October is ADHD Awareness Month with this year’s theme being ‘Awareness is key’. With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (more commonly referred to as ADHD) affecting approximately 7 percent of children and 4 percent of adults, we believe awareness is very much key to understanding and supporting this significant percentage of community members.
It’s known that there are clear differences in the brains of people who have ADHD, particularly that there are less neural transmissions between different parts of the brain. For someone with ADHD, they can lack the neural organisation to self-regulate and to stop automatic responses. In other words, their brain is built to respond impulsively to their environment which can make it difficult for them to fulfil the everyday tasks most people take for granted.
Although ADHD can present a number of challenges, we know from our own work with young people at The BUSY School and with adults seeking our help in the workplace or for employment, that it can also be something of a superpower.
Individuals can often outperform their neurotypical peers because of, not despite, their ADHD. Children with ADHD often have a strong visual memory and can develop a real passion and aptitude for areas of study and sports that they find interesting. People with ADHD are often highly focused problem solvers. Their different perspectives can lead to innovative and imaginative thinking. As adults, motivated by competition and the drive to be creative, they can bring these sought-after qualities into the workplace.
In effect, people with ADHD are ‘hard-wired’ for what motivates them. If difficulties arise for them at work, it can often be around the challenges of decision-making in complex organisations, or in prioritising workloads. People with an ADHD diagnosis are also more exposed to complicating factors like dysphoria (feeling consistently uneasy, unsettled or worn down), or depression if everyday problems start to build. Unfortunately, they are also more likely to battle unresolved post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to their perceived differences. These are emotions that many of us will face at some point in our lives, but with ADHD they can be harder to share and more challenging to address.
Duncan (not his real name) is a young professional diagnosed with ADHD and Attention Deficit Disorder. When he was referred to our Able Futures service, Duncan’s previously excellent work was being affected by heightening levels of stress and anxiety, and by a conflict situation in the office that he was struggling to navigate.
We provided regular counselling sessions with a therapist specialising in neurodiversity. The therapist helped Duncan to establish clearer boundaries both at work and in his personal life, and to develop strategies to manage his time and stay organised at work.
A set of broader interventions helped as well. Duncan and his employer agreed to him taking one day off a week to manage his workload and stress levels more effectively, and he rekindled his enthusiasm for rock climbing which provided him with a positive way of managing his stress and improving his physical and mental wellbeing.
Duncan’s journey with us illustrates the importance of personalising support for individuals with ADHD. For other people referred to us with ADHD, those support strategies have included trauma-informed grounding techniques to support PTSD symptoms, systems to address task paralysis and distractibility, and countdown techniques to help people with their time-management.
Everybody with ADHD is unique. Everybody’s experience will be their own and the challenges each person faces will be different. But with interventions tailored to the individual, and delivered in the right way, there is a superpower waiting to be released.
This ADHD Awareness Month lets spread the awareness and celebrate the superpower qualities people living with ADHD can bring to the workplace and our communities.
