Definition of ADD-ADHD
Attention deficit disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADD-ADHD is a condition that starts to develop within some children during their early childhood years. This problem can persist and can continue in their adult lives. ADD-ADHD can make it really difficult for children to get a hold of themselves and control their behavior. Such patients are also unable to control some of the other symptoms pertaining to ADD-ADHD. According to epidemiological data the disease or syndrome affects approximately four to six percent of the total U.S. population.
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a label given to children and adults with significant problems in four main areas of their lives; Inattention, Impulsivity, Hyperactivity and Boredom. The term Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, (ADHD), is used when hyperactivity is a symptom.
Attention Deficit Disorder tends to focus predominately on children, leaving the ADD adult largely under served. Most of the information presented about Attention Deficit Disorder focuses on children, parenting and school issues.
Adults with ADD often realize that they have adult Attention Deficit Disorder when their own child is diagnosed with Attention Deficit. Looking through the diagnostic test symptom list for children, the parent often sees similarities in their own present or past behavior.
For the adult newly diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (adult ADD), the diagnosis comes as a revelation as well as an explanation. The brain fog, the inability to focus and the hours spent scouring the house for misplaced car keys can now be attributed to something more than being scattered and disorganized.
Most everyone feels forgetful, impulsive or inattentive at one time or another but a marked presence of these behaviors might be symptoms of adult ADD. This is especially true if these behaviors have existed since childhood. Many experts in the field of ADHD acknowledge the under-diagnosing of adult ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder simply was not in vogue decades ago when the ADD adult of today was a child. Additionally, the prevalent belief in years past was that most children with Attention Deficit Disorder would outgrow their symptoms by adolescence.
Experts now are rethinking that belief. It is estimated that about 50 percent of children with ADD continue to have problems that affect functioning in adulthood. The main difference between the ADD adult and child is that the adult with Attention Deficit Disorder typically has developed more sophisticated coping mechanisms.
Adult Attention Deficit Disorder is a common mental health issue. The ADD adult might have trouble following the proper channels or chain of commands, have an internal sense of anxiety, a sense of underachievement, have trouble keeping a job or impulsively change job often. Problems with self-esteem, difficulty maintaining an organized work and/or home environment, chronic procrastination and being frequently overwhelmed by tasks of daily living are all symptoms of adult ADD.
Symptoms of ADD-ADHD
There are a number of symptoms of ADD-ADHD, though these symptoms may generally vary from one person to another. Some of the most common symptoms found in patients suffering from ADD-ADHD are:
- Having difficulty remaining seated for some amount of time
- Facing difficulties in following instructions properly
- Often fidgeting with hands and feet and squirming while being seated
- Having problem playing quietly
- Finding it difficult to await turn in games and group activities
- Talking excessively often
- Blurting out answers even before the questions are completed
- Often not paying attention to what is being told
- Sometimes interrupting or intruding in others work
- Often not remembering things necessary for tasks and activities
- Being easily diverted by irrelevant stimuli
- Frequently engaging in physically hazardous actions without considering possible consequences
The symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD-ADHD exist in all most every individual. Everybody has some of these symptoms at some point of life or the other. But people who are severely suffering have more of these above symptoms of ADD-ADHD in them. People suffering from ADD-ADHD symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder who are careless have particular difficulty in keeping their mind fixed on one thing at a time. They get bored quite easily with a particular chore and will bounce to the next chore and then another task after that. The most important characteristics of ADD-ADHD are inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. These symptoms appear early in almost every patient's life.
Types of ADD-ADHD
Generally there are six types of Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD-ADHD. These six types include :
- Classic ADD-ADHD – A patient suffering from classic ADD is always inattentive, distracted, disorganized, restless, hyperactive and impulsive. Patients with this syndrome face difficulty in staying focused on a particular thing. They feel agitated often and face problem paying attention.
- Inattentive ADD-ADHD – Patients suffering from inattentive ADD are always inattentive, have low motivation, slow moving, sluggish, and are often termed as daydreamers and couch potatoes. This happens to a patient who does not have the hyperactive ADD syndrome. They remain lost in their thoughts most of the times and are unable to concentrate on a particular task.
- Over focused ADD-ADHD – Patients suffering from the over focused ADD syndrome often faces problems such as shifting attention, frequently getting caught in negative thoughts and inappropriate behavior. They are also quite obsessive about certain things and tend to be extremely worried. These patients are quite inflexible and are rigid with their notions and thoughts. They often behave argumentatively.
- Temporal Lobe ADD-ADHD – Patients going through temporal lobe ADD are usually found to be inattentive, irritable, aggressive, experience mood instabilities and become very impulsive. These patients become very moody and sometimes do things out of impulse.
- Limbic ADD-ADHD – A patient with the limbic ADD syndrome are seen to be inattentive and they experience chronic depression and also get affected by negative low energy such as hopelessness and worthlessness.
- ADD-ADHD – A child who is facing the ADD-ADHD syndrome is usually always inattentive, irritable, extremely distractible, angry and excessively sensitive to the environment around him. Sometimes out of hyperactivity the child may talk excessively or even get extremely oppositional and they may also experience cyclic moods.
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