ADHD in women

I was diagnosed in my mid-50’s after working in C&F team. I am now not working due to health issues (59 now)When I first considered I might have adhd, I showed my daughter a list of characteristics of adhd women and she said, ‘mum, that’s you!’ and I cried. The diagnosis coincided with a disastrous move to a different field of SW and my GP was brilliant and responded with a speedy referral and which then lead to a diagnosis of adhd fromthe Maudsley. I had huge identity issues with such a late diagnosis and regret at what perhaps might have been. I now embrace my eccentricity, my arty bent and have made peace with myself.

I'm not for one moment saying it's everyone going privately or am I commenting on your personal situation.

I've explained why if you read back. It's what I've also been told by numerous professionals involved with DC and other posters have agreed as their experience has been the same.

It is an utterly shit thing. I had to give up my career to care for DC who are severely impacted. That's why I get so frustrated by the infux of those claiming to have when they patently don't.

Do you really think people are paying upwards of £1k just to get a disability, do me a favour!

It's an utterly shit thing to have in my experience, I'd sell my house to be normal not pay £1k to be part of the club.

Can you tell me one good reason you think people (aka women, no one questions the men) want to be diagnosed and medicated for ADHD?

No it's really not.

I see it, live with it every day and there are lots of people pursuing this diagnosis that don't have it and others being misdiagnosed. It's disingenuous to pretend otherwise.

This thread reveals a lot of the issues with ADHD in women.

It's been widely missed, because women are largely inattentive rather than hyperactive.

It's then widely dismissed as a "trend", because there's been such an increase in diagnosis and also because it's WOMEN who've been missed, and we broadly dismiss women's experiences as something they just need to get on with.

Sadly, as seen here on this thread, instead of supporting women who are seeking or have a diagnosis, other women even criticise and gaslight them.

Who really wants to be labelled as neurodivergent when they're not? Who wants to be prescribed a medication with possible horrible side effects if they don't need it? Who bothers to join a years long waiting list to get a diagnosis and fill in loads of forms and have a lengthy assessment? Or pay hundreds of pounds to fast track this process? I don't look at people with other conditions and think oh that looks fun, I want some of that??

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide
I've been prescribed Ritalin, and this is what I'm hoping for.

People are saying it's not going to work miracles, but if I can get a bit of mental peace then that's what a miracle looks like to me.

I want to focus on one thing at a time, meaning I can experience mental quiet (could you imagine)! And concentrate

I want to not be in a constant state of fight or flight which causes me to have crazy dreams all night, waking up lots of times.

Imagine reading a book and being able to focus on it and not thinking about what needs doing next, plus numerous other thoughts.

This is all I ask from medication, so I have to try. and if it doesn't deliver these I will stop.

My son is on medikinet, as his mum I can see that it certainly helps him as without it he is completely disregulated emotionally, struggles to communicate and is destructive. I want to experience the inner peace it seems to bring him.

That was absolutely what was used to diagnose me.

Thank you for sharing and make me feel normal!!

There is lots of research going back decades on how amphetamine medications affect people. There are very few studies on ADHD meds and hardly any that look at long term, meaning over 12 weeks, treatment. I don’t think there are any large studies comparing the effect of the drugs in those with or without a diagnosis because why would they need to fund that? We know the affect of amphetamines have on most of the population. Some people don’t feel great on them regardless of adhd diagnosis or not. Your response to the medication does not confirm a diagnosis and I don’t know where that line of thought has come from, although I have a pretty good suspicion.

This job, and being in the NHS during Covid. And motherhood. And perimenopause.

But the signs were there in my teens and before. It just took till now to see them because I could mask/get away with most things till now. (And in the 90s we didn’t know that girls could have ADHD because of the presentation.)

I genuinely thought everyone had 300 different things going on in their head. I’d say 80% of colleagues have commented that they’ve never worked with someone like me before. I always said “you should meet my dad”. I thought it was normal. Every single person I’ve shared my diagnosis with, including medics and a clin psych I worked with have been surprised I wasn’t diagnosed as a child. Literally everyone else saw it but me. A teacher spotted the issues in DD when she transferred to high school - she’s always been a carbon copy of me. The paed that did her assessment asked at the end if I had a diagnosis. And if I didn’t, I should really think about getting an assessment.

