The abbreviation of ADHD stands for attention deficit disorder, which affects children and adults as well. ADHD symptoms can differ between each child on the ways it impacts their lives. ADHD is commonly known for its inability to sustained attention with classwork and home tasks. A child may demonstrate disruptive behaviors by not staying still or maintaining attention within the classroom. That child may also have another behavior or mental diagnosis like obsessive-compulsive disorder. This child cannot perceive their actions wrong, but it can be harmful to their mental state. The parents and school can seek support from a behavioral health specialist within the school and home. A behavioral health specialist provides guidance, modifications, and training to help manage their social world behaviors. An adolescent may utilize behavioral specialists to increase independence by obtaining a job or their studies. The child can modify their classroom behaviors by occupational therapy for sensory breaks, fidgets, and other adaptions. Furthermore, a child can seek guidance from a psychiatrist for a prescription of Adderall, which is a medication to treat ADHD; the medication can increase their attention with functional tasks within a classroom or home.
ADHD may affect an adult’s emotions, concentration, and thinking, which can inhibit functioning with everyday tasks. An adult with ADHD can have an attention span of less than a minute with work or everyday tasks. An adult may have increase distractions, which can affect their ability to focus throughout the day. There is an alternative approach to manage symptoms by utilizing compensatory mechanisms to help with ADHD. An adult may utilize a structured routine, writing notes on paper, and calendar book to stay on task within their world. Some adults prefer quiet areas to increase concentration with work and life tasks. There are several ways to utilize compensatory strategies to maintain attention and organization with tasks. The majority of adults with ADHD utilize medication to maintain focus on the everyday task; found it helpful to decrease their symptoms.
Adults have been misdiagnosed with either emotional dysregulation or borderline personality disorder, but they have ADHD the whole time. Those diagnoses are very similar to each other by their symptoms of emotions, decrease attention, and wondering thoughts. The problem lines are that there is not an actual assessment of clinically diagnosed ADHD within an adult. A study was done with a group of French people with these diagnoses of ADHD, borderline personality, and emotional regulation to compare them. They found many similarities between each of the diagnoses, where they found people with ADHD had a better grasp on global functioning. A person with a borderline personality disorder can present difficulties with managing emotions and behavioral disturbances, which sounds like ADHD because they are so similar that it is hard to distinguish.
References
Vetrini, E. (2019). Everything You Need to Know About ADHD | Access Health. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Ahk_RtG4gxs
Vijverberg, R., Ferdinand, R., Beekman, A., & van Meijel, B. (2020). Unmet care needs of children with ADHD. PLOS ONE, 15(1), e0228049. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228049
Barkley B. (2017). ADHD and Emotional Dysregulation: What You Need to Know [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kew2JhKq3Y&feature=share
Rüfenacht, E., Euler, S., Prada, P., Nicastro, R., Dieben, K., Hasler, R., Pham, E., Perroud, N., & Weibel, S. (2019). Emotion dysregulation in adults suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a comparison with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-019-0108-1
BuzzFeed. (2015, December 9). What ADHD Feels Like. YouTube. https://youtu.be/NL483G4xKu0
Reinhold JA. Adult ADHD: A Review of the Clinical Presentation, Challenges, and Treatment Options. Psychiatric Times. 2015;32(10):1-8. Accessed November 7, 2020. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=110842402&site=ehost-live