effectiveness than macho posing, so it will be female soldiers' inability to loom and glower according to his specifications that really counts with him...
Ironic as he waxed lyrical about cancelling the F35 plane contract as it was superceded by drones and other tech. Obviously this was before he joined DOGE.
Sorry out of curiosity are you the Francis Spufford? If so I'd just like to say how much I loved Red Plenty - not just a great book but so creative conceptually.
Some years ago I lent Red Plenty to my teacher. Olga returned it the following week, saying: "You do realize that I know these people?" Thank you, Francis!
My hunch is the ADHD point can be extended to a lot of other cases. Like a lot of anxiety or depression feels like a normal human response to a negative situation, probably coupled to things like declining levels of social contact and more people living alone. But fixing those underlying things is hard and you can buy beta blockers online in with next day delivery so of course people are going to go the medication route, the same as posting about your ‘special brain’ identity on social media is easier than having a serious and difficult conversation with a friend.
I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 40s and found the medication really helpful. Crucially it helped me regulate my emotions which makes my life much easier. I do agree that the environment makes a difference as evidenced by the reduction in my stress levels now I'm in a more flexible job, and the increase in stress when I've had bad line managers.
I have experience of ADHD as both a person and a parent (like many, diagnosed when the my daughter was).
I agree that environment is crucial - I worked for many years in factual TV and so many of my peers were diagnosed when they left. We were all brilliantly functioning in a fast-moving, never-boring environment, but so many of us struggled after that in a more 'normal' world.
But I disagree that medication doesn't improve grades. Daughter was diagnosed at the start of GCSES; she was excellent at the subjects she liked, but less good at the ones she didn't. Medication let her focus on those and she went up 2 grades in about 8 weeks. This isn't the be-all and end all, but medication can allow some teenagers to access education in a way they cannot do otherwise.
[Also, she would argue very strongly for her own meds; she has always had the option of not taking them at weekends, but much prefers what she can do and how she is with them on, says it's like asking her not to wear her glasses].
Very thought-provoking perspective, thank you. I hope there's a way to finesse "these coping strategies might help you manage the condition, and develop resilience" without it reading as "buck up and get over it".
Also, as a personal PS, I like journalism because it helps me with similar tendencies to the ones that you describe -- I enjoy concentrating deeply in short bursts, but struggle with procrastination and ennui when I don't have a looming deadline.
I have little to say to this other than yes, exactly.
The adrenaline of deadlines does work a bit like ADHD meds, which also explains why there were so many ADHD-ers in factual tv, because this also makes us very calm in a crisis (of which there were many if you happened to work on something like, say, Changing Rooms)
I lived through the ADHD diagnosis trajectory with my eldest son, who’s now 23. At the insistence of his 4th grade teacher we had him evaluated by an educational psychologist, who diagnosed him with ADHD and, bizarrely, Oppositional Defiance Disorder.
Partly because of the dual diagnosis with ODD (which raised a red flag), and partly because as a professor I was already reading student essays in which young adults were reevaluating their treatment with stimulants in childhood, we decided not to medicate our son.
Fast-forward a few years: when he started struggling a little in high school I offered that he could be reevaluated, and maybe medication would help. He steadfastly refused and said he’d rather learn how to manage the symptoms on his own. By college, with the boredom of high school behind him, he began to soar—honors student, scholarships, study abroad, and now documentary filmmaking…he’s definitely found his place, and I’m glad we listened to our gut and his intuition.
EDIT: I’ll also add that having now experienced autism with my youngest son, it’s irritating/frustrating/infuriating when people lump ADHD and ASD together as “neurodiversity.” These are wildly different experiences with extremely different support needs.
Good points by Henry Oliver. One wrinkle I'd add to "male reading crisis" is I wonder if the issue has become somewhat self-perpetuating now. If men aren't seen as likely readers attempts to market to them may also be fading. I'd guess if you're a guy your less likely to get targeted ads for your author, the media you consume if less likely to contain discussion of or promotion of books, etc...
On an even more micro-level as a guy who's a relatively habitual reader I relatively often find myself put off by the blurbs of books I actually go on to enormously enjoy. There could be a lot of reasons for this. Blurb writing being shoddy, me being capricious and contrarian, etc... But I have found myself wondering at times if there was a gendered element, if the decisions around what elements of the books are highlighted and presented in said blurbs have an audience not very like me in mind.
