Ep119 The ADHD Myth- with Maddy Alexander-Grout

This week I'm absolutely fuming.

A new Channel 4 documentary, The ADHD Myth, asks whether ADHD is really a neurodevelopmental condition and questions whether too many children are being medicated.

As someone who has ADHD, has spent years coaching people with ADHD, trained in ADHD, and literally wrote a book about it... I had a few things to say.

In this episode I talk about:

•  Why headlines like this can be so damaging. 
•  The difference between asking scientific questions and fuelling stigma. 
•  Why ADHD medication is never an "easy option" for parents. 
•  The reality of living with ADHD and why validation matters. 
•  Why invisible disabilities are constantly questioned. 
•  Blue Badges, PIP and the myths surrounding ADHD support. 
•  Whether this documentary is genuine investigation... or simply rage bait. 

I'm also sharing my personal experience as an ADHD parent, why I haven't rushed to medicate my own children, and why every family deserves the right to make those decisions without judgement.

If you have ADHD, love someone who does, or you're simply curious about the conversation, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

⚠️ Please note: This episode was recorded before the documentary aired and is a reaction to the promotional material and press coverage available at the time. 

Connect with me

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💼 LinkedIn: Maddy Alexander-Grout

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Mad About. I'm Maddie Alexander Grout, and this is the podcast where we talk all things that we are mad about from a neurodivergent and disabled lens. And mad about can be like mad can mean anything. It can mean frustrated, it can mean angry, it can mean hyper-focused, it can mean passionate, it can mean enthusiastic. In this case, I'm definitely fucking mad, as in like really fucking angry. Now, I'm I'm potentially angry. Let's let's maybe like, I mean, I have some rage. Um, because I've read a rage bait head headline this morning um about an ADHD documentary that Channel 4 are bringing out called the ADHD myth. And some of the parts that they have released in this press, um, in this press release are is ADHD an actual neurodevelopmental disorder or is it a product of life? Um, are we giving our children too many mind-ob altering substances? Um, and basically, it feels like they are trying to throw people who have got ADHD under the bus. Not just throw us under the bus, but like run us over several times. Because there's already this really harmful narrative that's in the press that is out there at the moment with the government and the media, where people are saying ADHD doesn't exist. And as somebody who has worked in this space for the last six years, somebody who was trained in ADHD, somebody who has coached thousands of people who have got ADHD, someone who wrote the fucking book about ADHD. Well, a book, it's not the book, but it depends on which way which way you look at it. Um but I wrote a book about ADHD. I've spent hours and hours and hours of my time researching something that 100% fucking exists. Um I know because I've got it. I also know because there are pretty much like every single person I've ever coached has also got it. Um and if it's not ADHD, what the fuck is it that is this linking characteristic between all of these people? I do not know. Anyway, it's made me really angry this morning because I think the thing that's made me the most angry um is that there is a doctor who is quoted in this piece, right? And the doctor has said, and I'm gonna quote this because I'm not particularly um good at recalling, recalling information. Like that that would be that would be my dyspraxia and also like ADHD. Um so it's called the The Great ADHD myth. It seeks to determine whether ADHD is a genuine, I fucking hate that word, so many people like at the moment in the disabled community, like, you know, genuine disabilities, even from disabled people, pitting each other off against each other, because apparently ADHD is not a genuine disability. It is, by the way, fucking Frida. Um, if you've got ADHD, you know that it is a very disabling condition, unless you're one of these people who thinks it's a superpower, which is absolutely fine if that's your narrative, just don't push it on other people. Because other people find it disabling. And when you're going out there going, oh yeah, ADHD's a superpower. I love how ditzy I am, it fucking diminishes it for the rest of us, which is not great. Sorry, I'm gonna be feral in this in in this one today. So, one of the things that this woman has said, this um this doctor, um, and I'm gonna challenge her in inverted commas as being a doctor. Um, so she has said, um, it's certainly not a medical condition, as far as I'm concerned. Well, I'm like, you're not a fucking doctor then, as far as I'm concerned, because if you don't think it's a medical condition after your training, we've got a problem here, missus. Uh, that's what I would say to that anyway. Um, but yeah, basically, people wait years to get diagnosis for ADHD. People struggle so much with their lives, they feel like they're broken. Um, like I genuinely felt like there was something wrong with me. Like I was the biggest fuck up on the planet until I got my ADHD diagnosis. And then it