Reality Check
Best of the Spectator
Reality Check: the ADHD debate we’re not allowed to have
- Published
- August 26, 2026
- Duration
- 14:56
- Summary source
- description
- Last updated
- Sep 13, 2026
Discusses daily, society, culture.
Summary
The backlash to Channel 4’s The Great ADHD Myth has reignited a fierce debate over how we diagnose ADHD – and whether that debate itself is becoming impossible to have.Michael Simmons looks at the extraordinary rise in diagnoses, the gap between recorded cases and underlying prevalence, and asks whether we are increasingly medicalising normal variations i…
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Show notes
The backlash to Channel 4’s The Great ADHD Myth has reignited a fierce debate over how we diagnose ADHD – and whether that debate itself is becoming impossible to have.Michael Simmons looks at the extraordinary rise in diagnoses, the gap between recorded cases and underlying prevalence, and asks whether we are increasingly medicalising normal variations in behaviour.Is Britain finally recognising a vast amount of unmet need – or has diagnosis begun to serve a social as well as a medical function
Themes
- daily
- society
- culture