Being unable to fit in, or perform up to girl-code can make them a target for mean girls and leave them isolated and confused.ĭr. “Girls are under a lot more pressure to be socially tuned in and self-controlled,” says Dr. Girls with ADHD often struggle to decode the myriad of social subtleties of girl-world: what to wear, what to say, how to talk, when to be comforting, when to be mean. Kathleen Nadeau, director of the Chesapeake Center for ADHD, elaborates. A girl who was fine in grade school can suddenly find herself drowning in the academic, social and extracurricular intricacies of middle school. One of the consequences of this is that girls who were able to manage their ADHD symptoms before are no longer able to do so. The pressure to multi-task and succeed has increased tenfold. The word overscheduling is on everyone’s lips and college admission hopes loom large. Today’s kids have more obligations and opportunities than ever before. And that takes a toll.”Ī 12-year-old girl with ADHD I know put it best: “If everyone else can do these things and I can’t, it must be me.” “Even as a kid, as early as 8, you know you can’t do things that other people can do. “One hundred percent say yes,” she notes. Quinn says she asks parents if at a young age their daughters have ever said “I’m stupid.” Without proper diagnosis and understanding, failures become evidence, confirmation of self-convicting charges: I’m not smart. “The lack of social and academic skills-the cumulative effect of what they missed when they were younger-take a toll,” says Dr. Hinshaw and his team published a study showing that girls with combined-type ADHD have significantly higher rates of attempted suicide and self harm, even though 40 percent of them have outgrown their hyperactive and impulsive symptoms in adolescence. Girls with ADHD are significantly more likely to experience major depression, anxiety and eating disorders than girls without. Whereas boys with ADHD tend to externalize their frustration, blaming the “stupid test,” acting up and acting out, girls are more likely to blame themselves, turning their anger and pain inward. Research indicates undiagnosed ADHD can jeopardize girls’ and young women’s self esteem and, in some cases, their mental health. Staring out the window is nothing when the kid next to you is dancing on the sill.Ī late or missed diagnosis doesn’t just mean girls don’t get the academic services and accommodations that could help them succeed. Politely daydreaming underachievers just don’t attract attention the way hyperactive and impulsive boys do. “People imagine little boys bouncing off the walls and think: That’s what ADHD looks like and if this girl doesn’t look like that then she doesn’t have ADHD.” “Girls are not as hyperactive,” says Patricia Quinn, MD, director and co-founder of the National Resource Center for Girls and Women with ADHD. The symptoms are often more subtle, and they don’t fit the stereotype. “Three decades later we know this is an equal opportunity condition.”Įqual opportunity, maybe, but equally recognized and treated it is not.Īccording to the CDC boys are far more likely to receive a diagnosis of ADHD-not necessarily because girls are less prone to the disorder but because in girls ADHD presents differently. “We were initially taught that ADHD is boys’ phenomenon,” says Stephen Hinshaw, PhD, chair of the psychology department at UC Berkley.
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