ADHD: There’s just one kind now, but not really (The Long and Confusing History of What We Call ADHD)

I mentioned in the first post of this series (yes – I’ve decided to write a whole series and maybe even a book about ADHD and homeschooling! I’m back, baby!), that I was initially operating under some kind of outdated info about ADHD.

For one thing, when I first started trying to find a doctor to diagnose ADHD, I kept referring to it as “ADD or ADHD.”

I would then add a high pitched question mark to the end.

“Hi, um, I’m just wondering if you have a list of doctors you recommend who treat ADD or ADHD or … um …” I would trail off, asking folks at the college where my son was taking dual enrollment classes for help, with all the confidence of a featherless, newborn sparrow.

He was doing really well, but he suspected ADHD, and so our thought was it would be good to find out for sure sooner rather than later in case he could benefit from some accommodations*.

Surprise – There’s Just One Kind of ADHD Now – Kind Of!

ADHD History in Brief: Part I

So I was surprised to learn that the term ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder – is dead.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (known as the DSM), first listed what we know now as ADHD in 1968, but details have changed a few times.

If you’re my age, you may remember people throwing around the term “ADD,” to describe children, primarily boys, who had a hard time focusing in school.

As early as 1980, an updated DSM included a listing for ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – and ooh controversy – those goofballs decided to drop plain ol’ ADD.

But you know how these things go. We all still threw around “ADD” to mean not only kids who had high energy, but people who forgot things or had had too much Jolt Cola.

“Ugh Becky, she is SO ADD.”

“I know, Becky. Ugh.”

(This is a from a short play I wrote called Beckies. This is a scene where two Beckies use the term ADD to describe how another Becky had the nerve to forget in which locker at the roller rink she had stored her Liz Claiborne purse.)

(It’s better live. Like Hamilton.)

ADHD History in Brief: Part II

Then, in 1994 – the year of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics and the year the World Wide Web was born, those DSM jokesters were like: Wait.

(Fun fact: Actually, 1,000 people worked on the DSM 4 for 6 years!)

Anyhoo, they said – WAIT. OK, we’ve got it.

We shall call it ADHD.

BUT … there are different flavors!

(They called them “sub-types.”)

• Predominantly Inattentive
• Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive
• And Combined

OK. Good work, team.

ADHD History in Brief: Part III

And then, the DSM 5 came out in 2013, and they were like – can you believe those tools who worked on the DSM 4 called kinds of ADHD “types?” Punks!

Let’s call them “presentations!,” said Dr. Carol Carolson, and the crowd went wild.

They just collectively lost their shit.

Everyone on the ADHD team bought Dr. Carol shots that night, and Carol will forever be remembered for her presentation on presentations.

(She used Power Point, mainly Helvetica font.)

So … wait? Huh?

So the take-aways here are:

1. There is no ADD anymore. It doesn’t exist. It left right around the time that Post-It Notes** became a thing!
2. There is just ADHD, but there are three ways it PRESENTS – #thanksCarol

The three presentations are:

• Predominantly Inattentive
• Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive
• And Combined

So no – you DO NOT HAVE ADD.

But you very well could have ADHD even if you … I don’t know …

• Were a good student
• Are a great employee
• Are a generally ‘successful’ person
• Want to go to bed at 4 p.m.

OK, Well … Then How Come No One Has Ever Brought This Up?

First, a lot of ADHD goes undiagnosed for a long time.

Second, I want to talk about girls and women and how ADHD tends to present differently in us.

So for background:

I was diagnosed at 45 years old, and before I found out I had ADHD, I thought maybe I was dealing with Long Covid or early dementia or really scary peri-menopause symptoms or something else, because suddenly, I could no longer remember which key went into which lock at our house.

I was a little terrified.

In fact as I sat across from the doctor to go over my test results, I said, “I’m actually really hoping it’s ADHD because I’m scared of what else it could be,” and she kindly said, “OK, then I’m not going to make you wait – it’s ADHD.”

And I started crying because I had been holding a lot in for months/45 years.

And for now, that’s where I’m going to step away again, because I want to talk about how a person (statistically more frequently a female person) could go undiagnosed with ADHD for decades.

It’s both fascinating and some hot B.S., I’ll tell you that much.

See you soon.

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ADHD Series

Post 1: So … We All Have ADHD

Post 3: Hey Laaaaady! ADHD in Girls and Women and Why You Don’t Just Suck at Life

Post 4: ADHD: Meds and Regrets (but not how you think)

 

NOTES:

*Accommodations – the more we talk about ADHD, the more I’ll use this word. Don’t stress about accommodations for now if you suspect your child has ADHD. I’ll explain more soon.

** Post-It Notes: I was recently on a call where we talked about how important it is to buy quality sticky notes, and why Post-Its really are better because they stick the perfect amount.

But, I do want these.

Also, I will tell you soon about my obsession with transparent sticky notes, and how I’ve been using them to maintain a version of a kanban board on my office door because I am being treated for ADHD and I have so many new tools!

I have so much to tell you!!!!

Back soon! 😘

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

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