19/06/2026
Men's Health Week runs until the 21st, and I want to use it to talk about something specific.
The majority of people diagnosed with ADHD and autism in childhood are male. But a significant and growing body of research shows that ADHD and autism in women and non-binary people has historically been missed, misdiagnosed, or dismissed — partly because the diagnostic criteria were built on male presentations.
What this means is that for men who are diagnosed early, there is a different kind of challenge: carrying a diagnosis through school and into work before there was much language or support available for it. Navigating workplaces where asking for help — in any form — is still widely read as weakness.
Men with undiagnosed or late-diagnosed conditions are another story entirely. Decades of unexplained difficulty, often coped with in ways that compound the problem.
Mental health and neurodivergence are not the same thing, but they are frequently connected. Supporting neurodivergent employees is also, often, supporting the mental health of men in your workforce.
If your organisation takes men's mental health seriously, the neurodivergent dimension is part of that conversation.
