What Does ADHD Actually Look Like For Women?

I think it's really helpful to know what the symptoms of ADHD are and then that way if you've been thinking well maybe I have it you will be armed with some information to consult with a medical professional what's in the DSM and the DSM is the you have to read it because I always forget what it stands for it the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental health disorders isn't that lovely it's what professionals use to diagnose mental health issues which I already have an issue with because I choose to believe that my ADHD is a superpower granted there are some challenges but that's just kind of my mindset around it and I know not everybody agrees with me I want you to also you know keep in mind that I am NOT an expert my knowledge comes from you know reading just about everything that I can get my hands on talking to you know everybody that I know that has ADHD as well as professionals now the experts that I really do value that I read a lot from are and I think I mentioned this before so Ann Halliwell and John Ratey John Ratey also has a great book called spark that is all about exercise and brain health and it you know it really touches on ADHD and how you know what exercise does is it increases the dopamine on our brain and that's what's going on with us we're not making enough dopamine and I really like these guys and I like them because they both have ADHD and I think they're very positive about it I think them at how Allah talks about you know the superpower abilities of some of the symptoms of ADHD and then there's Russell Barkley who I trust him wait wait I can never get this right I totally trust him as far as anything to do especially with kids in ADHD and then there's a woman named teri Matlin and if you have the inattentive form of ADHD and we're gonna talk about that I think this is a great place to start as well with her and so what Russell Barkley has done is he developed nine criteria specifically for adult ADHD which i think is really useful you if you're trying to decide should I go further and have myself evaluated or should I not so I'm gonna pull cuz I'm gonna go through some lists a lot of lists now I'm gonna pull this up on my on my iPad let me tell you first so what he says is if you check off four of the first seven symptoms or six of the nine you're likely to have ADHD so consult a medical professional you easily get distracted by extraneous stimuli or irrelevant thought you make decisions impulsively and you know impulsive it has such a negative connotation but it can be as simple as you just make decisions really quickly you have difficulty stopping activities or behavior when you're they're engaging and of interest to you you start a project or task without reading or listening to directions carefully I am allergic to directions by the way I just feel my whisper that you've failed to follow through on promises or commitments you make to others you have trouble doing things in their proper order or sequence you drive much faster than others or if you don't drive you have difficulty engaging in leisure activities or doing fun things quietly you have difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or recreational activities you have difficulty organizing tasks and activities if you checked out four of the first seven symptoms or six of the nine you're likely to have ADHD so yeah consult a medical professional if you're discovering that that you know you just feel like there's something wrong this is the thing that everyone has times where they get distracted or they act impulsively or they lose their car keys or they can't remember why the hell they walked in the kitchen right and so what but um what the oh my god I forget the word is the neurotypical population will say is that oh no no that's just a disorder of modern life you know we just have too much things going on there's no such thing as ADHD well this is what you're looking for it's can't be something that just happens every once in a while okay number one you're looking for the number of traits that you have so the number of symptoms you're looking for the duration of time that you've had them you have to have had them for at least six months I'm going to talk more about when they need to kind of start presenting number three the intensity that you have these symptoms how often are you distracted how often do you find yourself working only to discover that it's now 2:00 a.m. and you started at 9:00 and you feel like it's like 10:00 or 11:00 the final part of ADHD you know as far as the whole puzzle is you have to have had these symptoms at least some of them as a child the DSM says that these symptoms must be present prior to the age of 12 Russell Barkley however says and I kind of noticed this about women he says that the symptoms have to be present from the time you're 16 just because you are not diagnosed as a child doesn't mean that you don't have ADHD just because you're having less of a problem with it today with these issues then you had when you were a child doesn't mean you don't have ADHD ask your parents or siblings what do they remember about you so I'm going to talk about what are the symptoms of ADHD what do they look like in real life and again remember every brain is wired differently so you made it all to relate to a lot of these you Mabel to relate to very few of them but we're all different and that's why it's so hard to diagnose ADHD okay so the first thing that I forgot to mention is when you are you know when you're asking you know could I have ADHD okay one of the symptoms is do you have did you have problems with transitions and by that I mean from grade school to junior high school from junior high school to high school this is the big one from high school to college do you have trouble getting starting that mus started on things do you move a lot are you constantly fidgeting do you do you find that you often have to reread a paragraph or an entire page because you forgot that you're reading because you start getting in your head and you're daydreaming or whatever are you chronically late no matter how much time you give do you struggle to memorize most everything do you have trouble putting together your thoughts when you write like organizing your thoughts it's not so much the writing but it's organizing your thoughts before you write do you lose track of time when you're interested in what you're doing get into this hyper focus mode are you disorganized or are you constantly I'm kind of OCD I think because my brain is so disorganized my surroundings have to be very organized or I can't think I really can't think are you attracted to products that help to organize you day planners calendars organizer apps post-it notes Trello Evernote but you find it difficult to use them consistently that is so me I buy everything but I'm still at that post-it notes everywhere and and and I do have notebooks but you know I never open them up I write in them but I never open them up I don't know where I'm gonna find anything are you a perfectionist do you talk really fast do people have trouble finding following your train of thought are you always trying to change something your house your job paint colors on the walls placement of furniture like you really you like change you always feel like you need to move forward do you have a hard time relaxing are you excessively impatient do you often get excited by a new idea project and then lose interest and not follow through more than most people do you hate waiting in line are you incapable of