Omar Manasrah

Professor Wright

English Composition II

1 March 2022

ADHD in Adults

ADHD gets paid attention to quite a bit in children, but what about adults who experience

this and go through this struggle completely undiagnosed. You might experience these symptoms

and face this struggle in life without even acknowledging it. Facing this struggle and not

acknowledge it will make life a lot more tedious and difficult than it has to be. More and more

research has recently been coming out about the number of undiagnosed cases of attention-

deficit, hyperactivity disorder. How common is ADHD amongst adults and how do we combat it

collectively as a society?

ADHD is a problem present today that depletes us of our maximum potential as adults. It is

important to spread awareness about this so more people are prone to look for these symptom at

an extremely young age, this in turn makes it easier to diagnose it and treat it before it gets worse

and potentially cause other type of mental disorders. These issues are more difficult to grab at

when you are older as they become more of who you are rather than an issue that can be

resolved. Jumping to the idea of medication might not be everyone’s solution, although it might

be the most effective, there are other ways to combat this. The main way to combat this is truly

as simple as it sounds, identifying the problem and being aware that it is constantly there.

Acknowledging the fact, the problem is there will make it easier to make sense why certain

things are more difficult for you than others. According to Hansa D. Bhargava, “It may make
you think of kids who have trouble paying attention or who are hyperactive or impulsive. Adults

can have ADHD, too. About 4% to 5% of U.S. adults have it. But few adults get diagnosed or

treated for it”. That number is astounding when you truly think about it, four to five percent of a

population this vast is a crazy statistic. There are about 250 million adults in the United States,

that would mean four to five percent of that would be 12,500,000 adults with undiagnosed

ADHD. Looking at how high this number is sparking a little bit of worry; it is honestly quite

frightening and makes me want to push for more awareness of this subject even more. That

number is too high and too outrageous to ignore and act like this is not an important issue at

hand.

My younger brother got diagnosed with ADHD about 3 years ago. His symptoms were a little bit

more apparent than mine, and my parents noticed this at a very young age. Not wanting to

conform him to medication at an extremely young age, my parents chose to let my younger

brother fight this battle and see if he could beat it. Ultimately, that could have possibly been the

wrong decision. For me personally, although I am an advocate for medication and the use of it to

combat these medical problems that are easily treatable, I believe waiting to diagnose him till he

was about 16 was the right thing to do. It gave his brain a chance to fight it and combat it and he

was doing really well up until he started taking AP classes, that’s when his scatterbrained ADHD

tendencies became stress induced and a lot more apparent.

Reports of symptoms getting worse and worse over time have been extremely prevalent in data

collecting when it comes to this topic. As time goes on with these symptoms undiagnosed and

untreated, it will prove to become and impeccable obstacle in an adult’s life that can be avoided

with the right attention. Much research has been done on the transition of these symptoms from

childhood to adulthood. A couple of the sources I analyzed helped me describe and explain this
better to support my thesis and main point of the argument. According to The Mayo Clinic

Team, “symptoms start in early childhood and continue into adulthood. In some cases, ADHD is

not recognized or diagnosed until the person is an adult”. That is why it is so crucial to try and

catch this disorder as early as possible to further treatment and take care of the problem at its

source before it gets worse and more difficult to deal with. The more awareness is provided to

this, the more likely it will be for parents and teachers to notice these symptoms early.

Lack of focus is one of the most prevalent symptoms for this. Lack of focus sounds like an

extremely broad thing to describe the main symptom as, but it is the most prevalent one and the

hardest one to distinguish. Feeling the constant deadweight of being scatterbrained is one of the

most difficult things to deal with in your day-to-day life as a functioning adult. Many people start

to notice their attention deficit disorder throughout their time as a student, a lot of the times

during high school, but most of the time is most apparent during college where the schoolwork

becomes more strenuous. According to Marney A. White, “Lack of focus, the most telltale

symptom of ADHD, goes beyond simply finding it hard to pay attention”. This piece of

information is extremely important because ADHD has a history of misdiagnosis. The solution to

this would be educating ourselves on the symptoms a little more intricately. Paying attention to

this more intricately, noticing things such as major issues finishing tasks, communication issues

such as difficulty focusing during a conversation, and looking past small things that usually one

would pay attention to, are all major subcategory symptoms to the main problem at hand,

struggling to stay focused.

