The ADHD Iceberg

Submission 7,224

Part of a series on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). [View Related Entries]

About

The ADHD Iceberg is an iceberg infographic that compares what people think Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms are versus what they actually are. The original ADHD Iceberg graphic was created in late 2020 by a since-deleted Instagram user named @FINUCCINIALFREDO. Going into 2021 and 2022, the graphic became an exploitable image macro meme template in which creators replaced the words and phrases in the bottom half of the iceberg, parodying the original with humorous images or captions.

Origin

On August 3rd, 2020, the Instagram^[1] page theexpertally posted an infographic of what it called the "ADHD Iceberg," earning over 80 likes in two years. Sometime in early October 2020, the since-deleted Instagram user @FINUCCINIALFREDO posted his version of the ADHD Iceberg, earning an unknown amount of likes. Regardless, viral reposts were shared of it across social media. For instance, the earliest known repost was uploaded to Reddit's /r/adhdmeme^[2] subreddit by Redditor mondaio, earning roughly 14,400 upvotes in two years (shown below).

Spread

Later on October 11th, 2020, the ADHD Iceberg was reposted to /r/coolguides,^[3] earning roughly 43,500 upvotes in two years. On February 5th, 2021, Twitter^[4] user protestantwind tweeted an exploited version of the infographic, replacing the bottom text with, "Amphetamine addiction," in reference to ADHD meds such as Adderall. Over the course of a year and a half, the tweet received over 450 likes (shown below).

On March 3rd, 2021, Instagram^[5] user paegr replaced the bottom part of the iceberg with an image of musician Sewerslvt, earning roughly 1,000 likes in a year and a half (shown below, left). On April 28th, 2021, Instagram^[6] user neoliberalhell replaced the bottom text to read phrases such as, "having a fat ass," "being a good kisser," thick thighs," "ridiculous mommy milkers" and "curvy as hell," among others. Over the course of a year and a half, the meme received roughly 1,100 likes (shown below, right).

On May 19th, 2021, Tumblr^[7] user ham-napkin added a GIF Kermit the Frogs dancing, earning roughly 50,100 notes over the course of one year (shown below, left).On October 9th, 2021, Instagram^[8] user bbgrrl.666 replaced some of the phrases in neoliberalhell's iteration to be kitten/cat related, earning roughly 2,000 likes in 11 years (shown below, right).

The template trended going into 2022, resurfacing on Twitter^[9] and elsewhere online.