reading directions do you have a temper but just as quickly as you lose it you're fine again so you walk back in 15 minutes later and everybody's mad at you and you're like what's the big deal I can't remember what I was upset about do you have trouble keeping secrets do you find it really difficult to follow lists although heaven knows you constantly try you start working on a project and suddenly find yourself an hour later in a completely different room working on something that was not planned do you have a hard time reading a book all the way through have you been at fault in four or more car accidents I've had a number not big ones but I've had a number of car accidents are you bad with money do you let the bank balance your checkbook I think I told you about that last time I had two checkbooks and I just kind of waited until one was a mess and then I would use the other one and I would just go back and forward umm do you find it difficult to keep an updated contact list like Christmas cards oh my god do you work best in short spurts do you find you often get depressed after a success I call this post final depression do you feel like you're not living up to your full potential you've never done enough and I totally have this the imposter complex and I've really over the years thought about why why is that and I think part of it is I heard next for talking about this and share her comment was well you can't remember you can't remember all the successes you've had if they're not like sitting right in front of you right um but I think we're all so high stimulation people and we realized that we only have one life and we have so many interests and there's so much we want to do and times passing and I just find that so stressful you know this and then the idea that our outside doesn't match our inside is it difficult for you to pay attention when someone has trouble getting to the point yeah and that the horrifying thing is I have trouble getting to the point and so I'm irritated with myself when I hear myself talk at times are you a chronic researcher are you always looking for more options better ways of doing things to small talk for you do you find nature calming do you tune out do you space out a lot do you go into your own fantasy world more than most people do you feel like it's hard for you to make yourself understood do you have a hard time tolerating frustration are you a big worrier do you overthink everything were you a daydreamer in school and have you ever been described as needy even if you're easily distracted are there times where you're so focused it's crazy you're hyper focused number two are you a lifelong learner and just endlessly inquisitive there's so much that you're interested in and when you're interested you're really interested are you good in a crisis do you notice what others don't you know you can make really quick decisions everyone else is falling apart but you're totally in control you tend to approach problems intuitively I was called this living my life through Braille I sort of feel like I feel my way through Braille using my intuition because McKenna was trust my brain do you love change are you always noticing and making connections are you an explorer are you always discovering are enthusiastic even when you're frustrated even when you're down there's just this little seed in there it's like you know what I'm just gonna get up again and I'm gonna go for it you're tenacious um are you a person of high integrity above all kinds of people and even though we can be flaky we can forget about appointments we can you know think we put something on our calendar and we don't I just find people with ADHD to have so much integrity and authenticity you know they mess up they're the ones who just admit that they messed up are you much more effective when you're your own boss do you have trouble assessing the impact you have on others are you a hard worker when it's your idea it has to be your idea do you know that you're a lot smarter than you're often able to demonstrate are you drawn to high stimulation people careers and activities you know careers like firemen military journalists I mean if you imagine being a journalist in a war zone every time I look at those guys well you know Lisa Ling she's got ADHD air traffic controllers ER doctors EMTs police officers public defenders chefs politicians nurses are you in the trades so what we need is we need to be able to move and we need variety to be happy in a career um are you driven okay this was huge for me I never thought of being driven as being hyperactive I am incredibly driven and driven this is a form of hyperactivity do you find you need to exercise for our inattentive sisters sometimes they actually hate exercise but they know they feel better when they do it are you an entrepreneur if you're an entrepreneur there's a for toast four to six times higher likelihood oh my god it's 115 there's a four to six times higher likelihood that you have ADHD you're gonna love this one Mandy are you an idea machine even scientists now agree that one of our biggest strengths is ideation are you exceptionally intuitive you know there's thing called interpersonal intuition which that's when I really said okay this ADHD thing I've got to own it and interpersonal intuition is when you can walk into a room people don't even need to say anything and you know what's going on are you a maverick is being original important to you are you more creative or imaginative than most people are you usually eager to try something new do you love to travel do you get the gist of things more quickly than most people you kind of just put these disparate things together and know without listening to the whole thing what someone's trying to say do you laugh a lot okay and this is the big one do you look younger than your age and our three subtypes of ADHD hyperactive-impulsive inattentive combined type which is the type that you know you have all of these subtypes have symptoms in common what they have in common is you're motivated by interest not importance you're easily distracted and you have trouble paying attention to detail that you don't care about so I hope that gives you kind of a overview I guess for lack of a better word of what the symptoms of ADHD can and do look like for women if you think I'd miss something I would love for you to pop into the comments or you know create a separate post maybe that's what we need to do because this is probably gonna be quite long you know in in many ways I think women get the brunt of the responsibilities once they become mothers right they are coordinating they're organizing they're you know taking care of all the administrative details you know the paperwork for the schools and this is often when a DD kind of pops up in women's lives and they go off the rails where all of a sudden they realize oh my god I am NOT coping at all so these are some of the symptoms that I have been able to come up with in my life but I've also seen in other women and I would love to know what you think do you agree are there some symptoms that I've missed I would love to hear about them I want to give you kind of a baseline where you can start okay anyway thank you everybody and have a great day

Channel: Tracy Otsuka

Views: 44,396

Keywords: adhd, adhd in adults, types of adhd, add in children, adhd in kids, add adhd, tracy otsuka, coretography, adhd for smart ass women, adhd in women, adhd in older women, adhd in smart women

Id: WPOiGX4fHg8

Length: 15min 25sec (925 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 24 2019