Whole variety of posts per 12 months in r/autism and r/ADHD from 2012 to 2022. ADHD: attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction. Credit score: Journal of Medical Web Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.2196/70914
Media consideration is at an all-time excessive, demand for diagnostic assessments has risen considerably, and scientific companies are experiencing unprecedented strain.
What’s behind the rise in these two circumstances?
One chance is that charges of ADHD and autism are genuinely rising. One other is that rising consciousness has led extra folks to acknowledge them in themselves and their family members.
One other main issue is adjustments to diagnostic standards.
The newest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Guide of Psychological Problems (DSM-5) prolonged the prognosis of ADHD from kids to adolescents and adults and mixed a number of beforehand distinct problems into the umbrella prognosis of autism spectrum dysfunction.
In a very essential change, the DSM-5 allowed ADHD and autism to be identified collectively. Beforehand, the 2 circumstances had been thought-about mutually unique.
This replace raised consciousness of their overlap and made twin prognosis not simply doable however widespread.
In parallel with these adjustments, there was a shift in how the 2 circumstances are understood by many individuals, impressed by the neurodiversity motion.
Neurodiversity promotes the concept that circumstances reminiscent of these are pure variations within the mind quite than deficits that must be corrected.
Neurodiversity advocates have drawn consideration to co-occurring ADHD and autism and coined the time period “AuDHD” to explain the distinctive experiences and challenges of getting each.
Neurodivergent communities have additionally proposed new options of those circumstances, reminiscent of “rejection sensitivity dysphoria,” that aren’t captured by official diagnostic standards.
These developments have potential advantages in addition to dangers.
They could foster larger self-understanding and validation for these whose experiences could have felt beforehand neglected. Nevertheless, if diagnostic classes change into conflated or increase their meanings, folks could misidentify their issues and pursue pointless or ineffective therapies.
The convergence of ADHD and autism
In our new research printed within the Journal of Medical Web Analysis, we explored whether or not and the way ADHD and autism have change into extra intently linked in our tradition, and why this convergence could also be occurring.
We used computational methods to investigate greater than 478,000 posts from the most important ADHD- and autism-related communities or “subreddits” on the social media platform Reddit, spanning a interval of ten years.
We seemed for proof that the 2 circumstances had been converging in 4 methods.
First, we tracked adjustments within the frequency with which the time period ADHD appeared in autism neighborhood posts and vice versa. As we anticipated, every neighborhood more and more referred to the opposite situation over the course of the last decade.
Second, we tracked adjustments within the quantity of people that belonged to each communities. Over time, the membership of the 2 communities turned extra overlapping.
Third, we examined how the which means of “autism” and “ADHD” modified, utilizing a pure language processing approach that analyzes the contexts wherein a phrase is used.
We discovered that ADHD and autism had been more and more utilized in comparable semantic contexts on Reddit, suggesting they had been turning into extra comparable in which means.
Lastly, we examined how the themes of subreddit discussions of autism and ADHD modified over time.
We discovered they more and more handle the identical subjects. These rising shared subjects embrace challenges involving diagnostic evaluation, the lifelong quite than childhood-specific nature of the 2 circumstances, and their social and emotional points.
Taken collectively, our findings present that autism and ADHD have converged in social media discourse. This illustrates a broader cultural shift towards understanding them as interconnected and overlapping circumstances.
Broader Implications
Our findings contribute to a wider dialog about how rising public curiosity in psychological well being is impacting the best way we use and perceive diagnostic language.
Earlier work has proven that ideas reminiscent of “anxiety,” “depression,” “trauma,” “mental health” and “mental illness” have shifted their which means over time as they’ve acquired elevated cultural consideration.
Many of those phrases have broadened their meanings in order that they now consult with a a lot wider vary of phenomena than earlier than.
Our new work is the primary to indicate computationally that the relationships amongst diagnostic ideas—reminiscent of their similarity or overlap—are additionally altering.
As these ideas proceed to be stretched and reshaped on social media, it is very important contemplate the doable impacts.
The rising notion of an affinity or overlap between ADHD and autism could also be fostering a way of self-understanding and neighborhood amongst many individuals.
Nevertheless, it might additionally foster unwarranted twin prognosis, blur essential distinctions between the 2 circumstances, and place additional pressure on evaluation and scientific companies.
With public curiosity in psychological well being persevering with to rise, understanding these dynamics is turning into more and more essential for practitioners, researchers and society at massive.
Extra data:
Jemima Kang et al, Converging Representations of Consideration-Deficit/Hyperactivity Dysfunction and Autism on Social Media: Linguistic and Matter Evaluation of Traits in Reddit Information, Journal of Medical Web Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.2196/70914
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College of Melbourne
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ADHD and autism are completely different, however on social media these variations are shrinking (2025, Might 22)
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