Think back a little, when you were a kid did you have problems focusing on completing a task? Maybe you've wanted to procrastinate once or twice, right? Maybe you even felt lazy and wanted to put it off for a few minutes, half an hour, a few hours, tomorrow, you get the idea.
Then when you grow into an adult, you've got way more responsibilities, but the same feeling of wanting to push everything back for later is still there. You surround yourself with distractions, things to keep your mind occupied and away from the work you need to do. Don't worry, we've all been there, but maybe there's a bigger problem underneath all of that like ADHD.
In the words of Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo, you might say to yourself “you mean I'm not lazy, stupid or crazy?" like the title of their book. That could exactly be the case if you've been living your life with an undiagnosed case of ADHD. It's a mental condition that's more commonly found in men rather than women, but that's when you count recorded cases.
According to the National Library of Medicine, women often go undiagnosed for ADHD in comparison to men due to the visible symptoms differing between the genders.
The disorganization and struggle with time management among other symptoms found in men suffering from ADHD, are less pronounced in women. This is because women are more inclined to internalize the issues caused by ADHD, in fear of being rejected by society for showing these problems outwardly.
Much like bottling your emotions, keeping the fact you're potentially undiagnosed for ADHD can lead to several additional issues, ranging from depression to self-esteem issues, and even dissociation from social life entirely.
So why is it people don't get themselves diagnosed at the first sign of trouble? There are plenty of reasons for that, but the biggest one is society's stigmatization of mental health issues.
You may have heard these words before: “You'll grow out of it”, “It's all in your head”, “I can do it, why can't you?”, “You're just lazy.”
As the development of mental health research has only made significant leaps in the past half-century, there are still lots of people around the world who remain ignorant or unaware of the problems a mental condition like ADHD can cause in a person's daily life, most of them associating it with bad habits instead.
The propagation of this stigma will only lead the people affected by it into a downward spiral of negative emotions and isolation, to maintain their image and reputation amongst their peers. But your own well-being is far more important than what society sees of you.
If you've suffered any symptoms listed for ADHD, or any other mental condition that you've been made aware of, get yourself checked out whenever you can. Much like mould, it doesn't become a problem until it's all over the place.
Written by Marcus Thong & Sophia Azreen
Sophia Azreen is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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