How social media changed ADHD forever | 3

Summary

Climbing the Walls: How Social Media Changed ADHD Forever | Episode 3 Summary

Climbing the Walls is an investigative limited-series podcast by Understood.org that delves into the delayed diagnosis of ADHD in women and the surge in diagnoses post-pandemic. In Episode 3, titled "How Social Media Changed ADHD Forever," released on April 16, 2025, host Danielle Elliott explores the transformative role social media played in reshaping the understanding and diagnosis of ADHD, particularly among women.

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1. The Emergence of ADHD on Social Media

Danielle Elliott opens the episode by recounting her own hiatus from social media during the pandemic, only to return in early 2022 to witness a dramatic increase in ADHD-related content. She states:

"No, I wasn't on social media during the pandemic... What'd I miss? The birth of ADHD social media. Apparently, by the time I tuned in early 2022, there were millions of posts with the hashtag ADHD. They had more than 11 billion views on TikTok."
— Danielle Elliott [00:02]

This explosion of ADHD content, particularly on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, created a vibrant online community where women began sharing their ADHD experiences, sparking widespread awareness and interest.

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2. Terri Matlin: A Beacon of Progress

Author and ADHD specialist, Terri Matlin, shares her observations on the influx of women seeking ADHD diagnoses:

"I think that as women were stuck at home with a lot of them with young children or older children... they were just climbing the walls."
— Terri Matlin [01:12]

Matlin notes that the pandemic's unique challenges—working from home, managing children’s education, and heightened isolation—exacerbated underlying ADHD symptoms in women, leading them to seek professional help. She highlights a historical lack of education among medical professionals regarding ADHD manifestations in women, which often resulted in misdiagnoses lasting years.

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3. The Personal Journey of B.A. Parker

To illustrate the broader trends, Danielle introduces B.A. Parker, a radio host from Baltimore, whose experience epitomizes the newfound ADHD awareness fueled by social media.

B.A. Parker describes her realization of having ADHD after encountering ADHD-focused content on TikTok:

"I mean, I hate to say TikTok, but it was TikTok... and I feel like they knew something I didn't."
— B.A. Parker [05:37]

Parker's journey includes taking an ADHD assessment online, facing challenges in accessing affordable psychiatric care, and dealing with misdiagnosis—initially being incorrectly suggested to have bipolar disorder. Her persistence led her to find a supportive community of black women on TikTok, who provided validation and coping strategies.

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4. The Role of Telehealth and Emerging ADHD Companies

The pandemic sparked regulatory changes that allowed for easier telehealth diagnoses and prescriptions of ADHD medications. This shift facilitated the rise of ADHD-focused companies on social media platforms, offering assessments and services to a broader audience.

Danielle discusses the proliferation and subsequent scrutiny of these companies:

"In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice received complaints about one of these new companies, a company called Cerebral... Cerebral was pressuring clinicians to prescribe Adderall and Ritalin to increase patient retention."
— Danielle Elliott [24:24]

These practices highlighted potential risks of overdiagnosis and the prioritization of profit over patient health, leading to legal actions against companies like Cerebral and Dunn.

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5. ADHD Diagnosis Disparities Among Black Women

A significant portion of the episode addresses the disproportionate misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis of ADHD in black women. B.A. Parker shares her insights:

"Black women have to be hyper vigilant because... the dual sides of oppression as being black and a woman... ADHD sits differently inside of black women."
— B.A. Parker [17:03]

Research cited in the podcast indicates that black and Hispanic women are less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD compared to their white counterparts. Misinterpretations of behavior often lead to diagnoses of anxiety or depression instead. However, the increased visibility of ADHD on social media is gradually bridging this gap by fostering more accurate self-diagnoses and encouraging women to seek appropriate treatment.

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6. Normalizing ADHD Conversations and Embracing Strengths

The episode underscores the shift in public perception of ADHD from a debilitating disorder to a condition with unique strengths. This rebranding has empowered many to embrace their ADHD traits positively.

Danielle Elliott observes:

"By 2023... people were calling it a superpower. It went from an affliction, a source of shame, to a desirable attribute."

