Welcome to Teen Health!
Symptoms and Strategies:
Many successful and famous people grew up with learning disabilities (LD) and or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD)? Actress Whoopi Goldberg, business leader Charles Schwab, and Olympic diver Greg Louganis, to name a few, are all inspirations. Talk with your child about some of these successful people whose interests he shares or whose accomplishments he may admire. This will help him understand that he’s not alone with his struggles and will foster hope for his future goals.
What no one knows is that Julie also has AD/HD. She struggles to please others, but they don’t seem to understand her friendly overtures. Determined to be a good student, she spends hours on homework because daydreams get in the way. Her self-esteem is sinking as she questions her academic and social abilities. Julie suffers in silence.
Squeaky Wheels Get the Grease:
Many people think of AD/HD as a boy’s disorder. In fact, some studies estimate at least six times as many boys as girls are referred to clinics for diagnosis. But field studies suggest that, in the general population, the actual ratio of boys to girls with AD/HD is 3:1. To understand why this disparity exists, we must understand how professionals have traditionally defined and diagnosed AD/HD and how that view is changing.
Inattentive:
Hyperactive/impulsive: Combined type (a combination of the first two types): The inattentive type of AD/HD is harder to diagnose in both boys and girls since their behavior doesn’t give them away. Bright, inattentive girls often compensate for inattention by becoming super-organized or hyper-focused on school work. Such girls often succeed in school, but their private struggle remains a secret.
Girls who are hyperactive and impulsive are rare: Some hyperactive girls are seen as tomboys and have a better chance of being diagnosed. Other hyperactive girls aren’t overactive in a physical sense; they’re super-talkative social butterflies instead, like Julie whom we described earlier.
Set Up by Social Expectations:
Having AD/HD seems to impair girls’ social relationships far more than it does for boys. Males and females, in general, operate by different social rules. Female social rules place a greater value on cooperation, listening, care-taking, and relationship maintaining activities. It would make sense that the traits of ADHD might make females seem less cooperative. As a result, girls with AD/HD suffer more peer rejection.
Remember Julie? While friendly and well-meaning, she often gets distracted while a classmate is talking to her. She misses the other person’s social cues, and doesn’t respond in a desirable manner. Boys tend to be more direct with each other and resolve their conflicts more openly, so a boy with AD/HD doesn’t require the same set of social skills. A girl who is both impulsive and inattentive is likely to commit many social blunders.
Mothers often expect their daughters to conform to the standards of society by being especially thoughtful, polite, and compliant. If a girl has AD/HD, this can be a difficult goal to attain.
Brain Differences in Boys and Girls:
Researchers have found girls’ brains differ from those of boys in several ways, including weight, size, and the relative proportion of certain structures in the brain. This difference may explain why males and females generally display different strengths and weaknesses. It may also account for the different types of AD/HD symptoms they display. Research in this area is ongoing.
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Teen Health Symptoms
When Hormones Wreak Havoc:
AD/HD is often hard to detect in girls until they reach puberty and hormone changes can cause dramatic mood swings and disruptive behavior. A girl who has kept her AD/HD hidden until puberty may appear to “erupt” suddenly when female hormones flood her body. Because the current criteria for AD/HD state symptoms must be present before age 7, many doctors dismiss the possibility of AD/HD in girls whose symptoms don’t appear until puberty.
The Emotional Cost of Under-Diagnosis:
Girls whose AD/HD isn’t diagnosed and treated by the time they reach puberty are at risk for developing other psychological disorders, such as anxiety and depression. This is understandable, since many girls have spent their lives suffering, struggling, and blaming themselves for poor academic performance and peer rejection. As girls mature, they tend to internalize their feelings, making their struggle less noticeable to adults who might help them. Adolescent girls who don’t receive help for AD/HD and co-existing psychological problems are at high risk for addictive behaviors, such as over-eating, smoking, alcohol abuse, and sexual promiscuity.