was validating. So, what they're trying to do here is remove validation from people by saying, oh, by the way, the diagnosis you've got or the thing that you think you've got isn't a real thing. Um, and I'm here to tell you that whatever they fucking talk about on this program, it is real, it is a thing, and you're not making it up. Um, thousands and thousands of medical professionals, fucking science, fucking brain scans. Like, you can't get a brain scan that looks different if there isn't something there that makes it different, and it is ADHD. Um, the press are already throwing us under the bus. Like, we know this. We know that the press are throwing us under the bus. We know that the government is throwing us under the bus. Um, I'm out there fighting every single day to try and change the narrative for people who have got hidden disabilities. You cannot see ADHD from the outside. In most cases. I mean, I'm very ADHD. When I went for my ADHD diagnosis, my diet, my uh my psychiatrist actually said to me that she'd never seen anybody present their symptoms of ADHD as ADHD-ly as me. Um, I was like, thank you very much. I will bow and curtsy. Um, anyway, I'm still mad. I'm still mad, I've got more points to make. I just had to write them down because otherwise, you know. Um, the next bit, we've replaced corporal punishment with giving children a pill. I mean, let's take a second to work out how fucking damaging that is. So essentially, you're saying that we should smack our children instead of medicating them. Mind fucking blown. Like, what the hell? If you've got an ADHD child, I mean, I've got two of them. They are hard work. They are always hard work, especially when you're ADHD yourself. Like, I really struggle at times. Like, two of them talking to me, fucking overwhelm. Like at the same time, I love them dearly. There is not a fucking chance I'm gonna start hitting my fucking kids because a channel four documentary tells me to. No. Also, it's illegal anyway. Fuck you, channel four. Um, so we need to fix the education system, we need to fix CAMS. Like, and I need to say this: like, anybody who is medicating their child will have gone through a really difficult internal struggle of whether or not it was the right thing to do. I can fucking guarantee you that every single person who was medicating their child didn't just go, oh yeah, I'm gonna take the easy option out and I'm gonna medicate my child, because it's never easy. It's never easy. And if you've been on ADHD meds as an adult, you'll know that the journey is hard. Um, personally, I don't medicate my children yet. And it doesn't mean to say that I'm not going to. Um, I've tried so many different things for them. Um, I think Ben is probably at the stage where actually he's going off to secondary school and maybe medication might actually help to level him out a little bit. But that is my fucking prerogative. It is not going to be some form of narrative that I'm going to listen to from a documentary that's going to change my mind. We are not medicating our children too easily. I've known about Ben's ADHD diagnosis for four years, and I haven't even thought about medication. And this is not shaming anybody who has, because we all need to do what we need to do to get by. Like every single time somebody says, Oh, you're medicating your child, oh, that's an easy way out, isn't it? No. Fuck no. That person is going to have gone through mental turmoil to even consider it. Putting drugs into a child, especially legal speed, which is essentially what it is. No. No. It's not just a thing where you go, oh yeah, I'm going to take the easy option. Um so if you're a parent who has had to medicate their child, I see you. I fucking hear you. And like it's the only person that knows your child better than they know themselves is you. So if you have to make that decision, you make that decision. It is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. ADHD is like super, super misunderstood by so many people. And there is a tiny little bit of me that is going, this is channel four, right? This is channel four, where like, you know, Hollyoaks, let's take Holy Oaks as an example. Sorry, but I'm a massive Holyox fan for anyone who doesn't know. Um, like Hollyoaks has some fucking dark storylines, but they are so, so needed. Like they have trans storylines, they have storylines about um sexual assault, they have they have storylines about um postpartum psychosis, and there's somebody who had postpartum psychosis, which is very closely linked to ADHD, by the way. So unless you're telling me I just fucking made that up in my head as well, channel four, um is a real thing. Um, but but channel four, channel four, who have been historically so good at being quite a left side channel, um who bought out Tiptoe. I mean, like God, what a brilliant piece of TV. Utterly devastating, but what a brilliant piece of TV. And then they're gonna come and do this. And I have a small suspicion that this rage baity headline is to do exactly this, to make us rage about it, to make us question, and of and and above all, to make us watch it, but to make the people who we want to watch watch it. So, you know, we're thinking the people who fucking don't believe that ADHD exists, and actually the ADHD myth, they're gonna prove that it does exist and they're gonna give the science, and