Would You Recognize These Adult ADHD Symptoms?

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition known to affect children. However, adults can also have ADHD, and may have lived their whole lives without realizing they have it. Adult ADHD symptoms can have an impact in your life, including work and home. By knowing the symptoms, you can get a better idea if you have ADHD.
Do You Often Feel Distracted?
Everyone gets distracted now and then but for those with ADHD, being distracted happens much more often, even on a daily basis. Some questions to ask:

• Is it difficult for you to stay focused on a project?
• Do you struggle with getting started on a task?
• Do you get pulled away from what you are doing to something else?
• Are you always thinking of what you’d rather be doing, instead of the here and now?

Are You Disorganized a Lot?
Having ADHD as an adult can look like forgetting about appointments or deadlines. Maybe your personal workspace is cluttered and disorganized. You always seem to be catching up instead of staying on top of things. Or, when you are able to keep ahead, it takes a lot more work and effort for you to do so than it does for others. Thus, you use up a lot more mental energy, leaving you drained at the end of the day.
Do you Hyperfocus on Specific Things?
Something that isn’t commonly known about ADHD is the tendency to hyperfocus. This occurs when you are able to stay focused on something for an extended period of time. However, in other areas of your life, you may struggle to maintain that focus, become distracted, or feel bored and move on to something else. Hyperfocusing can happen when it comes to:

• Your work, especially if your work is something you are passionate about.
• A hobby that requires focus, such as building models or wood carving.
• Reading about something of particular interest to you.
• Playing video games or watching TV.

It sounds counterintuitive to what we know about ADHD, but it is a real symptom associated with the condition. Hyperfocus causes us to think of ADHD less as a condition regarding distractibility, but, as Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D. says in ADDitude Magazine, that, “people with ADD have a dysregulated attention system.”
Does it Seem You are Moody A Lot?
Another adult ADHD symptom is moodiness. The Mayo Clinic describes different moods such as:

• Feelings of restlessness.
• Having a hot temper.
• Experiencing mood swings.
• Having a low frustration tolerance.

These kinds of moods may be having a negative effect on your relationships at work or at home. You may find it’s been difficult for you make friends or have close relationships with others because of your mood.
Do You Feel You are Not Meeting Your Potential?
Willow Lawson, in Psychology Today, writes about how adult ADHD symptoms include the idea of impairment. This means that you are experiencing symptoms in a way that it makes it difficult or impossible to maintain certain aspects of your life. This means being able to balance the responsibilities of a typical adult, such as work, family, finances, school, etc. Granted, we all feel like it is hard to keep all of the balls going at once, but usually the balls still stay in the air.  For adults with ADHD, the opposite is true.
Remember that having adult ADHD does not mean that you are not intelligent or that you are incapable of being successful. It simply means that your brain works differently. By recognizing the common symptoms that ADHD adults experience, you can better understand ADHD and take steps to develop effective coping strategies for life.