People often tell me knowingly that I’m not ADHD. They also tell me I’m confident and outgoing. Admittedly I am your ‘typical’ type A personality but I am also rather shy and I suspect some of my extravert characteristics are a direct consequence of my ADHD. I was brought up to be polite and to respect your elders and that coupled with my shyness kept me off the ADHD radar for many years. I believe that this was detrimental to me and to my relationship with my parents who were at the receiving end of my ADHD outbursts every single day that I lived under their roof… and often when I didn’t. Unlike in America , ADHD is not over diagnosed in England
I am writing this blog for a number of reasons. First and foremost I am writing it to help people who experience ADHD, either as sufferers or as friends or family to someone who does, to understand the condition and its complexities, controversies and biases. I hope to explore the various contentions surrounding issues of labelling and diagnosis and I hope to promote debate and discussion and explore ways of working with people with the condition. Finally I believe this will be a cathartic exercise and on a personal level I hope to explain to those I love why I am as I am.
Over the coming weeks and months I will discuss what ADHD is to me personally both now and in the past. I will look at the positive and negative ways that it has affected my life and address how I was diagnosed and why I think it would have been better to have been diagnosed earlier. I also wish to look in detail at the common misconceptions about ADHD and challenge these.
Medically speaking Attention-defecit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder characterised by distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsive behaviours and the inability to remain focused on tasks.
The ADHD brain works differently than those of people who do not have the condition. It is thought that neurotransmitters (chemicals in the brain that carry messages) do not work properly in people with ADHD and that the parts of the brain that control activity and attention display less activity than in ‘normal’ people.
According to NHS choices ‘some research shows that the frontal lobes, which are the part of the brain that control decision making, do not work as they should in people with ADHD. Other research indicates that people with ADHD may have imbalances in the levels of certain chemicals, such as noradrenaline and dopamine.’
Adult ADHD can lead to a number of problems, including unstable relationships, poor performance at work and low self esteem.
Below is a list of symptoms of adult ADHD identified by the NHS choices website
- carelessness and lack of attention to detail
- continually starting new tasks before finishing old ones
- continually loosing or misplacing things
- forgetfulness
- restlessness and edginess
- difficulty keeping quiet and speaking out of turn
- blurting responses and poor social timing when talking to others
- often interrupting others
- mood swings
- irritability and a quick temper
- inability to deal with stress
- extreme impatience
- taking risks in activity, often with little or no regard for personal safety or the safety of others.
Although these are symptoms that most of us have probably experienced, adults with ADHD will have been significantly and consistently impaired by these symptoms since childhood. For an adult to be diagnosed with ADHD, their symptoms should cause a moderate degree of impairment in different areas of their life such as in sustaining relationships, coping with stress, dangerous driving or underachieving.
There are three types of ADHD; mainly inattentive, mainly hyperactive-impulsive and combined. Women often suffer with mainly inattentive which is probably why they are diagnosed less than men. Having said that, women can also suffer with mainly hyperactive-impulsive or, like me, combined types and likewise men can suffer with mainly inattentive ADHD.
I’ll leave it here for this week, my mind is racing with all the stresses the following week will undoubtedly bring and I am getting restless, not to mention irrationally irritated by the noise this computer is making, the temperature of the room, the fact that I keep pressing the wrong keys and that my weekend is almost over. I need to go and ‘do’ something…..
Next time I hope to talk a little bit more about what ADHD is to me and how it affects my life.
Ciao for now!