I've found the screen too consistently tempting with the DIY dumbphone method, even when paired with Cal Newport's 'Phone foyer' method (leaving it plugged in by the front door/in the kitchen when home). I lack the willpower. I downgraded to a flip phone a year ago and, despite a difficult period of adjustment, have not looked back. Admittedly I chose a model that could be tinkered with to run a basic podcast app as well as whatsapp (it receives messages, which I can reply to on my laptop). How amazing am I? Digital vegan. Just ask me about it!
I can highly recommend getting an old Kobo Mini and carrying that around in your back pocket instead of your phone. I have read an extra book this week in the moments I’d normally be scrolling. I’d like a Boox Palma so I can read library books but I worry that even its limited Android functionality might tempt me into installing apps
I struggle with this because I use Facebook Marketplace as my first stop for shopping. I could, in theory, make a list of everything I want to search for and do it in one shot late every day, but the weight of things I haven't ticked off yet sits on my mind, so it's easier to reach for the phone and just do it. I have installed one of those third-party apps that make you pick how long you plan to stay in the app, and then shuts it off when that time runs out. That keeps me accountable if I end up scrolling instead of shopping.
I've read Catherine Price's How to Break Up With Your Smartphone and found it reasonable helpful.
So Musk wants to father loads of kids but not actually be a father to them? (apart from the lad who was picking his nose in the Oval Office - arguably the most productive thing to happen there since January). Not sure if Musk as an absent father is possibly better for the children than him actually being there
Russell Barkley, until recently a leading ADHD researcher and former clinical neuropsychiatrist, had some concerns about the NYTimes article which he details here in quite a reasonable fashion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8GlhCmdkOw
As a parent of children with ADHD who only improved and were able to learn once they started stimulant medication, I feel like I spend my life smiling tolerantly at people telling me that "ADHD isn't real" or "it's just the pharmaceutical industry targeting children who fidget" or my personal favourite, "it's just down to bad parenting, isn't it?" (Thanks, my former dentist). I expect to get even more of that, after this article.
I don't think the article represented current research well. Does it matter that there is no biomarker, no obvious delineation for ADHD? Why does this matter? What is the biomarker for schizophrenia vs schizoaffective disorder? There isn't one. There isn't for depression or anxiety either but I don't see so many wordy think pieces in the the newspapers wondering if they really need all those SSRIs. Maybe twenty years ago, but not now. For some reason there is a deep discomfort around treating ADHD, almost a "come on, bootstraps, you'll get over it, don't be so self-indulgent" quality.
Some of the personal anecdotes reminded me of TikTokkers who want to redefine autism and ADHD as a superpower, and in doing so, ignore all those people who are severely affected, who don't experience ADHD as a superpower but as something that has made life incredibly difficult and painful. Almost nothing in this article resonated with me as true to my own family's experience, which is a shame.
I think it does matter that there's no biomarker, because that makes the condition much more amenable to being seen as a spectrum, and one with fuzzy edges where different people might make different choices about medication. It's not liking having liver cancer or not.
FWIW, I think there should be more discussion of the side-effects of SSRIs. They are another drug that can be absolutely life-saving, but at quite a high cost (including sometimes *raising* suicide risk). We should be able to have evidence-based conversations about this stuff without people getting the message that their suffering isn't real or that drugs are a Big Pharma fraud.
Regarding giving the phone a lobotomy: I have the “brick” and it’s been awesome. Just set up which apps u want to block when concentrating and touch your phone physically to the brick. You can’t access those apps until you’ve touched out again. I don’t even need to leave the house to avoid temptation. I bricked Instagram 4 weeks ago and simply haven’t unbricked it! Am getting so much more achieved. And I don’t even know or care what funny dogs in costumes memes I am missing out on.
Why are all these debates about ADHD environment focusing on school or work? Like ADHD magically doesn't exist at home? Like I will suddenly remember to payy bills or where I've left my phone or motivation to organise my house and not trip over piles of clothes?
Without medication, I can't function like an adult, let alone have hobbies or be properly present in my children's lives.
Let's talk about that for change, and not how wonderfully creative and quirky ADHDers are if we just let them choose their environment.
(Btw, I was one of those kids whose behaviour was not a problem for teachers, thus not diagnosed until late 30s!)
