It has been an hour and a half, and the page is still blank, the clock ticking. The little numbers in the corner of my screen mutate every time I blink. 9am. 10am. 10.30am.

I have read the first half of ten stories. The tabs on my browser keep getting smaller and smaller as another idea pops into my head, and I must Google it straight away before I forget. I’ve listened to five minutes of a podcast. I’ve read three emails. I have got up to grab a little snack. And when I open Instagram for a mindless little scroll, I think, ah yes, this is me. The target audience for all those ADHD memes.

An anatomy drawing of a person doing a plank: “How it feels like for ADHD people to listen to someone finish a sentence they understood within the first few seconds”.

“We all have the same 24 hours.” “Well I have ADHD so I only have two.”

Two Spider-Man figures pointing at each other: “Not getting anything done because I’m too overwhelmed”. “Being overwhelmed because I haven’t gotten anything done.”

Though I have never been diagnosed with ADHD (or autism, another strand of neurodivergent memes beloved by my Explore page), social media has convinced me that I have it. I’ve always thought of myself as an impulsive, overthinking space cadet who gets easily overwhelmed. I always viewed these as flaws in my personality, something I alone should remedy. But these internet jokes unexpectedly made me feel seen, part of a community of people with a shared experience. Something we could affectionately laugh about and accept.

Nearly every peer I speak to is “convinced” they have adult ADHD. Is it because of the deluge of online content? Or are we just becoming........

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