Awareness has peaked, now we need action

Today is the first day of ADHD Awareness Month. Every October, the ADHD community comes together to raise awareness of what it’s like to live with ADHD. This year, we’re focusing on the many faces of ADHD.

You’ll often hear autistic people say, “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” Swap autism for ADHD and it still holds. It’s become a bit of a cliché, but it’s true. ADHD has many faces. The trouble is, the support you get depends on your personal circumstances. The Independent ADHD Taskforce puts the cost of unsupported ADHD at around £17 billion. It links ADHD, when it goes unsupported, to a higher risk of struggling at school, long-term unemployment, crime, substance misuse and poor mental and physical health. Adults are waiting up to eight years or more for an NHS assessment.

What’s changed in Reading?

When Reading ADHD Group was born in 2024, there wasn’t much conversation about ADHD locally. Most of the neurodiversity conversation was focused on autism. That isn’t the case anymore. ADHD is now a hot topic in Berkshire. The Thames Valley ICB is developing a community offer that will include non-clinical interventions for ADHD management, as well as work to reduce ADHD stigma. They’re developing it in partnership with local organisations, including us. We’re proud to be part of it, and we welcome the progress. But there is still such a long way to go. In Berkshire, new adult referrals for ADHD assessment have been paused since December 2025. Getting a diagnosis depends on having the money to go private, or on being able to find your way through a complicated system and explain your needs in the correct way.

Peak awareness

ADHD awareness has peaked; ADHD is no longer considered to be something for naughty schoolboys. ADHD in women, inattentive ADHD and some of the common ADHD experiences, like masking, burnout and RSD, fill our feeds and have made their way into wider public discourse. We can buy hoodies to cater for our sensory needs, and there is an app, podcast episode or book that covers just about every ADHD-related experience.

ADHD has been making headlines since 2023, when Panorama investigated practices at some private ADHD clinics. Since then, there’s been a steady stream of headlines from across the political spectrum questioning ADHD and its “sudden explosion”. Awareness is by no means a bad thing, but it’s time to ask the government and the NHS what they are going to do with this awareness.

Who gets left out?

ADHD has many faces, but not every face gets seen. In 2025, the government surveyed 966 people who had slept rough in the past year. Almost a quarter (24.5%) said they have ADHD, and only 61% of them had been diagnosed by a doctor.

The Independent ADHD Taskforce found that among young people not in education, employment or training, 20–34% are likely to have ADHD.

Research suggests ADHD may be around five times more common among young offenders, and around ten times more common among adult offenders, than in the general population.

None of these people fit the picture of ADHD we see online or in the media. There is real stigma attached to ADHD, but it’s not that we’re fundamentally incapable. The most harmful stigma we face is that ADHD isn’t real or isn’t serious enough to deserve support. When ADHD is only ever shown as fun or quirky, and the idea of disability drops out of the conversation, it gets easier for people to argue that ADHD isn’t real or isn’t serious enough to merit support.

Awareness has done its job. Now we’re asking for four things

• Support that doesn’t depend on whether you can pay, or whether you can explain your needs in the “right” way.
• Inclusion that reaches every workplace, not just offices. That means shop floors, kitchens, warehouses and building sites.
• For young people at risk of the school-to-prison pipeline: earlier identification and support, before problems take hold.
• Fair routes to support that start long before someone reaches crisis point.

How can we help?

Reading ADHD Group meets on the last Tuesday of every month. Our next group is on Tuesday 27 October, 7.30pm, at RISC. We also run coping strategies events and have a free resource hub on our website.

You do not need a diagnosis to take part in any of our events.

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