I was also not diagnosed until my mid 30s, in part because I had such an ADHD-friendly environment at school - a boarding school where I got lots of exercise, daily chores were mostly handled for me, my peers and teachers were bright and intellectually stimulating, and assessment was mostly by exam (I did *much* worse on coursework-based subjects). It wasn't until I left university that the wheels started to come off. So I went back to graduate school, where I was assessed on a single long-form piece of work - d'oh! If I'd known about my condition earlier, I'd have tried to structure my life so it was more exam-like and/or more physical, but it would be difficult to change that now :-/
Children (and adults) with ADHD are just as varied in their learning style (visual, kinetic, linguistic, etc) as anyone else. One type of school or work environment will suit one person with ADHD but not the next. The same is true for anyone, not just those with an information-processing problem.
Why should medication be expected to improve results unless the student already is academic? A child who’s not academic will not suddenly do well after taking medication for their ADHD.
But I take your point that the article raises worthwhile questions about the complexity of ADHD management in childhood and early adulthood.
The key thing in my experience is guidance from parents or healthcare professionals or teachers to help the student make the most of the medication. The effect of Ritalin and similar types of meds is to create clear periods of ultra focus.
But you need to know how to wield that focus: the person has to direct it at a task. Just taking the meds and expecting them to magically sort your life out is naive.
And the meds create periods of burn out type of feeling as a consequence of creating two hours of hyper focus. So, the student needs to learn how to manage that downer feeling.
As for anyone, exercise and emotional support play important roles in the life of a person with ADHD.
Medication is not a panacea - and the commercial interests of its producers make many observers cynical of the value of the medication. But believe me, it can be positively transformative for people with lifelong ADHD.
That’s where I land too. I know people for whom medication has been incredibly helpful. But (particularly in adolescents) it can’t be a “pop two pills and see you in a few years” deal. There do seem to be other interventions and adjustments we should consider.
Succinctly put and I agree. And I hopefully think that by developing better support for young people with ADHD, we discover that what benefits ADHDers could benefit others too. Things like support with how to study effectively, how to manage emotions, how to unwind healthily, etc.
If we're going with the Chinese emperor analogy, you have to wonder how long it’ll be before Musk starts scouting for eunuchs among his tech-bro admirers. And, frankly, how many would quietly volunteer, tackle in hand, for a chance to get closer to the throne.
Good to see the clothes of the ADHD emperor being revealed for what they are. The medicalisation and individualisation of human behavior has been around long time, in general playing to the fact that people do naturally derive comfort and support in a diagnosis, and the fact that us human animals love a pattern of behavior to categorize. All you wonderful people who creatively adjust to your environments realise how clever you are and that it may indeed be possible with the luxury of your own agency where possible to change as the people in the study seem to have done. Of course the pharmaceutical industry will call me unkind at best.
Thank you - again - for the gift link! I'm so glad you're thinking/writing about ADHD. The identity model of disorders drives me nuts. One of these days, I'll post something about being misdiagnosed with ADHD by a private psychiatrist and a fancy educational psychologist (both male) - after I've killed the monster of my PhD-induced perfectionism-driven anxiety (correctly diagnosed in less than 5 mins by a female NHS psychiatrist).
BBC Panorama did a program where they found you can basically buy a diagnosis if you go to a private psychiatrist. And the ADHD Foundation's response was poor, I thought -- it read less like an independent charity advocating for patients more like a trade association defending its guild members. https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk/2023/05/15/response-to-bbc-panorama-private-adhd-clinics-exposed/
Not a historian, but the Mino (women's regiments) of the kingdom of Dahomey seem like an instant disproof of Musk: two hundred plus years of Spartan-style slaving, massacring and town-storming. Or more cheerfully, there's the women's units of the Kurdish militia, defeating Islamic State in Kobani.
Yeah. I also think that the invention of drones and air support has made the sex of soldiers a more abstract question. If your army is fighting street to street with bayonets, you should get men in. But also if you’re doing that, the Americans will simply drop a daisy-cutter on you these days.
Agreed. But dear Elon's point had less to do with military effectiveness than macho posing, so it will be female soldiers' inability to loom and glower according to his specifications that really counts with him...
