As recently as a few decades ago, ADHD was thought to be a condition experienced only by children. The prevailing wisdom later moved on to accept the existence of the condition in adults, but only in miniscule numbers. Next, the medical community increased their estimate to 5% of the adult population. But the acknowledged scale of adult ADHD was still far insufficient. The eventual position on this topic is that those who suffered ADHD as a child will almost certainly carry symptoms of the condition through to adulthood. The view of mental health professionals has changed a lot in the last 30 years – so why wasn’t the existence of ADHD in adults acknowledged earlier?
The rate of diagnosis for ADHD in adults is incredibly low, with estimates that 80% of sufferers go untreated. It could be that their symptoms escape notice thanks to the perpetual flux of adult life. Symptoms may also be attributed to other conditions such as anxiety, or even just accepted as personality traits. Research from the ‘Better Health Guide’ suggests that the consequences of the condition can be quite negative for wellbeing, and that affected adults may exhibit certain harmful lifestyle features. Adults with the disorder are twice as likely to be unemployed, and those in employment will earn an average of $15,000 less than their healthy counterparts. The tendency to abuse drugs and alcohol is also far more prevalent in adults with ADHD, and they are thought to be eight times more likely to act impulsively and take dangerous risks.
A typical sufferer of adult ADHD will have difficulty staying organised – a big contributing factor to their lack of success in the job market. They may seem to operate in their own private world, unaffected by the timings and schedules of others. As such, an ADHD sufferer can live in a perpetual state of chaos, unable to competently balance work, domestic and personal demands. If someone close to you lives a disorganised life full of drama, it might be helpful to suggest a medical consultation. If found to be suffering from the condition, their wellness and quality of life could be raised considerably by the right treatments.
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