Diagnostic stickiness and shifting relevance: Reassessing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or attention-deficit...

The rising rate of diagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has led to more individuals near the diagnostic threshold living with neurodevelopmental diagnoses. While often assigned in childhood to initiate support in medical, school and family contexts, these diagnoses may persist across time and settings, shaping adult life in ways that are unaligned with current functioning. This study explores the perspectives of individuals who actively sought to have ASD and/or ADHD diagnoses reassessed. Within a pilot project in Skåne, Sweden, fourteen individuals aged 17-30 years, originally diagnosed at ages 4-18, participated in semi-structured interviews. Motivations for seeking reassessment, examined using reflexive thematic analysis, clustered around four themes: having capacity, being no different, demanding fairness, and removing barriers. While some initially benefited from resources linked to diagnosis, many described how it had become restrictive-limiting career options, influencing health-care encounters, and shaping identity. Diagnoses were experienced as "sticky": tied to childhood contexts yet continuing to circulate into adult institutions. Although not representative of all individuals with ASD/ADHD, this group constitutes a critical case, highlighting reassessment as a possible response to the temporal durability and institutional reach of psychiatric labels. The very fact that individuals request, and institutions require, a formal act of removal underscores the enduring power of such classifications as both resources and constraints. The study contributes to debates on overdiagnosis by highlighting the temporal and institutional dimensions of diagnostic expansion, and by examining how proportionality between benefits and burdens may shift over time.