ADHD: What is it?

*Image description: An illustration from the Instagram account @ADHD_couple that shows an Iceberg with a portions sticking out the top of the water and a portion still under the water. The title of the illustration is ADHD Iceberg. The portion of the iceberg that is above water is labelled “What people think ADHD is" and lists the symptoms “can’t focus" and “being hyper.” The portion under the water is labeled “what ADHD really is + more" and lists a much wider variety of symptoms. This includes depression, hyperfixations, difficulty maintaining relationships, mood swings, auditory processing disorder, executive dysfunction, anxiety, analysis paralysis, sensory processing disorder, poor short term memory, restlessness, poor impulse control, indecisiveness, difficulty with conversation, sleeping issues, rejection sensitive dysphoria, and strong emotions.*

Doing a quick Google search will tell you that ADHD is “A chronic condition including attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness.”

While this is the correct terminology for a description of the disorder, I don’t it comes even remotely close to explaining or even depicting what ADHD is like.

What does ADHD stand for?

So first things first, what does ADHD even stand for? ADHD stands for Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Just this name alone has quite a lot to unpack.

What does it mean when it refers to an attention deficit? Well, if you know anyone with ADHD (or someone you suspect might have ADHD), you have likely noticed that they have a very short attention-span. This is where the term attention-deficit comes from. This lack of attention isn’t due to a dislike of the subject or a disregard for the matter at hand. It is much more, like the word “deficit" implies, a lower threshold for gaining attention.

Things tend to grab our attention easier and quicker than others not because we are looking for excuses or ways out of what we need to focus on, but simply because the amount of change it takes to get you find a new train of thought is double that of ADHDers. We have a lower threshold in that ways, so it takes much less to get our thoughts moving in a different direction.

So now then, what is the hyperactivity part of the name? On the surface level this seems pretty self explanatory. Hyper =extra/excessive and Activity = physical movement. However, hyperactivity ranges from physical movement to thought processes. One reason many people with ADHD have trouble focusing on one topic for a long time (as discussed in the attention-deficit section) is because our brains are hyperactive. Many times we will topic hop in our conversations. I’ve been in many conversations where people look at me with confused expressions on their faces and I realize I jumped topics again. In order for them to understand why I changed topics so suddenly I often have to explain my thought process and all the connections I made in a matter of seconds.

That can look sort of like this: A friend brings up a school event that I plan on going to. There will be a barbecue. There will also be various sports going on such as volleyball and basketball. While they are talking about it, he/she mentions that our friend Brian is going to be there. In the middle of the conversation, I randomly change subjects and ask them about the homework for biology class because it was on my mind.

“Were you even paying attention?” they ask.

Here’s where my thought process could go millions of ways depending on what else is going on in my life at the time. I’ll give a few examples of possible responses to this question.

Possibility one: “Okay, so you mentioned the activity for school which got me thinking about my classes, so I went through each class in my head to double check if we had any homework and then I remembered I had a question for you about the biology homework because I got confused.”

Possibility two: “You mentioned the school activity and that they were having a barbecue. This got me thinking about food which reminded me that I need to go shopping tomorrow. One of the things I need to get is fresh coconut for a meal I’m gonna be making. And then this reminded me of that lesson in Biology last week where we talked about coconuts and the parts of them (like the seed, the embryo, the husk, etc.). And after thinking about that cool lesson, I remember that we have homework for that class and I needed help.”

Possibility three: “Okay bear with me. You said there was gonna be basketball going on at the activity which reminded me of the epic basketball game I went to on Friday night. I saw Professor Rinehart there and thought it was kind of a funny place to see him considering he is the Calc 101 teacher and never seemed interested in sports. That got me wondering what else our other professors might be doing when they’re away from school. For a lot of the professors it was easy to picture what they might be up to, because I know them pretty well, but Professor Jules is new to the school, so I realized that all I know about her is that she obviously loves biology since she teaches it. And that got me thinking about biology class but I couldn’t remember if we had homework for it or not and since you’re in the class with me, I figured I’d ask.”

Get the picture? This is just a few examples of my hyperactive brain. And keep in mind all these connections are made in a matter of seconds, usually while the other person is still talking and there is at least some change I’m still listening to what the other person is telling me. This type of activity can easily be mistake for an attention-deficit because it seems to the person on the outside that we aren’t paying attention to their story. When in reality, we are paying attention to every little details so much so that one small part of your story triggers a chain of thoughts.

Is ADHD the same for everyone?

The short answer to this is “No.” But there are a number of reasons why this is the case. First thing first, people are different. Like the majority of the stigma and stereotypes surrounding mental health have to do with assuming that just people two people have the same diagnosis, they must be exactly the same. Imagine how messed up the world would be if we assumed that about people without mental health diagnoses. Oh, well I know another neurotypical person and you are nothing like them, so you must be lying. That makes no sense.

Now that I’ve clarified that, let’s get into the more complicated stuff. First off, there are multiple subcategories of ADHD. In the past you may have heard of ADHD and ADD. After the most recent adjustment to the DSM-V in 2013, ADHD and ADD were combined into one category. They both stem from the same neurotype, however before there were just separate diagnoses for the various ways it can manifest. So the term ADD is now outdated. Now it would just be called ADHD — inattentive type.

