About ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that is characterised by problems maintaining attention and behavioural issues of hyperactivity and/or impulsivity. Experiencing difficulties in these areas may interfere with a person's ability to learn, communicate and behave appropriately across a variety of settings.
Characteristics of ADHD
ADHD is a combination of emotional dysregulation and attention dysfunction
ADHD is a neurological condition characterised by presentations of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity and executive functioning challenges across settings.
Children with ADHD may display an inability to focus on tasks for extended periods of time and may display difficult behaviours such as fidgeting, ongoing restlessness, or excessive talking.
It is a long term belief that ADHD is twice as common in boys compared to girls, however more recent studies have identified that ADHD often expresses itself in girls through excessive talking, poor self-esteem, worrying, perfectionism, risk-taking and nosiness and not the typical hyperactivity and lack of focus that is often seen in boys.
It is important to understand that you don’t need to have the hyperactivity that is commonly associated with ADHD to have a diagnosis of ADHD.
What does inattention look like?
Difficulty staying focussed and avoiding distractions (e.g. when reading, talking, listening and completing tasks)
Difficulty following instructions and completing set tasks
Not attending to details which leads to making mistakes
Frequently avoiding tasks that require a high level of concentration
Often losing resources that are needed to complete tasks
Regularly forgetting aspects of daily routine
Difficulties with organisation
What does hyperactivity and/or impulsivity look like?
Frequent fidgeting, tapping and squirming
Not staying seated when expected
Running around and/or climbing in an inappropriate setting
Unable to stay quiet during play and down-time
Excessive talking and frequent blurting out what they want to say
Difficulty waiting their turn and often interrupting or intruding
Source: @what.is.mental.illness, 'My name is ADHD'
Source: @what.is.mental.illness, 'What People Think ADHD Is'
The Three Types of ADHD
There are three types of ADHD
- Inattentive
- Hyperactive/Impulsive
- Combined
People with either of these types of ADHD find concentrating, organising themselves and their belongings and staying focused very difficult.
Stimulant medication is often prescribed to assist, however, behavioural strategies and intervention are also encouraged to manage ADHD.
You don't 'grow out' of ADHD
Many adults are being diagnosed with ADHD after recognising the symptoms, behaviours, traits, and presentations following their child/ren being diagnosed or coming across the condition in their search for answers over their persistent difficulties in their lives. The misconception about growing out of ADHD stems from adults who have scaffolded their lives and have strategies to support their known areas of difficulties making it appear as though their symptoms have diminished or disappeared, when in fact they have not.
Diagnosed adults have literally spent their lives masking their challenges, over-compensating, changing the narrative to avoid tasks and/or requirements and more often than not, struggling with their self-esteem, self-worth, self-confidence and facing many mental health challenges as a result.
The Neuroscience of ADHD
ADHD's behaviours (and emotions) can mislead people to think that ADHD is a behavioural condition.
It's not. It's a neurological condition, or, brain difference.
The traits of being forgetful, not being able to concentrate, getting easily distracted, being disorganised, concentrating too much and not being able to shift our focus, being impulsive and/or on the go all the time can ALL be explained neurologically.
The ADHD brain is a complex hot mess mass of neurons, cells, disconnections, misconnections and chemicals all fighting their way to their actual spots. There are literally clear neurological differences in our brains that affect and impact our behaviour and emotions. We're constantly looking for dopamine and then trying to keep it activated.
To explain the scienc-y stuff in more depth scientists have found that those with ADHD have deficiencies in specific neurotransmitters that underlie many common disorders including anxiety, mood disorders and anger-control problems. The deficient neurotransmitter is known as norepinephrine and its molecule is dopa. This tiny molecule is converted into dopamine, which, in turn, is converted into norepinephrine.
The ADHD brain is a complex hot mess mass of neurons, cells, disconnections, misconnections and chemicals all fighting their way to their actual spots. There are literally clear neurological differences in our brains that affect and impact our behaviour and emotions.