B.A. Parker echoes this sentiment, emphasizing how recognition and acceptance have improved her personal and professional life:

"Having the language for it, it's been really helpful, especially in meetings... I can now tell them, no, I have ADHD."
— B.A. Parker [22:21]

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7. Familial Impact and Intergenerational Awareness

As women like Parker received diagnoses, they began recognizing ADHD traits in their family members, fostering intergenerational understanding and support. Parker recounts her realization about her mother's behaviors:

"She would leave a room and just leave a cabinet door open. And I was like, this woman, I love her... This explains some of the things that frustrated me as a kid."
— B.A. Parker [30:02]

This newfound awareness not only strengthens personal relationships but also encourages others within the community to seek diagnoses and support.

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8. Conclusion: The Lasting Impact of Social Media on ADHD Awareness

Climbing the Walls Episode 3 paints a comprehensive picture of how social media, particularly during the pandemic, served as a catalyst for transforming ADHD awareness and diagnosis among women. Through personal stories, expert insights, and an examination of systemic challenges, the podcast highlights both the progress made and the ongoing issues that need addressing.

Danielle concludes by hinting at a continued exploration of ADHD's evolving perception in future episodes:

"In the next episode, I'm going to try to see it through his eyes and to try to understand how that might have impacted the rise in diagnosis."
— Danielle Elliott [34:44]

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Notable Quotes

• Danielle Elliott [00:02]: "What'd I miss? The birth of ADHD social media... they had more than 11 billion views on TikTok."

• Terri Matlin [01:12]: "Women were just climbing the walls... they reached out for help."

• B.A. Parker [05:37]: "TikTok seemed to recognize exactly what was going on with me."

• B.A. Parker [17:03]: "ADHD sits differently inside of black women."

• Danielle Elliott [24:24]: "There is no way to know how many people were misdiagnosed... but the women seeking a diagnosis were genuinely seeking help."

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Final Thoughts

Episode 3 of Climbing the Walls effectively captures the intricate relationship between social media and the surge in ADHD diagnoses among women during and after the pandemic. By intertwining personal narratives with expert commentary, the podcast offers a nuanced understanding of the positive and negative repercussions of this digital awakening. As ADHD continues to gain recognition, the conversations ignited on platforms like TikTok play a pivotal role in shaping the future of mental health awareness and support.

Transcript

[Danielle Elliott]

Believe it or not, I wasn't on social media during the height of the pandemic. Instagram got boring. No one was going anywhere or doing anything. There was nothing to be mindlessly voyeuristic about. I deleted my accounts and wasn't really on from March 2020 to November 2021, except a few days here and there. I never joined TikTok because I'm afraid I'll get addicted. The few times I've looked at it, I've ended up scrolling through snowboarding videos for hours. So, no, I wasn't on social media during the pandemic. What'd I miss? The birth of ADHD social media. Apparently, by the time I tuned in early 2022, there were millions of posts with the hashtag ADHD. They had more than 11 billion views on TikTok. They filled my entire Instagram discovery page. For women who were on social media during the pandemic, these posts sparked an explosion of interest in adhd. Terri Matlin, author of the Queen of Distraction, has been treating women with ADHD since the late 90s. She told me she's never received such a sudden flood of emails from women looking for treatment.

[Terri Matlin]

I think that as women were stuck at home with a lot of them with young children or older children, and they had to not only figure out how to work from home, helping their kids with school, being, you know, isolated and being expected to be able to take on all of this stuff, and they were just climbing the walls. Women were just climbing the walls. I got a lot of emails and these gals were really, really frustrated. And their self esteem, it was, why can't I do this? I'm not used to being home all day. I have no structure. I have no outside people telling me, you know, this is due now, what are you doing? You're gonna, you know, they got overwhelmed. It was really heartbreaking. It was too much. So they reached out for help.

[Danielle Elliott]

Some said they'd learned about ADHD on social media and now they wanted to talk to their doctors about it. They wanted help navigating these conversations.

[Terri Matlin]

They do have access to more information, so they have an idea of, okay, I think this is related to my adhd, but I don't know what to do. I was diagnosed with depression. I think it's adhd. How do I tell them that it could be adhd?

