19. Is Daycare Causing ADHD? Debunking the Diary of a CEO Episode. (with Amanda Moses)

Someone sent you the clip. Or your friend messaged about it. Or your mother-in-law forwarded it without comment and you sat there for a minute knowing exactly what she meant by that. The Diary of a CEO episode with Erica Komisar — the one saying ADHD isn't real, it's a stress response, and if your child has it the inconvenient truth is that you caused it. Two and a half hours long. Fifteen million subscribers. Ranked second on Spotify globally. So it doesn't stay in the episode — it gets clipped and reposted and lands in your DMs.

This is the debunk. Senior psychologist and ADHD assessor Amanda Moses is back — the actual person who spends her days doing the assessments. Fourteen years in the field, Australia and the UK. Amanda pulls the clips apart word by word. The genetics. The 'malpractice' claim about medication. The 1950s theory this whole episode is quietly rebuilding under a new name.

CHAPTERS

00:00 — The email from a listener that made me pick up the phone to Amanda

01:00 — What Erica Komisar is, and what she isn't

02:30 — Clip 1: 'ADHD isn't a disorder. It's a stress response.'

03:20 — Why the drop-the-D movement isn't about stress — and the heritability she's leaving out

06:03 — Clip 2: 'There is no genetic precursor to ADHD.'

07:30 — One minute there's no gene. The next minute there is. Which is it?

13:37 — Clip 3: 'The way we treat ADHD is malpractice.'

14:35 — Amanda on her own medication, and 'what do you mean people walk around like this for free?'

23:37 — Clip 4: 'When your child gets an ADHD diagnosis, the first thing you should do is see a therapist.'

25:17 — Refrigerator mother. 1950s. Same architecture. New diagnosis.

29:07 — Where Erica raised her children. And what she could afford to sacrifice.

33:17 — The economics that make her advice a fantasy for anyone under fifty

36:31 — Amanda's take-home: you did not cause this

What We Cover

• The email from a listener that made Jane stop what she was doing and pick up the phone to Amanda
• What Erica Komisar is not — three qualifications she doesn't hold, one of which will surprise you
• The exact quote from clip one that Amanda says has nothing to do with the actual conversation the field is having
• The number Steven Bartlett read out to Erica that she then argued didn't exist
• The 1950s theory about mothers that was dismantled decades ago — and the sentence in this podcast that revives it word for word
• What Amanda said about her own medication that Jane says she wishes someone had said to her three years earlier
• The scaffolding Erica had that made her parenting choices possible — and why no woman under fifty has that same scaffolding now
• The one sentence Jane wanted on the record because she couldn't say it professionally — Amanda's response is why you love her
• Amanda's one take-home if your stomach dropped listening to that clip and you don't know where to go with the guilt

Free Resources

Household Family Meeting Template — for the load this episode is really talking about — https://adhdmums.com.au/product/adhd-household-family-meeting-template/

Explaining ADHD to Kids Guide — https://adhdmums.com.au/product/explaining-adhd-to-kids-parents-guide/

Paid Resources

ADHD Mums Shop — https://adhdmums.com.au/shop/

Related Episodes

ADHD or PTSD? Why So Many Women Are Misdiagnosed — S2 EP82, with Amanda Moses — https://adhdmums.com.au/podcast_episode/episode-82-adhd-or-ptsd-why-so-many-women-are-misdiagnosed-with-amanda-moses/

Is It Social Anxiety — or Is It Autism? — S3 EP34, with Amanda Moses — https://adhdmums.com.au/podcast_episode/episode-34-is-it-social-anxiety-or-is-it-autism-with-amanda-moses/

References & Further Reading

On ADHD heritability (the 74–80% figure):

Faraone, S. V. & Larsson, H. (2019). Genetics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Molecular Psychiatry, 24(4), 562–575. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0070-0

On the polygenic architecture Amanda references (many genes, small individual effect):

Demontis, D. et al. (2019). Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Nature Genetics, 51(1), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0269-7

On the 'refrigerator mother' theory Amanda names:

The term originated with Leo Kanner in the 1940s and was popularised through the 1950s and 60s (most notably by Bruno Bettelheim). It was dismantled from the 1960s onward as autism's biological and genetic basis was established.

About Amanda Moses

Amanda Moses is a senior psychologist, board-approved supervisor, and ADHD and autism assessor with over 14 years of clinical experience across Australia and the UK. She specialises in complex assessments — the ones that don't fit neatly inside the box.

Amanda offers clinic