ADHD Counsellor

The combined subtype of ADHD is characterized by symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity with childhood onset, although the condition may not have been diagnosed in childhood. Hyperactivity symptoms tend to be less noticeable in adults than in children. Some adults do not exhibit hyperactivity/inattentiveness and, rarely, adults exhibit only hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms.

ADHD in adults can cause moderate to extreme difficulties in functioning at work, home, or school. In adults the problem can manifest as an inability to structure their lives and plan simple daily tasks. ADD/ADHD can also lead to loss of relationships, job hopping, or difficulty with people or work. The difficulty is not due to the ADD person’s direct behaviour, but usually more due to the simple things that the ADD person will miss, especially when an adult of their age or experience should catch onto or know.

Generally, symptoms may manifest themselves differently in adults than in children. Adults with hyperactive-impulsive symptoms feel extremely driven, sometimes restless. To calm themselves down, they tend to stay constantly on the go and attempt to do but usually fail to complete multiple tasks at once. They are often perceived as not thinking before they act or speak. Generally, the biggest problem is developing self-regulation. The mechanism for self-regulation is delayed or deficient in people with ADD or ADHD. This is what is treated medically in the ADD/ADHD person. This lack of self-understanding and what looks like a lack of control affects an adult’s ability not just to do tasks, but to determine when and how they need to be done, as well as how other people perceive them.

Symptoms of ADHD can vary widely between individuals and throughout the lifetime of an individual. The most prominent characteristic in ADHD often is difficulty with the brain activity known as executive functioning, which oversees the ability to monitor a person’s own behaviour by planning and organizing. Other symptoms include inattention, impulsivity, and restlessness as well as frequently accompanying behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Growing up with all these deficits often leads to emotional problems.

The Hallowell Center identifies the following indicators to consider when ADHD is suspected and recommends that individuals with at least twelve of the following behaviours since childhood—provided these symptoms are not associated with any other medical or psychiatric conditions—consider professional diagnosis:

1. A sense of underachievement, of not meeting one’s goals (regardless of how much one has actually accomplished).
2. Difficulty getting organized.
3. Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started.
4. Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow through.
5. A tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness of the remark.
6. A frequent search for high stimulation.
7. An intolerance of boredom.
8. Easy distractibility; trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune out or drift away in the middle of a page or conversation, often coupled with an inability to focus at times.
9. Often creative, intuitive, highly intelligent
10. Trouble in going through established channels and following proper procedure.
11. Impatient; low tolerance of frustration.
12. Impulsive, either verbally or in action, as an impulsive spending of money.
13. Changing plans, enacting new schemes or career plans and the like; hot-tempered.
14. A tendency to worry needlessly, endlessly; a tendency to scan the horizon looking for something to worry about, alternating with attention to or disregard for actual dangers.
15. A sense of insecurity.
16. Mood swings, mood lability, especially when disengaged from a person or a project.
17. Physical or cognitive restlessness.
18. A tendency toward addictive behavior.
19. Chronic problems with self-esteem.
20. Inaccurate self-observation.
21. Family history of AD/HD or manic depressive illness or depression or substance abuse or other disorders of impulse control or mood.