ADHD in Women
March 2, 2022 • AddInstitute •Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neurodevelopmental disorder, can pose problems with attention management, executive function, and working memory, among other things.
When it comes to treating ADHD, women between the ages of 24-36 are the fastest-growing demographic, and their usage of ADHD medication has climbed by 85 percent in the previous five years.
Men and children are more typically connected with ADHD; however, it affects over 4% of adult women as well. Due to a lack of scientific information, resources, or public awareness, women encounter particular negative challenges. Many women with ADHD are afraid to speak up about how they feel isolated, overwhelmed, and misread because of the stigmatization of their condition.
Some of the symptoms you may find can be categorized into the three subtypes of ADHD:
Hyperactive/Impulsive Subtype: impatience, difficulty sitting still, excessively talkative and frequently interrupting in conversation, impulsive, restless
Inattentive Subtype: short attention span, forgetfulness, distractibility, daydreaming, difficulty following directions, difficulty concentrating, regularly making careless mistakes, often losing necessary items, problems with organization
Combined Subtype: This subtype is a combination of both hyperactive and inattentive.
In women, symptoms of ADHD can sometimes look similar to symptoms of anxiety and depression, such as feeling overwhelmed or a lack of motivation. The prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders in women with ADHD are similar to those in males with ADHD, suggesting that dysphoria, severe depression, and anxiety disorders are common in this population.
Female ADHD sufferers report poorer self-esteem and higher levels of psychological suffering than their male counterparts. Instead of employing task-oriented coping strategies such as time management, women with ADHD exhibit higher rates of depressive symptoms, higher levels of stress and anxiety, a high dependence on external influence, poorer self-esteem, and a high dependence on emotion-focused strategies such as self-protective mechanisms to manage stress.
When a person is going through a substantial life change, such as the transition to college or starting a new job, these symptoms may be more prominent. Women with ADHD are underdiagnosed at a rate of 50-75% since it manifests itself differently in terms of both physiological and social aspects compared to men. Inattentive ADHD symptoms are often less intrusive and conspicuous than hyperactive ADHD symptoms.
The severity of ADHD symptoms can change throughout the month for many women and girls who are affected by it, and this fluctuation is inherently connected to their menstrual cycles.
Estrogen levels fluctuate considerably during adolescence, pregnancy, and menopause, and these variations have been demonstrated to influence a woman’s ADHD symptoms significantly. Research thus far has yielded inconsistent outcomes, however. The hormones linked with menstruation most likely play a role in ADHD symptoms, but further study is needed.
As a result of their ADHD, women may participate in “high-risk” activities, such as consuming alcohol or ingesting cannabis, as a kind of self-medicating. These may be in an attempt to hide their ADHD symptoms or to deal with the mental distress they might bring.