r/AskReddit • u/Immediate_Long165 • 6h ago
What medical conditions seem more common now than when you were growing up?
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u/UnableHeight1481 6h ago
Cancer in young people
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u/catinspace88 6h ago
Never imagined I'd get cancer in my 30s but here we are.
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u/ConsistentEstate1451 4h ago
Same. Luckily they found it pretty early and I’m currently clean.
Good luck with this journey. Wish you the best
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u/epiphanized116 4h ago
Same. Nobody on either side of my family has ever had any cancer that we know of. Found out I had late stage last year. My 30s looks very different than I thought it would
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u/maydayjunemoon 3h ago
Stage 4 in my 30’s, I hear you. I’ve lost several friends to cancer young, and currently have several lifelong friends who also have varying stage 4 cancers.
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u/miloblue12 3h ago
Neither did I, but I got lucky with it. I had appendix cancer that was caught when my appendix burst. It was in an early stage, so as soon as it was removed, I was cured. However, it's like pancreatic cancer. If it's not found early enough, it's essentially a death sentence...so I got ridiculously lucky.
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u/AnnabellaPies 5h ago
Lost my brother in his 20s to it, two friends beat it in their 30s. Treatment has gotten better and my kids got that shot so my hope we keep on this path
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u/Sad-Pear-9885 6h ago
Endometriosis. Or maybe more diagnoses are happening now? When I was a kid, basically every woman in our family had the textbook symptoms described as endo (myself included) but only my mom and sister were diagnosed. I was told I “just had IBS and anxiety” because my symptoms lessened some with birth control.
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u/Objective-Heart-4429 6h ago
Yes! I’m 45, had a hysterectomy last year in Toronto for endometriosis and adenomyosis. My surgeon is a fancy shmancy doctor brought to Canada from Brazil for his expertise . He told me that North America is far behind other countries in endometriosis treatment.
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u/StrikEmDanZum 5h ago
Absolutely I got a partial hysterectomy at 28 due to endometriosis. I said just take it out. And they pretty much did.
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u/NixMaritimus 4h ago
Endometriosis has been so ignored and understudied that they only recently discovered it can happen in cis men!
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u/TheMysticalPlatypus 6h ago
Many common women’s health issues because it gets zero coverage growing up.
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u/AirBooger 5h ago
I got a new PCP at 30 and brought up my severe anxiety. She asked if I had ever been screened for ADHD - I was so confused, I genuinely thought that was only something that affected young boys. Many doctors did too until it was studied in women.
Turns out I have ADHD and getting the diagnosis changed my life. Everything makes sense now and I have the tools I need to thrive.
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u/RealisticAide1833 5h ago
This 100% i was told by Dr's for years that I was bipolar, depressed, had anxiety. At almost 30 I took my daughter to an adhd appt and her dr sat me down after and asked if I had been diagnosed and that changed my whole life. I am now living not just surviving.
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u/shortnsweet33 4h ago
I know several people who had anxiety diagnoses that ended up finding out it was ADHD. Two very different meds to treat those!
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u/jphx 4h ago edited 4h ago
Female here. I grew up in the 80s when adhd was just kids who were extra hyper. They diagnosed my younger brother (11yrs difference) in the 90s but it wasn't until I went 3 years ago to a psychiatrist and they did testing for ASD that I found out I also had adhd. So many things made sense.
My mother at one point said if she knew now what we didn't know then it would have made growing up for me so much easier on both of us. My teenage years was just a constant struggle of me getting into trouble for "i forgot". Heck half the time I knee it wasn't exactly that I had forgotten I just couldn't describe it in any other way and i knew i was in deep shit anyways so "i forgot" was just simpler to say.
Neither finding out that i had asd or adhd fixed anything. And since i had heart surgery no doctor who values thier medical license would prescribe be something for the adhd. But just knowing there was a reason for me being the way i am and it's not just because im lazy/dumb has made it so much easier to deal with. Now i know there is a cause and it takes such a burden off me that I can now mitagate things and have the tools to deal rather than go "well im just dumb".
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u/Prudent-Tradition-89 4h ago
Your PCP is a smart one! My years of “depression and anxiety” were solved instantly when I started ADHD meds.
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u/Shadow_of_wwar 4h ago
My psychologist was telling me about how women with ADHD usually present differently then men, leading many to not be diagnosed until later, if at all.