As research shows, it is a lot more difficult to spot symptoms of ADHD in an adult than it is to

notice in a child. The symptoms are a decent amount more visible physically and verbally when

you are younger. This does not just apply to this disorder, but all disorders, they are a lot more
apparent when you are younger IF you were born with them. Being born with ADHD and

developing it over time are two different factors in this research. This fact makes it a little bit

more difficult for experts to distinguish the difference. People who develop ADHD overtime also

might not have this preconceived thought that they need help because they grew up without the

issue and recent research has shown that there are many cases where attention deficit disorders

develop over the course of a human’s early life. According to Smitha Bhandari, “A lot of the

time it’s not hard to spot ADHD in kids. But adults can have more subtle symptoms. This means

many adults struggle with ADHD and may not know they have it”. All these points tie into each

other to support the main argument, this emphasizes the point of finding it at an early stage to be

able to treat it. It becomes very strenuous on a person when they constantly battle something that

they have no idea they are battling, and it is most definitely harder on some people than it is on

others. Undiagnosed ADHD can turn badly for some people, it can be a gateway to anxiety and

depression, it is crucial to notice this. Some people go their whole lives struggling with anxiety

and depression and do not even know what’s truly stemming it. Many cases, ADHD is the culprit

at hand. Thinking that it may get better is maybe the case for a little, but the problem at hand will

never go away. Learning to live with it is one thing, but in some cases, it is almost impossible to

learn to live with this as it makes day to day tasks so much more difficult than they need to be.

That is a main factor in why this could lead to other disorders such as anxiety and depression, the

burden of living life at a different pace than everyone else will become so strenuous that it will

overall negatively impact your mental and become a slippery slope that is hard to get out of.

For the past couple of years, I have been paying attention to my habits and routines more and

more and realized that I might share this problem. It feels like it affects my day-to-day life

through many avenues. Starting off with the most prevalent one, focus. Whether it’s finishing a
homework assignment or doing the dishes; anything in the day-to-day life that is deemed

uninteresting is automatically an uphill battle for people that share this. Everything is constantly

a task that is straining and requires effort even though the effort is minimal it still creates a

problem in one’s brain that stems from a little bit of anxiety. Many people with this problem

struggle with most tasks but excel in activities that are categorized as “fun”. Attention span is in

tandem with focus, studies show that brains with add have an average attention span of 8 to 12

seconds. One key point I have noticed in my day to day is the action of not knowing when to

speak. Multiple times throughout the day I catch myself to speak over others without any regard

for what others might want or are currently saying. I do not do this out of disrespect at all and

almost get mad at myself every time whenever it happens, and it honestly tends to happen quite a

bit. Creating less distracting environment is also vital for my everyday life. Loud noises, phone

notifications, and erratic lights are all things that can be detrimental to my brain while attempting

to focus on and complete a task. Part of me is extremely grateful that I am doing more and more

research on this to try to understand it more and more and to see if I really do clinically have this

problem or if it is just a figment. I really do believe it goes deeper than that and the symptoms

and experiences I describe to people who I am close with that are clinically diagnosed by this all

say I should get checked out for it. I am treading very lightly when it comes to this and analyzing

the way I think a ton before making a certain claim. Again, this research opportunity has shown

me a lot of different perspectives and gave me a way better idea of what I could possibly be

dealing with and what a lot of people around the world could possibly be dealing with when they

have no idea that they are battling this endless struggle.

There are many different medications prescribed throughout the country that have proven to

tackle this problem differently at the source of it. Reports of attention deficits disorders
medications working have been very positive for the most parts, and have proven to be very

affective. According to Carlos Blanco, “Medication is a cornerstone of treatment for adults with

ADHD. Research has shown that stimulants and some nonstimulants can improve the symptoms

of ADHD, helping people pay attention, concentrate, and control their impulses”. I am usually

not one to advocate the jumping use in medication but for circumstances such as these where you

can genuinely tell an improvement in the quality of life of a person going through this disorder, I

am advocate for it. I have witnessed this around me on numerous occasions and I can whole

heartedly say ADHD medicine diagnosed by a medical professional has proven to help people

tremendously.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder has increasingly become a gray area for parents and

doctors. Monitoring school and home life have and will continue to be the most effective

method, until of course brains can be studied and analyzed at a microscopic level. Signs parents

should look out for in a child school life are the ability to complete tasks, being abnormally loud

or distractive, and issues following rules. Indications at home for parents will be easier to trash

and symptoms have a wider range. Restlessness, inability to stick to a singular task or activity,

intrusiveness towards family, low frustration tolerance, and disorganization. These are just a few

examples of outliers that parents and doctors can refer to hen making the initial diagnosis. A fix

all solution in a utopia would be isolating the use of technology until the age of 12. With the over

stimulation of current societal patterns, this puts ADHD into even more of a grey area as

mentioned earlier. A Harvard study concludes that children who use technology frequently

throughout the day are 10 percent more likely to show signs of ADHD. False positives will

appear more and will continue to grow as advances in technology are solely being created to

stimulate the brain for as long as possible. Sadly, there is no catch all test for ADHD, as it affects
most in different ways. Accompanying children with an ADHD specialist as early as possible

would catapult the chances of catching false positives.

