If your child seems hyperactive--fidgety, impulsive, and inattentive--don't automatically assume that they have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Anxiety, depression, learning disorders, physical health, and many other conditions can cause symptoms that look like ADHD but aren't.
Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or play activities. Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly. Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (e.g., loses focus, side-tracked). Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
ADHD misdiagnosis stories are all too common. Particularly among adults, symptoms like rejection sensitivity, poor focus, and stress are diagnosed as depression, anxiety, and even bipolar disorder.
What can be mistaken for ADHD? ADHD symptoms may overlap with the signs of other conditions, leading to misdiagnosis. For example: Feeling distracted or having difficulty focusing can be a symptom of ADHD and symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Symptoms of ADHD can have some overlap with symptoms of bipolar disorder. With ADHD, a child or teen may have rapid or impulsive speech, physical restlessness, trouble focusing, irritability, and, sometimes, defiant or oppositional behavior.
There's no simple test to determine whether you or your child has ADHD, but your specialist can make an accurate diagnosis after a detailed assessment. The assessment may include: a physical examination, which can help rule out other possible causes for the symptoms. a series of interviews with you or your child.
Both anxiety and ADHD can cause people to tune out and get caught up in their emotions — just for different reasons. People with ADHD have trouble paying attention because they have trouble focusing. People with anxiety have trouble paying attention because they're distracted by worries and fears.
The unspecified ADHD category is used in situations in which the clinician chooses not to specify the reason that the criteria are not met for the ADHD or for a specific neurodevelopmental disorder and includes presentation in which there is insufficient information to make a more specific diagnosis.
The symptoms associated with ADHD can be viewed as dimensional markers of a spectrum of related disorders that have as part of their characteristics impairments of attention and impulsivity. The spectrum also accommodates the wide array of comorbid psychiatric disorders associated with ADHD.
People who are lazy typically don't make an effort to complete tasks at work, school, or home. ADD/ADHD people, however, may try really, really hard but still can't tackle what they want to accomplish. This can lead to frustration, low self-esteem, and feeling bad about your abilities.
Untreated ADHD in adults can lead to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. This is because ADHD symptoms can lead to focus, concentration, and impulsivity problems. When these problems are not managed effectively, they can lead to feelings of frustration, irritability, and low self-esteem.
Women with ADHD face the same feelings of being overwhelmed and exhausted as men with ADHD commonly feel. Psychological distress, feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and chronic stress are common. Often, women with ADHD feel that their lives are out of control or in chaos, and daily tasks may seem impossibly huge.
Similar to the literature, we found a strong relationship between the diagnosis of ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder, and nasal width and ear length. Moreover, the depth of the upper face was another measurement value that was strongly associated with the diagnosis of ADHD.
People with ADHD have an Interest-Based Nervous System. This means that normal motivating factors for getting work done (importance, rewards, consequences) aren't actually very effective for motivating the ADHD brain. Instead, they rely on what I call the 4 Cs of Motivation: Captivate, Create, Compete, Complete.
By Dr. David Velkoff. Ring of Fire ADD is a type of ADD characterized by abnormally increased activity in multiple areas of the brain, which in individuals on qEEG brain mapping scans can appear as over activity or overstimulation.
Adults with ADHD Inattentive presentation can seem quiet and shy when you look at them. Their symptoms may appear timid and they might often be left out in social gatherings. On top of that, they cannot seem to stay focused.
“Nobody has perfect memory… but for [people with ADHD], it's extreme. They feel like they're lost all the time,” Almagor said. He believes this is why people don't take ADHD seriously. “I think that's why some people don't respect the severity of what [a person with ADHD] can experience,” he said.
Although it is true that overdiagnosis means that some people without ADHD receive treatment, on the whole, people with ADHD are actually undertreated.
People with ADHD often have trouble managing their emotions. And they tend to feel emotions more intensely than other people. The result? For some, it can mean mood swings that leave the people around them wondering what caused such a quick change in attitude and behavior.