Mental health and disability: studying your own disorder

Laura Sills, 28, is a graduate student in UB’s sociology department. While she studies ADHD, her research is more than academic—it’s personal.

Sills was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, but her mother admitted she had long suspected something was wrong. However, she chose not to investigate due to her older child.

Sills’ older sister had dyslexia and was placed in special education classes.

“She graduated in 2007,” Sills said. “To put into perspective the period when she was growing up … because of her dyslexia, she was included in the special education class, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but she was bullied.”

To protect her from the bullying her sister endured, Sills was never assessed for any condition.

“I think deep down what she was trying to tell me was she didn’t want me to be labeled and then have that label used against me,” she said. “She was trying to protect me in her own way.”

But there were signs.

“I struggled with paying attention in class,” she said. She recalls reading paragraphs repeatedly yet still failing to comprehend what she had just read.

She also dealt with emotional dysregulation and sensory issues that triggered meltdowns over seemingly small situations.

Years later, after earning her bachelor’s degree, Sills took a gap year. Without the structure of an academic setting, her struggles became more evident.

“It was really at that point where I started to struggle, adjusting to working full time, and then, of course, COVID … exacerbated that,” she said.

After seeing a psychiatrist for anxiety and depression, she was diagnosed with ADHD.

“I never would have thought that I had ADHD,” Sills said.

According to Sills, about 6.3% of the adult population has ADHD, marking a 43% increase since 2004. Diagnoses among children aged 3-17 have also risen by roughly 27% in that time.

She plans to analyze the dataset by controlling for variables such as gender, race, and educational attainment to examine how they influence diagnosis rates.

Research on adult ADHD is still limited, but Sills is on the cusp of a new frontier. In 2022, the National Center for Health Statistics began collecting data on ADHD. Working with a sample of more than 7,000 adults, Sills is using the dataset for her research.

However, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, there are concerns that many people could lose access to stimulant medication under President Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” commission.

“I know that there are a lot of people who are concerned right now—not just people with ADHD but also those who struggle with anxiety and depression,” Sills said.

She wants to remind people to support each other.

“I just want to remind people to check in with one another, check in with themselves, and take care of themselves. Not to let fear or anxiety consume them and to know that they are not alone. There are many people out there who share these concerns … and we’re in this together.”

Sills is set to complete her Master’s thesis within the next year.

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