Lucy Maudsley Lucy Maudsley

Channel 4’s “The Great ADHD Myth?” 18 August 2026

Channel 4 Doc

A note from me, as an ADHD Coach, advocate, parent and wife, before The Great ADHD Myth? airs on Channel 4 tonight.

I know quite a few of the people who follow me, work with me, or are fellow ADHD-parents are already feeling angry, anxious or just thoroughly pissed off about this programme.

So before anything else, here's some permission if you need it - you do not have to watch it.

You certainly do not have to spend tomorrow defending yourself, your or your child's diagnosis or the decisions you have made for yourself and your family.

I’m thinking especially about the parents and carers who have agonised over whether to give their diagnosed child ADHD medication. Parents who have researched it, spoken to doctors, worried about side effects, tried other approaches, watched their child struggle and eventually made the best decision they could with the information they had (and perhaps paid out thousands in the process) will likely feel attacked, embarrassed, or isolated.

For many families, ADHD medication has made an enormously positive difference. For others it hasn't been right. These are individual clinical and parental decisions, and they are rarely made lightly.

Maybe you are an adult who has spent decades wondering why things other people seemed to manage are so extraordinarily difficult for you. People who have been called lazy, "too much", chaotic, careless, difficult, a space cadet or simply (and repeatedly) told to "try harder".

And I'm thinking particularly of the women I coach everyday, who were missed altogether as children and young people, and who have already spent enough of their lives questioning their own experience — sometimes after years of having their difficulties explained away by medical and educational professionals as anxiety, stress or personal failure.

It's because of my work with BRILLIANT people, many of whom are finally finding their feet, and their light, that I find the premise of this programme so troubling.

Channel 4's own publicity asks whether ADHD is actually a neurodevelopmental disorder and talks about children being given “mind-altering drugs”. There are probably legitimate conversations to be had about the quality of ADHD assessments and the ill funded system that forces people into private provision and medication. And there is definitely scope for discussing the role of social media in all of this. And 100% we should be talking about how schools and workplaces could be designed to accommodate a much wider range of human brain types.

But asking “is ADHD a myth?” is not where the scientific debate currently sits and nor should it. 

By now, after many decades of scientific and academic research, there is a very large substantial body of neuroscience and genetic research into ADHD. Large genetic studies have demonstrated a significant polygenic contribution to ADHD, including replicated genetic risk variants associated with brain development. Large-scale neuroimaging research has also found differences, at a group level, in brain structure and function between people with and without ADHD diagnoses.

There is not currently a brain scan, blood test or single genetic test that can diagnose ADHD in one individual. Professional, quality diagnosis remains a clinical process. But that doesn't mean there is no biological evidence for ADHD.

Earlier this year, 32 UK clinicians, academics, carers and people with lived experience published a paper in the British Journal of Psychiatry examining the claim that ADHD is being overdiagnosed. Their conclusion was that there is currently no evidence of ADHD being overdiagnosed at population level in the UK; in fact, the available evidence points towards underdiagnosis and substantial unmet need.

They also warned that alarmist narratives about the overdiagnosis risk could be used to deny properly diagnosed people the care they need. And yet, Channel 4, a public broadcaster, despite their commitment to "welcoming and empowering deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people across all levels and roles {which} is sure to enrich {their} output and organisation, and broadcasting as a whole"  have decided to jump feet first into a social media campaign and furore that does precisely that - amplifies alarmist narratives. Ask yourself - who does it help to have a provocative television programme question whether ADHD itself is a “myth”? 

NHS England's own independent ADHD Taskforce has similarly concluded that ADHD in England is under-recognised, under-diagnosed and under-treated, including with medication.

Those statistics and findings are bases for conversations that deserve proper scrutiny, research and debate. And, thinking positively, maybe they will get that in this programme tonight. But Channel 4 appear to have been incredibly defensive in reply to many organisations, charities, doctors and neurodivergent viewers in response to their concerns and complaints about the pre-broadcast coverage. And the damage has already been done in so many ways. 

So if tonight's programme leaves you doubting yourself, questioning decisions you've made for your child, or feeling that once again you are expected to prove that the difficulties you live with are real, please remember that an hour of television (made by people seemingly unconcerned by ethics) does not overturn decades of peer-reviewed research and the lived experience of millions of people. 

I see you, I believe in you, and if you ever need me, I will help you. 

I’ll be thinking of a lot of you tonight.

Remember, you don’t have to watch it.

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