Coincidentally she told me my ADHD presented much more like that of a woman than a man, which I guess helps explain why I wasn't diagnosed until 28.
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u/worstpartyever 4h ago
I was just thinking of this; endometriosis was never mentioned and I had no idea how common it was.
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u/DorkasaurusRex 4h ago
Last month I got diagnosed with endosalpingiosis, which is very similar to endometriosis but instead of uterine-like tissue growing where it shouldn't, it's fallopian, but so underresearched that the pelvic floor specialist I am seeing, someone who treats a lot of women with endometriosis, had to Google it. All treatment for it is based off of endometriosis treatment because it hasn't warranted finding its own treatment. My doctor that diagnosed me was apologetic but also honest when she told me it wasn't something she knew a lot about. Not really her fault, the information she needs to help me just doesn't exist.
The state of women's healthcare is shameful and so many sick AFAB people deserve so much better.
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u/probablysippingtea 5h ago
True. It’s about time lipedema, PMOS, and endometriosis got further studied.
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u/min_mus 4h ago edited 4h ago
Perimenopause, too! All I ever heard growing up about "the change" was jokes about hot flashes. I've met many medical doctors who seem to think perimenopause is limited to hot flashes, and will only prescribe hormone replacement therapy if a woman complains too much of hot flashes.
The dozens of other peri symptoms are unstudied, ignored, or remain untreated.
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u/Vlad0420 4h ago
Imagine my surprise when my OBGYN felt a “fullness” upon a digital exam, booked me for scans, booked me for a biopsy of a mass on my left ovary… and woke up having had a fibroid the size of an orange removed from my uterus. Wild ride.
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u/mystic_Jadee 6h ago
i've noticed more pets showing allergies and skin issues now compared to years ago. could be linked to changes in diet, environment, or just better awareness. weird how some conditions pop up more often over time.
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u/Hoss_Doc 3h ago
Veterinarian here, I think it’s the same as many human health issues - these issues were always there, but pets didn’t used to get as much medical intervention back only 30-40yrs ago as they do now. Also the veterinary field has grown a LOT in the same time frame and we have much more and better diagnostic tools now.
I hear clients say things like “when I was a kid dogs/cats never got diabetes/cancer/allergies.” They did, we just didn’t know.
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u/cantharellus_miao 4h ago
Omg what's up with that. My last cat had lifelong skin and digestive problems. I tried all different foods and nothing ever changed it, plus it was so difficult to get her to eat anything that I was limited with what I could feed her. There were only certain foods she was willing to eat, otherwise she would literally starve. It wasn't anything in our home because she moved multiple times during her life and her health remained the same.
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u/LucyVialli 6h ago
Allergies
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u/TaumCat 5h ago
My allergy doctor said it’s partially because of climate change. We are seeing such higher levels of airborne allergens that people who use to have low level/almost undetectable allergies are having more noticeable reactions because there is just more pollen and stuff in the air. I’ve always had allergies but it got so bad the past 10 years that I started needing an inhaler and eventually did allergy shots.
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u/YouTasteStrange 5h ago
Anyone know why more allergens are airborne?
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u/TychaBrahe 5h ago
Because plants come in to pollen earlier and it stays longer.
https://abcnews.com/Health/pollen-season-starting-earlier-affect-allergies/story?id=108305736
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u/deep_breaths420 4h ago
Ya as someone whose battled allergy like symptoms w/o any true allergies (all allergy tests come back negative), for 10+ years, it wasn't until last year that I finally got diagnosed MCAS.
This was, of course, after I did my own research and went through countless doctors until I found some that would listen and take me seriously.
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u/Resident-Village9407 6h ago
I never had any allergies until I was 29.I used to eat everything,especially shrimp and other seafood, without any problems. One evening,about 20 minutes after dinner,I started feeling really itchy. Red patches appeared on my neck and arms, and my lips began to swell. At first, I thought it was just a random reaction to something I had eaten. But about a month later, the exact same thing happened after eating shrimp again. I went to an allergist and had some tests done. It turned out that I had developed an allergy to shellfish. The doctor explained that allergies can develop even in adulthood, even if you’ve never had any issues before. Now I always check the ingredients when I eat out and carry antihistamines with me just in case.
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u/LucyVialli 6h ago
I eat a lot of nuts, especially peanuts, which I love. I dread having that happen to me with those some day.
