ADHD often goes unnoticed until adulthood because its symptoms don’t always match common stereotypes, and many people develop coping strategies that mask their difficulties early in life. As responsibilities grow more complex in adulthood, challenges with focus, organization, and time management become harder to manage, making the condition more noticeable.

Here are 8 common symptoms in adulthood:

Having an altered sense of time

One of the hallmarks of ADHD is “living in the now.” People with ADHD find it hard to keep track of time. They’re often late for appointments, can’t accurately estimate how long it will take for them to complete a task, and leave complicated tasks until the last minute. This is referred to as “time blindness.”

This may happen because the brain’s prefrontal cortex — which is responsible for executive function — doesn’t work as well at managing focus and behavior in adults with ADHD. This is also the part of the brain that helps you plan for the future. It’s what allows you to prepare for what’s coming next and plan how much time you realistically have to complete tasks.

Lack of executive functioning skills

For people with ADHD, time management isn’t the only difficulty. Other executive functioning skills can be challenging, too, making it hard to manage the details of your life.

A person with ADHD may have trouble organizing their thoughts and managing their schedule. They’ll likely also have trouble planning and prioritizing the order of tasks they’re supposed to do, which can make it hard to meet deadlines.

While the level of executive functioning will vary from person to person, many people with ADHD will find some challenges in each of the following categories when it comes to doing tasks or assignments:

• organizing, prioritizing, and getting started
• concentrating as well as shifting your attention to a new task
• staying alert, maintaining the same level of effort, and understanding what you’re doing
• managing your frustration and emotions
• holding and using multiple pieces of information at once, and remembering things you’ve read or learned
• controlling your actions

Hyperfocus

While we often hear that one of the key symptoms of ADHD is being easily distracted, one of the gifts of ADHD is the ability to hyperfocus on certain activities.

People can generally hyperfocus on tasks they find enjoyable or that they are naturally motivated to do. This is why some people with ADHD can play video games for hours but have difficulty completing a work assignment. Hyperfocus also allows your “creative genius to flourish.”

Frequent job changes

Many adults with ADHD change jobs more frequently than their colleagues. There are several reasons for this, but the two most common reasons are that people with ADHD can become bored with the routine or repetition of their jobs.

Feeling restless and needing to stay active

Can’t sit still to watch a TV show? Do you find yourself constantly fidgeting in your chair at work? Do you fold laundry or clean when you’re on the phone? The need to always be busy and doing something is the adult equivalent of hyperactivity that is common in kids with ADHD.

Adults aren’t typically as active as kids, so the constant movement that children with hyperactivity display is much more apparent than hyperactivity in adults. The need to stay active is still there; it just looks different.

Emotional sensitivity

A very common symptom in adults with ADHD is something called rejection sensitivity. This means the person is extremely emotionally sensitive.  They may also feel this pain if they don’t live up to their own expectations or to others' expectations.

This can cause them to withdraw from friends and colleagues out of fear of being hurt. It may also result in an impulsive, emotional response to actual or anticipated criticism or perceived rejection. They may get angry, feel rage, and blame the other person for causing their pain.

Difficulty keeping friends and romantic partners

Compared with their peers, adults with ADHD often change friends more often than neurotypical adults. This is due to a combination of time blindness, emotional sensitivity, and difficulty staying focused in conversations with their friends. Taken together, these symptoms can make maintaining friendships more difficult. People with ADHD can also have trouble with romantic relationships, especially if their partner doesn’t understand what it’s like to have ADHD. These couples may encounter problems unique to having a partner who lives with ADHD, like forgetting anniversaries. This can put long-term stress on the relationship.

Poor financial planning skills and impulsive spending

Adults with ADHD don't always make good financial decisions and are less likely to see the value in saving their money. They tend to have more debt and less money saved for retirement. They also tend to spend money impulsively, even if they can’t really afford to make the purchase.

These money issues are due to several things:

• inability to pay attention to things they don’t like doing, like paying bills
• time blindness that makes planning for future financial decisions difficult
• lack of impulse control and spending without thinking
• difficulty getting and staying organized

If you would like to be evaluated for adult ADHD, please give us a call.