Updated ADHD: Why women should care
Traditionally, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has been characterized as an inability to organize, finish tasks, and keep yourself still. It’s poster child was the male classmate that was forever getting in trouble for talking and acting out. The one who was known as the “bad” kid in class. But, how does today’s ADHD research differ, and what’s its possible effect on full grown professional women?
Updated ADHD research findings:
Hyper activity isn’t a requirement - Research differentiates between motor hyperactivity and racing, distractible thoughts. It states these are totally independent of each other and may occur together or in absence of the other. Therefore, you don’t have to be bouncing off the walls in order to qualify for ADHD.
Different nervous system- First and foremost, your nervous system is set to a more sensitive setting in response to your inner (interests, thoughts, and emotions) and outer world. Subtle changes in lighting, temperature, particles in the air, social cues, and several other specifics of your environment are more likely to interfere with your attention to what others are challenging you to attend to.
Weak Stop Sign- Their cerebral cortex, or your their brain’s ability to prioritize what is most worthy of your time and energy, showing a stop sign to the rest, is not as strong as others’. This results in even more stimuli vying for attention in your brain, which results in mayhem and stress when pressured to complete a logical chain of events. It is also the main culprit for your sleepless nights, thanks to the racing thoughts that never see the stop sign.
Sting of Rejection - Thirdly, You become extremely guilty, anxious, and shameful over even the possibility of having offended or disappointed someone, which is called Rejection Sensitive Dyspohria (RSD for short). Believe it or not, this characteristic is the one that is the most physically, emotionally, and cognitively damaging of all three, even more than losing focus.
Why should women care?
Female nervous system- Females tend to be already interested in relationships. If you add sensitivity from ADHD on top, they are bound to be meticulous at keeping peace with authority figures and peers, to the point of sacrificing their own needs. That means following the rules and staying under the radar as much as possible, no matter how confused they find themselves in school.
Hyperactivity’s irrelevance and weak stop sign:The weak stop sign characteristic might have shown up by day dreaming or being silently overwhelmed and or frozen instead of bouncing off the walls.
Female rejection: Teachers are much less likely to notice these under the surface ways of being off task , which could result in the female feeling unseen and invalidated in the midst of being hyper aware of her difference and distance from others. This situation and the rejection sensitivity piece create very fertile ground for tapes of insignificance and unworthiness to take root and become perhaps the strongest and most long lasting influence on her self-concept as a human being.
To wrap up, on the surface, the updated research on ADHD, including hyperactivity’s irrelevance, the sensitive nervous system, and deep fear of rejection seems liberating and less stigmatizing for those who are already diagnosed, but rather insignificant for the often frazzled but average woman. However, the above inferences just might convince her that ADHD, rather than her core nature, could have been the culprit that haunted her validity and value her whole life. Stay tuned for next time on what realizing ADHD could mean for female self-concept and future success.