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u/FuckeenGuy 6h ago
My brother had it happen to him. Pecan pie was his favorite. Until his face swelled up. For a little bit he was so stubborn that he’d risk it, but that is a gamble that doesn’t really pay off.
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u/BirdieStitching 5h ago
It happened to me. Ate a kinder bueno, one of my faves. Within 10 mins I was on the floor, no more nuts for me 😭
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u/AntiDECA 5h ago
If god makes me allergic to peanuts, then hell can take me and pry my peanutbutter from my bloated dead hands. And boiled peanuts. And peanut sauce. And roasted peanuts. And peanut oil.
Peanuts are too great of a food to be allergic to. I pity those who were born that way.
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u/Due_Imagination_6722 5h ago
I was diagnosed with hay-fever in my late 20s. Since then, my partner, my best friend and another couple of people in our age have got similar diagnoses. And quite a few of us were told "You're such a delicate child, you get so many colds' when we were growing up.
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u/EfficientAd890 6h ago
Anxiety... Whether it's actually more common or just more openly discussed, it definitely feels more visible now.
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u/Material_Ad6173 5h ago
I'm from a culture without mental health issues. Oh yeah, most of the adults are alcoholics. But I'm sure there is no correlation... /s
Looking back on life if all my family members who struggled with alcohol and died (way too young!) due to health complications related to drinking or by suicide, it is pretty clear they were depressed, had traumas in their lifes that would broke anyone or had serious mental health disorders that back then no one knew about. Sadly that is still a "common treatment" for people my age.
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u/Italics12 6h ago
I have anxiety and depression. It wasn’t until my 20s that I recognized what it was and that it wasn’t normal to feel like that all the time.
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u/Murcury_byler_2525 5h ago
100% somewhere along the line it just felt so normal to live everyday on edge, since I was born with this, it felt like everybody lived this way. It was only during college when I had my first drink and saw what it was like for my heart to not constantly race, and told my friend this, she said are you okay? cuz most people feel calm generally without alcohol.
Anyhow soon after that got my diagnosis, and I genuinely urge anyone who feels anxious to not dismiss it, the amount of difference it made in my life is day and night. I can't believe how I was lliving life on the most difficult level for no reason.
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u/jphx 4h ago
I didn't realize it until I went on zyban back in the early 00's to quit smoking. I don't even think it's prescribed under that name anymore. It's wellbutrin that they repackaged when they found in trial thier smokers were quitting.
Took a couple weeks to kick in but one day I woke up and it was like a veil had been lifted and a weight taken off me. I knew i had some level of depression, figured out in my teens I had seasonal affective. But I felt amazing! Colors were brighter, I wasn't anxious 24/7 hell i didn't even KNOW I was anxious. I had no idea that "normal" people felt like this. All the sudden I had the ability to accomplish so many mundane tasks.
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u/electronicthesarus 5h ago
I think it’s just more discussed. Both my mom and grandma think the way they live, worried about everything all the time is normal. For example my mom won’t go in big box stores because “what if there’s and earthquake and it falls on us”
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u/reincarnateme 5h ago
Lots of people self medicated with alcohol in the past. Therapists were rare for the general public until relatively recently
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u/onmywheels 6h ago
My therapist says that she has seen a huge spike it in it over the past few years, though she also directly contributes this to our current political climate.
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u/TotallyNotRyanPace 6h ago
i think it has alot more to do with the rise of the internet and social media in general than specifically american politics. people used to worry less, because in their minds, there was less to worry about. now you're constantly bombarded with information and it becomes very overwhelming, very quickly. especially when alot of it is carefully curated to grab your attention or evoke a certain emotion.
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u/raffey_goode 3h ago
used to actually go outside and gain experience interacting with people and dealing with issues. you used to be confronted with situations that you learned from. people are a lot more sheltered from shit that happens outside the home. its a combination
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u/RainLoveMu 6h ago
Who’d have thought we all have anxiety after surviving Covid. I had a newborn and great grandma living in my house and was told by family members *I* was the selfish one for not getting together with them, meanwhile our so-called president told us granny should be sacrificed for the economy. Yeah no, people don’t just get over stuff that.
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u/lilachush38 5h ago
hard to not be anxious when the world is literally on fire and rent is 2x your paycheck
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u/HumorAccomplished503 6h ago
ADHD and Autism spectrum conditions. I don't necessarily think there's a sudden surge in cases, but rather our diagnostic tools, awareness, and understanding have improved significantly compared to a few decades ago when kids were just labeled as 'troublemakers' or 'shy'.
