ADHD

What is ADHD?

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a neurodevelopmental condition (meaning it is related to how our brains develop) which is present from childhood and is associated with a particular way of attending to the world around us.

Although ADHD is called “Attention Deficit” Hyperactivity Disorder, we now better understand ADHD not as a “deficit” in attention but as a “difficulty in regulating an abundance of attention”. This means that people with ADHD can flip between struggling to focus on one thing and filter out distractions or “hyper-focusing’ on one thing to the exclusion of everything else, which means other important tasks (such as eating and activities of self care) can be neglected.

People diagnosed with ADHD may find it difficult to:

• Manage their time
• Stay organised
• Set priorities
• Plan ahead
• Regulate their emotions
• Pay attention to certain tasks
• Shift their focus from one task to another
• Get started with tasks
• Stop and think before saying/doing something

People diagnosed with ADHD may also be:

• Very creative
• Be “out of the box” thinkers
• Work very hard on the things they are passionate about
• Have great energy and enthusiasm for things they enjoy.

There are different subtypes of ADHD, not everyone will show hyperactivity, although it is in the name! The different subtypes are:

-Inattentive subtype

-Hyperactive subtype

-Combined subtype