In October of 2021, I went to a general checkup at my college. After a couple of routine physical checks, the doctor moved on to some questions for a mental health check. A couple of minutes of this went by before he finally asked me, “Have you ever gotten checked for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)?” This question hit me hard considering I had never thought about that possibility. I said no, to which he responded, “You really should.”
At this point in my life, I knew something might be up with me (sounds ominous but bear with me). I had always struggled with pretty severe anxiety from a young age and had attributed things like fidgeting, lack of focus and nerves to that. School was never nightmare-ish for me, although I did struggle with retaining the information taught in my classes. I had to do a summer math program in 6th grade because I had been close to failing the previous year; I could not seem to get a good understanding of the concepts being taught and could not often focus long enough on a problem before I eventually gave up. But, other than those hiccups, I had never had as hard of a time as I saw from people on social media who talked about ADHD. As I got older, I started to notice some commonalities, like being hyper-fixated on one thing and feeling easily distracted throughout my days. This, of course, all led me to get checked for ADHD at age 20. Sure enough, I was diagnosed with it.
It seems like there is so much information on the internet about ADHD, with tons of good info coming from social media. Mental health experts make videos about things that are signifiers of ADHD. It’s a great way for people to bring awareness to the disorder. Unfortunately, though, some content creators try to gain fame by claiming they have ADHD and then making silly videos on their “symptoms.” They may have ADHD, but the majority of these people create generalizations that do more harm than good. Because of this, I classified ADHD as something that it absolutely was not before I was formally diagnosed. Though these generalizations surrounding the topic can be correct, there is so much more to it than just losing focus or being louder than others in conversations.
So why did it take so long for someone to look at me and realize that I had this? Well, it’s not just myself who’s gone through similar experiences. According to the National Institute of Health, women take longer to diagnose because disorders such as ADHD and bipolar disorder are often hidden behind more common issues, such as depression. A doctor often looks at women or young adult women and easily diagnoses them with an umbrella disorder of sorts when it’s actually something else or working in combination with the originally diagnosed disorder.
Miss. Diagnosis: A Systematic Review of ADHD in Adult Women: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10173330/#:~:text=One%20potential%20reason%20for%20this,ADHD%20(Quinn%2C%202008).
For me, my ADHD diagnosis came far after an anxiety diagnosis and acted in secret behind the curtain of my anxiety symptoms. The things I had been struggling with for years could often be attributed to my anxiety, but others that were less explainable, like hyper fixations and fidgeting, could have been easier explained as being because of my ADHD if I had been diagnosed sooner.
Women are more prone to mental health disorders, with women being twice as likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder than a man, for example. One explanation is the fact that people born biologically female have more hormonal fluctuations than men do. Things such as menstruation play a huge role in this as well. But, there is also the social aspect of women’s health. In my experience, pain has been a thing that I have dealt with a lot. Common symptoms of being a person born biologically female include period cramps, migraines due to birth control and putting my body through more to look a certain way regarding society’s beauty standards. Often, women are faced with backlash when showing emotion or talking up about their feelings or pain. To quote the Barbie movie, “You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you!” (Barbie, 2023).
The societal standards placed on women are insane.
I am in no way trying to say I wasn’t diagnosed from a young age due to society or just by being a woman. In fact, I was lucky that my diagnosis did not come with years of intense internal struggle. Mental health is something that so many people struggle with and I intend to bring to light how a lot of our problems, mental and physical, are often swept under the rug or not looked into enough until, sometimes, it’s too late. I want more awareness to be created about the stigma surrounding women and mental health.
I am so glad I finally have a diagnosis, but millions of men, women, and non-binary individuals live with different issues every day, and takes years to find a diagnosis. So to that, I say that I hear you. I’m sorry that for so long you’ve wondered what is wrong. You are valid and I hope so deeply that you find your answer.