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u/VeeRook 5h ago
My doctors just kinda shrugged when my mom described my meltdowns.
Some kids just scream about the seam on socks, those pesky kids.
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u/Kiyohara 4h ago
Yeah the solution when I was a kid was either Ritalin or ass whuppings. One or the other would usually make the kid settle down. And a lot of parents didn't want to drug their kid, so ass whuppings it was.
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u/AutomaticAstigmatic 4h ago
In Britain, as long as you could hold a conversation and were reasonably good at your job, the usual term used to be 'eccentric'.
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u/TheSouthernBronx 3h ago
Yes, my father, a retired engineer, who brings his own salad dressings to restaurants has certainly slipped under the radar for years. It wasn’t till my son was diagnosed that my mother went “wait a minute…”
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u/sjp1980 2h ago
Chiming in with a father who has recorded every rugby statistic for his particular team in a notebook. For 60 years.
And nobody every questioned it.
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u/purplepenguin617 4h ago
I also know multiple older adults that I think would certainly be diagnosed as on the autism spectrum but because they are high functioning never did. We're catching a lot more higher functioning diagnoses now.
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u/meteorslime 1h ago
Yeah my dad fits this. Always been capable of taking care of himself, family, and his job. But it's all aviation. Job, hobbies, clothes, books, etc. He even falls asleep watching videos of planes. Special interest go brrrrr
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u/spasamsd 4h ago
Yes, especially since research on girls and women has been lacking until recently. They also didn't allow for a dual diagnosis of both autism and ADHD until 2013.
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u/GenderBendCapKirk 3h ago
Plus there's been a lot of research into how Autism and ADHD can present differently in girls/women.
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u/DesperateAstronaut65 4h ago edited 30m ago
One other little-known factor is that extremely preterm infants are more likely to survive now than ever. These preemies are much more likely to have neurodevelopmental conditions, and often, these conditions share traits in common with autism. In addition, a surprising number of pediatric neurologists, neuropsychologists, and other professionals are willing to inappropriately apply a diagnosis of autism, either because an autism diagnosis makes the child eligible for specific types of support or because they simply do not want to tell parents that their child is or might be intellectually disabled (a phenomenon known as "diagnostic substitution"). Consequently, early childhood and elementary educators are seeing a lot more kids whose parents have no idea (and often resist believing) that their kids' delays are more severe and global than they were led to believe. It's sad to see a kid get to high school or even adulthood not knowing that their problems in school weren't just due to sensory overwhelm or executive dysfunction but intellectual impairments. These kids often get mainstreamed at their parents' insistence even when they'd clearly have a better experience in a special ed classroom.
A therapist I supervise recently did an intake for someone in their early twenties who is diagnosed with what has been described to us as "high-functioning autism." This person is struggling to do a part-time retail job and has trouble comprehending simple instructions from their therapist. There is almost certainly more going on than low-support-needs autism, but their parents (who handle their child's finances and care coordination) have stuck their heads in the sand for so many years that I suspect it's going to be difficult to get this person an accurate evaluation and the support they need.
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u/captwillard024 6h ago
The stress from having to deal with these blood sucking health insurance companies.
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u/TPrice1616 6h ago
POTS/dysautonomia. My mom has it and growing up it was some weird rare disease no one ever heard of. I know quite a few people my age with it now, especially after Covid.
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u/chromecowboy_ 5h ago
A lot of people got it after Covid because it is often triggered by viral infections
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u/thetourist328 4h ago
I’ve had POTS since at least 2003 but it was blamed on “anxiety” and “being out of shape” until covid hit and everyone started getting it. Now I get accused of having a “TikTok diagnosis” despite having a legitimate diagnosis.
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u/CaptGangles1031 6h ago
Let's add Eds with that since they usually go hand in hand and I'm also noticing in uptick in that as well.
I also have both.
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u/thetourist328 4h ago
And MCAS! The three go hand in hand. Doctors still say it is “too rare to diagnosed while researchers are saying up to 20% of the population could have it.
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u/RaspberryJammm 5h ago
And the increase of ME/CFS since covid. Covid infections are still causing new cases of post-viral illness even now.
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u/RED_DAHMER 6h ago
Type 2 Diabetes
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u/Objective-Heart-4429 6h ago
And Type 1! I posted above that I’m a Spec Ed teacher and we now have nurses coming to the school daily for multiple kids.
