Better safe than sorry, according to medical thinking. If you take medications to help manage your ADHD symptoms and you decide you want to start a family, talk with your doctor about preparing for pregnancy and her recommendations for you. To learn more, visit ADHD Medication and Pregnancy.
ADHD runs in families. Anywhere from one-third to one-half of parents with ADHD will have a child with the disorder. There are genetic characteristics that seem to be passed down. If a parent has ADHD, a child has more than a 50% chance of having it.
Having ADHD doesn't make you a bad mother! On the contrary, having ADHD gives you the ability to empathize with your children, come up with creative solutions for problems, and create a loving, nurturing and exciting home for you and your family. Learn to appreciate the gifts and minimize the weaknesses of ADHD.
The difficulties that parents with ADHD symptoms appear to have are not in their affective ties or displays of warmth but in their ability to organize the home environment, attend closely to their children's behavior, and respond thoughtfully and consistently to their children.
Thayer's study shows that the ADHD group of children had larger and more frequent variations. Fathers with ADHD will pass this code discrepancy to offspring. Barkley explains that the heritability of ADHD runs around 80 percent. Genetics account for 80 percent of the components that define ADHD.
ADHD tends to run in families and, in most cases, it's thought the genes you inherit from your parents are a significant factor in developing the condition. Research shows that parents and siblings of someone with ADHD are more likely to have ADHD themselves.
Greatest heredity from mother
- 40 percent of these boys are themselves diagnosed with the condition, says Solberg. The greatest inheritance was from the mother to the children.
By having ADHD, moms experience the telltale ADHD and executive function symptoms that show up as difficulties regulating attention, emotion, energy, and effort. Because we are women, we also experience gendered pressure/judgment about our functioning (Solden & Frank, 2019).
Dr. Littman says that's part of the unique set of issues women with ADHD face around self-doubt, shame, and self-esteem. “Mothers with ADHD are always questioning their own adequacy. As a result, they feel guilty all the time that they're not doing a good enough job with their child,” she explains.
Parenting with ADHD can be overwhelming. If you're not treated, you might not have the organizational skills to keep up with your kids' schedules. You might also find it stressful to manage your child's behavior. It's more common for women to learn they have ADHD in adulthood.
Parenting style is a risk factor that influences the emergence of ADHD in children, which can worsen the condition and lead to other secondary behavioral problems (2).
The exposure to stressful life events, and—more specifically—Childhood Trauma, has been shown to predict ADHD onset as well as persistence of the disorder into adulthood (Biederman et al. 1995; Friedrichs et al.
Studies show that if you have ADHD, your children have about a 35% chance of acquiring it; if a child has it, there is a 50% likelihood that one of his or her parents does as well.
Dramatic drops in estrogen increase ADHD symptoms. However, in the first trimester, there is a dramatic increase in estrogen and then levels out to a steady increase in the second and third trimester, which can lessen your ADHD symptoms. Some women even report almost no symptoms of ADHD while pregnant.
Partners diagnosed with ADHD share many of the same frustrations as their non-ADHD counterparts. They feel misunderstood and unloved. They get angry when their partners criticize them a lot. They worry when their relationship breaks down because of their disorganization and distractibility.
For many people affected by ADHD, key symptoms like inattention, forgetfulness, and disorganization negatively affect their relationships. The partners without ADHD can misinterpret their partners' intentions, resulting in increased frustration and resentment.
Most new parents suffer from symptoms that could fall under the general guidelines for a diagnosis of ADHD: lack of focus on directions, forgetfulness, disorganization, losing important items and a general sense of foggy thinking. Simply adding a fully dependent human being to your busy schedule can do some of that.
People with ADHD tend to work better in places that are structured. An example of this is a classroom with a schedule written on the board and designated activity areas. This kind of environment helps children with ADHD stay on task. It also provides them with visual cues to know what to expect next.
While living with ADHD can be challenging, treatment and lifestyle changes can help manage difficult symptoms for overall well-being.
While the exact causes of ADHD have not been identified, genetic studies show there is a strong hereditary component, with an up to a 91 percent likelihood of passing the disorder to your children.
What is the cause or basis of ADHD? It is an impulse disorder with genetic components that results from imbalances of neurotransmitters.
Barkley, PhD. “Children diagnosed with ADHD are not likely to grow out of it. And while some children may recover fully from their disorder by age 21 or 27, the full disorder or at least significant symptoms and impairment persist in 50-86 percent of cases diagnosed in childhood.