Speaking as an adult diagnosee, whose diagnosis had nothing to do with the behavioral problems in the DSM other than finding a way to fit my actual symptoms to

Speaking as an adult diagnosee, whose diagnosis had nothing to do with the behavioral problems in the DSM other than finding a way to fit my actual symptoms to diagnostic criteria, with a caring and mindful intake doctor and then a psychiatrist… I agree the diagnostics are unhelpful. I think takes like this are equally if not more unhelpful. I definitely struggled with boredom and didn’t mesh with the design of my educational programs… but I also struggled intensely with anxiety and depression, both very deeply rooted in my ADHD experience. I struggled with them for decades before I understood what my experience was and found helpful treatment. I may well have suffered a much less severe and much shorter time had I not had a parent who was just as dismissive of the actual disorder I experience. Your take is the same as the diagnostics: attributing it to externally observed childhood behavior that doesn’t suit adults. Meanwhile adults with undiagnosed and untreated ADHD experience higher anxiety and depression, higher suicide rates, higher rates of substance abuse. We’re permanently in a state of trauma. Instead of rescuing kids from symptoms assigned to them by adults, if you want to help kids with ADHD, help them have a voice about what they feel and need.