[Danielle Elliott]

Terry took this as a sign of progress. For decades, medical schools failed to educate psychiatrists and other doctors on the ways ADHD shows up in everyday life, especially for women. The lack of education and Training led to years of misdiagnosis. She was happy to see that women were now more informed. She also worried about that information. In 2021, she joined TikTok to see if she could help.

[Terri Matlin]

I'm trying to disseminate appropriate, valid information and not, oh, I lost my cues. I have adhd. Hello.

[Danielle Elliott]

Terry is one of many health professionals who jumped into the social media conversations in 2021. The New York Times wrote about this phenomenon. A headline says, therapists are on TikTok. How does that make you feel? A group of researchers in Dublin, Ireland, tracked 28 active social media accounts owned by mental health professionals. All of these accounts had at least 100,000 followers. And according to the study, a third of the creators posts aimed to educate people about mental health concerns. The value of all this mental health content is up for debate. Whether it contributed to the sudden rise in diagnosis is not. There is no question that TikTok and the pandemic sparked something. Social media made it easier for information to spread to more people. Women started talking to each other and they started understanding that they weren't the only ones struggling in the ways they were struggling.

[B.A. Parker]

Every couple of months, I think I'm going to learn how to draw. I buy a sketchbook, and then I'm like, no, there's a yoga mat in my apartment right now that I bought in the pandemic. Did I do yoga once?

[Danielle Elliott]

This is my friend Parker.

[B.A. Parker]

And then I'll have, like, these impulses. I'll be like, okay, if I do this, then this will exponentially make my life better. And then you're like, okay, now what? Like, oh, this. This shelf is going to be the thing that's going to solve all my problems. Learn a lot, man.

[Danielle Elliott]

I wanted her to tell me her story because of how well it illustrates how many women came to their ADHD diagnosis through the explosive combination of the pandemic and social media, as well as the ups and downs of that process. So, Parker, can you introduce yourself?

[B.A. Parker]

Sure. My name is B.A. parker. I'm a radio host and an Aquarius with ADHD from a magical land called Baltimore.

[Danielle Elliott]

How did you figure out that you have adhd?

[B.A. Parker]

I mean, I hate to say TikTok, but it was TikTok. There were certain things that TikTok figured it out before I did. And then my for your page started getting more and more ADHD focused, and I feel like they knew something I didn't. And it was less hot mountaineer men and. And whatever the hell I was watching at the time, like, you know, Canadians and like, in like, K dramas. And then it became like, are you a millennial with adhd? And I was like, am I?

[Danielle Elliott]

She is. Me too. This is Climbing the Walls, a podcast where I try to figure out why so many women are being diagnosed with ADHD. I'm Danielle Elliot. It was around 2020. My friend Parker was going through what she described to me as a mini breakdown. She couldn't focus on work, she'd be up all night procrastinating, and then at 10 o'clock decide to whip up a batch of salmon croquettes. Her own daily behavior didn't make any sense to Parker, but she was tuned into social media and TikTok seemed to recognize exactly what was going on with her.

[B.A. Parker]

You know, you're doom scrolling and then someone's like, hey, are cabinets bad for you? Do you. When a cabinet closes, do you like a baby with no object permanence? Forget that something exists. And I was like, wait, I do. Do you come into a room and forget what you're in there for? And I was like, I do. You push things off to the very last minute to do them. I was like my whole life. And it was like a lot of things like that. And I was like, wait, do I have adhd? I mean, I'm not sure.

[Danielle Elliott]

This was something that up until then, Parker had not really considered. Parker had simply thought of herself as quirky. Though the medical community was slow to recognize ADHD in adult women, social media discussions among the women themselves go back almost as far as to social media itself. Terry Matlin says she hosted AOL chat rooms about it. In the 90s, women connected in Facebook groups. Instagram launched in 2010, Snapchat in 2011. At first they were personal feeds, and later people were using them to distribute information. But when TikTok launched in 2016, things started to ramp up. Popular accounts like Black Girl, Lost Keys were openly discussing adhd. By the height of the pandemic, the app's powerful, albeit mysterious algorithm was connecting thousands of women with ADHD related content at a previously unheard of rate. These were some of the same women who emailed Terry Matlin looking for guidance. Parker ran the idea by her own personal expert.