they're just picking out these little things to share to rage bait people so that more people talk about it. That is my theory. That is what I am hoping happens from this program. Because otherwise, they are just setting science back and setting our progress back 20 years, because they are completely like dismissing all of the medical research. They're dismissing everybody's lived experiences. The fucking book that I spent a year writing, they are dismissing. And if it does happen to be that, my god, do we need to try and do something about it? Because they are taking away our lives, they are taking away our narratives when we've been diagnosed by psychologists. So you're saying all of these psychologists are wrong? ADHD exists. ADHD is different for every single person who has it. So, yes, you might be an ADHD person who doesn't need a blue badge. You might be an ADHD person who doesn't claim pit. You might be an ADHD person who works. You might be an ADHD person who went through school and never had any problems. Fucking good for you. There are some people out there whose ADHD is so debilitating that actually they do need extra extra support. Now, while I'm saying this, because of the amount of fucking hate that I've had on my video from when I went into uh when I went in to do the interview for Good Morning Britain about ADHD and blue badges, people who have got ADHD can need blue badges because they can struggle so much, going from point A to point B in terms of organization, in terms of like planning a journey, getting somewhere safely. Doesn't mean they can't drive, by the way, they've got a fucking driving licence, they pass just like anybody else. Um I am very ranty today, sorry, I'm fucking on one today. Anyway, but I've had a load of hate on that video. Like just because somebody has ADHD and they really struggle doesn't mean that they shouldn't be entitled to something that that they can claim. Um and by the way, it is very, very unlikely for somebody to get a blue badge for ADHD. It would be ADHD plus something else. And what I found out yesterday, which is super fucking interesting, from somebody who used to work at the DWP, you have to list every single symptom that you have when it comes to your health. And the system will pick up the thing that is first in that list of things. So alphabetically, ADHD will always come first. So if you've got ADHD and you're in a wheelchair, or you've got ADHD and you've got spina bifida, or you've got something else, it's always going to come up with the ADHD first. So when, like, and and the rest of the conditions fade into the background, but you've just been approved. So actually, yes, there are loads of people who are being approved because they've got ADHD, but it's not because they've got ADHD, it's because they've got something else, and ADHD just happens to fucking be there as well. Um, so that's my little rant for today. Um, it's not even really that little, but I really needed to just get that out. I'm going on holiday tomorrow, so there probably won't be an episode next week. Um, and I'm sorry, I have been a little bit lax with getting an episode out every week. Like you might have noticed that the consistency of episodes has not been there as much as it should do. Um, but I am I am going to be trying really hard. I've got somebody who's gonna be working with me on my podcast to actually help me to do the back-end stuff. Because do you know what? ADHD executive function. I cannot, I can come on and I can record it, but actually getting the fucker out there, that's that's the hard thing. Can't even do that sometimes. Um but let's let's reserve judgment on this ADHD uh myth programme. I'm hoping that Channel 4 are gonna be the legends that they normally are, and that actually this is just a rage baity clickbait headline to get all of the haters to watch it so that maybe we can change their narrative. We don't know. But if they make a documentary about ADHD being a myth, I'm 100% fucking gonna make one about it being a fact. So uh yeah, screw you, Channel 4. Welcome to Mad About TV. That's what's happening today. If you've liked this extremely ranty episode, I'm Maddie Alexander Grout. I'm also the author of Mad About Money, Managing Finances and Life with ADHD, um, which took me a fucking year to write. And I've just bent a nail back. That was really uncomfortable. Like some would say painful. Um, but this is my podcast. It's called Mad About, and I talk about so many different things through a neurodivergent and disabled lens. Um, I don't just have ADHD, I'm also disabled in many areas. Um I'm actually in a wheelchair most of the time. Um, but yeah, in case you haven't come across me, I'm a qualified ADHD coach. Um tell me that doesn't exist because I went through months and months of training to get it. Um, but also um I'm somebody who very, very passionately calls out people who are fucking wrong. So if you like what I talk about in this very short episode, you might like some of the others, go and check him out. There's like 120 odd other episodes. Um you can follow me on my social media accounts, uh Maddie TalksMoney on um Instagram, Mad About Money Official on TikTok, and Maddie Alexander Grout everywhere else. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time, and hopefully, I will not be this kind of mad again for a while.