ADHD
At one point considered the “illness of the century,” it’s hard to think about ADHD as a commonly misdiagnosed mental illness. This is because at one point it was popular to just label children who were unruly, mostly boys, as having ADHD instead of addressing the reason why they did not want to listen to their teachers or parents. However, due to this overuse of the diagnosis, most girls have flown under the radar because it manifests in other ways than being distracted.
It gets worse since there are a lot of adults who end up having ADHD, but they get misdiagnosed because certain symptoms of ADHD are mistaken for PTSD and vice versa (since PTSD is also misdiagnosed as ADHD), along with other mental health conditions such as anxiety disorders, substance abuse issues, and even depression. Since people believe ADHD is a mental health issue that is prevalent in kids, they do not realize they are masking their ADHD symptoms, and they end up treating the other issues we have mentioned instead of ADHD.