I don’t want to swap my brain for anything, but if I could just close 200 of those 300 open tabs, and find out where the music is coming from I think life could be a lot more manageable for me. If the drugs don’t benefit me, then I won’t take them. But they’re worth a try. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The DSM manual is what should be used to diagnose. Yet there are so many other ‘symptoms’ that seem to have become gospel, yet aren’t in the DSM. Yet they are being used to diagnose people. Lots of adults wouldn’t fit that criteria because, lo and behold, they can in fact concentrate when it’s something they are interested in. Enter ‘hyperfocus’.

Can you provide reliable scientific evidence for all of the claims you are making. I'd be interested to read, please and I've only been able to find the opposite.

“Overall, the revisions to ADHD in DSM-5 are less dramatic than updates to earlier DSMs. Importantly, the DSM-5 ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Workgroup decided neither to modify the core ADHD symptom domains (i.e., Inattention and Hyperactivity/Impulsivity) nor to revise the 18 core symptoms, aside from adding example behaviors to better define some of the symptoms for older adolescents and adults. The retention of the ADHD symptom domains and 18 core symptoms likely reflects a judgment that the DSM-IV definition of ADHD has largely withstood the test of time. DSM-IV ADHD criteria have proven to be quite effective at reliably identifying a population of individuals who have significant impairments across a wide range of outcomes (e.g., academic, interpersonal, occupational, personal, substance use, driving, etc. 7, 8]). Moreover, individuals identified by DSM-IV ADHD criteria appear to have distinct neuropsychological profiles 9, 10] identifiable neurobiological signatures (e.g., abnormalities in frontal-striatal circuitry 11, 12]) and unique genetic correlates 13]. By retaining a similar ADHD phenotype as defined in DSM-IV, the DSM-5 workgroup ensured that the voluminous body of DSM-IV defined ADHD research accumulated over the past 2 decades will largely generalize to the new, yet highly similar, DSM-5ADHD phenotype.
“Although more subtle than changes in prior DSMs, the changes to ADHD in DSM-5 are important and reflect our increased knowledge about the nature of ADHD. In particular, it has become increasingly evident that the DSM-IVsymptom domain thresholds (i.e., 6 of 9 symptoms per symptom domain), while appropriate for young children, are not effective for identifying adolescents and adults experiencing ADHD-related impairment. Prior to DSM-5, some researchers used lower symptom thresholds to define adolescent and/or adult ADHD samples (e.g., 14]), in discord with DSM-IV; many clinicians did likewise or relied on the poorly-defined ADHD Not Otherwise Specified. Research suggests that a lower symptom number threshold more accurately identifies those 17 and older who experience impairments warranting intervention 15].”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3955126/

They’ve expanded the symptoms so much that it could basically fit anyone

What now?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519712/table/ch3.t3/

And amphetamines don’t automatically ‘work’ for those with a diagnosis. It will make some people feel jittery, paranoid etc. They have the desired effect in much of the population, hence street value, but not in all. Regardless of a diagnosis.

Give someone with ADHD amphetamines and give someone who's neurotypical amphetamines. You will see two very different responses. If nothing else can convince you that this condition is very real, then this objective evidence should.

This is trotted out again and again but there is no evidence for it. Low doses of amphetamines generally have similar effects on most people. I’m not saying adhd doesn’t exist but it’s really hard to deny that it’s being hugely over diagnosed. My MIL has a large circle of 50 something female friends and staggering number are suddenly deciding that they have adhd and getting private diagnosis. There is just no way it’s that prevalent in the population. It’s become a bit of a catch all. They’ve expanded the symptoms so much that it could basically fit anyone, and pharmaceutical companies will be behind that, not solid good peer reviewed research. See other big pharmaceutical scandals. Many adult ones rely on self reporting and most if not all is done online. I have a friend who proof reads reports for a private company and most have been copy and pasted and don’t even contain the correct name of the patient. This is one of the first areas that’s been outsourced to low quality private health care and we can see a glimpse of what it’s like in the US where many things are massively over diagnosed, not based on decent science, and run for profit. See also chronic Lyme disease.

I tell what is the big scandal - a whole generation of women whose diagnosis of ADHD was missed.

No need to speculate about "big pharma" conspiracies when there's an actual scandal that's already real.

We have to deal with these kinds of really offensive comments all the time about ADHD not being real.

You do realise that ADHD changes how the brain reacts to medication, right? If you take ADHD meds and you don't have ADHD, you'll have a very different effect!!

I am aware that it's now very on-trend to have ADHD and tbh, that hasn't helped our cause at all. It's fuelled the claims that ADHD is a made-up condition with people who are just attention-seekers - which is something we've had to put up with for years and years.

