Original title: Flying under the radar: a qualitative examination of self-diagnosed ADHD and identity formation in young women
Researchers interviewed 15 women aged 18 to 25 who identified as having ADHD but did not have a formal diagnosis. They described recognizing their own difficulties in ADHD symptoms, while also feeling unseen and unsure about seeking an assessment. Many felt pressure to be a “good girl” and meet expectations, which could hide their struggles. For these women, self-diagnosisIdentifying yourself as having a condition without receiving a formal diagnosis from a professional. helped validate their experiences and shape how they understood themselves.
Imagine doing well in school while quietly struggling to keep up with chores and friendships. Because you meet the visible expectations, other people may not notice how hard it is, and you may not know whether to ask for help. In this paper, meeting expectations while struggling represents the young women’s hidden difficulties, and recognizing a shared name for those difficulties helps them make sense of who they are.
Young women with ADHD-like symptoms may struggle without others noticing, especially when they meet expectations such as doing well in school. Understanding how self-diagnosis shapes their identity may help make sense of why difficulties can go unrecognized and why seeking a formal assessment can feel complicated.
The findings come from interviews with 15 women aged 18–25 who self-diagnosed and reported ADHD-symptom levels above a cut-off for probable diagnosis. The abstract does not establish how common these experiences are, whether they apply to all young women, or whether self-diagnosis leads to a formal diagnosis.
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Flying under the radar: a qualitative examination of self-diagnosed ADHD and identity formation in young women — Matilda A. Frick, Cecilia Cederlid, Linn Hegdal et al. — BMC Psychology — doi:10.1186/s40359-026-05732-7
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.