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Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - LevelUP - 07-06-2026
Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/06/16/why-so-many-high-achieving-students-are-being-diagnosed-with-adhd/
Do you think ADHD is being overdiagnosed, underdiagnosed, or diagnosed more accurately today?
RE: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - bluebooger - 07-06-2026
obviously overdiagnosed
RE: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - wow - 07-06-2026
(07-06-2026, 12:20 AM)LevelUP Wrote: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/06/16/why-so-many-high-achieving-students-are-being-diagnosed-with-adhd/
Do you think ADHD is being overdiagnosed, underdiagnosed, or diagnosed more accurately today?
Hard to say. All I know is that I struggled with ADHD for years without being diagnosed because I was generally an excellent student. Did not get my diagnosis until after my first bachelor's.
RE: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - sanantone - 07-06-2026
High-achieving girls are least likely to be diagnosed. Since I was in honors and AP courses, my teachers and my mother blamed laziness whenever I struggled to complete long papers or projects. I wasn't diagnosed until my 30s. I advise people to get tested by a psychologist because PCPs and psychiatric nurse practitioners diagnose based on vibes or maybe a short questionnaire. In fact, whenever people are trying to get a pilot's license and they have a disqualifying ADHD diagnosis, they're told to go to a psychologist because so many people are misdiagnosed by unqualified healthcare professionals. In my opinion, only psychologists and maybe psychological associates have the training to test for ADHD.
RE: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - homeschoolmom1 - 07-06-2026
In my opinion, many highly intelligent/gifted people have an overactive nervous system, manifesting in overexcitabilities according to K. Dabrowski. For example, they often have a heightened sense of smell, and also an overexcitability of the sensorimotor system, needing to walk, run and jump. I think a diagnosis of ADHD should first exclude a high IQ. In people with high IQs, any need to movement is probably simply just overexcitability. Our son used to walk around the dining room table dozens of times as he did math problems in his head. Luckily, homeschooling allows it without disturbing others.
RE: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - sanantone - 07-06-2026
They've found a close connection between high functioning autism spectrum disorder and ADHD in the way the brain functions, and it suggests that low functioning autism might indeed be a separate condition.
Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - NotJoeBiden - 07-06-2026
(07-06-2026, 11:36 AM)homeschoolmom1 Wrote: In my opinion, many highly intelligent/gifted people have an overactive nervous system, manifesting in overexcitabilities according to K. Dabrowski. For example, they often have a heightened sense of smell, and also an overexcitability of the sensorimotor system, needing to walk, run and jump. I think a diagnosis of ADHD should first exclude a high IQ. In people with high IQs, any need to movement is probably simply just overexcitability. Our son used to walk around the dining room table dozens of times as he did math problems in his head. Luckily, homeschooling allows it without disturbing others.
For a long time, ADHD, dyslexia, and autism were diagnosed mostly in people who struggled in school. As such, it was traditionally under diagnosed.
Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration was an early predecessor to current neurodivergent diagnoses like ADHD, dyslexia, and autism.
RE: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - soba - 07-06-2026
If you are a high achiever, why do you even need a clinical diagnosis? You should present with some major impairment to get a diagnosis, imo. If you can get a degree and keep a job, then you are better off than many normal people, and shouldn't require medical interventions.
RE: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - sanantone - 07-06-2026
(07-06-2026, 02:35 PM)soba Wrote: If you are a high achiever, why do you even need a clinical diagnosis? You should present with some major impairment to get a diagnosis, imo. If you can get a degree and keep a job, then you are better off than many normal people, and shouldn't require medical interventions.
Because people can only mask for so long. John Nash was a high achiever, and he had schizophrenia.
RE: Why So Many High-Achieving Students Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD - wow - 07-06-2026
(07-06-2026, 02:35 PM)soba Wrote: If you are a high achiever, why do you even need a clinical diagnosis? You should present with some major impairment to get a diagnosis, imo. If you can get a degree and keep a job, then you are better off than many normal people, and shouldn't require medical interventions.
There are plenty of people who are high achievers in school and have a hard time holding down a job.
Also people who can manage to keep a job, but because they are spending an exorbitant amount of mental energy doing that, are unable to function in other areas of their life, e.g., household chores, paying bills, planning, socializing, putting together meals, etc.