There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and audits were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the gov inquiry because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate but the pendulum had swung towards being overly restrictive when they went through.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people seeking it:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so they got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some other modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too, which motivate people to try to get diagnosed, it has become 'trendy' in some circles. That is on top of other things on the supply side making it easier)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and audits were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the gov inquiry because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people seeking it:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so they got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some other modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too, which motivate people to try to get diagnosed, it has become 'trendy' in some circles. That is on top of other things on the supply side making it easier)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and audits were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the gov inquiry because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people seeking it:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some other modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too, which motivate people to try to get diagnosed, it has become 'trendy' in some circles. That is on top of other things on the supply side making it easier)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and audits were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people seeking it:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some other modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too, which motivate people to try to get diagnosed, it has become 'trendy' in some circles. That is on top of other things on the supply side making it easier)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people seeking it:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some other modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too, which motivate people to try to get diagnosed, it has become 'trendy' in some circles. That is on top of other things on the supply side making it easier)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some other modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too, which motivate people to try to get diagnosed, it has become 'trendy' in some circles)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too, which motivate people to try to get diagnosed, it has become 'trendy' in some circles)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too, which motivate people to try to get diagnosed)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

(E: as someone else mentioned, there's also some modern causes, so add in things like 'attention-seeking' and 'not neurotypical' bullshit too)

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous (at least in health/medicine circles) for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens (last 3 years of school) and uni age students and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these exam/assessment benefits continue into uni also so a decent chunk of it was 18-24 also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these benefits continue into uni also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd
• (misc other motivations, or some combination)

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to dismiss it all as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these benefits continue into uni also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to disregard it as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these benefits continue into uni also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse-seeking and exam gaming, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to disregard it as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests because it turns out most of it wasn't legit, it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of parents after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these benefits continue into uni also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse and exam cheating, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to disregard it as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests. Turns out most of it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of people after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these benefits continue into uni also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood even in a less restrictive time/place
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive and so got missed
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse and exam cheating, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to disregard it as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests. Turns out most of it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of people after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these benefits continue into uni also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam/assessment accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse and exam cheating, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to disregard it as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests. Turns out most of it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of people after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not. And then these benefits continue into uni also.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse and exam cheating, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to disregard it as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it. But I know something about this, I've studied it, and know some local history about it.

The city I was from has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. In this country it was infamous for it in the 90s and early 2000s, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Was it something in the water? Or were we just better at diagnosing it? Eyebrows were raised, and inquests were done, what was causing this huge apparent increase? Basically this first big wave of diagnosis ended in about 2001 after the inquests. Turns out most of it was teens and uni age students, most often teens in the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. One in the northern part of the city, one in the rich southern suburbs.

What was happening was two things. The northern cluster was a bunch of people after the not-meth, for use or for sale. But the other clinic was in a very well-to-do area and it mostly wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a moderately smart student who studies well, extra time in the big final exams is huge when it then affects what unis and courses you can then get into. It could be the difference between getting into med school or not.

So then there was a big state governmental push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists in that city became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a while. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a another class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 40-50% of it was excuse and exam cheating, not the drugs. And once a wave starts, it becomes self-perpetuating as their peers and parents hear about it, and seek it out themselves.

There's another few phenomena at play. It's easy to disregard it as a huge wave of over prescription for pill purposes. And that is a part of it.

The city I was in has a long history of issues with ADHD diagnosis right. Locally infamously so, because that city's diagnosis rate was something like 10-20x the rest of the country. Basically the first big wave ended in about 2001 (after the state gov caught on and there was an inquest) with most of it being teens, often the final 3 years of school, and there were 2 main clinics, two big clusters, where there was a huge surge of diagnoses. What was happening was two things. One of the clusters was a bunch of people after the not-meth. But the other clinic was in a richer area and it wasn't about the drugs. It was about exams. By getting the diagnosis of ADHD they got one of two things, for some it was an excuse for why their precious little diddums wasn't doing so well at school, it wasn't the kid (or the parent's fault), it was this disease they had. The 2nd was additional time in exams, they got extra time and accommodations in the big final 'SAT' (equivalent) tests done in the the final 2 years of school (and all other tests and assessments). This is an advantage even if you're a smart student who studies well.

So then there was a big push to clamp down on that stuff, and psychiatrists here became very reluctant to diagnose and prescribe for it. Once one did, word got out, and they'd get flooded with those patients, and nobody wanted the gov breathing down their neck on that after the big 2000's scandal for a whole. So then we had this big wave of people who do actually have mild or moderate ADHD but who couldn't get the diagnosis because the pendulum swung the other way to being overly restrictive. Which then creates a 4th class of people getting the adult diagnosis, the ones who were missed in school because their case was mild/moderate and the pendulum swung towards being overly restrictive.

So that's then means you have the following groups of people:

• Drug seekers (for personal use, or for sale, uni students pay for dexamphetamine for study AND fun)
• Excuse seekers
• Exam accommodation seekers
• Legit mild-moderate cases that won't get picked up till teen/adulthood
• Legit mild-moderate cases that went through at a time when it was overly restrictive
• Tiktok and porn addled brains that are misdiagnosed as adhd

I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't drugs. But looking at the historical causes in the city I'm from, a good 50% of it was excuse and exam cheating, not the drugs.