Can you imagine ADHD in girls? When anyone imagines a child with ADHD, what comes to their mind is probably a boy, of school age, making a big mess in the classroom. He can’t stop in his chair, sometimes he even climbs on it. He interrupts the teacher all the time for matters that are not connected to the subject. He can be a little violent, he can be the class clown.
This is the stereotype that is the cause of the percentage of boys being diagnosed more frequently, with an erroneous and too high frequency, and girls left in the corner, outside the equation.
In fact, this is more or less the image of ADHD in girls. She is the inattentive girl who spends the day doodling in her notebook. She forgets to do her homework, she doesn’t know what the teachers just explained. She explodes in crying spells, is impulsive and cannot keep a group of friends easily. She is docile. Teachers like her. Parents complain about her disorganization, but in general, she does not cause problems.
Furthermore, there are three subtypes of ADHD in girls: there is the hyperactive type, which is that commented stereotype. There is a mixed type, which is the inattentive child, but which can have outbursts of energy and impulsivity, and there is the inattentive type, which is the case for most girls. It is not that a girl cannot belong to the hyperactive type and a boy to the inattentive type, it is just that there is a proven prevalence between genders and types.
Boys, when they fail, tend to explode and blame the outside world, girls are already working on the process of blaming themselves and not feeling good enough. In adolescence, with hormonal changes, they turn more and more inward: girls with ADHD are more likely to have comorbidities, such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders.
The study “” Prospective Follow-Up of Girls With Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder Into Early Adulthood: Continuing Impairment Includes Elevated Risk for Suicide Attempts and Self-Injury. ” carried out by Hinshaw et al. concluded that ADHD in girls carries a higher risk of attempting suicide and self-harm in early adulthood. Many women are diagnosed only after the age of thirty when successive treatments do not work or do not reach the root of the problem.
Bruna Correa Antochevis Machado
References:
https://www.sbmfc.org.br/desfechos-na-idade-adulta-associados-a-tdah-em-meninas/
https://tdah.org.br/tdah-em-mulheres/
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.09050736
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2012/08/girls-adhd
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315009#symptoms