[B.A. Parker]

Thank goodness. I was also, like, going through therapy during the pandemic, and so I talked to my therapist about it and my therapist was like, well, I mean, there are tests. You can take a test and, you know, we can figure this out.

[Danielle Elliott]

TikTok wasn't done. Soon after her conversation with her therapist, the all seeing algorithm sent Parker. A video in which someone takes an ADHD test. Parker asked her therapist again.

[B.A. Parker]

It's like, should I take this thing? And they're like, you can. I mean, you got paid for it. Like, it's your money.

[Danielle Elliott]

I happen to know there's a free screener available online from the World Health Organization, the same screener my therapist suggested I use. I mentioned this to Parker.

[B.A. Parker]

No, wait, Danielle, no. I paid like 120 bucks.

[Danielle Elliott]

No, Parker, no.

[B.A. Parker]

I paid like a C note for this test. Danielle, you should have started with that. No, I gave these people legit money from my bank.

[Danielle Elliott]

Parker scrolled through her Gmail history to find the name of the organization that issued her test.

[B.A. Parker]

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Because the thing. The results are still in here.

[Danielle Elliott]

Really?

[B.A. Parker]

ADHD. Let's see what happens when you click in. ADHD. ADHD Online. Hold on. ADHD Online, Diagnosis and Treatment, ADHD Online LLC. This was November 20th, 2020.

[Danielle Elliott]

As far as ADHD Online was concerned, the results were conclusive.

[B.A. Parker]

Oh, yeah, girl, you got adhd. You have adhd. Inattentive.

[Danielle Elliott]

Parker looked into what exactly inattentive ADHD entailed and what she learned tracked with her own life experience, especially when she read about the ways people with ADHD are able to hyper focus.

[B.A. Parker]

I've been like a book and film nerd since I was like 5, and I can tell you who've won the Oscar since 1973. And I remember, like, when the Golden Globe nominations would come out, I would tell. We would put up the Christmas tree and I'll tell my mom who got nominated that day. My mom couldn't give a flying kitty about who was nominated for a Golden Globe, but I cared because I was 12 years old and what was I going to do? And I mean, fortunate enough that I was able to use that and, you know, went to film school and became a film professor. But, like, it all stemmed from, like a hyper fixation as a child. I was like, oh, okay, well, that makes sense.

[Danielle Elliott]

She took the test. In November 2020, Parker sought out a psychiatrist who understood ADHD and could prescribe medications. That's when things got complicated. Her therapist gave her a list of names, but even with her existing health insurance coverage, the cost would be steep.

[B.A. Parker]

Then I saw how much those psychiatrists cost. And so then I called a couple of them and they were like, I heard some money that was not in my price range. And I was like, I guess I'm just going to be out here mentally.

[Danielle Elliott]

Ill. A little over a year later in 2022, Parker was thinking about leaving her job. That meant she was going to lose her health insurance. As everyone with ADHD knows, external motivation helps us do things. Knowing she might soon be without healthcare coverage drove Parker to finally address her adhd. She found a psychiatrist, but he was located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Like me, Parker begrudgingly went ahead and booked a telehealth appointment. It was hardly her ideal situation.

[B.A. Parker]

And then having to talk to him and then I was just like, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know how to adult this. Like this is just a weird, like it was very like solo, like a very solitary journey. So I was just trying to navigate this as best as I could, but also like forget about it. Cause I also had to work. And so like I think I had my interview with this guy at like 7:30 at night. Cause I was like, I gotta work all day. And because I'm working at home, it was like, oh, I forgot to eat. And then I was like, oh, I have to fix a meal after this whole day. And now I have to talk to this guy. And now I'm stressed out about this meeting.

[Danielle Elliott]

I felt the same way when I talked to a psychiatrist for the first time also in early 2022. Neither of us knew at the time that this was really odd for a few reasons. I mean it felt odd because it was odd, but it was also strange because until the pandemic this wasn't allowed. There were strict rules around prescribing stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin. They could not be prescribed via telehealth. I'm not sure I would have gotten very far in the process if I'd had to wait for an in person appointment. I haven't had an annual physical in years because I never get around to scheduling them. So even though the appointments could be awkward, telehealth made it easier. This is another reason for the rise in diagnosis. In the simplest terms, getting diagnosed got easier. That of course led to questions about our diagnosis. And we'll get back to those, I promise. But first I want you to hear about Parker's bizarre video call and what happened after. Remember it was early 2022 and she was working from home waiting for her 7:30 appointment with the King of Prussia guy.

