This is no way disregards the difficulty of living with an actually severe case of ADHD but is not what most of these people are dealing with.
EDIT: many seem to have misunderstood what I mean by this. I’m not saying these people are only claiming to have ADHD to use it as an excuse. What I mean, is that they may very well do have, and they’re using it as an excuse. Mostly to themselves.
Self-diagnosed anything is bullshit. I’ll buy your diagnosis only if you have an arm in the opposite direction, bleeding and exposing bones, and your diagnosis is broken bone. Especially when it’s mental stuff. If you are that sure you have one, go get tested or don’t be surprised if people laugh at you for using self-diagnosis to get away with stuff.
Someone not too long ago linked me to research saying self diagnosis at least for autism is, in adults, practically just as accurate as professional diagnosis.
Edit: also I’ve been self diagnosed as having synaesthesia since my early 20s, was later confirmed and I even participated in synaesthesia research as a subject for three different entities. So, I disagree with you, especially for mental stuff. There is a lot of room for error but from there to say self diagnosis is bs, that’s a stretch
In countries without free and efficient health care? Hell no. I am against self medication for obvious reasons, but my self diagnosis(On autism and ADHD), and discussing it with my doctor (Not telling the doctor “I have X and Y”, but telling them "I think I might have X and Y but haven’t been able to follow through with all the hoops they make me jump through to get diagnosed) got me the push I needed to actually go ahead and pay to get properly diagnosed.
Mostly because I thought “I am already an adult, so it won’t make a difference”, my GP asked me a few questions, told me he wasn’t legally qualified to diagnose me, but recommended a private clinic where they did walk Ins, was pretty affordable and I would not have to worry about the main reason why I wasn’t tested and diagnosed yet, the fact that my country’s free health insurance gives those appointments after a grueling process of going for a general evaluation, scheduled months into the future, then having to bring the medical reference to a different city, waiting for them to be approved, then get the reference + the approval to another office, which would then set up your appointment about a year after that date. Go make 10 people with ADHD and no help try to follow that process by themselves, which I tried and failed multiple times, and tell me how well it goes.
Oh, and I forgot to add, everything is valid for just 10 days after it is released from their current step, to bring to the next step, if those 10 days run out, start over from zero. Doing that while also having a full time job, which falls at the same time as the times when those offices open, recipe for absolute disaster.
I’m on the camp of, “offer the self diagnosed support but encourage them to get diagnosed before actually treating them”, and not only “You’re supported” clichés, actually get in there and help them with all the red tape and paralizing issues they will end up facing, and the reasons why they haven’t been diagnosed yet.