In the UK, it's not easy to get an ADHD diagnosis despite what you might have been led to believe. It's not sufficient just to be a bit disorganised or scatty, or to forget where you put your keys. The symptoms need to disrupt your life to a meaningful degree, preventing functioning. They must have also been present since childhood and they must be of sufficient intensity.

Some of the symptoms may be experienced by the population at large but not with the same consistency, intensity, severity, etc. It's present in every waking moment, every day, year after year after year after year. There's just no escape from the constant barrage going on inside your head.

Give someone with ADHD amphetamines and give someone who's neurotypical amphetamines. You will see two very different responses. If nothing else can convince you that this condition is very real, then this objective evidence should.

@ReginaRegina It's extremely common for people with ADHD to struggle to keep their home clean and tidy. You may not think it's "rocket science" but keeping on top of household chores requires a lot of executive functioning skills which are obviously deficient in people with ADHD.

I have developed a lot of strategies but the things I struggle with in terms of household chores are maintaining a routine, initiating actions, procrastination, organisation (ie what to do when), prioritisation, distraction (starting multiple jobs without finishing the first) and so on and so on. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

People with ADHD usually feel (and have had a lifetime if being told) that they are stupid or lazy. As you have ADHD, please don't perpetuate that damaging message to your fellow ADHDers with comments like "housework isn't rocket science". Maybe not to you but it's something lots of ADHDers really struggle with.

I have read that you are only really considered for an ADHD diagnosis if symptoms also presented in childhood, which I can say was true for me. Therapy, yep. Meditation, yep. Mindfulness, yep. Sleep hygiene, yep, and so on.

I don’t think looking for a diagnosis is just lazy if you’ve struggled your whole life and have taken lots of steps to try and regulate your life and yet still fail at many things things or find life very difficulty. I’m not articulating this particularly well but I feel aggrieved at posters coming on here saying it might be trauma or bipolar or even laziness. Speak for yourself but don’t speak for me.

I don’t have any ADHD but had all the symptoms. NHS told me I was normal but I was diagnosed with severe Hashimotos in another country. Now I feel so good. I do think the NHS ignores so many health conditions (I personally do not think GPs are fit for purpose here as ‘gatekeepers’) and especially women’s health conditions that unless you do a full physical work up first to rule everything else out you cannot know for sure.

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide well maybe it's the job then. I'm intelligent but I have no doubt that I would be terrible at 70% of jobs out there. I'm impulsive, I don't write stuff down, I forget to communicate, I can't delegate due to hyper focus, I procrastinate. Doing a boring task makes me feel like someone is pulling my toenails out with pliers. That's not ADHD, that's just different levels of tolerance and personality type.

3 years ago I lost 5 stone in weight by cutting out all processed foods, all starchy foods and focusing on good quality protein and fresh fruit/veg. I cut out alcohol, caffeine and fizzy drinks. I barely eat any dairy anymore.

Tried mindfulness but my brain is too noisy. I took up weight lifting which does the trick.

I started prioritising sleep. Ditched television for books. Signed up for the degree to force me to read.

Had counselling (still do), coaching, mentoring. Bubble baths whenever I can.

I still do all of these things. But my senior, national role takes a level of organisation I don’t possess. I still need help. Even my psych admits the only thing left to try is medication.

If anyone is interested in how much ADHD drugs cost per 28 day supply. This was back in 2018 and prices have risen sharply.

As much as people would like to believe that stimulants prescribed to a neurotypical person would somehow make them into Speedy Gonzales and so therefore proves that you have ADHD, that's not the case.

There are plenty of people who are started on ADHD meds who turn out to have significant trauma or bipolar which clouds the picture of their difficulties.
Why do some people (a minority) want an ADHD diagnosis? Because then they don't have to go through therapy or change their unhealthy habits. I very rarely read on these threads the proactive steps that people have taken prior to ringing their GP. Good sleep hygiene, exercise, diet, reducing phone and tv time, mindfulness, slowing things down and breaking up tasks into smaller ones, no they won't 'cure' ADHD but they could be beneficial and would also be more evidence to provide to an assessment that you've done everything you can to improve things.

I can relate.

Im convinced I have it, although no diagnosis. My son (9) has just been diagnosed.

Ive always been messy and can’t keep my house in a decent state

I can’t concentrate on tasks I don’t find interesting- but if im interested I am really quite clever

I struggle with tasks that have a lot of intricate steps, or that seem like unravelling a knotted wire

I’m terrible with money

For anyone wanting to improve focus for ADHD or otherwise, this podcast has lots of information
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Ahg0IWnyDPpKwIrrogOis?si=71YKNLuIT_6goUDUsCNNhw