ADHD: Understanding and Helping Your Teenager

Having trouble with your teen’s ability to focus, stay still, or do their homework or chores? You might be wondering if they’re being a typical teen or if they have a more serious condition, like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

In India, ADHD among children and adolescents ranges from 1.30% to 28.9%, which is higher than the global average.

What is ADHD?

ADHD is a medical condition that changes the way the brain works and how it grows. People with ADHD may find it hard to concentrate, wait, listen carefully, or keep their temper in check.

Symptoms

The symptoms of ADHD can be broken down into two groups:

  1. Signs of not paying attention
  2. Signs that a person is too active or reckless

Signs They Are Not Paying Attention

If your teen is not paying attention, you may notice some of these symptoms:

  • They may start things like chores, activities, or homework and then forget to finish them. They also need help with things that require long-term attention, like long classroom sessions, tests, or conversations.
  • They also make careless mistakes in schoolwork and homework and ignore the details. They are easily distracted thoughts unrelated to the task at hand distract them easily.
  • They avoid tasks that require long-term focus and mental effort.
  • Bad organisation and time management skills, which can lead to missed deadlines, problems with doing things in the correct order, and a mess of belongings;
  • A tendency to lose or misplace things like books, school supplies, glasses, and cell phones;
  • Trouble remembering appointments, chores, tasks, and errands.

Signs of being too active and impulsive

Some of the signs that a teen with ADHD may show are hyperactivity and impulsivity, such as:

  • Being restless a lot
  • Moving around constantly, as if on a motor
  • Squirming or fidgeting while sitting
  • Standing, pacing, or moving around when they’re supposed to be sitting, like in class
  • Not being able to work or do hobbies or activities quietly
  • Talking all the time
  • Cutting other people off, finishing their sentences, or answering questions before they’re asked
  • Being impatient and having trouble waiting

ADHD Symptoms in Kids vs. Teenagers

Many of these signs may have been present in your teen with ADHD since they were a child if you think they do have it.

Some of the signs of ADHD may change as the child grows up, though. One example is that hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms tend to worsen in young children, but they may get better as the child ages. For example, your teen may not be running around and climbing things all the time anymore, but they may still be very restless.

The signs of inattention become more evident for teens as they have more difficult schoolwork. These symptoms can make it hard for them to do well in school, have healthy relationships, and go about their daily lives.

You may also notice that your child does risky, impulsive things like sexual activity that is not safe or experimenting with drugs.

For some teenagers with ADHD, the symptoms get better over time. For many, though, they last into adulthood.

Diagnosing ADHD in Your Teenager

If you think your teen has ADHD, you should take them to see a mental health professional like a therapist or psychiatrist.

They will talk to you and your child about how they act, think, and health. They might ask for your permission to speak to family members, teachers, or other people who spend a lot of time with the child, or they might give you a list of things to do. They might ask you about your child’s medical history and ask to see your child’s tests to see how smart they are.

The doctor will check to see if your child’s symptoms match the ones in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used to diagnose ADHD. The manualhelps doctors find mental health problems like ADHD.

In the DSM-5, these are the criteria used to diagnose ADHD:

  • The teen is younger than 17 and shows six or more signs of not paying attention, being hyperactive, or acting without thinking. Or, the teen is at least 17 years old and shows five or more signs of not paying attention, being hyperactive, or acting without thinking.
  • The symptoms won’t go away and have been going on for more than six months.
  • The signs have been there since before they turned 12 years old.
  • They think or feel the symptoms at least twice a day, for example, at home, at school, while doing activities, or with friends or family.
  • Their symptoms make it hard to do everyday things every day. They also hurt their relationships, academic performance, and quality of life.
  • The signs aren’t caused by another mental illness, like an anxiety disorder, a mood disorder, a personality disorder, or a psychotic disorder.

Some of the three types of ADHD that your child may have depend on their symptoms:

Based on the last six months, they have had enough symptoms of inattention to meet the diagnostic criteria but not enough symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity. This means they have predominantly inattentive ADHD.

ADHD, which is mostly hyperactive and impulsive, means that the person has had enough signs of hyperactivity and impulsivity to be diagnosed but not enough signs of inattention over the last six months.

A child has this type of ADHD if they have had enough symptoms of not paying attention, being hyperactive, and acting without thinking for six months.

If you’ve seen that your teen’s ADHD symptoms have changed over time, their type of ADHD may have also changed.

Having problems

There are times when teens with ADHD also have other mental health problems, like

If your child has any of these conditions, along with ADHD, consult an expert for their treatment.

A Message from the Hope Trust

ADHD can make it hard for your child to do well in school and with friends and family. If you know what the signs of ADHD in teens are, you can tell if your teen child might have it and get them the help they need. Getting treatment can help ease their symptoms and make their lives better.

Hope Trust (est.2002) has the resources, tools and qualified therapists to diagnose and treat ADHD.

Click www.hopetrustindia.com for an instant online or in-person appointment with a psychiatrist or certified psychologist.