We're constantly looking for dopamine and then trying to keep it activated.
To explain the scienc-y stuff in more depth scientists have found that those with ADHD have deficiencies in specific neurotransmitters that underlie many common disorders including anxiety, mood disorders and anger-control problems. The deficient neurotransmitter is known as norepinephrine and its molecule is dopa. This tiny molecule is converted into dopamine, which, in turn, is converted into norepinephrine.
How ADHD Affects the Brain
ADHD seems to involve impaired neurotransmitter activity in four functional regions of the brain:
- The frontal cortex - the area responsible for attention and organisation
- The limbic system - which is responsible for regulating our emotions, therefore any deficiencies in this area may result in restlessness, inattention and/or emotional volatility
- The basal ganglia - the area where all information passes through before being relayed to the correct sites in the brain and deficits in this area causes the information to 'short-circuit' resulting in inattention or impulsivity
- The reticular activating system - the relaying system of the brain when compromised can cause inattention, impulsivity, or hyperactivity.
Source: @what.is.mental.illness, 'What People Think ADHD Is'
The Impacts of ADHD on Behaviour and Emotions
Mental Hyperactivity
Those with ADHD experience mental hyperarousal, which is not being able to relax or impossible to switch their brains off from a barrage of daily thoughts running through their minds.
Emotional Hyperactivity
Those with ADHD experience hyperactive feelings and reactions more frequently and intensely, and sometimes more extremely; from feeling great to low, and feeling criticisms more fiercely.
ADHD and Decision-Making - INCU
Neurotypical (NT) brains make decisions based on three factors: Importance, Rewards and Consequences. Those of us with ADHD, rarely, if ever, make decisions based on these things.
ADHD brains make decisions based on INCU; Interest, Challenge, Novelty, Urgency.
To delve more into this, when we look at the Neurotypical model of Importance, Rewards and Consequences, they just don't hit the spot with us. If what we need to do is not INCU, we don't do it. At all. The end. The only way we do it is if we're pushed and being nagged... which then makes it urgent, because we want you to stop annoying us!).
Rewards and consequences might seem to work, but only when they engage one of the ICNU factors. If the reward is something we're interested in or if it is a new reward, it can help us get the task done, but not always. And consequences are trickier because they usually need to be so urgent they can't be ignored. Procrastination creates a crisis, which creates urgency and then finally leads to doing what needs to be done or achieved.
Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fib
Human brains over time have developed a self-protective mechanism designed to ensure survival in times of extreme danger or stress. When we feel threatened, our brains react instantly to decide how to best protect itself, which is widely referred to as the 'Fight or Flight' response. This has evolved into what we now know as the 'fight, flight or freeze' response.
The Limbic region of the brain is ready to respond to threats and it processes information from multiple sources when it senses the presence of danger, assesses the threat and activates a defence. A person is 'chemically fueled' by adrenaline being released into the which triggers the decision to fight (attack and defend) or flight (to flee) or freeze (play dead) as your body is flooded with the stress hormone, cortisol.
More recently, there's been another 'F-word' addition to the 'Fight, Flight, Freeze' response as Psychologists have observed and identified another behaviour in times of real or perceived danger, especially for those with ADHD, which is 'Fib'.
This 'fib' or 'fabrication' allows for an aversion to a present danger or threat and an escape from fear, embarrassment, judgment, guilt or shame and provides a brief but powerful sense of reward (or escape/victory).
It's important to know and understand that there's so much more to ADHD than attention dysfunction and hyperactive behaviour as the name suggests and has us believe.
Supporting ADHD in the Classroom
Source: additudemag, 'Explaining ADHD to Teachers'
Source: additudemag, 'How to Teach Children with ADHD'
See more infographics on supporting students with ADHD, here.
See Mrs Speechy P's infographics on designing Neurodiversity affirming rules and expectations at school & teachers can support a neurodiverse classroom.