Reviewed by Maria Rheba Estante, LMFT, LPCC — practice manager specializing in OCD, PTSD, trauma, and neurodivergent care.
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts how well you function in the different areas of your life. ADHD can affect your mental health, ability to maintain healthy relationships, build a successful career, and even manage your finances. Despite these challenges, guidance from Exposure Therapy Designs helps you manage your ADHD and lead a more efficient life.
Key points
- Adult ADHD makes it difficult to succeed in relationships .
- ADHD impedes your ability to succeed at work.
- Effective support is available for Adult ADHD.
- Assessment is the first step to living better.
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Understanding adult ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental disorder that hinders your ability to maintain attention, regulate your emotions, and control your impulses and behaviors.
In many cases, adults who have ADHD also experience difficulties during childhood or adolescence. Despite this, their ADHD might have only been diagnosed when the demands of adult life became too difficult to manage. If you are the kind of person who has always been particularly diligent in work and school, you might have persevered despite the ADHD. While this may have resulted in very impressive academic achievements, the strain of having to work against your ADHD likely left you feeling constantly exhausted and never satisfied.
Adults might not realize they have ADHD
Many adults don’t know that they have ADHD until someone with a background knowledge of the disorder recognizes symptoms and suggests that the disorder might be the cause of some of their difficulties.
There is a misperception that ADHD is a disorder that only affects children and manifests most prominently as hyperactivity. While it is true that childhood ADHD typically has a strong component of hyperactivity, adult ADHD tends to manifest in other ways. Nonetheless, it can still interfere significantly with your ability to function in everyday life. It can be both relieving and overwhelming to discover that you have ADHD as an adult. At Exposure Therapy Designs, we are here to provide support and walk you through the next steps after diagnosis.
Symptoms of ADHD
If you identify with 3 or more of these symptoms, you might want to consider undergoing an ADHD assessment:
- You are often disorganized
- You have trouble following a routine
- You frequently forget appointments and other commitments
- You regularly misplace important items
- You are easily distractible
- You have a hard time prioritizing and completing tasks on time
- You struggle with impulse control
- You have difficulties planning and completing tasks
- You experience emotional fluctuations and become angry, annoyed, or despondent easily
The 4 areas typically impacted by ADHD
ADHD typically affects the most important areas of your life including health and well-being, professional achievement, relationships, and financial security.
Health: You find it difficult to maintain a regular sleep, dietary, and exercise schedule. This can be due to struggles with impulse control, time management, and poor executive functioning skills. Long-term physical and mental health issues can result from these unhealthy habits. You may also have a higher risk of chronic health conditions, physical as well as mental.
Professional success: Your career goals can also suffer if you have trouble focusing during professional training, remaining on task, or managing your time appropriately.
Relationships: ADHD can also impair your ability to form emotionally intimate and long-term relationships. The tendency to be easily distracted and forgetful can make you less aware of the needs of others. For instance, if you consistently forget to text your friends back, leaving them hanging for weeks on end, those relationships are likely to suffer.
Finances: ADHD can also lead you to make impulsive purchases and have difficulty managing money. People with ADHD are often late paying fines and other fees, easily accumulate debt, and have a hard time saving money.
By helping you manage your ADHD, we can make sure that these particularly important areas of your life are addressed.
Assessment can help you manage your ADHD
ADHD must be evaluated and diagnosed by a qualified mental health professional. They will consider the different areas in your life where you might be experiencing difficulties, evaluate which factors might be contributing to those difficulties, and issue a diagnosis if appropriate. They will then refer you to someone who can help or suggest solutions themselves.
Here at Exposure Therapy Designs, we tailor our solutions to your needs. Psychotherapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be particularly helpful for adults with ADHD to learn new skills and coping mechanisms. You can function more effectively and start feeling in control of your life.
Treatment can change your life
If you’ve been living with ADHD, likely, you have already tried anything you could think of, but feel as though none of it has worked. To effectively address your ADHD it is important to accept it for what it is and seek professional guidance.
There is a whole host of evidence-based techniques that we at Exposure Therapy Designs draw from to help you manage your ADHD symptoms. You can improve your life and not be held back by your ADHD.
Reach out today
If you struggle with managing mundane tasks and functioning in everyday life, reach out to Exposure Therapy Designs to get the support you need to take control of your life.
Reviewed by Maria Rheba Estante, LMFT, LPCC.
Her clinical work focuses on OCD, PTSD, anxiety, neurodivergence, body-focused repetitive behaviors, and support for gifted learners.