Anecdotally, I continue to see friend groups form where near all of them are neurodivergent without knowing it. Because their brains work differently, when they find someone else whose brain works in a similar way it’s less effort to spend time with them.

It shouldn’t be a surprise then when one of them gets diagnosed, the rest eventually look into it and get diagnosed too.

It helps that in the last 3-5 years talking publicly about ADHD has become less stigmatised (one of the reasons I continue to do so). I first suspected having it over a decade before looking more into it. I wouldn’t have hesitated if social conversation then is like it is now.

The internet doesn’t cause ADHD, neurodivergence is likely more prevalent than expected. We (neurodivergent’s) have all been masking and developing strategies to survive the modern world. Then covid happened, and the normal support structures fell away, coping mechanisms failed.

All of a sudden things went from hard to basically impossible, it’s no wonder some of us decided to ask whether or not the experience was normal or if there might be something else at play.

Diagnostically ADHD symptoms need to be present when you were younger (IIRC 10-12), so if they just started at 22 it might be something else. Or it might be you left home, made a major life change, and your previous coping strategies no longer work.