[B.A. Parker]

I remember like it was something that a TikTok had told me, like, oh, when you have an appointment in the middle of the day, do you just like forget everything that you have to do? Cause you're very focused on that appointment. And I'M like, yes. Oh, no. So, like, there's all of these things. So, like, I had this appointment with this guy, so I was already stressed out about that. I had to make sure that, like, my ring camera was on so that I didn't want to look. I was like, how do I not look shady? Like, how do I look like a normal person? Like, I had all of these in my head.

[Danielle Elliott]

Parker was worried that the doctor might suspect her of trying to get her hands on prescription meds.

[B.A. Parker]

I did want to look. It was like, drug seeking behavior. There's something so weird about telehealth. Talking to someone to be like, hey, I have this problem and I can only get help through you. What can we do about that?

[Danielle Elliott]

I think the anxiety around all of this, the way the appointment feels, is a reason a lot of women never seek a diagnosis. Unfortunately, in Parker's case, that anxiety was well placed considering what happened when she tried to tell the doctor about her adhd.

[B.A. Parker]

I was like, I have adhd. And, like, I'm just trying to, like, figure out ways to handle this effectively. And he's like, you sure you don't have bipolar disorder? I was like, oh, I'm sure. I'm like, I am very sure that I do not have bipolar disorder. Like, I'm not manic. I don't have, like, epic highs and epic lows. It's just like, I freeze and I can't do anything.

[Danielle Elliott]

Parker went into the call hoping to get help with her ADHD. Instead, in less than 30 minutes, he'd suggested she was bipolar. I've heard many women report a misdiagnosis of anxiety or depression. Being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder seems like another level. Parker steered the conversation back to adhd, and the doctor prescribed her the appropriate medication. Here's where it gets weird. The next time she looked at TikTok, it was as if the app had updated the dossier it was keeping on her.

[B.A. Parker]

I don't know what happened, but the algorithm heard the conversation and figured out, like, you're a black woman with adhd. So I started getting more of those tiktoks. Or like, a lot of those women were being told they had bipolar disorder, and they were like, no, no, no, this is just adhd. This is just adhd.

[Danielle Elliott]

We like to talk about the algorithm like it's some omniscient, even clairvoyant supermind. Probably because none of us know how it works, but it's not. It's more like some complex combination of statistics, probability and soylent fueled Software engineering. The important point here is that it worked. The algorithm started directing Parker to more and more accounts by black women. Specific and useful accounts like ADHD while black, which she now follows. I didn't get these recommendations. The algorithm seems to know I'm white. But in 2022, Parker's feed spoke directly to her experience. These accounts offered helpful ways to manage her ADHD and encouragement.

[B.A. Parker]

That's one of the things where it's like, you have to like, they're like, oh, well, black women have to be hyper vigilant because like, we can't. Because you have the perceptions that the world have about us. To get defensive, to not be good at your job, to not be on point is immediately a defect and already a ding against your character. Amongst what other dings happened just because of like the dual sides of oppression as being black and a woman. So to have ADHD on top of that and like, oh, well, why. Why did you not meet this deadline? Why can't you answer these questions right now? All of these things, you kind of have to overcompensate. I know that growing up, like, aside from like having adhd, I also had like a social anxiety disorder. I was really shy and scared to talk to people. And being thrust into New York city at like 21, having to like, just function and put yourself out there is a really scary thing. And having all these things while being black is like an added layer of neuroses. But like, having women that I started getting on my for you page to be like, yeah, I also, I think I forgot.

[Danielle Elliott]

Parker interrupted herself as she was saying this. She said that in one post, a woman cited a statistic about other black women with adhd.

[B.A. Parker]

I forgot what the statistic was like, the number of like black women in their 30s during the pandemic. They were, they had ADHD in learning that, like, they've had it their whole lives. And because you were functioning and because no one is known as looking into black girls because they're doing like they. There's a lack of interest in, you know, as long as they're keeping the status quo, they'll be fine.

