Have We Turned Personality Into Diagnosis? (Opinion)

 ADHD in the News 2026-08-06


Influencers on social media are sharing content that claims to help followers self-diagnose complex medical conditions ranging from A.D.H.D. to autism. And the data reveals that the effect of self-diagnosis is far-reaching. But what happens when large portions of the population believe they have a condition that medical data doesn’t back up? On “The Opinions,” the culture editor Nadja Spiegelman speaks with the columnist and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom and the author Mary H.K. Choi — who has written about her own A.D.H.D. and autism — about the phenomenon of self diagnosis, the need for people to label themselves and whether such labels can help or limit us.

View Article: The New York Times, August 5, 2026




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