Symptoms of ADHD in Women
Women who suffer from ADHD often report misunderstandings or frustrations in their relationships. Symptoms like forgetting appointments, being late for meetings, and snoring during conversations can be mistaken by others as lack of interest or boredom.
Girls and women with ADHD are also unable to be assessed due to gender-based discrimination. Clinicians must reconsider approaches to identifying and treating female patients.
1. Disorganization
It may be difficult to stay on top of your daily chores at work or school when you're not organized. You may also misplace or lose important items such as keys or your phone. You may have trouble following the schedule or forget important dates such as birthdays and anniversary celebrations. You might also have trouble remembering names. This can make it difficult to form new friendships or maintain relationships.
You might not realize that your issues with disorganization are ADHD symptoms There are plenty of resources available to help you. Start by speaking to your primary care provider. They might refer you to a mental health professional or a therapist with had experience treating ADHD.
Girls and women who suffer from ADHD are often incorrectly diagnosed. This could be due to the strategies they use to mask their symptoms. high functioning adhd in women may have low self-esteem or blame their difficulties on factors outside their control such as relationship issues or their gender.
Stereotypes regarding gender, sex and behavior can also make it harder for women suffering from ADHD to get the support they require. For instance, hyperactive and impulsive behaviors are typically seen as being more appropriate for males and females. As a result, some women with ADHD conceal or minimize their symptoms to blend in and avoid criticism or embarrassment.
While being diagnosed with ADHD won't fix these issues with culture and social however, it can help you understand how to manage your symptoms better. You can improve the quality of life by seeking treatment and making lifestyle changes like following a routine schedule, practicing meditation, and eating healthy food.
You can also improve your ability to focus and accomplish tasks by taking ADHD medication. It is important to discuss the medication with your physician and any possible side effects. They can suggest changes to your medication for example, reducing the dose or changing the time you take them. They can also help discover other ways to improve your daily functioning. For example they can suggest ways to make accommodations at school or work to alleviate ADHD symptoms.
2. Attention!
If you're a woman suffering from ADHD, you may struggle with "time blindness." This means that you're often late to appointments or aren't able to keep the track of deadlines. You may also have difficulty working or getting started, especially on boring or unchallenging tasks. These issues can be irritating to your colleagues or your friends. However, you're not intentionally being rude or uncaring. You're simply facing the difficulties that come with ADHD.
Attention-deficit ADHD is more prevalent among women and girls than hyperactive or impulsive symptoms. These characteristics are less easily evident, which makes it harder for women and girls to receive treatment. Girls and women come up with strategies to conceal the symptoms of ADHD. This leads to a misdiagnosis, or underdiagnosis. The symptoms of anxiety or depression, for instance, may be misinterpreted as inattention symptoms of ADHD and treated for these disorders instead.
It's also possible that girls and women struggle to diagnose ADHD because they blame themselves. They may be so embarrassed by missing appointments or not meeting deadlines that they don't inform an expert about the symptoms. If they do consult with a healthcare professional, it's likely that they'll be told that their behavior is normal and it's not their fault, which can further exacerbate their frustration and shame.
While medication is the most effective treatment for ADHD in adults, it's important to find the right medications that are effective for you and your particular symptoms. If stimulant medications aren't working or you aren't able to take them, your doctor may recommend antidepressants or non-stimulant drugs. They'll also take into consideration whether your symptoms have been exacerbated by hormonal changes such as those that occur during your menstrual period, pregnancy, or menopausal. These changes can impact the way your body processes medications and the effectiveness of medications. This is a reason why it's important to seek out a diagnosis early on. Medication can help you manage your ADHD symptoms and increase your performance at work and home.
3. Impulsivity
Women with ADHD have trouble regulating their emotions. The symptoms can include frequent feelings of frustration or anger, anxiety, depression, or mood swings that can make it difficult to manage the day. If you struggle to manage your emotions, it can affect relationships and work performance. Women can also experience difficulty maintaining relationships and could have an unstable love life, with more rapid romantic relationships and a greater risk of intimate partner violence.
The impulse-control symptoms of adhd in women can be more difficult to notice and identify than the hyperactive/impulsive symptoms seen in boys and men/people AMAB. This is because women and girls are better at developing coping strategies that cover or conceal ADHD symptoms to meet gendered societal expectations (Quinn & Madhoo 2014). This can lead to a misdiagnosis or less effective treatment of women who suffer from adhd as adults.
For example females with ADHD struggle to resist temptations or stay away from being emotionally driven, so they struggle to control their spending habits. This can result in financial problems, and it also means they may forget to pay bills or make payments on time. Impulsive women are also more likely to shop because they are bored or want stimulation and excitement. This could cause them to develop issues with their relationship to food. This can lead to unhealthy and unbalanced eating habits that can lead to other health issues.
We know that women are more likely to suffer symptoms of adhd more than men, but research on this topic is not extensive. This could be because early research on ADHD was primarily focused on boys and men/people who had AMAB. It was therefore easier to identify their symptoms. It is also possible that the criteria used to diagnose ADHD aren't as effective to identify women suffering from the condition.
The diagnosis of adhd can be a game changer for some women, especially when it is discovered late in life. It can help women understand who they are and why they behave in the way they do. It can make people feel as if they've had an epiphany providing them with an external explanation for their struggles and helping them accept their own uniqueness more fully.
4. Anxiety
Women suffering from ADHD often struggle with anxiety and stressful situations. Anxiety can cause problems in relationships, at work, and at school. It can manifest physically, for example, rapid heartbeat and breathing, a shallow breath, muscle tension, or headaches. It can also disrupt sleep. Insufficient sleep can exacerbate anxiety symptoms, making them more difficult to manage. Procrastination can be an unending cycle, where anxiety fuels procrastination and fear of not being able to complete tasks in a timely manner.
It's important to be self-aware and recognize if you suffer from an anxiety disorder. If you notice symptoms that interfere with your daily routine, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional for help. They will assess your situation and utilize recognized criteria to determine if anxiety disorder is present. You could be asked how long you've been suffering from symptoms, and how intense they are. They might suggest various tests and tools to rule other medical conditions that could be causing the symptoms.
It can be more difficult for women with ADHD to recognize the condition than men, as they tend to hide their symptoms better. They may develop coping strategies to function but these strategies could become unsustainable or exhausting as time passes. For instance, women suffering from ADHD might be able manage their impulsiveness or distractibility by preparing meetings ahead of time or using a schedule and reminders on their phones. However, these strategies may not address the root causes of their ADHD and could lead to problems in their personal lives and at school or work.
Finding a reliable diagnosis can be challenging because many scales of rating for ADHD are skewed toward male behaviors and symptoms. Women are also less likely to seek treatment if they aren't convinced they suffer from ADHD, or if they believe it will negatively impact their professional and personal relationships.
It's also crucial to raise your voice and ask for help from supervisors, colleagues, and teachers if you are suffering from ADHD symptoms that are interfering in your study or work. They'll likely be willing to provide accommodations so that you can be successful in school or at work.