ADHD Symptoms in Women What Does ADHD Look Like in Women?

Executive Dysfunction

Executive functions, are the core mental skills that help us to carry out everyday tasks and know how to behave. Executive dysfunction, is when someone struggles with these essential skills and it is one of the main symptoms of ADHD. There are 8 main types of executive function:

  • Working Memory Icon (1)

    Working Memory / Object Permanence

  • Time Management Icon (1)

    Planning / Prioritising & Time management

  • Organisation Icon

    Organisation

  • Task Initiation Icon

    Task Initiation

  • Self Control Icon (1)

    Self Control / Impulse Control

  • Self Monitoring Icon (1)

    Self-Monitoring

  • Flexibility Icon

    Behavioural & Cognitive Flexibility

  • Emotional Regulation Icon

    Emotional Regulation / Control

Working Memory / Object Permanence

Working memory, is the ability to hold, access and connect the information that our brain stores, when we need it to carry out a task. While the term object permanence, refers to the skill that our brains learn as very young children, that allows us to know that something hasn't stopped existing, just because we can't see it anymore. This term is also often used in relation to ADHD (although technically incorrectly, as people with ADHD do know that the object still exists, they just forget about it), but essentially in ADHD terms, it is used to mean out of sight, out of mind.

For most people, the fact that something is away in a cupboard doesn't stop that thing from existing, because when they need it, they know it's there. However, as people with ADHD are continually struggling to remember and prioritise things, our brains only tend to actively acknowledge the things that we can physically see or are reminded of, which effectively means that anything we can't see, stops existing.

People with ADHD struggle with this skill, which can cause problems with:

  • Staying focused & holding attention
  • Remembering what they should be doing
  • Finishing tasks with multiple steps
  • Remembering that things exist when they are not visible

Planning / Prioritising & Time management

Planning is the ability to be able to mentally imagine future actions, the time frame in which they will be carried out and decide which are most important.

People with ADHD struggle with this skill, which can cause problems with:

  • Leaving things until the last minute & missing deadlines
  • Underestimating how long things will take
  • Completing non-essential tasks before important ones

Organisation

Organisation is the ability to be able to create and maintain orderliness within our environment, in order to be able to keep track of things and make things easier.

People with ADHD struggle with this skill, which often leads to problems with:

  • Losing things and being ill prepared
  • Being unable to keep their home / workplace tidy
  • Being unable to develop and maintain systems

Task Initiation

Task initiation is the ability to start and finish tasks without procrastination.

People with ADHD have significant struggles with this and it is often referred to as 'ADHD Paralysis'. It can cause:

  • Leaving things until the last minute & missing deadlines
  • A feeling of being overwhelmed and anxiety
  • Finding distractions to avoid starting / finishing difficult tasks

Self Control / Impulse Control

Self control / impulse control, is the ability to assess the things we want to do and say internally and filtering out anything that is inappropriate before we do or say it.

People with ADHD struggle with this skill, which means they will often:

  • Be unable to stay quiet or stop talking when they should
  • Talk over people/interrupt
  • Speak before they think
  • Mess around/distract others

Self-Monitoring

Self-monitoring is the ability to be able to evaluate our work/behaviour objectively, notice mistakes and correct ourselves.

People with ADHD struggle with this skill, which can cause problems with:

  • Making and failing to notice silly errors
  • Failing to realise that their behaviour is annoying others
  • Doing things in a more difficult way than necessary

Behavioural & Cognitive Flexibility

Behavioural flexibility is the ability to be able to deal with change and the unexpected. While cognitive flexibility is the ability to be able to transition between different tasks, instructions and thoughts.

Difficulty in coping with a change to routine Difficulty in switching from one task to another Reluctance to deviate from a plan when running into a problem

People with ADHD struggle with this skill, which can lead to:

  • Difficulty in coping with a change to routine
  • Difficulty in switching from one task to another
  • Reluctance to deviate from a plan when running into a problem

Emotional Control / Regulation

Emotional control/regulation, is the ability to respond to a thought or situation, with an appropriate emotional response.

People with ADHD often struggle with emotional dysregulation, which means that their emotional responses may be extreme or inappropriate, for example:

  • Getting dis-proportionally upset or angry over something small
  • Crying easily
  • Laughing in serious situations
  • Being overly affected by the emotions of others around us

Other ADHD Symptoms

Hyperactivity

While many women with ADHD don't have the hyperactivity element of it, there are many of us that do, but hyperactivity looks very differently in adult women, than it does in young boys, which is what tends to be the stereotype of hyperactivity.

In women it often presents as:

  • Excessive talking & interrupting
  • Reckless & risk taking behaviour
  • Constantly flitting from one thing to another
  • Impatience and irritability

Sensory Issues

Sensory issues, or sensory processing disorder (SPD) as it is medically known, is a condition that affects the way that our brains process the information that it receives from our senses. Most people with ADHD have some form of SPD, whether it's just one of their senses that is particularly sensitive, or all of them.

People with ADHD commonly struggle with the following things as a result of sensory issues:

  • Being very fussy eaters due to having issues with certain tastes, textures and smells
  • Being very particular about the material and fit of things like clothes, shoes and bedding, as they are very sensitive to how things feel
  • Feeling very overwhelmed in loud, noisy environments
  • Feeling extreme anger and annoyance when being able to hear specific sounds, such as loud chewing

Hyperfocus

The term hyperfocus, refers to being completely absorbed by a task, hobby or subject, often in an almost obsessive manner. It is hard to understand how people with ADHD, who struggle to focus and concentrate on literally anything, would be able to spend hours upon hours hyperfocusing on the same thing, however, there is one important difference. A hyperfocus is something that we are really interested in, which means that it gives us all of the dopamine!

People with ADHD Hyperfocus on all sorts of things, but some of the most common types of hyperfocus include:

  • Taking up new hobbies - When we take up a new hobby, we hyperfocus on researching and buying ALL of the equipment for it, and mastering the required skills within days. At this point, either the novelty wears off, or we run into something that we aren't able to master quickly, and we drop the hobby and move on to the next one
  • Starting new businesses - We have a great idea for a business, so we buy the domain name, set up social media accounts, and do loads of research, but then don't ever actually get around to doing anything past that. A few months later, we have another great idea and repeat the cycle
  • Obsessions with people - Whether it's a popstar, love interest or new friend, we tend to get totally obsessed with people and want to know everything about them and do everything with them, which can often start to border on being stalkerish and make said person feel uncomfortable

Other Conditions That Are Often Linked To ADHD

There are a number of other conditions, that are regularly seen in people with ADHD. This is known as a comorbidity.

Some of the most common comorbidities include:

  • Intrusive Thoughts
  • Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • OCD
  • Tourettes / Tic Disorder
  • Disordered Eating
  • Addiction

DISCLAIMER
I am not a trained medical professional, and all content on this site (unless specifically stated) has been written based on a combination of personal experience and extensive research. To my knowledge there is no mis-information on this site, but I cannot 100% guarantee that fact. If you believe anything included on this site may be inaccurate, please contact me and I will be happy to investigate the issue and make corrections if necessary.

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