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Topics: Mental Health, ADHD, Health, Jobs
Niamh Shackleton
It's said that as many as 2.6 million people in the UK have ADHD - a large majority of whom are adults.
With this in mind, it's not unusual for a person's ADHD symptoms to present themselves in the workplace, and there are apparently six key signs to look out for in particular that could signal that you have the condition.
As to what exactly ADHD is, charity ADHD UK describes it as 'a disorder that is defined through analysis of behaviour'.
It goes on: "People with ADHD show a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity–impulsivity that interferes with day-to-day functioning and/or development."
ADHD is short for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
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Here are six signs to keep an eye out for a work:
We're all victim to it at times because, you know, sometimes that iced vanilla latte from Starbucks just can't wait; but those with ADHD might suffer with something called 'time blindness'.
And Sean Abraham, a licensed clinical social worker at Grow Therapy, explained to BuzzFeed that 'being your own boss or meeting deadlines might be difficult' for that reason.
Dede O’Shea, a psychologist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, added that ADHD sufferers 'might have difficulty really gauging how much time they need to get to where they want to go, or they only have in their mind the time that they need to arrive'.
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Again, it's something we're all guilty of at work, but if you're constantly finding it difficult to meet deadlines because you're doing your work at the last minute, then there might be more to it.
"[Procrastination] can be attributed to their difficulty with executive functioning and with structuring their tasks in a timely manner," explained Dr. Deepti Anbarasan, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
"Some might exhibit a procrastination-defeatist style, where overwhelming anxiety leads to paralysis," added Megan Anna Neff, a clinical psychologist.
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Meanwhile, others might 'use urgency as a motivator to combat procrastination'.
Those in the workplace who have perfectionist tendencies could also have ADHD.
O'Shea said: "ADHD does affect a part of the brain that controls how you direct your attention.
"People with ADHD, that control area is not working properly. So they really can’t put their focus onto what they need to get done.
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"It just keeps going back and forth between all of these different ideas. And so sometimes that perfectionism can come about as a way to try to cope with that and think, ‘OK, if I get everything done correctly, then I can get started.'"
Nearly 80 percent of people in the UK frequently workplace stress, but the way you handle such stressors might be a sign of the condition.
This is because a person with ADHD's brain could have an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex (which controls you attention and emotional responses).
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"When they can’t control all of those different thoughts, all of those different emotions that are going on in a high-stress situation, then that can lead to the dysregulation, having kind of a mental breakdown, really not being able to get ahold of their feelings,” said psychologist O'Shea.
One example of this is habitually sending emails with mistakes (like Martha's 'sent fromm mY iphone' in Baby Reindeer), and that's because tasks like these are pretty boring.
"It’s hard for their brains to stay stimulated long enough to really do that kind of especially tedious, more boring tasks that are like reading emails, looking at paperwork," said O'Shea.
"The ADHD brain needs a lot of constant stimulation."
Because of ADHD-sufferers impaired executive functioning, employees with the condition might have brilliant creative ideas but struggle to actually make them happen.
This might be down to the fact that people with ADHD struggle to focus to get things done and therefore execute their ideas.