Women worldwide are often called out for not behaving “effeminate enough”. As a result, we end up trying, suppressing and hiding our emotions—over-explaining ourselves, justifying our needs and being highly apologetic for even having basic human needs.
Existing as a woman is living under thousands of microscopic lenses. You can call it a rant. But I will call it a fact.
Now wait, I know you are here as your doc, close friend, or the internet suggested that you might have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). And this news can be a relief or a new reason for grief for you.
But don’t worry, most women often find out about ADHD when they have passed their preteen or teen years.
And probably as you have gone through marital disasters, financial roller coasters, unstable jobs and too much accumulation of trauma before finding the real culprit of making them misfit for our cringed society is “ADHD”.
What Is ADHD?
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder recognised by symptoms such as inattentiveness, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. It is a brain disorder. The areas in the brain that control attention, concentration and distractibility don’t work completely, partially or when triggered for the person diagnosed with ADHD.
And this brain disorder can often lead the person affected to behave in a manner that is frowned upon socially, especially for women. So, women under-report their symptoms of ADHD.
They do so by masking their symptoms to appear more acceptable and likeable. But as the responsibilities increase, symptoms of ADHD become very hard to be masked or hide. And the woman either tries to self-harm or accept themselves.
Why Don’t Girls Get Diagnosed With ADHD?
As per reports, boys with ADHD are three times more likely to get diagnosed than girls with ADHD. And 75% of the time, women never get diagnosed.
Everybody believes they are just acting up, or are just not good women, or were not disciplined not enough. And they have believed the same for ages because of the symptoms of ADHD in girls:
- Unable to keep focus.
- Daydreaming.
- Talkative.
- Overly sensitive.
- Face struggle in being social.
- Often speak without articulating first.
- Messy.
- Disorganised.
- Withdrawn from activities and gatherings.
- Sensitive to noises, fabrics and food.
What Are The Symptoms Of ADHD?
Some of the symptoms are:
- You would probably like to achieve thousands of things in a day.
- Reaching anywhere on time.
- Fired from several jobs.
- Being perfectionist.
- Feeling paralysed with fear every time your boss asks for a meeting.
- Severe fear of rejection.
- Avoiding social situations.
- Being hyperactive.
- Being lazy.
- Picked last.
- Bullied.
- Feeling lost in mid-conversation.
- Feeling lost in mid-meeting.
- Very hard to complete educational courses.
- Repeated episodes of depression.
- Anxiety.
- Panic attacks.
- Suicide attempts.
- Being called out for not behaving well.
- Rebellious rage.
- Facing hard to plan out the days.
- Keep up with the plans to improve your skills.
- You don’t feel proud of yourself.
- You often don’t know who you are.
- Low self-esteem.
- Poor social skills.
- Have a tough time completing a task that doesn’t excite you.
- You are very critical of your work.
- Feel a powerful urge to try a lot of things.
- Don’t feel old.
- Feel tired.
- Your brain often works in hyperlinks, where nothing is connected, but everything is connected.
- Difficulty in telling your stories.
- Always thinking out of the box.
- Not aware that there is a box.
- Your brain is not ready to cooperate.
Conclusion
ADHD is a different cognition system and a brain disorder. It has to be seen that way. You have to understand yourself and give your all to understand the fields that interest you. You have to try to challenge yourself to learn things that don’t interest you but are very important.
Sometimes, you have to seek people or apps that will help set you free from things you don’t want to engage in.
And always seek people who are experts in the ADHD field. Women often get wrongly diagnosed as depressed or bipolar and get the wrong medication.