No question that ADHD is overdiagnosed. It's probably also underdiagnosed. Some people who aren't are called ADHD; some people who are never get help. It also most certainly exists--I wasn't diagnosed until middle adulthood, but the pattern of chaos back to childhood was pretty obvious, especially in hindsight. My life would be far different, and probably better in many ways, had I gotten the help I needed then. Problem was, this same sort of pop psychology diagnosis denial existed in the 70s and 80s, and my parents wrote the teacher referral off. Wish they hadn't.

This whole article talks about the concept of ADHD stigmatizing normal behavior, but the diagnostic guidelines include A) that the subject isn't behaving in an age-appropriate way and B) that the issues are causing significant real-life problems in at least two settings. There are multiple checkpoints that the behavior isn't normal, not transitory, not limited to problems with one place or person, and not easily addressed or tolerated by the individual showing it.

I'm absolutely certain that some parents, teachers, GPs, even psychiatrists err on these, that the kid is just showing a minor developmental lag or a contextual issue. But at the same time, the people it helps, it helps a lot, and at a really crucial time. School is a terrible, terrible place to not be able to get shit done and to establish bad life habits, which is ultimately what ADHD will do. Doesn't take much at that stage to ruin high school, college, chances at a career.

So yeah, skepticism, sure. ADHD needs even more tried and tested diagnostic criteria. And ADHD is largely an umbrella diagnosis with treatments mitigating secondary symptoms of unknown primaries, so we should keep looking for primary causes and address those.

But to write off the whole thing...I don't know. I think that kind of overreaction is irresponsible. Marilyn Wedge has more or less built her current career on this position, but my own experience, however anecdotal, and any number of peer-reviewed studies don't really back her story very well. And really, those of us who suffer from ADHD already face enough stigma and baggage without having pop psych articles in Time Magazine trying to invalidate the one pathway that actually has led to some degree of relief and success.