What is ADHD?
- ADHD, or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is a form of neurodivergence. Neurodivergent brains are brain types that are developed differently from what is perceived as the standard (or neurotypical brains). Neurodiversity is the view that brain differences are normal and important for humankind. In this way, it is like biodiversity as a range of neurotypes (types of neurology/brains), like the variety of ecosystems, is necessary for human development and survival.
- Challenges with having a different type of brain emerge as we try to navigate a world that’s catering for neurotypical brains. By learning about our ADHD and ways we can cope, we are not trying to become more neurotypical but instead find the most helpful ways to thrive as adult ADHDers.
- ADHD is characterised by executive functioning differences. Executive functioning is the brain’s self-management system – it has often been compared to air traffic control, monitoring lots of different elements of our environments, juggling many different tasks, and helping to regulate our emotions. Executive functioning differences do not mean there’s something wrong with people who have ADHD, or that they are in any way less than because of having ADHD. It simply means their brains are wired differently.
- Executive functioning differences in ADHD have many strengths – adults with ADHD are often creative, compassionate, funny, flexible and adaptive to change, results-oriented, innovative, thrive on new ideas, resilient, optimistic, resourceful, and enthusiastic. They are particularly sensitive to other people’s needs.
- ADHD brains have six ways their executive functioning is different – people who have ADHD will experience these in different ways (some might experience them all, or just a few, and they can overlap):
- Organising, prioritising, and activating for tasks: Procrastinating or finding it challenging to get started; needing a very immediate deadline or consequences to begin the task; finding it difficult to prioritise tasks when planning or creating a to-do list; experiencing time blindness (an altered sense of how time passes and how long it takes to complete a task).
- Focusing, sustaining, and shifting attention: Finding it difficult to selectively focus and tune out other aspects of the environment; distractibility or challenges screening out distractions of thoughts, background noises, or elements in the environment; hyperfocusing on a task.
- Regulating alertness, sustaining effort, and processing speed: Feeling chronically or excessively drowsy and finding it difficult to stay alert unless completing a stimulating task; being unable to settle at night, even when feeling very tired and wanting to fall asleep (up to 80% of adult ADHDers experience difficulties with their sleep!); an impacted processing speed with reading or writing (often adults who have ADHD can complete very complex tasks with ease while simpler ones can feel more challenging).
- Managing frustration and modulating emotion: Having a short fuse or low threshold for irritability; a sense that emotion floods the mind and takes up all available space; being perceived as ‘overly sensitive’; a strong sensitivity to criticism or rejection.
- Utilising working memory and accessing recall: Difficulties retrieving information from long-term memories; finding it hard to juggle current information and connecting it to past memories; fear of losing an idea or a train of thought; finding it hard to hold onto or remember fresh and new information.
- Monitoring and self-regulating action: Hyperactivity and impulsivity; acting without thinking; feeling chronically restless or hyperactive and finding it hard to slow down; finding it hard to monitor or be aware of the context of actions and key features in the environment.
- To diagnose ADHD, clinicians consider how traits of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are present in the person’s life, and how they impact them.
- Current estimates suggest that 6-7% of adults have ADHD worldwide, including adults who are diagnosed with ADHD and those who have ADHD that don’t reach the threshold for diagnosis.
- Research also suggests that the gender distribution for ADHD in adulthood is 1:1 in cisgender men and cisgender women. There is very little research on the prevalence rates in transgender and non-binary people but there is increasing recognition of the intersectionality between neurodivergence and gender diversity, meaning that there tends to be higher rates of neurodivergent people, as opposed to neurotypical people, who are also transgender or non-binary.
