“ADHD: Sticking tape to your forehead really can concentrate your attention!”

“Having ADHD is about being obsessed with words as a child and then getting addicted to your phone as an adult.”

“McDonald’s is actually the ideal profession for people with ADHD!”

Scroll through Chinese social media, and posts like these about ADHD — or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — are hard to miss. A search for the term on lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, yields tens of thousands of results, many of which ask users to consider whether they, too, have the disorder.

The online trend of users discussing as well as self-diagnosing ADHD dates back to around 2023, but surged in popularity last year. In short videos and neatly packaged diagnostic tests, users are invited to measure everyday frustrations — distraction, procrastination, poor time management, emotional impulsivity — against simplified criteria, arriving at a diagnosis in seconds.

Some posts go further, offering paid “adult ADHD” checklists for just a few yuan (less than 20 cents), only to direct users to comprehensive “ADHD management plans” costing hundreds. Others pair their posts with links to so-called ADHD “relief” products: stress toys, planners, focus tools, and even supplements, marketed as easy solutions to what is in reality a complex disorder.

The term ADHD — a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity — entered Chinese psychiatry in the 1980s, gaining clinical acceptance in pediatric diagnosis in the 2000s.

Long synonymous with misbehaving children, poor discipline, and academic failure, it has only recently come to be understood as a medical condition that can persist into adulthood and throughout a person’s life. This stigma — reinforced by China’s limited mental health resources — has meant that many go undiagnosed or are reluctant to seek help.

That is now changing. The conversation surrounding ADHD has become so pervasive in the country that it can feel as though the majority of internet users claim to have the condition, a phenomenon dubbed by netizens as “cyber diagnosis” — self-identification driven by online quizzes and checklists rather than professional evaluation.

But concern among clinicians has grown as ADHD has taken on the contours of an identity rather than solely a medical term, blurring the line between a clinical condition and everyday difficulty.

Falling into place

Yang Yingxi learned early to live by deadlines, but often missed them. Concentration never came easily for the 17-year-old college freshman, and time seemed to move at a different pace than for everyone else. For years, she assumed something was simply “wrong” with her.

Yang says those difficulties became harder to ignore in high school, when she believes her academic performance dropped sharply. She was often the last to complete daily routines at her public boarding school in Changsha, capital of the central Hunan province, adding to both her academic pressure and social anxiety.

It was only recently, after encountering the term “ADHD” online, that she began connecting the dots between her scattered childhood memories. Though she has yet to be formally diagnosed, Yang believes the condition explains the difficulties she has long struggled with.

Rather than panic, the realization brought Yang a sense of clarity; while it did not solve her problems, it gave her symptoms a name. Behaviors that had long been labeled as laziness, carelessness, or a lack of discipline suddenly fell into place.

“Getting to know the condition actually made me feel more at ease,” Yang tells Sixth Tone. “I realized that my symptoms weren’t coming out of nowhere or completely beyond improvement.”

Like Yang, many netizens describe recognizing patterns that stretch back to childhood, wondering whether their struggles in school, work, or relationships might have a medical explanation, and whether seeking a clinical diagnosis is worth the effort.

ADHD bloggers, too, feel obligated to increase public awareness about the little-known disorder, having lived with it themselves.

Dissatisfied with the fragmented and often superficial information available on social media, Wang, a 37-year-old office worker from China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region who requested use of only her surname, decided to take matters a step further after diagnosing herself with ADHD. Like Yang, she had begun identifying with ADHD after following the daily posts of online influencers whose unfinished tasks, missed deadlines, and scattered routines felt uncomfortably familiar.

Wang conducted her own “research” and shared it online as a Xiaohongshu blogger, aiming to raise public awareness and improve understanding of the condition.

“Without the explanation as to what’s happening, it’s easy to blame yourself, to think something is wrong with your character, when really it’s something that can be recognized and addressed,” Wang tells Sixth Tone, noting that many end up struggling alone.

A shifting society

Though online discussions on ADHD have only become prevalent in the past few years, clinically, the disorder is far from new. It’s also relatively common. According to a 2024 epidemiological survey by the National Health Commission, 6.4% of children in China aged 6 to 16 meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD — an estimated 23 million people. Less than 10% receive treatment.

In the past, children with ADHD in the country were frequently labeled as “bad kids,” socially excluded, or punished for behaviors they could not easily control. Some were forced to study alone, transferred between schools, or even expelled — experiences that often left lasting psychological scars.

“ADHD is often misinterpreted as laziness or bad behavior, but it is a neurodevelopmental disorder influenced by both genetics and complex environmental factors,” explained Xu Jianyi, founder of the Shenzhen-based organization Attention, specializing in comprehensive ADHD interventions.

An estimated 30% to 50% of children with ADHD in China will continue to experience symptoms into adulthood. Adults with ADHD struggle with attention, time management, and impulsivity, which can affect work, relationships, and daily life. Chronic disorganization and missed deadlines can also fuel anxiety, low self-esteem, and frustration.

The proliferation of ADHD-related content on social media, Xu points out, reflects a rising public awareness of mental health issues against the backdrop of social change.

In the past, particularly in rural areas, attention-related difficulties often went unnoticed, as looser social structures and lower academic demands made these traits less conspicuous.

However, “as society becomes more urbanized and standardized — with stricter schooling, performance metrics, and workplace expectations — these traits become harder to ignore,” Xu says, noting that younger parents, particularly those born in the 1980s and 1990s, show greater understanding of mental health and are more likely to recognize ADHD and seek help.

Greater visibility, Xu explains, doesn’t mean ADHD is suddenly more common. “What’s changed is awareness. People are finally finding language for struggles they’ve lived with for years.”

“Just the beginning”

Critics warn that online ADHD-related content risks stripping the condition of its medical context, reducing it to a simple lifestyle or identity label.

State-backed newspaper People’s Daily attributed the viral spread of ADHD-related content to the “Barnum Effect,” a psychological phenomenon in which people perceive vague, general descriptions as uniquely applicable to themselves.

In an era defined by fragmented information and algorithmic reinforcement, such content offers something powerful — explanation without effort, validation without uncertainty. Labels provide comfort as well as online traffic.

However, Xu notes that a clinical diagnosis depends on far more than self-reporting. Symptoms must cause persistent impairment in learning, work, or social life, appear across multiple settings, and have been present since childhood — criteria that cannot be assessed through online tests alone.

“Diagnosing ADHD isn’t just about ticking boxes,” he says, adding that poor sleep, anxiety, depression, or other neurological conditions can produce similar symptoms.

He also cautioned that the current digital world makes diagnosis challenging. “Everyone experiences a lack of focus now and then, but ADHD is different. For people with the condition, inattention, procrastination, and emotional volatility aren’t occasional — they shape daily life.”

Even when an adult ADHD diagnosis is obtained clinically in China, treatment can be elusive, as the majority of the already limited number of hospitals that offer ADHD treatment are child-focused. According to Xu, treatment costs range from a few thousand to tens of thousands of yuan per year.

Despite these concerns, for those who experience symptoms, finding a possible explanation can be like “offering driftwood to someone drowning,” Wang, the Xiaohongshu blogger, says. “Such posts can be the first thing that helps them walk out of emotional or psychological turmoil.”

Xu is also keen to emphasize that an ADHD diagnosis is not the end of the world. “I often say that people with ADHD have gifts such as divergent thinking, fast responses, and incredible creativity,” he says. “Diagnosis is just the beginning of understanding yourself.”

Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.

(Header image: DIGICOMPHOTO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/SPL/VCG)