Understanding the ADHD Signs and Symptoms as well as Causes & Diagnosis
If you are well-accustomed with ADHD, you likely know the fight of staying with this common mental condition. While any individual with ADHD wants to be a get-it-done kind of person, often, neither their brain nor body can collect the energy to put anything in motion. May be you interrupt others, and even though it can be repulsive to individuals, maybe you cannot stop. You might lose focus, or perhaps more precisely, shift focus from one thing to another, getting off track.
When you are staying with ADHD, either by relationship or as you yourself have it yourself, even apparently small tasks—like emptying a basket full of laundry, completing a page of homework, or clearing a desk of piles of paper—seem irresistible.
Hadar Swersky talks about the common signs and symptoms such as
- Inattention: Having a number of tabs open, wandering off task, losing persistence, and feeling unable to stay focused, which can enhance into being generally disorganized.
- Hyperactivity: Staying in constant motion such as tapping a hand or foot, moving around, fidgeting, squirming, including when it is not appropriate. This is one sign frequently seen in kids.
- Impulsivity: Acting without thinking, even if those actions have an enhanced potential for harm. With children, this might be something like walloping another child over a coveted toy. In adults it can be saying something insensible to peers without thinking, or spending money needlessly.
Other examples of impulsivity:
- making significant decisions without thinking about the long-standing consequences.
- having problem delaying gratification
- excessively interrupting others
Certainly, all individuals can be daydreaming or fidgety at times, but it is obviously different with ADHD in that these behaviors are more harsh and take place more frequently. They can also make life harder socially at work or at school. People with ADHD might have one of the above signs or symptoms, or a mixture; most children have the kind of ADHD that is a combo of symptoms. In preschoolers, the most common sign is hyperactivity.
How Is ADHD Diagnosed?
A doctor or pediatrician may identify signs of ADHD in you or your child, and might offer a preliminary diagnosis, but if they do not have wide-ranging ADHD-specific experience, they must be sending you to a certified clinician like a psychologist or psychiatrist.
Hadar Swersky says that ADHD is also usually confused with other conditions, such as anxiety, which can have similar symptoms to ADHD, like poor concentration and inattention, or autism spectrum disorder, which might share symptoms such as trouble interacting with peers and appearing to not focus on.