ADHD Awareness Month: 7 Myths and Truths About ADHD
October is ADHD Awareness Month, and it may be more relevant to you than you think
In the spirit of ADHD Awareness Month, I'll outline seven of the most common myths about ADHD, along with the truths I've learned through my work as an ADHD coach for adults. From this roundup of research and lived experience, I hope you'll better understand someone in your life – possibly yourself.
Note: I'll include references at the end so I don't lead you down any rabbit holes along the way. 🙂
1. Myth: ADHD isn't real. Everyone is "a little ADHD" these days.
Truth: ADHD has a genetic and neurological basis.
The World Health Organization, The National Institutes Health, The American Psychiatric Association, and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all recognize ADHD as a genetic neurotype.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, ADHD is marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention, hyperactivity / restlessness, and impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development.
In a culture that prizes executive functioning, unmanaged ADHD tends to wreak havoc on multiple areas of life: finances, work, education, relationships, and self-confidence. Beyond the everyday obstacles – like chronically messy spaces or lost keys, time, and trains of thought – are risks that include addiction, disordered eating, impulsive behavior, and self-harm.
The good news is that even though ADHDers are "Macs in a PC World," we can learn to work around the challenges of ADHD and channel its strengths.
2. Myth: ADHD is for kids; it's something you outgrow.
Truth: ADHD is present over a lifetime, though the way it shows up will vary with different environments and seasons of life.
As an ADHD coach, I work exclusively with adults, many who were diagnosed in adulthood. Often, they excelled in school as children but began to struggle in college or beyond, when they needed to structure their own time and priorities, and to attend to the everyday business of adulting.
People experience ADHD in varying degrees of intensity, and this will fluctuate through different stages of life, as our biology (such as hormones) and environment (such as job roles) changes. Those who don't meet the number of clinical criteria for diagnosis are considered "subclinical." However, they will benefit from understanding ADHD and using ADHD-friendly strategies in daily life.
3. Myth: If you have ADHD, you can't pay attention.
Truth: ADHDers don't have a deficit of attention; we have difficulty regulating our attention.
Researchers and medical professionals who specialize in ADHD agree that "Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder" is a misnomer.
As Dr. Ned Hallowell puts it, people with ADHD have "Ferrari brains with bicycle brakes." Our minds are powerful, propelling us to exceptional destinations when we're able to manage our impulses, and sending us careening off roads and into walls when we aren't.
If ADHDers find something interesting, or if it's new, challenging, or urgent, we can zero in with laser focus. We often lock into this hyperfocus without awareness and end up on a "side quest" from the task we had planned to do. Our brains don't filter out irrelevant inputs from our environment and inside our own minds.
People with ADHD focus easily when they're working in their "zone of genius." My clients do things like make beautiful art, lead nonprofit organizations or their own businesses, and see patients in clinical settings. When curiosity strikes, ADHDers dive into learning everything about it with exceptional energy and tenacity.
It's our zoom lens that's wonky: We have trouble zeroing in on what's important, and how much energy to invest in it. People with ADHD tend to put aside important tasks in favor of the ones that boost our dopamine. Once we start a task, we may zoom in with microscopic focus, deep-diving into one part of it and forgetting our intended destination. Or we zoom out with too wide a lens and find ourselves writing a comprehensive history of the topic that never gets done. What “done” even looks like may not be clear.
To get where we want to go, our Ferrari brains need a concrete destination, a clear road map, and pit stops along the way to fuel up with dopamine. What boosts our dopamine is elements of interest, novelty, urgency, and challenge.
4. Myth: If you've been a high achiever in school or career, you don't have ADHD.
Truth: Many ADHDers are high achievers, especially in areas of interest. But they often have internal stress masked with giftedness, effort, and coping skills.
According to Thom Hartmann's "hunter-farmer" theory, ADHDers are wired to be hunters rather than farmers; we thrive when we can zero in on a single target of interest and pursue it with short bursts of hyperfocus. In modern life, this can look like acing an exam in a favorite subject, writing an article on deadline or problem-solving in client meetings.
Whereas neurotypical brains are spurred to action by the importance of a task and its potential rewards and consequences, ADHD brains are motivated by interest, novelty, urgency, and challenge. Environments that require a consistent routine and precise time management (as farming does) are not a good fit, compared with environments that are a little different every day and engage ADHDers' curiosity and creativity (as a targeted "hunt" or mission does).
Ned Hallowell, M.D. (a psychiatrist and author with ADHD), says that finding the right-fit job and partner are two of the best supports for ADHD. Finding the right-fit environment for an ADHDer's strengths, interests, and tendencies can mean the difference between flourishing and languishing, in school, work, and relationships.
Professions in medicine and health, emergency services, outdoor recreation, coaching or consulting, journalism, sports and fitness, or creative arts and entertainment are just a few that tend to engage ADHD brains, and entrepreneurship is common.
