On Reddit, the success of mental health forums: “It’s like a support group, but on the internet”

Marie was a little girl who was "very much in the clouds." But it wasn't until she was 24 that the law student, originally from the south of France and who did not want to give her real first name, discovered that she had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). After her mother's late diagnosis, she consulted a doctor for this neurodevelopmental disorder, which is partly hereditary and underdiagnosed in women. However, while the treatment prescribed by her psychiatrist finally allowed her to "feel calm," she also felt the need to find people "like her."

She found this support group on Reddit. The platform, which celebrates its 20th anniversary on Monday, June 23, has countless forums dedicated to mental health, sometimes with large communities: the English-language forums r/ADHD [for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder , ADHD in English] and r/autism, both created in 2008, have 2 million and 469,000 members respectively. Marie, for her part, joined the forum r/TDAHFrance and its 4,700 Internet users in 2025, where she found "great kindness" and lots of advice.

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