Ironic as he waxed lyrical about cancelling the F35 plane contract as it was superceded by drones and other tech. Obviously this was before he joined DOGE.
Sorry out of curiosity are you the Francis Spufford? If so I'd just like to say how much I loved Red Plenty - not just a great book but so creative conceptually.
The only bearer of this slightly odd name, yes. Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
omg I was a superfan of Red Plenty as well. Thanks for writing such a great book!
I haven't read Red Plenty, but I loved Backroom Boys!
Some years ago I lent Red Plenty to my teacher. Olga returned it the following week, saying: "You do realize that I know these people?" Thank you, Francis!
My hunch is the ADHD point can be extended to a lot of other cases. Like a lot of anxiety or depression feels like a normal human response to a negative situation, probably coupled to things like declining levels of social contact and more people living alone. But fixing those underlying things is hard and you can buy beta blockers online in with next day delivery so of course people are going to go the medication route, the same as posting about your ‘special brain’ identity on social media is easier than having a serious and difficult conversation with a friend.
Good old Elon, not even capable of doing sexism-by-history properly.
I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 40s and found the medication really helpful. Crucially it helped me regulate my emotions which makes my life much easier. I do agree that the environment makes a difference as evidenced by the reduction in my stress levels now I'm in a more flexible job, and the increase in stress when I've had bad line managers.
Diagnosed in my 30s and meds are life changinf
I have experience of ADHD as both a person and a parent (like many, diagnosed when the my daughter was).
I agree that environment is crucial - I worked for many years in factual TV and so many of my peers were diagnosed when they left. We were all brilliantly functioning in a fast-moving, never-boring environment, but so many of us struggled after that in a more 'normal' world.
But I disagree that medication doesn't improve grades. Daughter was diagnosed at the start of GCSES; she was excellent at the subjects she liked, but less good at the ones she didn't. Medication let her focus on those and she went up 2 grades in about 8 weeks. This isn't the be-all and end all, but medication can allow some teenagers to access education in a way they cannot do otherwise.
[Also, she would argue very strongly for her own meds; she has always had the option of not taking them at weekends, but much prefers what she can do and how she is with them on, says it's like asking her not to wear her glasses].
Very thought-provoking perspective, thank you. I hope there's a way to finesse "these coping strategies might help you manage the condition, and develop resilience" without it reading as "buck up and get over it".
Also, as a personal PS, I like journalism because it helps me with similar tendencies to the ones that you describe -- I enjoy concentrating deeply in short bursts, but struggle with procrastination and ennui when I don't have a looming deadline.
I have little to say to this other than yes, exactly.
The adrenaline of deadlines does work a bit like ADHD meds, which also explains why there were so many ADHD-ers in factual tv, because this also makes us very calm in a crisis (of which there were many if you happened to work on something like, say, Changing Rooms)
My mother-in-law says "ADD" describes the report card of the child in question. Joke sort of died when they decided to make it ADHD, alas.
I lived through the ADHD diagnosis trajectory with my eldest son, who’s now 23. At the insistence of his 4th grade teacher we had him evaluated by an educational psychologist, who diagnosed him with ADHD and, bizarrely, Oppositional Defiance Disorder.
Partly because of the dual diagnosis with ODD (which raised a red flag), and partly because as a professor I was already reading student essays in which young adults were reevaluating their treatment with stimulants in childhood, we decided not to medicate our son.
Fast-forward a few years: when he started struggling a little in high school I offered that he could be reevaluated, and maybe medication would help. He steadfastly refused and said he’d rather learn how to manage the symptoms on his own. By college, with the boredom of high school behind him, he began to soar—honors student, scholarships, study abroad, and now documentary filmmaking…he’s definitely found his place, and I’m glad we listened to our gut and his intuition.
EDIT: I’ll also add that having now experienced autism with my youngest son, it’s irritating/frustrating/infuriating when people lump ADHD and ASD together as “neurodiversity.” These are wildly different experiences with extremely different support needs.
Good points by Henry Oliver. One wrinkle I'd add to "male reading crisis" is I wonder if the issue has become somewhat self-perpetuating now. If men aren't seen as likely readers attempts to market to them may also be fading. I'd guess if you're a guy your less likely to get targeted ads for your author, the media you consume if less likely to contain discussion of or promotion of books, etc...
