Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms
Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
One of the most commonly studied and diagnosed development disorder is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or more popularly known as ADHD or ADD. In fact, an estimated three to five percent of children in the globe are affected. The frequency of the disorder, however, has led to numerous studies and literature on the subject matter. Learning more about ADHD symptoms is critical for early diagnosis and immediate management.
With ADHD, the three main signs and symptoms also refer to the three main characteristics of the disorder: inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. The most common form of ADHD is when children possess all three symptoms – they’re impulsive, inattentive and hyperactive. In other cases, however, a child with ADHD may be hyperactive and impulsive but is able to pay attention. Yet in other instances, ADHD symptoms may point out to a child being inattentive, but not hyperactive and impulsive.
ADHD symptoms also vary depending on any three of the main signs. It’s a common misconception that children with ADHD cannot pay attention, when in reality they can, although as soon as the task becomes uninteresting, children will tune out. Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms of inattention also include making careless mistakes, daydreaming, having difficulty following instructions and remembering things, frequently misplacing objects like toys or books, and having trouble staying organized.
ADHD symptoms of hyperactivity include a child doing several things all at once and an inability to stay put even when forced to. For example, an obvious sign of hyperactivity can be seen when a child forced to sit down would continue moving by tapping his foot or shaking her legs. Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms also include fidgeting or squirming when sitting, non-stop talking, and having difficulty doing tasks quietly. ADHD symptoms may even include touching or playing with anything in sight including breakable glassware.
Manifestations of impulsivity, on the other hand, can be seen in Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms like impatience, constantly interrupting others, guessing an answer to a problem rather than solving it, and intruding in other people’s activities and conversations. Making children with Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms wait is doubly hard as they tend to be moody and more emotional when it comes to their reactions (temper tantrums and anger bursts).
If the above ADHD symptoms are observed in your child, it would be best to see a mental health expert immediately. Seeking professional help will give you an accurate evaluation of your child’s condition as well as allow you access to personalized treatment to help manage the disorder. Different parenting strategies will most certainly be required but a whole lot of tender loving care, understanding, and patience will make communicating to a child with possible ADHD easier and more effective.
Attention deficit disorder, or more commonly known as ADD, used to be considered a specific condition that wasn’t related to anything else. However, later research and classification have shown that ADD is in fact the same as condition as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). ADHD has three sub-types, of which that which has been known as ADD corresponds to the inattentive sub-type of ADHD.
Attention deficit disorder symptoms vary naturally from individual to individual, both in how often they occur and how strong each one is. Regardless, as good as all attention deficit disorder symptoms are present in every ADD patient, only to varying degree. They manifest in similar ways in all patients, but they do manifest.
While there are fairly numerous attention deficit disorder symptoms, there is only about a dozen of them that are truly handicapping and of those only about a handful that can be easily observed. These attention deficit disorder symptoms seem to vary in intesity and how often they occur, again being manifested in slightly different ways and with different frequency in patients.
Also, children will often manifest stronger attention deficit disorder symptoms, while the symptoms in adults often seem to get toned down with age, as the individual adapts to the disorder and learns to cope with it, not seldomly even without knowing that they suffer from ADD.
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Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms
It is also rather difficult to diagnose children, as the attention deficit disorder symptoms, manifested, especially in boys, can easily be interpreted as being an extra difficult child with adaption problems and the like.
In girls, on the other hand, ADD has been especially difficult to diagnose, as the attention deficit disorder symptoms they manifest are very often much more toned down than they are in boys, even if they are largely the exact same symptoms.
Therfore it is important to explain a few of these attention deficit disorder symptoms and I have attempted to showcase a few of the most common ones in the posts below. It is my hope that they are clear enough to help guide parents in getting some idea about their children potentially suffering from ADD, as well as adults with ADD symptoms identifying their difficulties as potential ADD.
Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms: Lack of Focus
Lack of focus is one of the attention deficit disorder symptoms that is most commonly encountered. It is manifested through an inability to concentrate fully on any given task, as the patient experiences an almost literal bombardment of thoughts and sensations which they have great difficulty in screening out. Thus focus cannot be maintained on any one specific task, as the inability to screen out thoughts and outer sensations interrupt the train of thought constantly.
Another way the lack of focus manifests is through an inability to stay dedicated to any given task for a longer period of time. Single-tasking is a problem and it is rarely that any given task is seen through from start to finish without bouncing between several other tasks. Thus someone who has ADD will start on a task and as soon as that task presents the slightest difficulty will jump to doing something else for a while and that way bounce back and forth between several tasks. This results in projects taking much longer than they would for anyone not suffering from ADD.
In practical terms lack of focus manifests often as, among other things, a lack of any proper organizational skills. An individual suffering from ADD will usually be quite messy, have their belongings, both personal and work/school related, spread all over the place and they usually have significant difficulty locating any given object, specifically if it isn’t one that is used often.
The lack of organizational skills also pertains to organizing a schedule of any kind, as well as sticking to it. Time management is very poor and it is common for people suffering from ADD to routinely miss appointments or show up late all the time. This poor time management also shows as the person has difficutlies in appreciating how long tasks will take to complete and it is common for that time to be underestimated, thus leading to taking on more work and responsibility than realistically possible.
The ADD brain’s inability to focus is primarily a result of insufficient production of the neurotransmitter dopamine, primarily in the reward center of the brain. This is, in fact, is the main reason behind ADD to begin with and most symptoms can be traced back to dopmaine insufficiency. And while medicine has not been able to come up with a cure for ADD, there have been significant advances made in the field of medication. ADD medication works by stimulating the brain into producing more dopamine, thus aleviating the very cause for ADD and with it the symptoms pertaining to it. Medication such as Ritalin and Concerta (methylphenidate) and Adderall (amphetamine salts) have proven very effective in the treatment of ADD.
Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms: Inattentiveness
This symptom appears often when it comes to carrying out tasks that, to the individual, are not interesting or inherently motivating. In other words, someone who has ADD will often show signs of inattentivness when having to do boring tasks.
As an example, a child having to do his or her homework on a subject that is considered to be boring will often do a half-hearted job, will rush through the task and is very likely to make mistakes when it comes to details. This is in part due to what the child considers to be an inherently boring task, but also due to the desire of doing something else which is thought to be more fun and motivating.
Adults, as well as children, are likely to abandon such tasks half-way through or, again, simply rush through them and do a subpar job. Quite often this causes teachers or bosses to label these individuals as lazy, as they seem to do just fine on tasks that are fun and motivating but lack drive when it comes to more mundane jobs. It is therefore quite easy to label someone as lazy when this occurs on a regular basis, as it is clear that the individuals are quite capable of carrying out tasks in a satisfactory manner when they apply themselves, yet they appear to not want to apply themselves all the time.
The inattentivness also leads to careless mistakes which may end up being costly. An example would be a child taking a test on a subject that he or she is quite familiar with, but not paying close attentio to details during the test, such as a math test. Despite knowing the subject quite well, the child is likely to make mistakes on simple tasks, due to not paying full attention and thinking of something completely different during the test itself. Also double-checking the answers before turning in the test can often prove to be a daunting task which more often than not is skipped all together, or simply done in a hurry and carelessly.
Adults can attract the anger of their supperiors in similar ways, when working on longer projects which lie outside their core interests and feel particularly daunting and boring. Thus it is quite likely that an adult will make the same type of careless mistakes while working on such a project as a child would while taking a math test.
The inattentive trait also leads to procrastination and being easily distracted, as the individual feels no motivation to begin with the task at hand and once started will get distracted by anything that feels more motivating than what they’re currently working on. Thus it is quite common that an individual will put off doing something and tell themselves that they’ll start after having just one more cup of coffee, or watching TV for just another half-hour etc. The same applies to being easily distracted, as someone suffering from ADD will likely use any reason to take a break, as well as make that break as long as possible. This often results in things being done at the last minute and almost always with subpar performance as a result.
Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms: Avoidance
Avoidance is an attention deficit disorder symptom that pertains primarily to the same type of activities as inattentiveness. An individual with ADD will do their utmost to avoid having to do any type of activities that are considered to be boring, demotivating or mundane.
As an example children having to clean their rooms will avoid this task like the plague, often citing “more important” tasks they have to do as the reason. In fact, a child who feels it is boring to clean their room will even prefer doing their homework instead, if the latter is considered to be less daunting or boring. While this can undoubtedly be applicable for most children, it is particularly prevalent in children with ADD to a point where it is quite excessive.
An adult example would be someone having to do their taxes, provided they feel this to be a very boring task, and they will procrastinate and put it off until the last minute. It is not uncommon that, combined with inattentiveness, this leads to making careless and costly mistakes. Adults with ADD are also quite notorious for almost never paying their bills on time and incurring penalties for this on a regular basis.
Avoidance will primarily express itself when an individual, suffering from attention deficit disorder, has to carry out mentally intensive tasks. This is especially true if the tasks themselves are considered boring, but this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Even things the individual may consider to be fun and motivating can be avoided due to the intensity of mental effort they require.
While most people can use avoidance to various degrees, it is one of the trademark attention deficit disorder symptoms as it tends to become very excessive. This also leads to avoidance becoming rather impairing, as persons suffering from ADD can put things off and procrastinate almost forever. They offer require being told to do things many times, in fact they have to be told so many times that they start getting very annoyed by this fact and only proceed with the tasks once the annoyance becomes greater than the urge to avoid the tasks themselves. Again, this is especially common with children, the younger the more common. However, while it may tapper off with age, it tends to never go away completely and many adults struggle with this their entire lives.
Avoidance, just like most other attention deficit disorder symptoms, does decrease with the help of adequate medication.
Attention Deficit Disorder Symptoms: Lack of Patience
Probably the most common among all the attention deficit disorder symptoms, lack of patience is observed in pretty much all ADD patients. While it may in itself sound self-explanatory, it does manifest in many situations where normal people would not expect patience to be an issue.
Lack of patience obviously shows up in most of the situations where it is expected to show up. These may be where someone is expected to wait for their turn in a line, like at the cashier or the bank, waiting for a turn to pump gas and other places where waiting is required. It is common that adults with ADD will be highly impatient during meetings and often speak or comment without being spoken to, while children will often blurt out answers at school without even being asked. This can result in negative attention, embarrassment (which is usually not taken lightly) and other negative consequences.
Again, the reason behind this specific ADD symptom is the lack of dopamine in the brain, particularly in the reward center. While regular people have a normal flow of dopamine in the brain, for ADD patients the lack of dopamine creates a very strong urge for instant gratification, much stronger than in people who don’t suffer from this disorder. If instant gratification does not occur, then motivation is lost and boredom appears, as the reward associated with any given activity is delayed beyond what the person can stand.
Additionally, lack of patience is also associated with lengthy projects of any kind. Thus it happens a lot that people with ADD have difficulty completing long projects, due to lack of patience in seeing them through. A long education can often be abandoned half-way through, due to inability to cope with the waiting that finishing it entails. Of course, other ADD symptoms come into play here as well, as they are not isolated from each other but rather seem to be mutually reinforcing. Regardless, lack of patience is still the most visible ADD symptom when it comes to being observed by the outer world and this is particularly strong in children, who already lack patience due to being children.
Nevertheless, lack of patience is an impediment and while it mostly shows up in obtrusive but fairly innocent ways, it can become a serious impediment in situations where mistakes are costly. One example would be while driving, when lack of patience can result in speeding as well as aggressive and careless driving, putting people and their lives in danger.