ADHD Is Not A Disease

You get the brain you’re born with… (sort of)

Can you develop ADHD?

In a word: no. You are either born with ADHD or you’re not. However, it is very possible for symptoms to go unnoticed for a long period of time, making it feel like ADHD just sprung up out of nowhere.

There are many students who don’t struggle with their ADHD symptoms until they reach University, where the academic and executive functioning demands are much greater.

This is particularly true for bright students, who may have “gotten by” without much trouble before because their intelligence made up for their undiagnosed ADHD symptoms.

This ends up causing even more problems if they pursue post-secondary education because they haven’t developed strong study skills, nor the strategies to manage any ADHD traits that interfere with school performance.

ADHD may become more apparent when someone gets their first “real” job out of high school or university. As teenagers, we typically have part-time jobs without much responsibility. As we’re beginning our careers, the expectations and level of responsibility are much greater, so the cracks in the mould begin to show.

Adulting is hard

A lot of us who were diagnosed as adults don’t find out we have ADHD until we have children of our own if we become parents. The executive functioning skills required to work, run a household, raise a family, and do Adulty Things are much more intense than they were before.

Some, like me, are diagnosed only after their child is diagnosed. My son was 6 and I was 36. It was only after going over the questionnaires and learning a lot more about ADHD that I began to recognize and relate to many of the symptoms and experiences described therein.

Given that ADHD is highly heritable, this is unsurprising. If a child has ADHD it’s very likely that someone in the family also has it, whether that be an aunt, uncle, grandparent, sibling, or parent.

There is an exception

As with most rules, there is an exception. People can develop ADHD-like symptoms after an acquired brain injury.

Although a person may meet all of the behavioural criteria for ADHD, one of the diagnostic criterion is that several symptoms were present before the age of 12. An acquired brain injury (ABI), while producing ADHD-like traits, would not be considered ADHD.

ADHD is not a disease you contract, nor a condition you develop later in life.

Confounding variables

There’s also the possibility of having other conditions that have masked or hidden ADHD symptoms. Once that condition is addressed, or its symptoms well-managed, the ADHD traits become more apparent.

I had undiagnosed Celiac disease for most of my life, causing brain fog and fatigue, among other things. These can mimic some ADHD symptoms, such as inattention and difficulty with task initiation.

Once my Celiac was treated, that made it much easier to differentiate those symptoms from other possible disorders.

Sleep deprivation can cause ADHD-like symptoms. The relationship between ADHD and sleep is complex because sleep disorders are highly comorbid with ADHD, but sleep deprivation can also look like ADHD.

Not surprisingly, I suffered from insomnia for a significant portion of my late childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. This would have made it much more difficult to differentiate one from the other.

In summary

A person does not randomly develop ADHD as an adult. That said, if you feel you are suddenly experiencing ADHD symptoms where you haven’t before, there could be a few reasons for this.

If your concerns continue, you may wish to speak to a doctor or seek the advice of a medical professional. It is possible that sleep deprivation or another underlying health condition is causing you to experience symptoms that mimic those of ADHD.

If you’ve ruled these out and continue to experience ADHD symptoms, consider any new stressors or significant changes in your life. Perhaps increased demands on your executive functioning skills are revealing something that has always been there.

© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB

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References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).

Barkley, Russell A. (2015). Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis & Treatment. The Guilford Press.

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Floros, O., Axelsson, J., Almeida, R., Tigerström, L., Lekander, M., Sundelin, T., Petrovic, P. (2021). Vulnerability in Executive Functions to Sleep Deprivation Is Predicted by Subclinical Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 6(3), 290–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.09.019

Miano S. (2021) Sleep and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. In: Gozal D., Kheirandish-Gozal L. (eds). Pediatric Sleep Medicine. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65574-7_51