Today’s almonds have been activated by:

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Insomnia can be a nightmare—but Alain de Botton has advice on how to fix it.

• A BBC investigative journalist, who does not have ADHD, got a diagnosis of ADHD from three separate clinics, sparking questions as to whether overdiagnosis of ADHD may be occuring

  • What the BBC didn’t mention in their promotional material for the show is that he first got advice on how to fake the symptoms, and then proceeded to do so.

  • As it turns out… if you lie about your symptoms, misdiagnosis can occur.

    • Generally speaking, in mental health as well as physical health, underdiagnosis is much more of a problem than overdiagnosis—especially amongst women and people of color.

• It sucks terribly to have one’s accounts disrupted, identity stolen, computer frozen out, etc. The cross-platform app Aura has a one-click solution to keep us all safe from that! (Check out today’s sponsor section for details)

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

How To Sleep Better

Sometimes we cannot sleep because we are just thirsty or too hot, but most often, insomnia is psychological. It is the mind’s revenge for all the efforts we have, largely unbeknownst to us, been making not to have certain thoughts in the day.

Alain de Botton, with his trademark soothing voice, explains how to fix this:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Prefer text? Click here to read the transcript!

🔎 MAIN FEATURE

Is ADHD Being Systematically Overdiagnosed?

The BBC’s investigative “Panorama” program all so recently did a documentary in which one of their journalists—who does not have ADHD—went to three private clinics and got an ADHD diagnosis from each of them:

• The BBC documentary: Private ADHD Clinics Exposed (28 mins)

• Their “5 Minutes” version: ADHD Undercover: How I Was Misdiagnosed (6 mins)

So… Is it really a case of show up, pay up, and get a shiny new diagnosis?

The BBC Panorama producers cherry-picked 3 private providers, and during those clinical assessments, their journalist provided answers that would certainly lead to a diagnosis.

This was contrasted against a three-hour assessment with an NHS psychiatrist—something that rarely happens in the NHS. Which prompts the question…

How did he walk into a 3-hour psychiatrist assessment, when most people have to wait in long waiting lists for a much more cursory appointment first with assorted gatekeepers, before going on another long waiting list, for an also-much-shorter appointment with a psychiatrist?

That would be because the NHS psychiatrist was given advance notification that this was part of an investigation and would be filmed (the private clinics were not gifted the same transparency)

So, maybe just a tad unequal treatment!

In case you’re wondering, here’s what that very NHS psychiatrist had to say on the topic:

Is it really too easy to be diagnosed with ADHD?

(we’ll give you a hint—remember Betteridge’s Law!)

The ADHD foundation, meanwhile, has issued its own response, saying:

Click here to read their full statement!

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

Aura: The One-Click All-Purpose Online Security App

Peace of mind is a huge contributor to our mental health. And with the amount of time we spend online, concerns about our online security keep on disturbing that lovely peace.

That’s where Aura comes in.

With its main selling points including that it's powerful, simple, effortless, and easy to use and set up, Aura does the job of a whole collection of other digital safety software, at once. Including:

• Monitors the dark web to see if any of your personal information has leaked (emails, passwords, SSNs, etc)

• Monitors your credit accounts and alerts you to suspicious activity fast

• One-click secure VPN so you can shop, bank and browse online securely and privately

• Scan your devices for malware, ransomware, viruses and more

• Automatically requests removal of your information from various data broker lists and people search websites

• Protects against spam calls too!

...and the best part is that it’s proactive, working on your behalf to prevent online threats and keep you and your family safe from malfeasants.

Click here to check out Aura's many features!

(There's also a 14-day free trial, so you can just try it out if you like, too)

🌏 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

• Identifying pesticide culprits in Parkinson's disease

• Promoting lower-calorie options on delivery apps could help users select healthier options, randomized trials find

• To reduce harm from alcohol, we need Indigenous-led responses

• Disrupted gut microbiome involved in depression, finds research

• Why are so many children (especially under the age of 2) overdosing on melatonin?

• Whole body cryostimulation may be a useful extra treatment for obesity

• How the brain forgets: when memory lapses become fatal

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

Your Simplest Life: 15 Unconventional Time Management Shortcuts – Productivity Tips and Goal-Setting Tricks So You Can Find Time to Live - by Lisa Turner

We probably know how to declutter, and perhaps even do a "unnecessary financial expenditures" audit. So, what does this offer beyond that?

A large portion of this book focuses on keeping our general life in a state of "flow", and strategies include:

• How to make sure you're doing the right part of the 80:20 split on a daily basis

• Knowing when to switch tasks, and when not to

• Knowing how to plan time for tasks

• No more reckless optimism, but also without falling foul of Parkinson's Law (i.e. work expands to fill the time allotted to it)

• Decluttering your head, too!

When it comes to managing life responsibilities in general, Turner is very attuned to generational differences... Including the different challenges faced by each generation, what's more often expected of us, what we're used to, and how we probably initially learned to do it (or not).

To this end, a lot of strategies are tailored with variations for each age group. Not often does an author take the time to address each part of their readership like that, and it's really helpful that she does!

All in all, a great book for simplifying your daily life.

Click here to check out Your Simplest Life on Amazon today!

May your path forward be simple and clear,

The 10almonds Team