October is ADHD awareness month and by now scientists have found out that ADHD reflects itself differently in girls than boys and causes long term effects. It can start as early as childhood or it can begin to develop in adulthood, where it becomes more difficult to treat. What people didn’t know up until recently is that ADHD presents itself completely differently in girls than in boys, which makes it more difficult to diagnose.
When it comes to women with ADHD, the signs are completely different compared to men. Men usually are more hyperactive, impulsive, disorganized. Women, on the other hand, can feel more overwhelmed and exhausted, often feeling like their life is out of control. The issue when it goes undiagnosed is that most of these women don’t understand why they’re feeling this way and can’t find a way to cope with it. This can lead to a lot of low self-esteem issues, anxiety, depression, and other types of psychological distress. Leaving ADHD untreated can lead to them falling behind and could end up affecting their work, relationships, school work, their emotions – all because of a misdiagnosis due to lack of information and research. Women in general are at risk for most psychological disorders, but yet we focus most of our research on men, which leads to these types of situations.
These are just some of the few findings about ADHD in women. The reason why we should be more aware about this is because ADHD that develops in adulthood is much more difficult to treat. When it comes to research, researchers should focus on all genders since our bodies process things differently due to that fact. This should be a wake up call for all women to trust when something feels wrong and know that help is always around.