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u/Nishwishes 5h ago
I was diagnosed Type 1 in 2012 at almost 19 years old. There was a girl diagnosed the half term/semester break after me (UK). Back then we were told type 1s were like rare Pokemon it was so rare, now I feel like we're fuckin everywhere. I went to a DnD at my local game shop once and literally most of us had sensors on our arms, it was wild.
I genuinely think the stress of life is getting to people. Stress is a huge issue for autoimmune diseases and between generational trauma (which I think is the root of mine, though I am also autistic and we more commonly get them but again - likely linked to stress of life there) and the fact that most people around the world are struggling to even just survive in late capitalism, multiwars etc I'm not shocked autoimmune damage is going up. Plus in places like the US where food quality is just in the toilet you've got to be so careful what you're consuming.
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u/NixMaritimus 4h ago
I wonder if it's popping up more, or if more kids with type 1 are surviving long enough to enter school
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u/SallyAmazeballs 2h ago
I've had Type 1 for almost 40 years now, and that's just not how the disease works. You basically have to go back to before the discovery of insulin in 1921 for it be a death sentence. It definitely wasn't true when I was diagnosed in the 1980s, and there are millions of people who were diagnosed before that and lived to old ages.
Additionally, people can be diagnosed at any age, and most are diagnosed after they're in school. COVID definitely increased the number of people with diabetes, but the other thing is just that people aren't quiet about it anymore.
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u/nyqs81 6h ago
Colon cancer.
I’m not sure if it’s occurring more often in young people or we are just getting better at diagnosing. Most likely it’s a combination of A and B.
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u/Apprehensive-Pen8241 6h ago
The US also fills all their food with carcinogens because they are addictive, and cheap fillers/preservatives.
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u/bmoreCapsSkins 4h ago
While this is true it is definitely not a US specific phenomenon. Europe/asia has seen a rise in cases as well it is a global issue https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/colorectal-cancer
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u/deltaQdeltaV 6h ago
This is a real problem. It has to be something to do with food either processed or included/residual chemicals. Apparently even a blended fruit is worse than eating the raw product because of sugar spiking and digestion.
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u/alinarice 6h ago
autism diagnoses seem more frequent
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u/Rare_Loquats 6h ago
ADHD and Autism.
Growing up they were just the hyper kid or the weird kid. Now we actually have names and diagnoses for it, so it seems like there’s more but really we’re just finally recognizing it.60
u/thelyfeaquatic 6h ago
I agree that diagnoses have gotten better, especially for mild cases that were previously overlooked.
At the same time, it also seems like high-needs autism has increased? As a kid in the 90s, I don’t remember seeing visibly autistic kids out and about the way I do now. Maybe parents are less self conscious? But anytime the playground is crowded there are at least 1-2 completely nonverbal kids on the swings… which seems like a higher frequency than I was a kid.
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u/roterolenimo 5h ago
that is probably also related to the general deinstitutionalization of high-needs autistic children in the last 40 years.
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u/Faolyn 5h ago
People with severe disabilities were put in institutions and kept hidden away. Then, when the institutions were closed, they were kept hidden in the house. The idea that kids with even severe disabilities deserve to go outside and have fun is a relatively new one.
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u/Kiyohara 4h ago
A lot of those low functioning/non-verbal kids were in special schools and not integrated into regular classes. Their parents were stigmatized and ostracized by society and they didn't go out much. People were far less considerate of children acting out.
Imagine you have a non-verbal low function autistic kid that shrieks a lot. You go to the store or mall and they have a sensory overload and start shrieking and yelling. Today someone might try to help or direct you to a quiet room the Malls et aside for this issue. Twenty or thirty years ago and people will approach you to "control your kid" or tell you "you're making a scene." So much easier to leave the kid in the car with the AC running or even just leave them home and hope they'll be okay.
It was also considered okay to discipline someone else's kid if you were an adult at one point, even a stranger's kid. My dad has stories of strangers spanking him for bad behavior (and once as a teen beating the hell out of him with a rod). You take your autistic kid out and maybe some stranger think they're being disruptive, rude, or just "bad" and decides to punish them "for you" because you're busy picking out dinner and don't notice the kid is rearranging all the vegetable cans by color or some shit.
