Dr. Jacqueline B. Sallade offers advice for maintaining your mental health.
The key factors in ADHD are hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity or a combination of any two of these variables or sometimes one of them severely. However, it's complicated. For example, it's hard to pay attention if you've been abused and feel damaged forever, or you've been taught that you're incapable-a victim of post-traumatic trauma (PTSD). It's easy to become impulsive when you feel so depressed about life that you become self-destructive or never have had good role modeling. Anxiety drives inattention, hyperactivity (physically and verbally) and impulsivity, too. Then, if there's a learning disability, you might become so easily-frustrated that you give up easity, get distracted from something academic because it's hard, or start a bunch of activiteis and don't finish them.What if drugs and alcohol get mushed up in the scenario, too , wreacking destruction of brain and personality? Get my gist?
There may be a life-long pattern of ADHD for no other reason than that's the way someone's brain is rigged or there may be so many interacting factors that a pile of diagnoses or none are exactly appropriate. The important thing is to realize that the person is unique and that there are therapeutic insights, coping skills, and practice of new behaviors and outlooks which can help, even more than medications.