Historically, ADHD was closely associated with overactive boys. But global studies suggest that roughly 3 percent of people older than 50—which would translate to about 3.6 million Americans—are expected to have ADHD, David Goodman, an expert on adult ADHD at Johns Hopkins University, told me. Tensions persist around whether, in general, ADHD is overdiagnosed or underdiagnosed. But as awareness continues to rise among providers and the general public, diagnoses have been climbing in populations that were previously overlooked. The CDC reports that prescriptions for stimulants increased “substantially” among people in midlife from 2020 to 2021.