It is somewhat upsetting thinking about the amount of people that go through this daily battle

within themselves that they cannot even give themselves credit for fighting. This is a constant

everyday struggle for adults who do not know and are not informed of the seriousness and toll

this disorder can take on your life, especially If you are unaware of it.

According to WebMD, a new study published Aug. 31 finds ADHD diagnoses in children

between the ages of 4 and 17 increased from 6.1% in 1997-1998 to 10.2% in 2015-2016. An

increase in these statistics obviously correlates with adults having a high number of undiagnosed

or misdiagnosed cases. Paying attention to and keeping in mind that this will get worse and

worse in kids as technology gets better and becomes more of a stimulant in society than it

already is in the present day and age. Although this is a statistic about ADHD diagnoses and

cases in children, the dramatic jump still proves a lot in the fact of the matter that more slipped

cases fell through the cracks and went untreated. It also proves that there is more misdiagnosis

than ever.

I did a ton of different research on different medical components that have been proven to help. I

have also talked to a couple of professionals on this subject, and I came up with what I believe is

a fair analysis. Combining Adderall and Guanfacine has been the perfect solution in many cases.

Impulsivity is a side effect in which Guanfacine overshadows all other medications people have

been prescribed. Both are commonly prescribed in conjunction as the ideal treatment plan.

Before being prescribed Guanfacine, reports of impulsivity were still through the roof. Both

these medications are typically taken together 5 to 6 days of the weeks with one day being a rest

day. Schoolwork and monotonous activities have been said to be a lot easier to complete and
enjoy mentally since having these prescriptions. Organizations and time management skills

improve as well. Having a rest day is vital due to the strain the brain feels after many consecutive

days of taking medication. One of my buddies stated “I would have never envisioned being able

to go throughout day-to-day life with as much ease as mt peers before going to the psychiatrist. I

attribute almost all the improvement to the medications as there are no other prominent solutions

to ADHD currently”. This truly gave me a lot of insight hearing it directly from the source. I

have never been the biggest advocate for medication but seeing how much it has helped people

in my life and people around the world has strayed me into a different direction.

After researching this topic more and more over the years, I am glad it has led me to this paper

because I did learn a ton of more information about this topic that I did not know before through

these citations and different articles. I believe learning more about this information has bettered

my perspective and point of view on this issue. I would be interested in doing more research and

talking to fellow students who find this topic as fascinating as I do. I am happy to share my

opinion on the validity of the sources and what is being said as this is a topic that genuinely

intrigues me and interests me. I also want to try my hardest to advocate the attention towards this

problem because I truly do believe the quality of life of many American adults is altered because

of their undiagnosed mental disorders. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Bhargava, Hanson. “Adult ADHD: Symptoms, Statistics, Causes, Types and Treatments.”

WebMD, WebMD, https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/adhd-adults.

Blanco, Carlos. “Adult ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder).” Adult ADHD

(Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) | Anxiety and Depression Association of America,

ADAA, https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/

adult-adhd.

Bluth, Rachel. “ADHD Numbers Are Rising, and Scientists Are Trying to Understand Why.”

The Washington Post, WP Company, 10 Sept. 2018,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/adhd-numbers-are-rising-and-

scientists-are-trying-to-understand-why/2018/09/07/a918d0f4-b07e-11e8-a20b-

5f4f84429666_story.html.

Clopton, Jennifer. “ADHD Rising in the U.S., but Why?” WebMD, WebMD, 20 Nov. 2018,

https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/news/20181126/adhd-rising-in-the-us-but-why#1.

Howard E. LeWine, MD. “Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).” Harvard Health,

21 Mar. 2022, https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-

disorder-adhd-a-to-z.

Staff, Mayo Clinic. “Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).” Mayo Clinic,

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 22 June 2019,

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/adult-adhd/symptoms-causes/syc-

20350878.
Staff, Mayo Clinic. “10 Adult ADHD Symptoms: Disorganization, Recklessness, and More.”

WebMD, WebMD, https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/10-symptoms-adult-adhd.

Team, the Healthline Editorial. “14 Symptoms of Adult ADHD, from Forgetfulness to Fatigue.”

Healthline, Healthline Media, 9 Feb. 2021, https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/adult-

adhd.