[Danielle Elliott]

In these posts, she heard women describing why young black girls are rarely diagnosed with adhd, or at least they were rarely diagnosed. Data published in the Journal of the American Medical association shows that the largest increase in diagnosis from 2000 to 2010 happened among Black girls. But that statistic is tricky. It might have been the biggest increase because they were the most overlooked group of kids and there was some catch up happening. It doesn't mean there was enough diagnosis. And many young black girls are still undiagnosed. Another study conducted by the Mayo Clinic and released in 2021, concluded that Asian, black and Hispanic children are significantly less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD compared with white children, and that many black and Hispanic children go undiagnosed because of the ways their behavior is misinterpreted. This may be changing. The CDC releases data on ADHD diagnosis among kids every year. The latest Numbers show that 12% of black and white children in the US have been diagnosed with ADHD compared to 10% of Native American and Hispanic kids, 6% of Pacific Islander kids, and 4% of Asian American kids. These numbers indicate more equity in diagnosis, and that's good news for kids. It doesn't mean much for adults like Parker. It's harder to find data on adult diagnosis, but research indicates that black and Latino women show symptoms of ADHD at the same rates as white women, but are far less likely to be diagnosed and even then less likely to receive treatment. I never think algorithms are helpful, but in this case, I'm actually like the algorithms figuring it out and getting the information. Not only getting information to you, but getting you information from the people who could be more helpful.

[B.A. Parker]

Shout out to TikTok being my advocate. Who would have thought? Because the. I think I'm on the side of TikTok. That's like. I mean, doctors are helpful, but also like, be able to sec. Ask for a second opinion because they have their own. Their own biases and like, so I have to be mindful of that.

[Danielle Elliott]

All's well that ends well, right? Parker got her second opinion and found her people. But what about that King of Prussia doctor who tried to convince her that she didn't have adhd? What was up with that? I looked into this issue of black women being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder. I found that it's not only a problem for black women with adhd. Doctors also fail to accurately diagnose black women who actually have bipolar disorder. Often, according to what I read, emotional swings are dismissed as being those of angry black women. For Parker, having the diagnosis of ADHD gives her a way to contend with this classic racial bias and others. Like in meetings, if she's quiet and someone thinks she's not a team player, she can now tell them, no, I have adhd.

[B.A. Parker]

I didn't have that before. Now that I have the language for it, it's been really helpful, especially in meetings. Cause, like, my mind will wander. There's. Wait, okay, I'LL show you this because this is.

[Danielle Elliott]

She pulled out her phone and seemed to be scrolling through her photos.

[B.A. Parker]

I mean, I swear I am paying attention during work, but I used to do this during work.

[Danielle Elliott]

She handed me her phone to show me a photo. It was a spiral notebook. On the page, names of movies filled every line, top to bottom.

[B.A. Parker]

Like during meetings, like in person meetings, I would list the whole actor's filmography in a notebook.

[Danielle Elliott]

Whose filmography is this?

[B.A. Parker]

I believe that's Jeff Bridges, but that's what I would do during a meeting. I got reprimanded for that. They were like, we need you to focus during these meetings.

[Danielle Elliott]

But she was focusing. Writing out these filmographies made it easier to focus and now it's easier to explain this.

[B.A. Parker]

But yeah, I just being able to explain some of that and having other women on my. Other black women on my timeline who had similar experiences and also being aware of like, either why we were ignored or why we were focused in on and like why in workspaces these things happen. And like how ADHD sits differently inside of black women, like those kind of things was super helpful. And I was like, oh, okay, this explains this. And the nice thing is because of that, like, I have other black female friends. And they're like, wait, I have adhd. I found out I have ADHD too this during the pandemic. And it's kind of. It's nice to be able to have that.

