Watch the video: stern editor Anna Aridzanjan only received her ADHD diagnosis when she became a mother – typical for many women.
Stern editor Anna Aridzanjan noticed as a young girl that she was different from others. But she only received her ADHD diagnosis years later as an adult woman. This makes her one of many. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder often goes undiagnosed, especially in girls.
Anna:
I noticed it at school, in elementary school, not in my own behavior, but in what my environment reflected to me, so to speak. Above all, the teachers who made me feel like I wasn’t behaving the way I should. Especially when it came to the fact that I supposedly didn’t listen in class. I always dreamed, I always looked out the window. And I always kind of gave the impression that I wasn’t paying attention. But actually that was my tactic to pay attention and listen.
When people think of ADHD, many people think of the classic fidgeter who is always rushing around and distracting others. Things are often different for girls. They fall through the cracks.
Anna: “I’m not really offended. It was noticeable that I am and can be very good at school. But if I didn’t like a subject or a topic wasn’t interesting, I suddenly couldn’t do it as well or I didn’t want to participate as well anymore. I wasn’t interested. And then it was noticed. The primary school reports always said: “Anna can actually do it. She should just try a little harder. She doesn’t want to. “That’s when it became apparent.”
It’s only when she starts her studies that things start to get difficult for Anna. The self-organization that studying requires is difficult for her. She misses the strictly controlled school system. She puts off tasks for a long time, plans deadlines, and a breakdown follows.
Anna: “I went to a psychologist at the university and she told me that I had depression because I was listless at the time. It could also be that I had depressive episodes. That may have played a role, but a university psychologist doesn’t have the resources or the capacity to go into this in depth. That’s why she couldn’t really diagnose me yet.
When Anna became a mother in her early 30s and realized that she might process impressions differently than others, she became aware of her neurodivergence through the Internet.
Anna: There’s always action in my head, there’s always a circus. I almost always have a soundtrack in my brain and that leads to unbelievable sensory overload. And when a screaming baby comes along with it, it was like that for me, it was really bad and I couldn’t cope with my everyday life anymore. At first I thought this was completely normal. All young parents have problems and everyone is overwhelmed in some way. But there were so many other small and large symptoms that had accumulated in the previous years with constantly forgetting things, not meeting deadlines, getting reminder letters because you forgot to pay bills. It all piled up and at some point I heard on the Internet that there are these ADHD symptoms and that they are significantly different from what was previously known as ADHD, especially in boys and men understood. And I read through these articles and looked at these social media posts and I recognized myself in a way I never had before in my life.”
After many tests and psychological discussions, the diagnosis was clear: Anna has ADHD. Many sufferers describe the diagnosis as life-changing. But first it triggers deep sadness in Anna.
Anna: “After the diagnosis I fell into a hole. On the one hand, there was relief because I finally had an answer to the question: What’s wrong with me? But on the other hand, a very, very deep sadness set in for me. I mourned my life. The way it might have been and could have been better had I known about it beforehand. And that was really bad. I replayed so many episodes in my life in my head and verified that this was the reason. ADHD was the reason why this and that didn’t work out, why I failed in my studies, why I can’t keep order, why maybe some relationships and some friendships fell apart. And I had to grieve for a long time and process it before I could move forward with this diagnosis.
Anna now takes medication to alleviate the symptoms of ADHD. And knowing about her neurodivergence also helps her a lot. She always has her cell phone with her, on which she maintains to-do lists, notification functions and alarms.
Anna: “I use my calendar with a notification function and what else helps me are methods like body doubling. Body doubling means that in order to complete a task well, you need someone to keep you company or do the same thing as you. In doing so, you trick your brain into thinking that you have external control, even though you are actually an adult and responsible and should be able to handle it yourself. Body doubling can actually take place with a real person. In my case it is often my husband.
But Anna also has a tip for people who don’t have a body doubling partner at home:
“There are YouTube videos of people doing everyday things, carrying out tasks. They do the taxes, they write term papers, they unload the dishwasher and you do it and let it run at the same time. Then you have the company of another person at the same time, so to speak, and that suggests to the brain that Aha, I’m not alone and I have to justify myself for doing something because someone is watching me and doing the same thing. And I don’t want to look bad next to it. And then you do that too. That totally helps. That sounds really stupid, but it totally helps. Tricking the brain seems to work very well in people with ADHD.
Source: Stern
I’m Caroline, a journalist and author for 24 Hours Worlds. I specialize in health-related news and stories, bringing real-world impact to readers across the globe. With my experience in journalism and writing in both print and online formats, I strive to provide reliable information that resonates with audiences from all walks of life.
