ADHD Symptoms In Adults And What To Do If You Think You Have It

Scroll to the bottom for the article summarization or keep reading for the more in depth understanding…

Ok, I’m just going to be up front here: if you google “adhd symptoms”, most websites are pretty cold in their descriptions about people with ADHD. In fact, it’s almost as if they’re written by robots that are trying to explain how love is basically just a combination of chemicals spouting off in your brain. Is that really how you would describe the feeling of love to someone that’s never felt it before?

As someone that has been diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 8, it’s been pretty hard growing up hearing, “oh, you weren’t listening, therefore, you don’t care about my feelings”, or “wait, you didn’t do what I asked when I asked you to do it, so you must be lazy”.

If anything I just mentioned sounds familiar and you think you may have ADHD, just know this one thing: you’re absolutely normal. But before I explain what I mean there, I’m going to give you what you really came here for. See if you can find anything you relate to in the following lists.

1/4: Negative ADHD Symptoms In Adults

• We can be a bit impulsive

• Organization is a struggle

• It’s hard for us to stick to one thing, because we get so many ideas

• We’re either super focused or not focused at all

• We want to solve problems so badly that time and other tasks may take a backseat (we’re like natural born detectives like that I guess)

• We put off tasks that are either too boring or too hard (more than the average person)

• Following through can be really tough

• Most the world doesn’t seem to get how you work and it comes off like you’re not trying, when in reality you try harder than most

• We get distracted pretty easily, becau…SQUIRREL!!

• Depending on which type of ADHD you may have, you may be fidgety, move a lot, or go into story mode when talking to others

Now I’m going to give you something I haven’t really seen on most websites out there that seem to come from an “observational” perspective.

2/4: Positive ADHD Symptoms In Adults

• We have a superpower to hyperfocus for hours on end if we find something important enough. (You have to drag most people into that kind of focus)

• We’re excellent problem solvers and we will stop at nothing until we figure something out

• We’re incredible at improvising and think for ourselves, which can be very annoying to corporate bosses, but very handy in most real world situations

• When we answer your question, we genuinely care and want to give you a thorough understanding so you avoid mistakes

• We have so much energy that coffee does pretty much nothing to us. (If you think about it, people are literally paying to slurp down liquid ADHD just to have a temporary fix of what we feel every day naturally)

• We make up the majority of entrepreneurs and innovators in the world (like I said before, we think differently)

• Though it’s tough to build habits in the beginning, we’ll eventually become unstoppable where most people would quit

• We’re extremely empathetic, authentic, and we’re not likely to hide anything from you

• We have incredible hearts of service

• Most of us are very naturally positive and loving

• When we eventually get our own daily system going, we end up becoming the best at whatever we do

• We’re very creative and playful

• We have very high quality ideas

• If there’s any friend to show up at your house with a cake (whether it’s your birthday or not), it’s going to be us

• Once we learn how to really ground ourselves, we make incredible leaders

• We’re great risk takers. It may not work out most the time for us, but the 1/10 times it does, it really pays off

So the next time your friends, family members, bosses, or teachers give you a hard time, just remember, they’re only seeing things with one lens, whereas you see life with two. Here’s what I mean…

3/4: You’re Actually Normal

So many people will try to analyze you and tell you how to live your life the “right way”. But what they don’t know is that if you have ADHD, your mind works differently and what works for most doesn’t actually work for you. The whole, “try harder” tactic doesn’t always seem to work well for us.

For example, with most of society, procrastination is considered a bad thing. However, with those that have ADHD, procrastination can actually be useful. How? Because we have the ability to hyperfocus and it kicks in big time when there is added pressure to get something done. If most neurotypical people waited until the last minute to do something, they’d stress out, and struggle to keep their eyes open after a few hours of being so focused. I’m definitely not saying procrastination is the go-to here, but I’m also not saying it’s necessarily as bad for us as it is for most.

So instead of thinking there’s something to fix about you, just realize that you’re more like an introvert in an extroverted world or a left handed person in a right handed world. You’re just different and that means you need different tactics than “what works for most.” So if you’re wondering why I even bothered mentioning the fact that you’re normal, it’s basically just to show you that you’re not as different as the world may perceIve you. Some people are great at math and others aren’t, but that doesn’t mean those that aren’t good at math have a deficiency or need to be “fixed”. Why? Because we’re not less of anything than anyone else. In fact, we have many strengths that others don’t, which pretty much just means…we’re just like everybody else.

The next time you feel misunderstood by others, just remember, you live in a world where the majority has claimed how “normal” should be and they have no idea how you have to force your brain to work against itself. And if you don’t, the world will call you out on not trying hard enough. It’s like a world full of sharks trying to get a bunch of wolves to live in the ocean. Yeah, they can both swim, but of course, the wolf is going to struggle a little more in an environment that doesn’t suit it. Imagine if the world was the other way around. Good luck to that. Sharks in the forest? How weird would that be?

4/4: Here’s What We Recommend You Do Next

If you’ve found yourself really connecting with what I’ve written above, try out an online ADHD test. They’re super quick and helpful. Just be aware, they are not an official diagnosis. You can take our fast and free ADHD test here.

The next step most people end up making is to go to a professional, whether it’s a therapist, an ADHD coach, or both. If you don’t know which one to go to, read this article to find out what steps to take. The last paragraph should explain it easily.

But overall, don’t stress. ADHD has only technically been around since the 80’s and even most therapists aren’t 100% sure how to treat it, so they offer medication, (which, personally for me and a lot of my clients, have found to be pretty unnecessary. You’d be surprised what you can accomplish with your own doable daily system to follow through, focus, & get organized. If that sounds like something that interests you, snag a free 15 minute virtual coffee here or see what we’re about on our site here.

↓ The article summarized for my fellow ADHDers ↓

Basically all you need to know:

1. Negative ADHD Symptoms In Adults

   • We can be a bit impulsive

   • Organization is a struggle

   • It’s hard for us to stick to one thing, because we get so many ideas

   • We’re either super focused or not focused at all

   • We want to solve problems so badly that time and other tasks may take a backseat (we’re like natural born detectives like that I guess)

   • We put off tasks that are either too boring or too hard (more than the average person)

   • Following through can be really tough

   • Most the world doesn’t seem to get how you work and it comes off like you’re not trying, when in reality you try harder than most

   • We get distracted pretty easily, becau…SQUIRREL!!

   • Depending on which type of ADHD you may have, you may be fidgety, move a lot, or go into story mode when talking to others

2. Positive ADHD Symptoms In Adults

   • We can hyperfocus

   • We’re great at problem solving

   • We’re good at improvising

   • We’re usually super caring

   • Coffee doesn’t really do much

   • We make up most of the entrepreneurs on the planet

   • We’re great leaders after we build strong habits

   • Authentic people

   • We’re givers

   • We tend to be very talented

   • We become really good at what we focus on

   • We’re creative and playful

   • We like quality over quantity styled

   • We can be super spontaneous

   • We are usually risk takers

3. You’re Actually Normal

4. Here’s What We Recommend You Do Next

   • Take our fast and free ADHD test here

   • Read this article to find out what steps to take if you don’t know if you need a therapist or an ADHD coach.

Download my free ADHD tips here —> MasterADHDnow.com.

Snag a FREE no obligation, 15 minute virtual coffee here.