“De-Diagnosing” ADHD: How Sweden Is Dismantling the Disorder the World Bought Into
Republished with permission from AbleChild.
In September of 2025 the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an interesting article about how Swedish authorities are considering “de-diagnosing” autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for adults who no longer “want” their diagnosis. On the face of this one must ask how do you “de-diagnose” what doesn’t exist and who “wanted” the ADHD diagnosis to begin with, especially because the diagnosis usually is made during early childhood.
The article explains that the concept of “de-diagnosing,” also known as “de-stigmatizing,” is gaining traction among clinicians and that it began because of the “sheer number of people with these diagnoses who now are turning into adult age and being told they can’t join the military services or the draft.”
Apparently, Sweden, like the United States military, barred citizens with the ADHD diagnosis without specific medical waivers and in Sweden a medical certificate is even required when applying for a driver’s license. Naturally, most received these psychiatric diagnoses at a much younger age and had no idea how the diagnosis would follow them through life…how it would stigmatize them.
As one who can be assigned blame for the increase in autism cases, Dr. Allen Frances, who led the task force that created the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and generally is credited with expanding the autism diagnosis into a “spectrum,” says “the best way to protect our children is to respect their difference and to accept uncertainty ..I really love the idea of writing psychiatric diagnoses in pencil.”
What Dr. Frances means is that children grow out of behaviors which, at the time, seem bothersome and inconvenient, but are perfectly normal. In fact, assigning mental illness to normal childhood behavior is the reason Sweden now is considering special “de-diagnosing.”
AbleChild would argue that “de-diagnosing” is as simple and mindless as diagnosing. Seriously, how tough can “de-diagnosing” be when there is no known abnormality that is ADHD? You have ADHD, voila, now you don’t have ADHD.
The problem, of course, is that the “treatment” for ADHD includes stimulants like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (Dexedrine), which are the closest thing legally obtainable to cocaine. In fact, those stimulants are ranked by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as Schedule II – controlled substances – which means the drugs have a “high potential for abuse that may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.”
Naturally, it isn’t the diagnosis that eliminates the ADHD diagnosed from joining the military or obtaining a driver’s license. It’s the drug “treatments.” These ADHD patients have been prescribed serious mind-altering drugs that carry serious, even deadly, possible adverse events. For instance, the DEA reports that “chronic, high-dose use is frequently associated with agitation, hostility, panic, aggression, auditory and visual hallucinations, and suicidal or homicidal tendencies.”
It’s of interest that the US military has removed impediments to enlistment such as ADHD because the enormous number of this nation’s eligible military candidates were restricted because of the psychiatric diagnosis.
Under the Medical Accession Records Pilot (MARP) program, people with ADHD and learning disabilities now can enlist without a waiver. The catch, however, is that if you do enlist, it can only occur when the enlistee hasn’t taken the ADHD “treatment” (drugs) for at least three years prior to enlistment. And, of course, once in the military, there will be no ADHD diagnosis or ADHD drugs prescribed.
When one reviews the enlistment issues that led to the change in eligibility, it is difficult to reconcile the data that the military is faced with when it comes to enlistments. First, between 2022 and 2024 the MARP program medically qualified nearly 10,000 applicants with about 60% of those recruits having an ADHD diagnosis history. And, according to the Department of Defense, more than 41,000 active service members had an ADHD diagnosis.
Clearly too many children were diagnosed with the fake ADHD mental illness and subjected to serious, life-threatening drugs that didn’t “treat” any abnormality. It’s also interesting that if those diagnosed were provided informed consent, you know the information necessary to make an informed decision about their mental health, those diagnosed with ADHD would find that the pharmaceutical companies that market the drug “treatments” have no idea how the drugs “work” as “treatment” for the alleged ADHD.
For example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) explains that Ritalin “is a mild central nervous system stimulant and “the mode of action in man is not completely understood, but presumably activates the brain stem,” blah, blah, blah… Yep. Clueless. After nearly 75 years of use, the federal government has no idea how this drug works as a “treatment” for ADHD. But Ritalin is just an example. The pharmaceutical companies and the FDA don’t have any idea how any of the drug “treatments” used for any psychiatric diagnosis “work.”
“De-diagnosing” sounds like a good idea because what it is doing is finally making a mockery of psychiatric diagnosing. In other words, because the ADHD diagnosis is stigmatizing generations and excluding those diagnosed from employment and common necessities like obtaining driver’s licenses, the diagnosed no longer have the mental illness and can just be “de-diagnosed.” It’s ridiculous on its face. But this is how psychiatric diagnosing “works.”
“De-stigmatizing,” not “de-diagnosing” is a more fitting explanation of what the Swedish authorities are suggesting, as there is not now, nor has there ever been, a known abnormality that is ADHD. One can only hope that the Swedes will reveal a “de-diagnosing” program for the fraud of depression, bipolar and anxiety.
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