Here's the thing: undiagnosed ADHD isn't benign. Years of untreated symptoms can lead to many experiences of shame and humiliation, which can be encoded in the brain as trauma. This can even progress to panic attacks that do not respond to medication or therapy for anxiety as they are related to the ADHD.
Studies show adults diagnosed with ADHD are more likely than those without ADHD to also have posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Untreated ADHD in adults can lead to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. This is because ADHD symptoms can lead to focus, concentration, and impulsivity problems. When these problems are not managed effectively, they can lead to feelings of frustration, irritability, and low self-esteem.
If left untreated in childhood or adulthood, the symptoms of ADHD (hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsiveness) can lead to behavioral, emotional, social, academic, and vocational problems.
“Nobody has perfect memory… but for [people with ADHD], it's extreme. They feel like they're lost all the time,” Almagor said. He believes this is why people don't take ADHD seriously. “I think that's why some people don't respect the severity of what [a person with ADHD] can experience,” he said.
In fact, there is evidence that children with ADHD who have a disturbing experience are four times as likely to develop PTSD than kids without the disorder. And they're likely to experience more severe trauma symptoms than kids without ADHD.
As emphasized above, the evidence emerged in the research is that dissociative experiences are significantly associated with symptom clusters of the ADHD, particularly attention deficit symptoms.
Individuals with ADHD are easily distracted by extraneous stimuli when doing tasks that require sustained mental effort. However, individuals with PTSD cannot concentrate due to hyperarousal or zoning out, and are easily startled.
Trauma can make children feel agitated, troubled, nervous, and on high alert — symptoms that can be mistaken for ADHD. Inattention in children with trauma may also make them disassociate, which can look like a lack of focus — another hallmark symptom of ADHD.
A psychiatrist may give a patient several other psychological tests before making a diagnosis for ADHD. This can include having a behavior rating scale or a checklist of symptoms. A psychiatrist may also test a patient for a learning disability, which can closely mimic the symptoms of ADHD.
The main symptoms include impulsivity, hyperactivity, distractibility, poor concentration, racing thoughts and emotional reactivity.
Differences in emotions in people with ADHD can lead to 'shutdowns', where someone is so overwhelmed with emotions that they space out, may find it hard to speak or move and may struggle to articulate what they are feeling until they can process their emotions.
You might start feeling numb or emotionally unavailable. You might also begin to feel a sense of unreality, as if the world around you or even you aren't real. Often, you'll find yourself “checking out” involuntarily or “spacing out” in the middle of doing something.
Zoning out is considered a type of dissociation, which is a feeling of being disconnected from the world around you. Some people experience severe dissociation, but "zoning out" is considered a much milder form. Daydreaming is the most common kind of zoning or spacing out.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders affecting children. Symptoms of ADHD include inattention (not being able to keep focus), hyperactivity (excess movement that is not fitting to the setting) and impulsivity (hasty acts that occur in the moment without thought).
Symptoms of a dissociative disorder
feeling disconnected from yourself and the world around you. forgetting about certain time periods, events and personal information. feeling uncertain about who you are. having multiple distinct identities.
If you experience symptoms that appear around the time that your Adderall, Vyvanse, or Concerta is filtering out of your system, that can indicate stimulant crash. The symptoms that adults with ADHD experience during stimulant crash might be similar to their ADHD symptoms, such as: Feeling restless or fidgety.
Symptoms of ADHD can have some overlap with symptoms of bipolar disorder. With ADHD, a child or teen may have rapid or impulsive speech, physical restlessness, trouble focusing, irritability, and, sometimes, defiant or oppositional behavior.
The term “ADHD walk” refers to an abnormal gait or increased postural sway when walking that is indicative of issues with coordination or balance - two things that are more common in those with ADHD.
Hypervigilance is often found in children with ADHD and PTSD (often as a result of abuse) and they will be continually monitoring their environment.
Our results clearly showed that adult ADHD symptoms were associated with ACEs and emotional neglect and abuse. This was consistent with previous studies conducted with children [7. Family-environmental factors associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Chinese children: a case-control study. PLoS ONE.