ADHD in Adults?
Yes. Kids with ADHD tend not to outgrow it. The symptoms evolve but the underlying factors do not. In fact, ADHD is as heritable as height, so a kid diagnosed with ADHD is likely to have at least one very close relative with the same condition – which is why many of us start our road to diagnosis soon after our offspring, when we realize many of the items on the questionnaire we’ve been asked to fill out sound perfectly normal!
In adults, the challenges tend to present in ways that others might interpret as lack of commitment, or even lack of intellect:
- Disorganization at home and in the workplace – with bills paid late, meetings missed, notes lost, etc.
- Recklessness – with more traffic accidents, broken bones, affairs, etc.
- Poor listening skills – leading to misunderstandings, forgotten appointments, difficulty following spoken directions, partner feeling ignored, etc.
- Distractibility – contributing to relationship challenges and under-performance at work, such as forgotten deadlines, lost focus, mislaid items,
- Difficulty relaxing – no longer hyperactive, but always on edge, tense, moving about, or fiddling with something
- Procrastination – difficulty getting started on a task unless it is novel, interesting, challenging or (has become) urgent
- Problems prioritizing – difficulty distilling the essence of a lengthy document, or breaking down a task into key steps
- Perennial lateness – resulting from distraction before leaving, or en route, and inherent “time blindness”
- Emotional volatility – reacting with great intensity to seemingly minor things, and calming down more quickly than those impacted by the outburst