ADHD in Girls: Recognizing Key Symptoms feeling anxious or sad. exhibiting silliness or apparent ditziness. acting shy or inattentive. trouble maintaining friendships.
In addition to being easily distracted, people with inattentive type ADHD often have difficulty connecting and usually have communication problems with others. Many times this difficulty with communicating can even appear as a shyness, making others believe them to be introverted.
Sometimes, individuals with ADHD Inattentive Type will be mischaracterized as shy or withdrawn. But like the more familiar ADHD, this condition can be diagnosed and treated effectively.
The signs of ADHD in girls are more likely to look like inattention than hyperactivity. Girls with ADHD often don't fit the stereotype of excessive energy. Instead, they have a hard time paying attention, staying organized, and managing their time. People might mistake girls with ADHD for just being spacey or lazy.
Interestingly, girls with untreated ADHD may be more likely to blame and judge themselves for these problems, leading to a higher risk for low self-esteem than boys who have ADHD. They may also be more likely to have problems with substance abuse, eating disorders, and anxiety.
A girl with ADHD may have impulsivity and be hyper-talkative. She may be verbally impulsive, interrupt others, talk excessively, or change topics repeatedly during conversations. She might even blurt out words without thinking about their impact on others. Girls with ADHD can also be overly sensitive.
The main signs of hyperactivity and impulsiveness are: being unable to sit still, especially in calm or quiet surroundings. constantly fidgeting. being unable to concentrate on tasks.
Inattentive ADHD Explained
They are easily distracted by external stimuli, and often lose things. They may leave projects unfinished and appear not to listen when you speak. These are all symptoms of Inattentive-Type ADHD; they are not personal defects.
People with ADHD tend to talk — a lot. We talk because we're excited or nervous, or because we just want to be a part of the conversation. Sometimes we talk simply to fill the silence because silence is hard for us.
Mood swings are common in people with ADHD. People with this disorder can be hypersensitive, too. That means sensations, like touch, that may feel normal to another person can feel too intense for someone with ADHD.
It is not uncommon for people with ADHD to have a co-occurring anxiety condition, including social anxiety. Social anxiety is characterized by an intense fear of social situations. Learning the differences between the two conditions is important in the management and treatment of both.
Female children with ADHD often try to join a group, talk a lot but can hardly understand how her peers feel about what they are doing. They have difficulty connecting socially with others and when frustration gets in, they become impulsive and resort to verbal aggressiveness.
In adults, the main features of ADHD may include difficulty paying attention, impulsiveness and restlessness. Symptoms can range from mild to severe. Many adults with ADHD aren't aware they have it — they just know that everyday tasks can be a challenge.
While extroverted traits like these are part of the ADHD experience for some people, they're not everyone's experience. In fact, many people with ADHD identify with introverted traits. Whether that's needing time alone to recharge, spending lots of time in their own head or feeling overwhelmed by external stimuli.
The problem: The social maturity of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) may be a few years behind that of their peers. In addition, they have difficulty reading verbal and physical social cues, misinterpreting remarks, or not getting jokes or games.
ADHD symptoms start before age 12, and in some children, they're noticeable as early as 3 years of age. ADHD symptoms can be mild, moderate or severe, and they may continue into adulthood. ADHD occurs more often in males than in females, and behaviors can be different in boys and girls.
Similar to the hyperactive symptoms, impulsive symptoms are typically seen by the time a child is four years old and increase during the next three to four years to peak in severity when the child is seven to eight years of age.
ADHD symptoms
Inattentive only: The person has difficulty paying attention but does not tend to be disruptive. Hyperactive and impulsive: A person's hyperactive and impulsive behavior can cause disruptions. Combined inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive: The person has all the above symptoms.
With girls, inattentive ADHD is the most common.
Research indicates that girls and women, compared to boys and men, are consistently under-identified and underdiagnosed for ADHD using these diagnostic criteria2.
Most people with ADHD have a very low frustration tolerance. They can be overly emotional about the stressors they experience. They don't have a barrier that allows them to set aside uncomfortable emotions, and they often become completely flooded by a feeling, making it unbearable.