The Wall_Spring 2023_Issue 9

6% of girls know how it feels to struggle with ADHD, but nearly all these girls only discover the reason for their struggle many years into adulthood, after spending most of their lives feeling different. Boys are much more frequently diagnosed with ADHD because they tend to exhibit the stereotypical indicators of being loud, rule-breaking, boisterous, and messy.These tendencies easily stand out, especially in a classroom. However, society often deems that girls are expected to act differently: tidy, neat, and certainly not boisterous. As a girl with ADHD, you feel like you’re never living up to your ‘true potential’ or ‘actual ability’ and it seems like everyone else has a cheat sheet to life.Ways of doing ‘normal’ things, such as reading, are great challenges for people with ADHD. I would read a text, realise nothing was going in, read it again, and concentrate so much on taking the words in, that I forgot to understand the meaning.The curvilinear nature of ADHD means that the past, present, and future are never separate. Everything is now. Rennee Sanders , (she/her), S11, explores the struggle girls with ADHD experience, a personal account

I had some challenging times leading up to my diagnosis in Senior 10. Senior 7 started well; I was always on top of work and enjoyed spending time with friends. I felt normal at school.The problems started when I got home every day and became a completely different person; constant tantrums and I was always known by my family as the ‘naughty child’. I constantly put on a façade and my teachers thought I was sweet and polite. Home was the real problem, yet my parents didn’t think anything of it, just the classic “worst behaved second child”. I learnt how to mask - as a girl I had already matured mentally and physically more than the boys in my year, and therefore, I was able to hide my lack of concentration and impulsivity, and act as thought I wasn’t suffering from this disorder. One in three people with ADHD try to mask their symptoms.This is often done by copying other people, resulting in you having to put on a show in every social situation. It is exhausting. For me, lockdown started midway through Senior 8, and it was a nightmare. Online learning was a disaster, as it completely failed to engage me. Staring at pixels and trying to concentrate on a screen for hours was just not possible for me. However, I just put this down to being one of the many difficulties that people had to deal with during lockdown.This resulted in colossal gaps in my learning. By the time I returned to school in Senior 9, I was already underachieving at a significant rate. If a subject didn’t interest me, I simply wouldn’t engage. I found myself clutching at straws, enveloped in a tidal wave of academic distraction, which impacted me in school and at home. I made no progress and was a complete nuisance in class (amongst other undiagnosed classmates)! Commonly, girls who have ADHD experience a huge drop in grades. When work becomes harder and deadlines become tighter, masking becomes more difficult to do. I started accumulating frequent detentions and

was the only girl in my friendship group to do so. I would often stay at home and convince myself and my parents I was “too ill” to go to school when I felt overwhelmed and tired of having to put on an act in school to contain my raging emotions.At this point in time, I was still throwing regular tantrums at home. Still, no one considered ADHD as an option because of my seemingly ‘outgoing and courageous personality and great potential’! I was finally diagnosed midway through Senior 10. It changed my life. My psychiatrist told me that my case was clear-cut and the diagnosis not only helped me manage my behaviour and focus on school work but has also unlocked some talents. I now use my ADHD to my advantage; my ability to hyper-focus and the passion I feel about certain things is a gift. I’m proud of my Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and the drive which comes with it! I recently started taking medication that increases levels of important chemicals in the brain, including dopamine.This enabled my studies to get back on track, and I have much higher goals for myself now.Although my medication doesn’t solve every issue, it helps to subdue my hyperactivity, impulses, and elevates my ability to concentrate… though these all remain struggles in my daily life. Overall, boys are diagnosed with ADHD three times more frequently than girls. Girls are diagnosed 9 years later than boys are, on average, at around age 17, and this is an issue! More education is necessary in order to recognise these signs at an earlier stage in girls’ lives. If indicators aren’t recognised, it can lead to underachieving in education, and increased risks of mental health problems.

Interested in finding out more? Read the editors supplementary content by scanning the QR code!

Artwork: Teresa Boyle, S9

35