On an even more micro-level as a guy who's a relatively habitual reader I relatively often find myself put off by the blurbs of books I actually go on to enormously enjoy. There could be a lot of reasons for this. Blurb writing being shoddy, me being capricious and contrarian, etc... But I have found myself wondering at times if there was a gendered element, if the decisions around what elements of the books are highlighted and presented in said blurbs have an audience not very like me in mind.
I've found the screen too consistently tempting with the DIY dumbphone method, even when paired with Cal Newport's 'Phone foyer' method (leaving it plugged in by the front door/in the kitchen when home). I lack the willpower. I downgraded to a flip phone a year ago and, despite a difficult period of adjustment, have not looked back. Admittedly I chose a model that could be tinkered with to run a basic podcast app as well as whatsapp (it receives messages, which I can reply to on my laptop). How amazing am I? Digital vegan. Just ask me about it!
OK, this is my backup plan if the DIY dumbphone isn't enough. Thank you.
I can highly recommend getting an old Kobo Mini and carrying that around in your back pocket instead of your phone. I have read an extra book this week in the moments I’d normally be scrolling. I’d like a Boox Palma so I can read library books but I worry that even its limited Android functionality might tempt me into installing apps
I struggle with this because I use Facebook Marketplace as my first stop for shopping. I could, in theory, make a list of everything I want to search for and do it in one shot late every day, but the weight of things I haven't ticked off yet sits on my mind, so it's easier to reach for the phone and just do it. I have installed one of those third-party apps that make you pick how long you plan to stay in the app, and then shuts it off when that time runs out. That keeps me accountable if I end up scrolling instead of shopping.
I've read Catherine Price's How to Break Up With Your Smartphone and found it reasonable helpful.
So Musk wants to father loads of kids but not actually be a father to them? (apart from the lad who was picking his nose in the Oval Office - arguably the most productive thing to happen there since January). Not sure if Musk as an absent father is possibly better for the children than him actually being there
I'm sure he's vocal about the importance of fathers, and clearly he likes being hands on until they're about old enough to snark back.
Russell Barkley, until recently a leading ADHD researcher and former clinical neuropsychiatrist, had some concerns about the NYTimes article which he details here in quite a reasonable fashion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8GlhCmdkOw
As a parent of children with ADHD who only improved and were able to learn once they started stimulant medication, I feel like I spend my life smiling tolerantly at people telling me that "ADHD isn't real" or "it's just the pharmaceutical industry targeting children who fidget" or my personal favourite, "it's just down to bad parenting, isn't it?" (Thanks, my former dentist). I expect to get even more of that, after this article.
I don't think the article represented current research well. Does it matter that there is no biomarker, no obvious delineation for ADHD? Why does this matter? What is the biomarker for schizophrenia vs schizoaffective disorder? There isn't one. There isn't for depression or anxiety either but I don't see so many wordy think pieces in the the newspapers wondering if they really need all those SSRIs. Maybe twenty years ago, but not now. For some reason there is a deep discomfort around treating ADHD, almost a "come on, bootstraps, you'll get over it, don't be so self-indulgent" quality.
Some of the personal anecdotes reminded me of TikTokkers who want to redefine autism and ADHD as a superpower, and in doing so, ignore all those people who are severely affected, who don't experience ADHD as a superpower but as something that has made life incredibly difficult and painful. Almost nothing in this article resonated with me as true to my own family's experience, which is a shame.
I think it does matter that there's no biomarker, because that makes the condition much more amenable to being seen as a spectrum, and one with fuzzy edges where different people might make different choices about medication. It's not liking having liver cancer or not.
FWIW, I think there should be more discussion of the side-effects of SSRIs. They are another drug that can be absolutely life-saving, but at quite a high cost (including sometimes *raising* suicide risk). We should be able to have evidence-based conversations about this stuff without people getting the message that their suffering isn't real or that drugs are a Big Pharma fraud.
The article quoted decades old studies. That is unhelpful in current conversations abt ADHD.
Regarding giving the phone a lobotomy: I have the “brick” and it’s been awesome. Just set up which apps u want to block when concentrating and touch your phone physically to the brick. You can’t access those apps until you’ve touched out again. I don’t even need to leave the house to avoid temptation. I bricked Instagram 4 weeks ago and simply haven’t unbricked it! Am getting so much more achieved. And I don’t even know or care what funny dogs in costumes memes I am missing out on.