[Danielle Elliott]

I lied when I said I was off social media for 2021. I had a couple of relapses here and there. Once in April, I reactivated my Instagram account and a post caught my eye. It was a drawing of a woman in jeans and a sweatshirt. Across the top it read women and adhd. Across the bottom of the page it said, start a free assessment today. I looked at where the post was from. Only then did I realize it was an ad. The account belonged to a company called Dunn. It seemed weird to me. An ADHD company? What even is an ADHD company and why is it posting on social media? I didn't remember that from before the pandemic. Dunn and ADHD Online LLC are two of maybe a dozen ADHD focused companies that appeared on social media during the pandemic. This is not a coincidence. It actually happened because of the pandemic. Remember when I said diagnosis got easier? Early in the pandemic, states eased strict regulations around how doctors can diagnose and prescribe stimulant medications. For the first time, doctors could prescribe via telehealth with the hassle removed, the roadblock eased. Thousands of women who might have previously been deterred by the steps were now able to handle the process before they had a chance to get distracted. This policy shift definitely contributed to the rise in diagnosis. It also sparked questions around over diagnosis. I told you I'd come back to this. Once these strict telehealth policies changed, people took advantage. Not individuals, as far as I know, but entrepreneurs. People created ADHD companies and started advertising services on social media. Companies like the ones that sent ads to me and Parker. The algorithm sent these ads to millions of women who, like Parker, took the assessments. The companies contracted psychiatrists and hired them. It looked like an ad hoc improvement in the healthcare system, and it was. Mostly. Then, in 2022, the U.S. department of justice received complaints about one of these new companies, a company called Cerebral. The complaints claimed Cerebral was pressuring clinicians to prescribe Adderall and Ritalin to increase patient retention. The investigation was settled in 2024 with cerebral agreeing to pay millions of dollars for, for, quote, engaging in practices that encouraged the unauthorized distribution of controlled substances from 2019 to 2022. As of June 2024, the telemedicine company Dunn is also under investigation. The founder and CEO and the clinical president were arrested on allegations that they instructed Dunn prescribers to prescribe Adderall and other stimulants, even if the Dunn member didn't qualify. The Justice Department alleges that the executives prioritized profits over customer health, leading to addiction, abuse, and overdoses. There's no way to know how many people were misdiagnosed through these telehealth companies or to determine the accuracy rate of diagnosis during the pandemic. I get that. But I believe the women seeking a diagnosis were genuinely seeking help. All these conversations that sprung up online about ADHD during the pandemic, they helped normalize such conversations in the real world as well. Not only were more women talking to their doctors and therapists about adhd, they were also discussing it openly with each other, their communities, and their families.

[B.A. Parker]

Wait, have you talked to your family about your adhd?

[Danielle Elliott]

Parker is a podcast host herself. Inevitably, she turned the interview on me. I was gonna ask. Oh, sorry. Yeah, So I have talked to my mom about it. I was trying to not tell anyone, and of course, I shared because I.

[B.A. Parker]

Just overshare everything 100%.

[Danielle Elliott]

No matter how much I'm like, I'm not gonna tell. I'm on the phone, and then I'm telling. And I talked to my mom and she's like, that can't be possible. You did so well in school.

[B.A. Parker]

That's the same thing.

[Danielle Elliott]

And she was like, maybe you have it, but my generation didn't have this.

[B.A. Parker]

Let me tell you.

[Danielle Elliott]

Yeah, tell me about.

[B.A. Parker]

I. Not to put my mom's business on, but I love my mom. But also, I was like, I had to have a conversation after I had the call with the psychiatrist. I was like, okay, here's the thing. I have adhd. I'm gonna go on medication. It's okay. Plenty of people have this. And I think she thought it was just like, oh, my God. But even now, I have to be like, to be fair, like, you do know, for lack of a better term, I am mentally ill. Like, you know, like, she's like, no, you're not. Those other, like, no, I mean, I'm in, like, the dos. Like, I'm in. I'm on the list. But having to be like, okay. And then I'd be like, hey, you know, it's hereditary.

[Danielle Elliott]

As Parker learned more about ADHD and how it showed up in daily life, she started to see her mom in a sort of new way.

[B.A. Parker]

She came to visit after my diagnosis. She would leave a room and just leave a cabinet door open. And I was like, this woman, I love her. Like, this is. This is me. Like, I was like, you know, you don't think, like, your impulse to, like, buy a purse, you don't need to get, like, that kick.

[Danielle Elliott]

This is so familiar. I had the same reaction with my mom. Different details, same story.

[B.A. Parker]

She's making more and more sense to me. Like, all of these, like, hyper fixations that pop up, and she's going to do these things. And I was like, okay. The things that I think I don't know when I was a kid may have frustrated me a little bit. I'm like, why am I going to a wedding planners conference? I was like, like, she was really into wedding planning for a while there. And I was like, or just got really into collection calligraphy.

