SINGAPORE – It can be crushing to learn you do not have ADHD.
After consuming hours of social media content about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, some arrive at a clinic convinced that their struggles with focus, motivation and impulsivity finally has a name.
“These individuals can be devastated when told they don’t have ADHD and that their experiences with inattentiveness or impulsivity fall within normal variations,” says Dr Gangaram Poornima, a senior consultant at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH).
“In clinics, we spend considerable time helping them work through this strong identification with ADHD.”
At the other end of the spectrum is someone like Ms Lau, a 23-year-old who declined to share her first name. Ms Lau was first diagnosed at the age of 17, after a seven-year journey that began when her parents first sought help from a psychiatrist for her absent-mindedness and poor focus when she was 10.
That first doctor recommended a computer game to improve her working memory at Primary 5. When her symptoms persisted through her secondary school and polytechnic years, a second psychiatrist diagnosed her with ADHD. This was seven years later.
Ms Lau, now a local university student, looks back with frustration on how things could have turned out differently had she received the help she needed earlier.
These experiences – the growing number convinced they have ADHD, and the people who spend years struggling to cope with it – highlight the unusual double bind facing those living with the condition in Singapore.
On social media platforms such as TikTok, content about ADHD is everywhere. However, the condition remains poorly understood and is prone to stereotypes that trivialise it.
“Sometimes, we end up getting lumped in with the people who throw the term around loosely. Thus, people who don’t know any better just assume you’re saying it for the fun of it,” says Mr Chan.
The 26-year-old human resources worker received his ADHD diagnosis in 2023 after years of feeling overwhelmed in situations that others would find normal or bearable. He declined to share his first name as he does not want the condition to “mark” him for life and impact his career.
Singapore’s healthcare institutions are seeing more Singapore residents, especially adults, come for testing.
“I am seeing more people coming forward with ADHD concerns, but that is not the same thing as overdiagnosis,” says assistant professor Celine Wong, senior consultant at the National University Hospital’s (NUH) department of psychological medicine.
More assessments do not necessarily mean “more ADHD” in society, notes Dr Wong. While there has been an uptick in adults and parents taking their kids for assessment, much of this stems from awareness catching up with reality.
Many adults were never identified in childhood and seek assistance only when their coping strategies fail during difficult life transitions like university, new jobs or parenthood. Growing awareness of the condition also means families seek assistance earlier.
Between 2021 and 2024, about 1,200 patients diagnosed with ADHD were seen annually at Singapore’s public healthcare institutions, according to the Ministry of Health. About 82 per cent of the patients were under 21 years old.
In 2023, NUH diagnosed 515 patients under 21 and 176 adults with ADHD, out of more than 880 youth and 2,600 adults assessed.
ADHD is the most common neurodivergent condition in Singapore, followed by autism spectrum disorders. It is estimated that ADHD affects about 5 to 8 per cent of children in Singapore.
“The growing trend in seeking ADHD diagnosis is largely positive, resulting from increased public awareness that helps end years of misery for many undiagnosed adults,” says Dr Poornima.
Data from elsewhere supports this. A March 2026 study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that data in Britain pointed to a trend of underdiagnosis rather than overdiagnosis.
“Importantly, evidence points to unmet need, as many people with ADHD are not diagnosed,” writes the study’s 32 authors from across Britain. “Overall, we believe that the narrative of overdiagnosis of ADHD ought not be used as a pretext to deny individuals with properly diagnosed ADHD the support that they deserve.”
The tension between lived experience and medical authority is not new.
Online communities that form around neurodivergence sometimes have a fraught relationship with the institutions that diagnose and treat them, and not without reason.
