Apparently this psychiatrist is also wrong
From 2020-2022 ADHD rates doubled in menopausal women.
As I had said before, ADHD is a neurobiological disorder. It makes no sense for it magically "wax and wane" throughout the lifetime. For this reason I said it is incorrect to diagnose solely based on non nuanced ADHD criteria, which is limited to hyperactivity/inattentiveness.
Adults having less hyperactivity does not mean that their ADHD magically evaporated into thin air. Just because they don't meet DSM criteria at that exact moment in time, does this mean that they "no longer have ADHD"? The mainstream answer to this is currently "yes". But I argue that this makes no logical sense. The "evidence" that is proposed for this is that as adults grow up, certain parts of brain increase, and ADHD is associated with smaller sizes in certain parts of the brain. But there are 2 major logical counterpoints here, which will be presented below.
The first comes from the link above. Are you telling me all those women suddenly had those brain sizes shrink due to menopause? Even if this was the case, it doesn't explain the second counterpoint. The second counterpoint is that tons of adults with depression/anxiety, substance issues, actually have ADHD. These people often lack hyperactivity. They are more likely to have inattentiveness. But even some of them don't have inattentiveness. They are often put on SSRIs, and they either get worse, it doesn't work, or they only slightly get better. This is an indication that ADHD might be at the root of it all.
So think about this logically. This is the world we live in. The diagnosis is solely done based on inattentiveness and hyperactivity. If not enough of these DSM symptoms are endorsed, it is assumed that there is no ADHD. Then, these people are put in SSRIs, which do not help them or make them worse. Then, welbutrin is added, and they get a tiny bit better. But it does not occur to the prescriber that welbutrin is an SNRI and they don't realize hey, could this actually be ADHD? So the logical error here is conflating correlation with causation. DSM criteria correlate with "actual ADHD", but they are not necessarily causal. And, the absence of sufficient DSM criteria does not prove that there is no ADHD. But this is the level of logic in society, this is bizarrely missed. Every single one of the people who believe this at one point took a statistics or research methods course and they all overwhelmingly understood the textbook examples of correlation vs causation and got their multiple choice tests items asking about this correct. Yet they are unable to spot this in the real world as soon as a little bit of nuance is involved. And the worst part is, when someone else spots it, they immediately shut them down and accuse them of "spreading scientific misinformation". Absolutely bizarre.
The other issue is the blatantly bizarre lack of logic when it comes to prescribing authority. A mental health therapist such as a psychologist is actually expected to be at the top when it comes to knowledge of psychopathology and diagnosis. What does this logically mean when it comes to medication? There is a direct link. In order to give the correct medication, you need to know what the underlying issue is. This is NOT the same as having knowledge of psychopharmacology. Yet, in our world with zero nuance and lack of logic all around and unlimited bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy and contrary to essence of RFT using words and dictionary definitions out of context and hanging on rigidly to the "words" that are being uttered instead of their logical validity/utility/context, what happens is that psychologists are blocked from giving any input in this regard, and if they do, they can be accused of "practicing outside their scope" or providing "medical advice". But the RFT knowledge lacking bureaucrats who utter these words have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Psychopharmacology and medicine entails questions such as which exact medication to give, at what dose, how fast, how to titrate, what physical side effects to look for, etc... this is NOT the same as differentiating between ADHD and MDD, which is logically necessary to understand which types/class of medication to give.
That is why what happens is that patients are harmed by going to an MD who has no clue about spotting ADHD, and automatically put everyone with PRESENTING symptoms of anxiety on an SSRI. But this is justified because the words "medical" have been UTTERED, and if a psychologist says "hey, bruh, that is ADHD underlying that anxiety, which has has about 50% comorbidity rate with ADHD: did you even SCREEN for ADHD prior to popping out that SSRI?" The psychologist would be accused of providing "medical advice". They would need "prescribing authority" to say this basic 1+1=2 logical connection the connection being more obvious than the most basic lego set. But this is the world we live in. A bunch of RFT-knowledge lacking bureaucrats and also many clinicians also falling in this category, absolutely zero nuance. It was hot weather not ice cream that caused the high murder rate, A+ in rigid rote memorizated stats exam, but any time any nuance is injected into the equation in real life: absolute bewilderment, and the worse part, shutting down who DO get it by UTTERING words contrary to RFT principles like "medical advice giving detected. ABORT THEIR FREEDOM OF SPEECH NOW. AGAINST THE RULES." or "SCIENTIFIC MISINFORMATION UTTERED BECAUSE DARED USED CRITICAL THINKING AND AT THIS POINT THERE IS NO METAANALYSIS SHOWING 1+1=2 THEREFORE IT CANNOT POSSIBLY BE." Absolutely bizarre.
Posted Mar 5, 2026, 4:45 PM UTC