Ever since Harriet can remember, her head has “always felt busy”. In school it would take her longer to complete tasks, which led to overthinking as she tried to keep up with her peers. At 15, she went to her GP, who told her that she was suffering with anxiety and prescribed her beta blockers. They helped slightly, but for the last seven years Harriet has simply accepted that she is a “perpetual worrier”.
Or so she thought. Earlier this year she saw a TikTok about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in women. “I was scrolling and saw someone talking about how women with anxious and depressive dispositions may actually have ADHD. At first I didn’t think much of it — I’d always associated ADHD with fidgety boys in school,” says Harriet. “But then the video explained how ADHD presents differently in women, and I had every symptom.”
The 23-year-old has now been diagnosed with ADHD. She is part of the 20 per cent increase in the number of identified patients — mostly women — compared to the same quarter last year, according to an NHS report.
ADHD is a development impairment which impacts a person’s ability to plan, focus on and execute tasks. ADHD individuals can be more impulsive, have shorter attention spans, may fidget and may make more careless mistakes. But according to a study from the University of Michigan, the condition may aid ‘outside the box’ thinking as people with ADHD are less fixated on rules and boundaries.
Though the cause of ADHD is unknown, it is thought to have strong genetic links, with the neurotransmitter dopamine playing an important role (experts argue those with ADHD are likely to produce too little).
Diagnoses are traditionally made after a detailed assessment, which includes a physical exam (to rule out other causes) and interviews with the individual and those in their life. Specialist neurobehavioral psychiatrists look at a person’s behaviours and lifestyle. It’s not uncommon for them to request school reports; ADHD is thought to be a condition a person is born with and will have displayed in childhood. According to ADHD UK, an estimated 2.6 million people in the UK have the condition and women are equally as likely as men to have it, though they only account for one in every three diagnoses.
Though all that seems to be changing. “It’s about awareness,” says Kate Moryoussef, the host of The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast. “Lots more people are talking about the specific ways ADHD presents in women online on Instagram and TikTok. Celebrities are coming out and talking about it. The general awareness over the past two or three years has become huge.”
Recently, New York socialite Julia Fox took to TikTok to share her experience of living with ADHD. “It’s been very difficult,” she told her 700,000 followers last week. “I have bouts of great productivity... and then I have moments of deep, deep, deep stagnant type of feeling, like I just can’t f***ing move. I’ve never really talked about it, but ADHD is really tough.” It’s been viewed half a million times, with fans thanking her for making “us all feel a little more understood”.
According to a study for the BMC Psychiatry journal, part of the difficulty in diagnosing women and girls is that while they have the same symptoms as men, they’re less likely to ‘act out’. Daydreaming, rumination and difficulty maintaining relationships are more common than ‘disruptive’ behaviours. “With girls it’s usually misdiagnosed as anxiety or depression,” says Moryoussef. “But there’s often lots of other signs that are missed by doctors — problems with sleep, addiction, body dysmorphia, self harm — combined with the educational side, such as feeling like we’re not retaining information or have learning difficulties.”
For Harriet, having the diagnosis has been life-changing. “It’s really helped with my self-esteem. I’ve stopped being so hard on myself and feel validated in my mental struggles,” she says. “More than anything, finding a community of women online has made me feel less alone, and for that I couldn’t be more grateful.”