Why are all these debates about ADHD environment focusing on school or work? Like ADHD magically doesn't exist at home? Like I will suddenly remember to payy bills or where I've left my phone or motivation to organise my house and not trip over piles of clothes?
Without medication, I can't function like an adult, let alone have hobbies or be properly present in my children's lives.
Let's talk about that for change, and not how wonderfully creative and quirky ADHDers are if we just let them choose their environment.
(Btw, I was one of those kids whose behaviour was not a problem for teachers, thus not diagnosed until late 30s!)
I was also not diagnosed until my mid 30s, in part because I had such an ADHD-friendly environment at school - a boarding school where I got lots of exercise, daily chores were mostly handled for me, my peers and teachers were bright and intellectually stimulating, and assessment was mostly by exam (I did *much* worse on coursework-based subjects). It wasn't until I left university that the wheels started to come off. So I went back to graduate school, where I was assessed on a single long-form piece of work - d'oh! If I'd known about my condition earlier, I'd have tried to structure my life so it was more exam-like and/or more physical, but it would be difficult to change that now :-/
Children (and adults) with ADHD are just as varied in their learning style (visual, kinetic, linguistic, etc) as anyone else. One type of school or work environment will suit one person with ADHD but not the next. The same is true for anyone, not just those with an information-processing problem.
Why should medication be expected to improve results unless the student already is academic? A child who’s not academic will not suddenly do well after taking medication for their ADHD.
But I take your point that the article raises worthwhile questions about the complexity of ADHD management in childhood and early adulthood.
The key thing in my experience is guidance from parents or healthcare professionals or teachers to help the student make the most of the medication. The effect of Ritalin and similar types of meds is to create clear periods of ultra focus.
But you need to know how to wield that focus: the person has to direct it at a task. Just taking the meds and expecting them to magically sort your life out is naive.
And the meds create periods of burn out type of feeling as a consequence of creating two hours of hyper focus. So, the student needs to learn how to manage that downer feeling.
As for anyone, exercise and emotional support play important roles in the life of a person with ADHD.
Medication is not a panacea - and the commercial interests of its producers make many observers cynical of the value of the medication. But believe me, it can be positively transformative for people with lifelong ADHD.
That’s where I land too. I know people for whom medication has been incredibly helpful. But (particularly in adolescents) it can’t be a “pop two pills and see you in a few years” deal. There do seem to be other interventions and adjustments we should consider.
Succinctly put and I agree. And I hopefully think that by developing better support for young people with ADHD, we discover that what benefits ADHDers could benefit others too. Things like support with how to study effectively, how to manage emotions, how to unwind healthily, etc.
If a med can improve quality of life but grades remain low, then the meds are working.
If we're going with the Chinese emperor analogy, you have to wonder how long it’ll be before Musk starts scouting for eunuchs among his tech-bro admirers. And, frankly, how many would quietly volunteer, tackle in hand, for a chance to get closer to the throne.
Thanks Helen. Your Substack makes Friday even better, so I’ll bear the reduced service with fortitude.
Good to see the clothes of the ADHD emperor being revealed for what they are. The medicalisation and individualisation of human behavior has been around long time, in general playing to the fact that people do naturally derive comfort and support in a diagnosis, and the fact that us human animals love a pattern of behavior to categorize. All you wonderful people who creatively adjust to your environments realise how clever you are and that it may indeed be possible with the luxury of your own agency where possible to change as the people in the study seem to have done. Of course the pharmaceutical industry will call me unkind at best.
Thank you - again - for the gift link! I'm so glad you're thinking/writing about ADHD. The identity model of disorders drives me nuts. One of these days, I'll post something about being misdiagnosed with ADHD by a private psychiatrist and a fancy educational psychologist (both male) - after I've killed the monster of my PhD-induced perfectionism-driven anxiety (correctly diagnosed in less than 5 mins by a female NHS psychiatrist).
BBC Panorama did a program where they found you can basically buy a diagnosis if you go to a private psychiatrist. And the ADHD Foundation's response was poor, I thought -- it read less like an independent charity advocating for patients more like a trade association defending its guild members. https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk/2023/05/15/response-to-bbc-panorama-private-adhd-clinics-exposed/
The height/weight website link isn’t working. No idea if that’s temporary.