ADHD: for Europeans, a difficult path to diagnosis

Published on: 14/10/2022 – 11:53 ADHD, or attention deficit disorder, with or without hyperactivity, is increasingly well known. But if today it is rather well diagnosed in young boys, women often have to wait until adulthood to obtain a diagnosis. ENTR collected the testimonies of two young Europeans with ADHD. “If a fly flew, I was distracted by the fly”. Throughout his childhood, Arthur felt different. He spoke without thinking, couldn’t concentrate, despite his best efforts. Then at 14, a psychiatrist diagnosed him with attention deficit disorder, without hyperactivity, also called ADHD. People with this disorder have an attention deficit: they often have trouble concentrating, are impulsive, sometimes hyperactive. Usually they can’t sit still or have their minds elsewhere. This disorder is one of the most common in children and adolescents, according to the German Ministry of Health. Worldwide, the prevalence rate is estimated at 5%. But ADHD is still often misdiagnosed in women. Carlotta, for example, must have reached the age of 22. Doctors had initially diagnosed him with borderline personality disorder, before realizing that the symptoms did not match. “It was obvious that I had ADHD since my childhood, and that it could have been seen and understood earlier, assures the young German. I was a little angry that it had not been detected from my youth. I think I could have been spared a lot of stress at school.” 🇪🇺 It’s a European project dedicated to youth, 100% on social networks. ENTR exists in 6 languages: French, English, German, Romanian, Portuguese and Polish.