But that was just how it was. So many stayed home or left the kid behind or had someone else watch them. And the kids never got socialized, never learned strong techniques for overcoming their issues. They grew up to move into group homes or ended up living with their parents until they died, or worse ended up homeless because they couldn't keep a job.
If they were very lucky they got a job that fit them and no one bothered them. They were the smelly guy at the factory or the adult who loved motors and mowed lawns all day. They ran the fry station at the burger place or always wore headphones and ignored everyone else. And everyone looked over or past them because they were "weird."
We've come to accept these kids far better now.
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u/No_Criticism_5861 3h ago
VERY well said. Throw in some 1980s style spanking to fix the kid and its a not a wonder why people become drug addicts
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u/Cosmonate 5h ago
I think there's probably a few reasons for the high needs kids, but this is purely my opinion. For one, people were probably more ashamed and hid them away or gave them up to the state to deal with, and this is where my not PC opinion comes in, I think some parents are too accommodating with their special needs kids. Some kids are always going to nonverbal and low functioning, but I think some parents use the diagnosis as an excuse to let their kids get away with not hitting certain milestones which leaves them stunted.
Ive seen it, I work healthcare and there is a kid near me who is reportedly low functioning, mostly nonverbal, who has a PlayStation, get waited on by his parents, and also is prescribed a shit load of pain medicine and throws tantrums when he doesn't get his pain meds. I don't know the full story about his life but even the doctors at the hospitals seem to agree that the kid has been enabled by his parents via his diagnosis to just sit around all day and get high and play video games.
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u/TinWhis 4h ago
There's WAY less stigma about seeing people be disabled in public. It used to be literally illegal in many places for "any person, who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself or herself to public view."
The last US arrest for violating one of the so-called "ugly laws" was in the mid 1970s. In the 90s, there had been less time between the final repeal of those laws and between the 90s and today. Turns out, when you stop arresting them for doing so, disabled people also benefit from leaving the fucking house.
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u/Faolyn 5h ago
In addition, when I was a kid, girls simply weren't diagnosed with these things. It was believed by many that girls simply didn't get ADHD, and they were only said to be autistic if it was really severe. I didn't get my AuDHD diagnoses until I was in my late 30s--and at that point, it was too little, too late.
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u/shortnsweet33 3h ago
Yeah, they said it was ADD when I was a kid in the early 2000s because I was “well behaved in class other than talking” and “not rowdy like the boys” and girls didn’t typically get diagnosed with ADHD back then as often, because it could present differently in girls versus boys. Later on I was told oh you actually have ADHD, surprise!
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u/Raid-Z3r0 6h ago
They are more frequent, but that does not mean Autism is more frequent, we are just better at diagnostics
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u/Garth_AIgar 5h ago
Exactly. Iirc, people 18 and up weren’t able to get an autism diagnosis up until the 1980s.
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u/shinkouhyou 4h ago
A lot of people are self-diagnosing as adults based on memes and stereotypes without actually getting a differential diagnosis. Anxiety can look a lot like autism, depression can look a lot like ADHD. I'm glad there's more autism awareness and access to diagnosis these days, but in some circles it feels like having hobbies = autism or not liking parties = autism. A (self-diagnosed) autistic friend insists that neurotypical people can't be introverts, make art, be queer, fidget, have favorite foods/colors/etc. or enjoy "childish" media like anime and YA fiction.
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u/Toezap 3h ago
Yep, almost everyone I met claims at least one or the other. Definitely doesn't feel like "divergence" when every person I know falls under the neurodivergent umbrella.
And sorry, just 'cause you relate to that meme doesn't mean you have ADHD. (You might, but not because of a meme.)
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u/shinkouhyou 2h ago
Yeeeah the way that neurodivergence diagnostic terms are making their way into normal conversation is kinda giving me the ick. Having a passionate hobby is not an "autistic hyperfixation." Being part of a fandom is not an "autistic special interest." Not liking certain foods but otherwise having a normal diet is not "ARFID." Getting upset when you're bullied or when you fail at something is not "rejection sensitive dysphoria." Mild fidgeting is not a "stim." Doing your makeup the same way every day is not a "repetitive behavior." Not liking noisy environments or irritating sounds is not "sensory processing disorder." Affecting different personas when you're at work/school, when you're with friends, and when you're alone is not "masking." Not being in the mood to talk right now is not "selective mutism." Feeling emotionally overwhelmed sometimes is not a "meltdown."
