One of the most common symptoms of ADHD Masking is hiding hyperactivity through calmness. People with ADHD might try to sit still and be calm even if they are feeling restless and energetic. This is because they do not want to be seen as disruptive or disorderly.
Some people mask unknowingly, while others are aware of it. This ability to adapt socially is usually learned from childhood, which can complicate or delay proper diagnosis. Research also suggests that women with ADHD are less likely to be diagnosed than men due to these compensatory mechanisms and masking behaviors.
ADHD masking is a way of hiding symptoms through learned behaviors that can be healthy or unhealthy. Many people with ADHD break social rules through their behaviors and may face shame and ridicule. As a result, they develop coping strategies to hide parts of themselves.
A person can actively and intentionally mask, or it can be a subconscious behavior. If someone has become adept at masking, those they surround themselves with may never notice or know that one has an ADHD diagnosis.
There are countless ways in which ADHD can be expressed and explained, so some people may mask some symptoms but not others. That being said, there are some more common behaviors frequently associated with impression management. What is this? One such example is impulsive behavior.
Put simply; masking is intentionally shifting your behavior to hide your differences. For example, a woman with ADHD might smile and nod during a conversation even though she tuned out long ago, or she may secretly work late into the night to overcompensate for not staying on task for a deadline.
Many adults with ADHD use coping strategies that help them hide their symptoms. This practice is known as ADHD masking and is especially common in women with ADHD. One type of ADHD masking — known as mirroring — involves intentionally or unintentionally mimicking the speech, movements, or behaviors of someone else.
According to reports, a lot of people with ADHD often experience zoning or spacing out multiple times during the day. And sometimes, these instances affect how we function in our daily lives, especially when our focus is essential to the task at hand.
The brain of someone with ADHD might not be able to regulate pain-like activity, which would explain why rejection is so much more troubling and painful to someone with RSD.
Signs of Masking
If you notice that you tend to look to others before deciding what to do in various situations, you might be masking by mimicking their behavior. If you do not feel like these choices come naturally to you, and you instead try to copy what you see, you might be masking your social behavior.
Masking may involve suppressing certain behaviours we find soothing but that others think are 'weird', such as stimming or intense interests. It can also mean mimicking the behaviour of those around us, such as copying non-verbal behaviours, and developing complex social scripts to get by in social situations.
These data suggest that ear length and nose wing width may be related to the neurodevelopmental disorder group. Similar to the literature, we found a strong relationship between the diagnosis of ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder, and nasal width and ear length.
Inadvertently these are all examples of body doubling,” says Brooke Schnittman, an ADHD coach. Body doubling works when you work alongside another person, each doing your tasks, but using each other's company as motivation to stay focused and on-task.
An ADHD diagnosis increases the risk of trauma exposure for several key reasons. Children with ADHD alone are at a heightened risk for factors that are strongly linked to trauma, including: Interpersonal and self-regulatory problems. Substance abuse.
One of the many ADHD traits that gets misread as a sign of rudeness is the habit of interrupting people in conversations, usually with a thought that seems completely unrelated to the topic. When someone gets cut off, they often think it means you weren't really listening or you don't care what they have to say.
Differences in emotions in people with ADHD can lead to 'shutdowns', where someone is so overwhelmed with emotions that they space out, may find it hard to speak or move and may struggle to articulate what they are feeling until they can process their emotions.
People with ADHD are often more externally oriented, seeking stimulation in their environments. This pursuit of stimulation can result in being disconnected, dismissive, and unaware of important internal cues that are essential in healthy functioning.
ADHD and Anxiety Disorders
This is often accompanied by feelings of restlessness, being "keyed up" or constantly on edge, problems with concentration (or mind going blank), sleep disturbances, muscle tension, irritability, fatigue, and feeling overwhelmed.
In response to trauma, a child's developing brain can become programmed to “look out” for behaviour, activities or events that they perceive as threatening. This “hyper-vigilance” can often mimic hyperactivity and distractibility associated with ADHD.
Being repeatedly misunderstood causes people with ADHD to deeply misunderstand themselves and their situations. Feeling deficient and mistrusting yourself from an early age makes it extraordinarily difficult to properly evaluate yourself as an adult. There is a continual internal vacillation.
Adults with ADHD may find it difficult to focus and prioritize, leading to missed deadlines and forgotten meetings or social plans. The inability to control impulses can range from impatience waiting in line or driving in traffic to mood swings and outbursts of anger. Adult ADHD symptoms may include: Impulsiveness.