15 common symptoms of ADHD in undiagnosed women

There have been several public figures in UK disclosing their adult diagnosis of ADHD. The relief and emotion associated with their diagnosis were evident. That validation and how many things made sense are very relatable to me.

You may be here as hearing and reading their stories has been incredibly relatable to you. ADHD presents itself in women differently from men. In fact, did you know that men and women respond differently to disease and medication? A topic for another post.

So what does ADHD stand for and how does it present itself in women?

ADHD is the acronym for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder which is a neurodevelopmental condition.

Here are 10 common symptoms in women

1. Intense feelings of anxiety

2. Difficulty staying focused on a single task to completion

3. Easily bored

4. Difficulty focusing on details if the task or information is not interesting

5. Hyper-focus on details if the task is interesting

6. Difficulty with time keeping aka time blindness

7. Leaving important tasks to the last minute or missing important deadlines completely

8. Hypersensitive to rejection

9. Compulsive eating

10. Forgetting to eat

11. Regularly feeling overwhelmed

12. Forgetting what task you were doing while in the middle of doing it

13. Easily distracted

14. Talking too much

15. Strong intuition

If you have an inkling that you may have ADHD I really encourage you to take the first step with one of the many ADHD self-screening questionnaires. A really easily accessible one is the World Health Organisation simplified one. This was instrumental in my journey to a diagnosis of ADHD and autism.

December 2023 update to this post! Since writing this short post in December 2022 the direct link to the World Health Organisation website no longer works. However there are now lots of academic papers published about this short questionnaire.

What is helpful to have besides the results is how to read the results and what to perhaps do next. The Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) has a brilliant option for doing a self screening online or downloading a form. Check them out here.

Maybe it should actually be re-named to DAVE...