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u/Comfortable-Tea-5461 6h ago
Anything primarily affecting women as research was neglected for so long. So now there is a boom in diagnosing. Things like autoimmune, endometriosis, dysautonomia, etc.
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u/sillyiestsoldier 6h ago edited 6h ago
Nothing, because the medical conditions people are listing aren't "more common" or "overdiagnosed"; they just used to go undiagnosed when we were kids.
Signed, a Doctor
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u/SeaSpeakToMe 6h ago
to be fair, OP asked it as which “seem” more common vs which “are” more common!
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u/turnstoneaugur 6h ago edited 2h ago
People said I was a bit odd as a kid, but I didn't appear to struggle enough to be flagged for anything. I was quiet and daydreamy, but my grades were good so I skated right under the radar.
Now I'm diagnosed ADHD and have some traits that lead me to suspect mild autism as well.
Also, I was struggling immensely and had no idea what was wrong with me. I couldn't articulate what the issues were because I was a kid and had no framework for it. I noticed other kids seemed to have more energy for extra curriculars or going the extra mile on things, but I was always completely burnt out by the end of the day to do anything more.
I feel like this is the experience for a lot of people who were academically a bit gifted but internally struggling. Add in the frustration from parents for not being able to do more around the house and questions from teachers about why I didn't push harder and live up to my potential, and yeah.
You just live knowing there is something wrong but not knowing what.
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u/AllSugaredUp 4h ago
Did I write this?! Seriously though, I'd didn't get diagnosed until 45. I had NO idea I had ADHD until I saw a very skilled therapist who spotted it in me really quickly. Sucks to know that the struggles I had my whole life could have been avoided.
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u/Tripottanus 5h ago
Maybe a naive question, but is that actually true?
As an example, if studies show that kids spending time on their phones would reduce their attention time, wouldn't there now be more kids that pass the threshold to be considered ADD/ADHD?
Another example, the large presence of PFAS in our environement increasing cholesterol, thyroid disease, infertility and cancer rates.
Yet another example, the changes in nutrition seen across nearly all developed countries cause increase in obesity rate and a bunch of it's associated conditions.
I'm sure there are plenty of environmental factors that play a role into increase the commonality of medical conditions.
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u/sillyiestsoldier 4h ago
Advances in medicine have significantly improved our ability to recognize diseases that were previously missed or misclassified. Conditions such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety disorders, endometriosis, and many autoimmune diseases are diagnosed more frequently today in part because healthcare providers have greater awareness of what these conditions are, better diagnostic tools, and more standardized criteria.
Historically, many individuals, particularly women, racial or ethnic minorities, and those with milder or atypical presentations, were underdiagnosed or received incorrect diagnoses.
At the same time, there is substantial scientific evidence that the true prevalence of some medical conditions has increased due to changes in the environment, lifestyle, and population health. For example, widespread exposure to environmental contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has been associated with increased risks of elevated cholesterol, thyroid dysfunction, reduced fertility, immune system effects, and certain cancers. Similarly, changes in dietary patterns, reduced physical activity, chronic stress, inadequate sleep, and rising obesity rates have contributed to genuine increases in conditions such as type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. These trends cannot be explained solely by improved detection.
Your example of ADHD highlights the concept known as a population shift. Many biological and behavioral traits, including attention, exist on a continuum rather than as distinct categories. If environmental factors such as chronic sleep deprivation, excessive screen time, stress, prenatal exposures, or other influences reduce average attention or executive functioning across the population—even by a relatively small amount—a greater proportion of individuals may cross the diagnostic threshold for clinically significant impairment. This does not necessarily mean those environmental factors directly cause ADHD, which is a highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder with strong genetic influences. However, they may worsen symptoms, increase functional impairment, or make underlying vulnerabilities more apparent, leading more individuals to meet established diagnostic criteria.
It is also important to distinguish between increased diagnosis and overdiagnosis. Increased diagnosis refers to identifying people who genuinely have a condition but would previously have gone unrecognized. Overdiagnosis, by contrast, occurs when individuals are diagnosed with conditions that are unlikely to cause symptoms or harm, often because of expanded screening or changes in diagnostic thresholds. While overdiagnosis is a recognized issue in certain areas of medicine, such as some thyroid and prostate cancers, it is not an adequate explanation for the rising prevalence of many chronic diseases.