[Danielle Elliott]

Parker thinks her mother has undiagnosed adhd. We're no doctors, but I think mine does too. It's a thing. Honestly, I think this is yet another reason diagnosis rose among women during the pandemic. As more women recognized their own adhd, they started to notice it in their moms. My mom didn't seek a diagnosis. Neither did Parker's. But many women did. I have two friends whose moms were recently diagnosed in their 60s. Sari Solden told me about a client who was diagnosed at 83. Regardless, conversations on TikTok and yes, for profit companies offering screeners on TikTok helped Parker and thousands of women begin to consider ADHD during the pandemic. The pandemic opened more doors to these conversations and TikTok helped them spread. But ultimately, it's the conversations themselves, the normalizing of talking about adhd, that helped women from all different communities access information that they took to their doctors or to their therapists and said, please help me consider if I have adhd. These conversations are still happening. I hear them everywhere. On the train, in bars, at birthday parties. I always wonder if this is some sort of Brooklyn phenomenon. I remember Parker once telling me she's sort of the cool cousin in the big city. I ask if that role has come into play in terms of adhd. Does she bring it up when she's back in Baltimore? Though her mother didn't bite, Parker has become a role model for others in her family, not just because she's a self determined, professional woman with an impressive career, but because she's open about her adhd.

[B.A. Parker]

Someone mentioned that someone else in our family had a young person adhd. I was like, that's great. So do I like, it's okay. And I think to be the adult, to be like, yay, I also have adhd. The little kid, the kid's fine. They got superhuman strength. They got great. They have a spicy brain. We should be so lucky to have a spicy brain. We'll be fine.

[Danielle Elliott]

They will all be fine. Perhaps more than fine, because they're years ahead of either of us in knowing they have adhd. They're years ahead of the many women diagnosed during the pandemic, many with the help of something they saw on TikTok. Parker doesn't know it, but this advice she gave her family member, I think it explains one other element of this massive rise in diagnosis. Listen closely.

[B.A. Parker]

The little kid, the kid's fine. They got superhuman strength.

[Danielle Elliott]

Superhuman strength. Before I was diagnosed, I don't remember hearing anyone describe ADHD as a strength. Maybe that's because I wasn't paying attention. Regardless, I don't know where that rhetoric started, but it gained a ton of popularity. During the pandemic. When I first considered that I might have adhd, I read about the common aspect of the condition called hyperfocus. Some people considered that to be a strength. By 2023, though, public perception of ADHD on a whole seemed to have shifted. People were calling it a superpower. And I'm pretty certain that this new way of looking at ADHD contributed to the rise in diagnosis during the last few years. In many people's eyes, it went from an affliction, a source of shame, to a desirable attribute. Again, I can't say who started this, but after a little digging, I can point to one man who has taken it upon himself to rebrand adhd. Once they see it through my eyes, they embrace it. In the next episode, I'm going to try to see it through his eyes and to try to understand how that might have impacted the rise in diagnosis.

[B.A. Parker]

My line is I don't treat disabilities.

[Danielle Elliott]

I help people unwrap their gifts. And that's the truth.

[B.A. Parker]

But that shift in emphasis makes all.

[Danielle Elliott]

The difference in the world. Oh, that's Next time on Climbing the Walls Climbing the Walls was written and reported by me, Danielle Elliott. It was edited by Neil Drumming, Sound design by Cody Nelson. Brianna Berry was our production director, Ash Beecher was our supervising producer and Diana White was our associate producer. Fact checking by Mary Mathis, research by Karen Wainabe. Our music was composed by Kwame Brant Pierce, with additional music provided by Blue Dot Sessions, and our mixing was done by Justin D. Wright. This series was brought to you by Understood.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences like ADHD and dyslexia. From Understood.org, our executive directors are Laura Key, Scott Cochier, and Seth Miller Melnick. A very special thanks to Ray Jacobsen, Julie Zeitz, Jordan Davidson, Sarah Greenberg and Kathleen Nadeau. If you want to help Understood continue this work, consider making a [e-mail] give.