“Does everyone have a little ADHD?”

Nope.

ADHD traits are human traits. Everybody has probably experienced a time in their life where they were scattered, all over the place, and forgot what they went into the room for. Sleep deprivation, stress, grief — these things do that to a brain. This is not a neurodivergent-specific experience. It is a “having a brain and being a human” experience.

But for people with ADHD, this is not a “sometimes” occurrence. This can be true multiple times a day. Or an hour. What makes these traits neurodivergent is not that they exist; it is the frequency and the intensity with which they affect someone’s everyday life.

But is everyone a bit neurodivergent?

The spectrum of neurodivergence is not from “a bit neurodivergent” to “a lot neurodivergent.”

If someone is neurotypical, they are not on the left side of the spectrum; they are not on the spectrum at all. The spectrum is not linear anyway; it is a unique combination of traits and their presentation in someone’s life.

Think of it like hair. Most people have hair: long, short, different colours, textures, curl patterns. Some people have their hair colour in common but not its length. But if we are talking about curls and dry hair, a bald man cannot say “yeah, I am also on the hair spectrum.” 😀

So, to make it clear: neurodiversity includes both neurotypical and neurodivergent people, but one person on their own cannot be neurodiverse. Neurodivergence includes only neurodivergent people, and not every human is neurodivergent. If we were, neurodivergent people wouldn’t still have to fight for basic understanding and support.

So no, we are not all on the spectrum. Forgetting something a few times is not “so ADHD of me”, and being surprised by not being bored at the train museum is not “very autistic.”

The clinical threshold for an ADHD diagnosis is not “do you have some of these traits?” but “do these traits impair your functioning across multiple areas of your life?” When someone says “everyone has a little ADHD”, this difference is completely disregarded.

For more on how ADHD works, see all our ADHD articles here.