ADHD Is Different for Women

Women at Work

Harvard Business Review

Entrepreneurship, Workplace, Business/management, Business/entrepreneurship, Progress, Resources, Gender, Equality, Business/careers, Women, Hbr, Careers, Management, Business, Harvard, Human

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Two women who have ADHD—one’s a psychologist and the other a life coach—describe what the disorder is and how it messes with the brain’s executive functions, like inhibition and emotional regulation. They give advice for managing the symptoms, asking for help at work, and what to do if what we’re talking about sounds an awful lot like your life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Harvard Business School Executive Education develops leaders who make a
0:04.6	difference in the world. In their programs experience the power of fresh
0:09.4	perspectives and connect with the world of new ideas. Learn more at hbs.me slash
0:16.2	work. That's hbs.me slash work.
0:22.4	I have ADHD myself. My daughter does my granddaughters do my sister does and we
0:31.0	all look very different. But I can tell you that it's a real task for me to stay
0:39.4	focused on anything on something I'm working on because I have a very
0:45.7	creative brain in which ideas are pinging all the time.
0:50.5	Kathleen Nadeau is a psychologist who for the past 40-some odd years has
0:55.8	specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. Her mission is to help
1:00.9	people above all girls and women understand and deal with the disorder because
1:06.8	where the ones doctors have historically underdiagnosed and under treated. Why?
1:12.4	The Duke Center for Girls and Women with ADHD says that boys are twice as
1:18.4	likely to get a referral as girls because boys with ADHD tend to be
1:24.1	hyperactive and impulsive and therefore disruptive. I had a younger brother this
1:29.8	is true in my case who was so hyperactive. He was always leaving the yard as a
1:34.8	toddler. My mother was tearing her hair out because he just had to roam. That's
1:39.4	why they get all the attention. Girls with ADHD tend to be in attentive and they
1:46.8	also tend to develop coping skills that hide their symptoms. I've had girls tell
1:51.8	me I always look at the teacher because I know I'll get in trouble if I'm not
1:56.0	looking at her but I'm not always listening to the teacher so they're aware of
2:00.9	having to pretend and accommodate. The gender gap the Duke Center notes appears
	...

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