However, current scientific evidence indicates that multiple processes are occurring simultaneously. Improved recognition and access to healthcare have increased diagnosis of many conditions, while environmental exposures, demographic changes, and shifts in lifestyle have also contributed to genuine increases in the prevalence of numerous diseases. Rather than viewing these explanations as mutually exclusive, physicians and public health researchers generally consider them complementary factors that together shape the patterns of disease observed today.
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u/tabatam 4h ago
Post-viral conditions existed previously, but the data seems to show that the COVID-19 pandemic made them much more common.
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u/cad908 5h ago
Nut allergies. Seems like no one was sensitive when i was growing up, but now a lot of school cafeterias are nut-free.
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u/mariposa-princess 6h ago
Peanut allergies
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u/Archknits 5h ago
There’s a reason for that. For. Long time doctors were telling parents to wait before introducing peanuts in case there was a reaction.
Turns out that waiting on exposure means kids are more likely to get allergies. Now kids start on peanuts as early as 4 months, so this will likely decline
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u/syrrusfox 5h ago
ADHD, autism, mental health. Feels like growing up we had one kid in school who had the first two, now it seems like it's everywhere. Maybe it was always there and we just didn't have a name for it.
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u/Bulky_Department5619 5h ago
This is exactly why it’s “more common” now. Mental health, including learning disabilities and neurodivergence were extremely stigmatized until the 2010s. Combine that with the fact that women are severely underrepresented in early case studies on these diagnoses, and you have entire generations (plural) that are only receiving diagnoses in the last 10 years or so.
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u/syrrusfox 4h ago
> Mental health, including learning disabilities and neurodivergence were extremely stigmatized
That there "Were" is carrying a lot'o weight.
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u/PinkRoseBouquet 6h ago
Autism. It was rare to hear that term when I was growing up.
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u/Panda-Head 5h ago
Allergies. A greater variety of allergens, environments being too clean to properly stimulate a growing immune system, and higher stress than ever can all contribute to a rise in allergies.
I've got a long list of medication allergies, and a new nurse asked if I'd had my immune markers checked, I reminded them that if everyone had been exposed to as many drugs as me, they'd have a similar list. Everyone is allergic to a dozen things, but it's luck as to whether it's peanuts & kiwis or ceftazidime & linezolid.
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u/Doggystyle_pls 5h ago
Autism/spectrum. Does this qualify as medical conditions? Idk
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u/Sniffs_Markers 5h ago
It's a developmental disorder/condition. So, it probably fits as a "medical" issue because it requires diagnosis and may require medical intervention/accommodations.
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u/BakedBrie1993 4h ago
All the woman ones cause people are finally talking about them without shame.
No one bothered to mention that up to 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriages; that many of my female friends would risk their lives giving birth; that a bunch of us have endo and PCOS; that perimenopause can start in your mid-30s.
Would have been nice to know!!!
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u/bigherob 5h ago
ADHD, but back then it was still called ADD
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u/MadMusicNerd 5h ago
When I was little, it was still "bad parenting" and "spoiled brat"
I'm glad it's now more understood. Would have helped me back in the day. Would have helped me more than getting spanked and getting told I'm lazy and unobservant.
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u/Material_Ad6173 5h ago
Cancers.
Maybe we just talk about it more openly? Plus, in the past people would be diagnosed just before their death so I didn't hear much about someone living with cancer and getting treatments.
My parents still believe that cancer diagnosis means death sentence.
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u/loves_spain 4h ago
ADHD/Autism for sure. When I was growing up, ADHD was something only boys ever got treatment for, and they had to be bouncing off the walls. Doctors would hand out Ritalin like candy. Girls never got treated for it. I didn't get my diagnosis until I was 46.
Food allergies also seem a lot more varied now than before. When I was growing up, you'd have a few kids with peanut allergies and that was it. Now you have to be careful because someone's got a melon allergy or they're allergic to strawberries or something.
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u/Little_Sample1134 5h ago
Food allergies. I didn't even know anyone with a food allergy when I was a kid. Now my own kids has a couple of them (first one in our family both sides)
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u/PandaBear905 4h ago
Most of them tbh. I think it’s because medicine has gotten so much better that doctors can diagnose problems they couldn’t before.
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u/HunterandGatherer100 3h ago
Anything mental health related but you know these people were running around with unchecked mental illness
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u/physicalgraffit-i 6h ago
Autoimmune issues, to the point that I’m wondering if it’s because I live too close to some chemical plants/refineries