facts

This year’s ADHD Awareness Month was themed “ADHD myths and facts, know the difference”. As scientists, we feel that it is our role to spread the facts about ADHD. But what myths are there about ADHD? To get a better idea of this, we chose to interview people and just ask them what they know about ADHD. What are the symptoms? How do you get ADHD? Can adults have ADHD?

The people that we interviewed actually were quite well informed about ADHD. Most know that people with ADHD have problems with controlling their attention, with sitting still and that they often have a lot of energy.  And about half the people that we interviewed suspect that also adults can have ADHD. But we also noticed some myths.

Myth 1: People with ADHD are always active and have a lot of energy

ADHD is not just characterised by hyperactivity and restlessness. Many people with ADHD are actually quite capable of sitting still, but suffer more from a kind of inner restlessness and mindwandering. Also problems with focussing attention are very typical for ADHD, and there are people who only have this inattentive ADHD subtype, without the hyperactivity. What many people also don’t know is that people with ADHD often suffer from emotional dysregulation such as regalting your emotions and easily getting irritable or angry.

Myth 2: Only children can have ADHD

Although ADHD is wellknown in children, adults can also have ADHD. It is estimated that around 15% of the children with ADHD will continue to have the full diagnosis in adulthood. But about 60 – 80% of children with ADHD will still have symptoms of ADHD when they are adults. Often, the hyperactivity symptoms of ADHD reduce when children get older, but the inattention symptoms often remain.

These videos were created with help of early career scientists of the CoCA project (www.CoCAproject.eu)

Do you want to learn more about ADHD myths and facts? Have a look here:https://adhdawarenessmonth.org/myths-and-facts-about-adhd/

And keep watching this site, because more mythbusting videos will be coming!

Do you have an ADHD myth that you want to have busted? Or are you unsure about whether something is a myth or fact? Let us know in the comments and we’ll answer you!