5. Myth: If you have ADHD, you’re disruptive and out of control.
Truth: ADHD presents in different ways that can shift over time, and hyperactivity may present as anxiety and emotional dysregulation.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) lists three presentations of ADHD—Predominantly Inattentive, Hyperactive-Impulsive, and Combined.
Predominantly inattentive presentation: Loses things, easily distracted or lost in thought, forgetful, has difficulty with organization and sustained attention
Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive presentation: Fidgets restlessly and frequently gets out of seat, interrupts or blurts things out, talks and acts as if driven by a motor
Combined presentation: Meets the criteria for both presentations
Some ADHDers are more visibly hyperactive as children than as adults and internalize or mask their restlessness as they get older. They tend to have strong emotions and be highly sensitive, to sensory inputs and perceived rejection, criticism, or failure.
People may also have both giftedness and ADHD, which may be described as "2e" or "twice exceptional." Twice exceptional ADHDers are highly intelligent, creative, and tend to be particularly gifted in certain areas.
Gifted ADHDers are walking contradictions who may have unpredictable bursts of inspiration and output. Until my ADHD diagnosis, I didn't understand why I was smart but scatterbrained, driven but disorganized, and perfectionistic but prone to mistakes.
The performance of people with gifted ADHD is typically inconsistent across subject matter and skill sets. The absent-minded professor and the wild-minded entrepreneur (think Richard Branson) are archetypes of people who are brilliant in their field but may have trouble with the routine "basics" of everyday life, from maintaining hygiene to paying bills.
6. Myth: ADHD is for boys.
Truth: ADHD tends to present differently in girls.
Many of my female clients have struggled to get a diagnosis because they have excelled in school and their careers. Some have seen multiple health providers who don't know that ADHD often presents differently in women and girls. Often they've been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, like I had been long before my ADHD diagnosis.
Several of my introverted male clients have said that they have inattentive presentation and relate more to the way ADHD is described in women. Hyperactivity may show up as internal restlessness, intrusive thoughts, an unrelenting inner critic, and difficulty winding down to rest.
7. Myth: Medication will resolve any ADHD-related challenges.
Truth: Pills don't teach skills. To manage ADHD, it’s essential to learn ADHD-friendly strategies, whether or not you also take medication.
William Dodson, M.D., a psychiatrist specializing in ADHD, says that medication "gets you in the game"; for many ADHDers, medication can stabilize the foundation on which to build ADHD-friendly strategies.
An estimated 80-90 percent of ADHDers will see a significant improvement in their symptoms when they find the right medication for them, in the right dose. If a certain medication at a certain dose causes you distressing side effects such as irritability, it doesn’t necessarily mean that medication in general won’t work for you. If you’re having persistent insomnia, or "zombie-like" emotional blunting, tell your provider; they may adjust the dose or trying a different medication.
Building ADHD-friendly habits and strategies with ADHD coaching
So how do you build the skills that the pills don't teach? I've seen the most growth in clients who manage their ADHD with multiple, complementary supports at once. Depending on the resources available to you, this can be a blend of medication, therapy, self-education, calming techniques like meditation, exercise, and ADHD coaching. Think of these as tools in your toolbox that you use to meet different needs.
ADHD coaching can help ADHDers understand why we do the things they do, and to set up our lives in ways that work for us. There are many "best practices" for productivity and wellness that just don't work for most ADHD brains – like "early to bed, early to rise." Instead of setting ourselves up for failure and reinforcing self-defeating narratives, we can experiment with strategies that lean into our nature.
ADHDers tend to thrive with external structure and compassionate accountability, and ADHD coaching provides both. In addition, it’s healing to share what Brené Brown calls “knowing laughter” about our neurodivergent quirks. When we realize that we’re not the only ones who have a particular experience — and it’s common enough to have a name! — we can transform our shame and isolation into compassion and connection. From here, we can calm our nervous systems out of fight-or-flight and shift into learning and growth mode.
When we understand the biological tendencies that shape our behaviors, we can stop trying harder and start trying differently. An ADHD coach is a trusted guide on your journey whose brain works like yours does. Your coach can help you experiment with ADHD-friendly strategies, move beyond obstacles to get things done, and celebrate your wins along the way.
As psychologist Carl Rogers said, "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." Feeling seen and truly understood allows us to exhale and treat ourselves with more kindness as we evolve.
If this post resonates, you can learn more about my approach to ADHD coaching and book a free, zero-pressure Discovery Call.
Sources:
How to ADHD in a Neurotypical World, TEDx talk by Jessica McCabe
Adult ADHD: How to Succeed as a Hunter in a Farmer's World, by Thom Hartmann
About ADHD, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)
ADHD Quick Facts: ADHD Presentations (CHADD)
Widespread Cortical Thinning Is a Robust Anatomical Marker for Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Data and Statistics about ADHD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
ADHD Is Different for Women, The Atlantic
Decades of failing to recognize ADHD in girls has created a “lost generation” of women, Quartz
