What is ADHD?
In the interest of walking a middle road, where ADHD is treated as neither trivial nor catastrophic, I offer some basic descriptions with further pages that explore varying l perspectives. The caveat: even if people experience the same underlying symptoms, there are individual differences in the challenges it creates and how responsive these are to medication and strategies.
People who present with a cluster of symptoms that was given the poor descriptor “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,” appear to process sensations and information differently such that they can have difficulty focusing and regulating their attention (being easily distracted in some circumstance and being able to hyperfocus when they are presented with sensations and information that are intensely interesting to them). They may also have difficulty regulating their thoughts, words, and actions and emotions. Storing and recalling information when it is needed may also be challenging and all of these challenges can create further difficulties when making decisions, tracking and managing time effectively, being organized and knowing what to prioritize.
An alternate reference is ADD, which is now acknowledged as a subtype rather than a different condition. Labels serve a purpose for professional communication but they are also consequential for the people who want to use them to describe their experience. There are three subtypes that you can read more about here: I will use ADHD and ADD in these webpages as both are used by students to identify their particular challenges.