About ADHD
Are all ADHD the same?
The reason that many people with ADHD forget, interrupt, get distracted, etc. is because those are the symptoms that classify them as being ADHD. If they didn’t have those symptoms they wouldn’t be named “ADHD. But you need only have some of the symptoms on the symptoms list to be classified as ADHD. So this means that ADHD really does come in all sorts of combinations. I run into people who have “overwhelm” as the most important part of their ADHD, others who have any (but usually not all) of these symptoms, as well: distraction, hyperactivity, need for stimulation, defensiveness, lack of brakes, inability to read cues, anxiety, depression, etc. I also have clients who have these characteristics (that are rarely, if ever, discussed, namely: empathetic, sad, creative, brilliant, confused, loving, proud, willing to try against all odds, successful….you simply cannot generalize in a way that covers every person with ADHD. We are all individuals- – ADHD or not – and deserve to be treated as such.
Activation:
Organizing tasks and materials, estimating time, prioritizing tasks, and getting started on work tasks, chronic difficulty with excessive procrastination. Often puts off getting started on a task, even a task they recognize as very important to them, until the very last minute. It is as though they cannot get themselves started until the point where they perceive the task as an acute emergency.
Focus:
Focusing, sustaining focus, shifting focus to task, some describe their difficulty in sustaining focus as similar to trying to listen to the car radio when you drive too far away from the station and the signal begins fading in and out. You get some of it, and you get some of it. They say they are distracted easily, not only by things that are going on around them, but also by thoughts in their own minds. In addition, focus on reading poses difficulty for many. Words are generally understood as they are read, but often have to be read over and over again in order for the meaning to be fully grasped and remembered.
Effort:
Regulating alertness, sustaining effort, and processing speed. Many with ADHD report they can perform short-term projects well, but have much more difficulty with sustained effort over longer period of time. They also find it difficult to complete tasks on time, especially when required to do expository writing.
Memory:
Utilizing working memory and accessing recall. Very often, people with ADHD will report that they have adequate or exceptional memory for things that happened long ago, but great difficulty in being able to remember where they just put something, what someone just said to them, or what they were about to say. They may describe difficulty holding one or several things “on line” while attending to other tasks. In addition, persons with ADHD often complain that they cannot pull out of memory information they have learned when they need it.
Action:
Monitoring and regulating self-action. Many persons with ADHD, even those without problems of hyperactive behavior, report chronic problems in regulating their actions. They often are too impulsive in what they say or do, and in the way they think, jumping too quickly to inaccurate conclusions. Persons with ADHD also report problems in monitoring the context in which they are interacting. They fail to notice when other people are puzzled, or hurt or annoyed by what they have just said or done and thus fail to modify their behavior in response to specific circumstances. Often they also report chronic difficulty in regulating the pace of their actions, in slowing self and/or speeding up as needed for specific tasks.
Children with ADHD tend to exhibit distractedness, impulsivity, fidgeting, and restlessness and commonly manifest limb motions such at jiggling their feet, tapping their fingers, squirming in their seats, and constantly changing their body positions, chilidren with ADHD may run and climb excessively or have difficulty staying or engaging quietly in leisure activities.
As children with ADHD mature, the manifestations of their symptoms change. During middle childhood to high school students, ADHD symptoms and the academic consequences tend to escalate. As classroom demands require sustained attention to tasks, children and adolescence with ADHD begin to display more symptoms of ADHD where oppositional defiant disorder often develops into conduct disorder.