Don’t treat ADHD as a fashion fad

TV CHEF Gizzi Erskine, pictured, has slammed people who claim to have ADHD just to ‘look cool’. I’m afraid this is something I’ve seen again and again. There’s a real tendency of late to medicalise our quirks to garner sympathy. I’ve seen adults say they have ADHD to explain why they can’t concentrate or focus at work. A whole industry has sprung up to diagnose people with ADHD when in fact often they just need to get off their phones and learn to tolerate frustration, boredom and tedium in their lives. In children, it’s even sometimes used to gloss over bad parenting. ADHD is undoubtedly a complex condition, with genetics, environment and social factors playing a part. Yet too often people reach for a label to explain their behaviour rather than looking at what’s really causing it.