The three ways ADHD can show up are ADHD — hyperactive type (which is just showing the hyperactive traits but not the inattentive traits), ADHD — inattentive type (which was formerly called ADD), and ADHD — combined type (which shows traits of being both hyperactive and inattentive). That last subtype can also be to varying degrees. For me personally, I am pretty much showing all traits pretty equally. However, for some people with the combined type they will show more hyperactive traits than they do inattentive traits or vice versa.

So what’s the difference?

Some important things to keep in mind are some of the differences in symptoms depending on the type of ADHD someone has. Below are some lists of symptoms that are more apparent depending on the type of ADHD. Some of these are based entirely on research while many are based on personal experience and observation.

Inattentive type:

• Time blindness
• Difficulty sticking to a schedule
• Impulsive (this type of impulse stems more from a lack of planning ahead rather than a spur of the moment thought)
• More likely to forget train of thought or change opinions. For example, many people I know with just the inattentive type will make a decision one day and the next day change their mind due to forgetting their previous decision
• Difficulty focusing in conversations
• Starting projects but not finishing them (in this type this is due to either forgetting about the project or losing interest)
• Messy (in reality it may seem messy to other people, but for people with the inattentive type of ADHD, we struggle with object permanence which means if we can’t see an object our brain forgets it exists, so we leave everything in a place where we can see it)
• Hyperfocus (while the inattentive type is known for not being able to focus, sometimes our brains will get a surge of seratonin when we focus on a topic that is interesting to us. This leads to what is known as hyperfocus or hyperfixation. In these times we will stay focused on an activity or topic for hours at a time without paying any mind to anything else going on around us. This can be incredibly helpful in some circumstances like if you get hyperfocused on spring cleaning and organize your whole garage. But I can also be extremely detrimental, like getting hyperfocused on all the YouTube videos about how to build a swimming pool from scratch when you should be doing your homework)

Hyperactive type:

• Topic hopping in conversation or in tasks (so this can be like I showed earlier in the school activity to biology homework scenario, or it can be in everyday chores. This would look like, going to change the laundry from the washer to the dryer, but while you’re in there you remember you also need to wash the mats in the bathroom, so you go into the bathroom to grab the rugs are remember you need to take a shower, so you do that really quick and then while you’re in the bathroom you remember you need to brush your teeth tonight, but before you brush your teeth you really want to have dinner, so you go into the kitchen to start cooking and realize you are still in your bathrobe, so you go to grab some clothes from your closet and then remember you were doing laundry in the first place because your clothes were dirty)
• Interrupting in conversation because what someone said reminded them of something else (this is our way of trying to say that we were paying attention)
• Impulsive (due to acting on quick thoughts without taking time to think about it)
• Starting projects but not finishing them (for this type, this is more likely because of finding a new interest and diving right into it all the sudden and abandoning the previous project)
• Being a busy body
• Needing lots of stimulation (whether that be listening to music while cleaning or watching a movie while doing a craft)
• Doing things quickly or at a faster pace than others (not because it is easier for us than for others but rather because our bodies run at a faster rate than others. This isn’t meaning that we are necessarily fast runners or incredibly smart — although we definitely can be — this just means we can complete menial tasks quicker. For example, I am great at filing things because I move quickly and can find the places where files need to go because my brain can scan the folders faster than my coworkers)

Combined type:

• People with the combined type likely show many, if not all of these traits but at varying levels
• As you may have noticed, many traits overlap both types of ADHD but have different internal reasons and triggers. For someone with the combined type, I experience these traits with different triggers or reasonings depending on the situation. For example, I am impulsive for different reasons. If I didn’t plan for something to happen, I may act impulsively to make up for lack of planning or because I feel pressured to make a decision quickly. This is more characteristic of the inattentive type of impulsivity. I also will act impulsively when I shop, but this is usually more hyperactive related. I will see something I am remotely interested in and buy it immediately because I thought about doing so and didn’t give myself time to think about why or whether the decision was smart or not.

ADHD: in summary

ADHD is a very complicated and individualized diagnosis. In my family I have one parent with the hyperactive type and one parent with the inattentive type. Even though they both have ADHD there is quite a bit they don’t understand about each other because their ADHD traits are so different. I have the combined type, so luckily I can help explain some of that. ADHD will be different for every person you meet, and so it is best to ask them about their personal experiences to better understand what they are going through.

There is so much about ADHD to unpack such as rejection sensitivity, sensory/auditory processing disorders, ADHD tics, memory issues, emotional regulation, and more. If you found this to be informational, if you know someone with ADHD or suspect you might have it yourself, I encourage you to look up more about it. Check out accounts like ADHD alien, ADHD couple, and ADHD nutritionist on Instagram. Look up ADHD groups on Facebook. Check out ADHD creators on YouTube and Tiktok. One amazing thing about social media is its ability to spread firsthand accounts of what it is like to live with these conditions. The information is out there and readily available for free, so why not search it up?

Thank you for reading. If you want to know more about my life with 10–12 comorbid conditions, check out my account Taking One Step, where I dive into my experiences with Autism, ADHD, Depression, various forms of Anxiety, and more, and how they play a role in my everyday life. I also have written other blog post introducing many of these disorders/diagnoses, so feel free to check them out to learn more.