What's The Fuss About ADHD Symptoms For Women?
ADHD Symptoms For Women
Women suffering from ADHD experience emotional instability and sensitivity to rejection. signs of adhd in women might also experience insomnia or poor quality sleep, which may cause symptoms to get worse.
Girls and women often hide their ADHD symptoms better than men, using coping strategies to meet social expectations and norms. This can lead to misdiagnosis or delay in treatment.
1. Difficulty Focusing
Concentration is the biggest issue for many women suffering from ADHD. This neurodevelopmental disorder can make it difficult to concentrate at school or during work meetings, or when reading and listening to others talk. It can be difficult to complete daily tasks like keeping track of appointments or taking medications.
Difficulty focusing is one of the most common adhd symptoms for girls and women, regardless of their gender identity or whether they have hyperactive/impulsive or inattentive ADHD. Women with the inattentive form of the disorder might be struggling to organize their home or their work desk and find it difficult to prioritize tasks, according to CHADD. These issues can cause them to miss appointments, arrive in the wrong place at the right time or fail to follow through on their job responsibilities. They can make them feel ashamed of themselves and blame themselves for their shortcomings believing they are lazy or forgetful.
Inattentive ADHD can lead to poor performance at school or at work and can lead to the accumulation of debt. They are often caused by stress or other mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety, which often co-occur with ADHD in women, according to CHADD.
Teachers and parents might be biased towards boys and men, causing women and girls to be misdiagnosed. They may not be able to express their ADHD symptoms as well, especially the hyperactive/impulsive ones, and may have difficulty finding treatment that works for them.
Hormonal changes can also exacerbate symptoms in adult women with ADHD. For instance, they could be more apparent during menstrual cycles or during perimenopausal transition, the period leading up to menopause--when estrogen levels dip and cause emotional problems, including mood swings and anger.
Adults with ADHD may benefit from stimulant medication to improve their focus however, it cannot cure the condition. Other strategies such as mindfulness training, lifestyle changes and cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) can help in focusing and organization. Some schools and workplaces offer accommodations to help with these issues as well.
2. Forgetting Things
Forgetfulness can make managing daily tasks and responsibilities difficult. You may have difficulty remembering important information about people or events particularly when they occur in a noisy or busy environment. You may also find that you are often late for appointments or run late to work or school. Women with ADHD tend to forget to pay bills or reply to emails, which can lead to financial stress and an impression of urgency. You may have difficulty working in a crowded or loud office and often get lost in conversations, causing the other person feeling unimportant or misunderstood.
Many girls and women who suffer from ADHD also struggle to maintain friendships. They also run the risk of being pushed into inappropriate sexual behaviour or becoming victims of violence from intimate partners. This is due to the fact that they have a difficult to manage their emotions and are more likely to be overwhelmed. They might also have a problem with their self-esteem and they might view their problems as something that is a "personal flaw" rather than realizing that their behavior may be linked to their ADHD symptoms.
Due to gender biases Due to gender bias, girls and women suffering from ADHD are not diagnosed because their symptoms are more subtle than those of males and boys. They may be more likely to camouflage their symptoms with mood or anxiety issues, which can result in being misdiagnosed or incorrectly treated.
ADHD symptoms can vary depending on hormone fluctuations. This is particularly evident during puberty, as hormone levels decrease and progesterone levels increase. This can lead to a greater variance in symptoms from day to day which can make it harder to diagnose and manage ADHD correctly.
Being diagnosed and receiving treatment can help you learn how to manage your ADHD symptoms. You can also try lifestyle changes, for example, eating a well-balanced diet and avoiding caffeine, sugar and other stimulants that may cause symptoms to worsen. Meditation and mindfulness techniques can help calm your mind and reduce restlessness and impulsiveness. They also aid in improving the regulation of emotions. Talking to a mental health professional could be beneficial, as they can suggest possible adjustments at school or at work that can help you manage your ADHD symptoms better.
3. Disruptive Behavior
Women with ADHD are more sluggish than hyperactive or impulsive symptoms. This could be due to the fact that the brains of girls and women differ from those of boys and men, or it could have to do with the amount of activity is taking place in the regions of the brain responsible for managing disruptive and impulsive behavior.
It can be challenging for doctors to recognize ADHD in women. Many women develop coping mechanisms to disguise their symptoms. Some are healthy, but others are not sustainable and can lead to other health issues. For example some women resort to drinking or using drugs to cope with their symptoms. They might also develop depression or suffer from mental health issues like anxiety. These unhealthy coping strategies can make it harder for someone to notice that they have a problem and delay a proper diagnosis.
Disruptive behavior is one of the most common symptom of adhd for women. It can affect their work or school performance, as well as their relationships. These include being incapable of staying focused on a particular task, forgetting important tasks or events, and easily getting distracted by the environment or their thoughts. They might fidget or tap their hands or feet or squirm in their seat. They can also yell or speak loudly and may interrupt.
Women who have the most inattentional subtype of adhd can have trouble concentrating on lectures or conversations; keeping up with reading, writing or schoolwork; following instructions at school or at work; and juggling their daily chores. They might be unorganized and forgetful. They may also be messy. It is often difficult for them to follow through with commitments or tasks. They are more susceptible to misplacing or losing things like keys, wallets, and eyeglasses.
Having the predominantly hyperactive/impulsive type of adhd can disrupt work or school, cause social problems, and create relationship challenges. This type of disorder can cause trouble at work, at home, and at schools, and can cause feelings of restlessness, boredom, and frustration. They are unable to wait for their turn whether at school, at work, or home. They are also known to interrupt others frequently. They have a tendency to act recklessly and are not able to control their behavior.
4. Anxiety
Women and girls with ADHD can have a harder to manage their symptoms than males and females. This is due in part to the expectations of society that require women and mothers be the primary caregivers for their children and household. If a woman suffering from ADHD struggles to fulfill her responsibilities, she could feel anxious and stressed which can lead to low self-esteem. This makes it harder to seek treatment.
Women who suffer from ADHD are not often diagnosed as easily as men or boys because their symptoms don't appear as obvious. They may present with primarily inattentive symptoms, which do not have the same outward appearance as hyperactive/impulsive ADHD symptoms, making them less likely to receive a referral for treatment from teachers and parents. In addition they are more likely to develop strategies for coping to disguise their ADHD symptoms, including frequent fidgeting and forgetfulness which could be misinterpreted as symptoms of anxiety disorders.
The symptoms of ADHD may also change throughout a woman's lifetime. For instance, during times of hormonal changes, like menstruation or pregnancy, women may find her ADHD symptoms to become more severe. This can lead to being dismissed or misinterpreted as an overly emotional woman, which adds to her feeling of anger.
This article is based on research into how ADHD affects different people based on their gender. Verywell Health recognizes that sex is a matter of biology: chromosomal makeup hormones, hormones, and anatomical structure, while gender is an internal sense of the person you are as a male, a woman, or if nonbinary, a person. This distinction is important because it helps us to better understand how and why ADHD can manifest differently in men and women. In this article, we will refer to males and people who were assigned male at birth as boys and men. We also refer to females and those who were assigned female at conception as girls and women. This is in line with the way many research studies employ this terminology. To learn more, read Verywell Health's guide on gender and sexuality.