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ADHD
Former Member
Posts: 86 Budding Regular
Hi everyone I just wanted everyone's thoughts about what they think about many young females being misdiagnosed as having anxiety or autism when they really have ADHD? I think this is a big problem and I would love to hear your thoughts. I think this is because most of the research regarding ADHD is based on males and the symptoms in females are very different.
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I was actually someone who was misdiagnosed with anxiety for years and it actually turned out to be Aspergers . Anxiety was the main focus for many many years with me when actually it turned out to be I was expecting anxiety as a result of some of my autistic traits I had.
But your right research often does focus on boys and there’s a statistic that’s something like for every 4 makes diagnosed with ASD/ADHD only 1 female is diagnosed
It seems like a lot of women in particular are misdiagnosed with many different illnesses that turn out to be ADHD. I think because the benchmark has been based around young boys having ADHD, and the lack of awareness that girls can have it too, but we all just respond differently. Symptoms vary between each individual and I think the problem is that diagnoses have checklists that are very strict, and so, when girls don't fit into these they are often diagnosed as having autism or anxiety instead.
I think more training is needed for this definitely. I mean a lot of girls and women are diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder when they actually should be diagnosed as autistic, this is becoming quite common too, which is upsetting because it means they're not able to access the right support services to help them.
It's just becoming so common for different disorders or illnesses to be misdiagnosed as others either due to the strict symptoms associated with each one, but also because a lot of the symptoms individuals show can be put into more than one diagnosis, and because of the lack of funding for mental health services such as psychiatrists, they only really have one hour with individuals to determine the diagnosis which is far too little. Plus the waiting lists are months to years for a diagnosis from a psychiatrist so by this point, other symptoms i.e. self-harm behaviours or suicidal feelings come into play, and with just one hour, it can really make it difficult to provide a thorough assessment and a correct diagnosis.
I have a friend who was diagnosed with BPD and went to therapy for years. It later turns out they are autistic. I thought I might have BPD too, but I realised I'm more likely to be autistic. I think it's easy to be misdiagnosed with anxiety, BPD etc., not only because of the symptom overlap but also because autistic individuals are vulnerable and more likely to go through trauma e.g. bullying or abuse, which in turn affects mental health, and then a misdiagnosis of BPD might happen because of the trauma while autism/ADHD might get missed in the process.
Okay, so I want to start off by saying thank you for your response! I am planning to do more investigating around this topic and hopefully start a project soon! I will keep you updated! Also, I'm glad you feel the same
@Millie2787
Okay, so I want to start off by saying thank you for your response! I am planning to do more investigating around this topic and hopefully start a project soon! I will keep you updated!
That's really interesting, I'll keep that in mind when researching, thank you
Woah that is really interesting, I would love to talk to you about it just for my own research if that is okay? I won't use it anywhere else and if you're up for it later then I could get consent for a written piece? Although, if you didn't want to then that would also be fine
Thank you so much
@Brookee
Okay, so I want to start off by saying thank you for your response! I am planning to do more investigating around this topic and hopefully start a project soon! I will keep you updated!
That is extremely eye-opening, thank you!
I agree completely and will take that into account when researching, thank you :>
That is so true, I also need to research that!
You made really good points that I didn't even consider- thank you so much
@Maisy
Okay, so I want to start off by saying thank you for your response! I am planning to do more investigating around this topic and hopefully start a project soon! I will keep you updated!
Woah that is very useful. Thank you so much for sharing with me? Could we talk more about this for my own research, if you feel comfortable to?
@AislingDM
Okay, so I want to start off by saying thank you for your response! I am planning to do more investigating around this topic and hopefully start a project soon! I will keep you updated!
Thank you so much for raising such an important point, I will make sure to consider this in my research!