ADHD Service hits back at Channel 4’s “The Great ADHD Myth”

A Bradford-based ADHD assessment service has responded to the public debate sparked by Channel 4’s “The Great ADHD Myth?”

The not-for-profit states that the conversation has overshadowed a far larger, and very local, issue: the scale of unmet need for ADHD assessment in West Yorkshire and across England.

Sort Health, a not-for-profit service delivered by Bevan Community Benefit Society, assesses adults across the region, both online and face-to-face in Bradford.

According to the House of Commons Library, more than 735,000 people in England were waiting for an ADHD assessment as of December 2025, with over six in ten adults on that list waiting more than a year.

Mat Sidebottom, Managing Director of Sort Health, said:

“There’s a difference between asking questions and casting doubt. This debate blurred that line. Behind every headline about whether ADHD is ‘real’ is someone who’s spent years trying to make sense of their symptoms and get taken seriously. It’s someone who’s been told to try harder, sleep better, and cut down on screens, before anyone considered that something else might be going on.”

“A documentary title with a question mark doesn’t feel neutral to someone who’s waited a decade for an assessment. It feels like being doubted all over again.”

“Asking hard questions about ADHD, medication or how it’s diagnosed is fair, and honest debate is a good thing. But while that argument plays out in the media, the people it’s actually about are still stuck on waiting lists, still trying to get through their week, still needing support they can’t get. That’s the part of this story that doesn’t get a documentary made about it, and it’s the part we think matters most.”

Sort Health said support shouldn’t depend on how the wider debate about the causes of ADHD is resolved. Even the documentary’s own presenter, Dr Max Pemberton, has said that people seeking an ADHD diagnosis are “genuinely struggling”, something he describes as “not in question”.

Sort Health said that’s precisely the point that’s been lost. Whatever the eventual answer to why people are struggling, there is no doubt that many are struggling now, and shouldn’t have to wait for a debate to end before getting support.