The Impact of ADHD

It is difficult to establish the impact of ADHD from a financial perspective since there are many segments of society which have benefitted from these creative, impulsive, high energy personalities who tend to be impatient and forgetful. A handful of examples would be special education teachers, pharmaceutical companies, mental health specialists, doctors, divorce lawyers, and job placement services.

On the other hand the impact of ADHD on those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is profound getting the short end of the stick when it comes to relationships and social interactions, earning power, and overall mental health and wellness.

The impact of ADHD - Generalization

We have all had those days when we can't find our keys, forget to charge our cell phones or other important electronic devices, make inappropriate comments at just the wrong time, and can't seem to get our schoolwork or job projects done on time. But for those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder these days can be a regular occurrence rather than an isolated event.

Then there are those children or adults who may be borderline ADHD where their doctor doesn't quite find them ADHD enough to justify a diagnosis leaving them feeling bored, worthless, hopeless, and seemingly always being one step behind their peers without any hope of professional treatment.

Some believe the full impact of ADHD is not fully realized because only about twenty-five percent of children and ten percent of adults are ever diagnosed and treated. The ten percent number in adults seems particularly low, and may be, primarily due to the diagnostic criteria which was designed for children as does not accurately reflect the impact of ADHD on adults.

Additionally, many adults struggle muddle through for years with undiagnosed adult ADHD not realizing that there are a number of over the counter homeopathic remedies, behavior therapies such as CBT, along with diet and exercise regimes that could really make a big difference in their lives.

But for the ADHD adult even when they do recognize the condition and seeks out professional help they may be thwarted by the possibility that their ADHD may be co-existing. According to Theresa Cerulli, MD there is a seventy percent chance that common mental health conditions such as clinical depression, bi-polar disorder, OCD, and anxiety will be present.

The impact of ADHD - Workplace and School Hard Facts

The statistics below were compiled during ADHD awareness week by the ADHD Awareness Coalition. I believe you will find them interesting.

Sixty percent of those surveyed said they had lost, or changed, a job or blamed their termination on their ADHD symptoms. Thirty six percent said they have had four jobs or more in the last ten years with seven percent having had ten or more jobs over the course of the last ten years.

Forty-four percent of parents of ADHD children when surveyed said their child was dissatisfied with their school life, with responses ranging from extremely dissatisfied to slightly dissatisfied and forty-one percent saying their child was unhappy with their social status at school.

The survey also indicated that to reduce the impact of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder many turn to exercise with half of adults and thirty-nine percent of children admitting they had used exercise at some point to manage symptoms.

The Impact of ADHD - What Else?

Approximately twenty percent of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has learning disabilities; eighty percent under achieve academically; and forty percent of ADHD children have issues with self-esteem, opposition to authority, depression, or anxiety by the time they reach adolescence.

In conclusion, those with ADHD are generally creative intelligent people who struggle with structure, organization, and fitting into societal norms making the impact of ADHD quite broad ranging and difficult to reverse without a thoughtful comprehensive approach to symptoms management.

Both parents of ADHD children and adults will have many treatment options from which to choose ranging from risky prescription stimulants to alternative methods of treatment such as side effect free homeopathic remedies and behavioral therapy.

That said, most experts agree that the key to leveling the playing field for both ADHD children and adults is embarking on some type of treatment sooner rather than later and then closely monitoring the results for effectiveness.