For a long time it was thought that ADHD settles with age. But adults also live with it or even receive the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Two victims tell.
She has a fair on her mind. When she puts the laundry she just washed back into the machine. Gets on the wrong bus again, even though that happened yesterday. Getting bogged down with time and appointment again. Angelina Boerger has only known for two years that there is an explanation for when a chain carousel, roller coaster and bumper car ride in her head at the same time, when all she really wants to do is eat candy floss in peace. The explanation is: ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
The 31-year-old was diagnosed at the age of 29. While the word diagnosis sounds like a dark moment in life for most people, it was one of “enlightenment” for the freelance journalist from Aachen. At last this otherness, which had vaguely accompanied her her whole life, had a name. At the same time she asked herself: “Why hasn’t I come across this before?”
When Angelina Boerger sat in the audience of the talk show Domian Live, a young woman spoke about her life with ADHD as a guest on the show. Angelina Boerger noticed: That corresponds exactly to the way I live. That was the impetus for her own diagnosis.
Photo: Annika Fußwinkel
After all, Angelina Boerger was already in therapy because of this perceived difference. She had trouble dealing with stress at work. Her therapist didn’t realize that ADHD was the cause. But Angelina Boerger herself, who writes, podcasts and makes videos about mental health professionally, never came up with the topic. She explains it with what society and research have long been convinced of: “For me, ADHD was always a disease of children and young people.” One that makes adult sufferers the apparent exception and is often overlooked.
Up to six percent of all children and adolescents suffer from ADHD
ADHD is one of the most common mental illnesses in children and adolescents. Two to six percent of all under 18-year-olds receive the diagnosis. An imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain hosts the proverbial hype in the head. For a long time, the assessment was that the disease would settle into adulthood.
But that turned out to be wrong. Numerous studies over the past few years have shown that around 60 percent of those affected by ADHD as children continue to have the symptoms into adulthood. According to a study published in 2021 in American Journal of Psychiatry was published, it is even 90 percent. Hyperactivity, inattention, impulsivity are the three main symptoms. There are hardly any reliable figures on how many people over the age of 18 are affected by ADHD.
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If ADHD remains unrecognized and untreated, it increases the level of suffering for those affected. Sometimes mental illnesses such as depression are diagnosed or therapies are started, although ADHD is actually behind it. Just like it was with Angelina Boerger. On the other hand, unrecognized and untreated ADHD can also result in other mental illnesses such as obsessive-compulsive disorders or addictions, the journalist knows. “Women in particular don’t want the disease to be noticed from the outside. They do everything they can to avoid appearing irradiated and try to be perfectionists.” Because the symptoms are often met with a lack of understanding.
Child, teenager, man or woman: ADHD symptoms differ
They are particularly noticeable when interacting with others, says Angelina Boerger. “If an ADHD person lived alone on a planet, they would probably be perfectly happy and content.” It is the expectations in the partnership, in the family, in the professional environment that they – and ADHD sufferers in general – often cannot meet according to society’s perception. “You think differently, you feel differently.”
Symptoms can shift from childhood to adulthood. They can also differ from gender to gender. According to the ADHD info portal of the University of Cologne, women typically experience dreaminess, chaotic thinking, acting and planning as well as the search for external confirmation, while men are much more likely to be affected by great inner restlessness, a lack of patience and being easily distracted.
Fabian Struwe knows how to live with it. In contrast to Angelina Boerger, the 34-year-old video producer from the Swabian Alb received the diagnosis at the age of ten. Changing his diet as a child helped him push ADHD into the background. “When I was in my mid-20s, it came up again, but I still managed to do my job well,” he says. Three years ago, however, the hype in his head returned. A key moment was when he was standing in the pedestrian zone in Stuttgart and couldn’t block out the background noise of ringing mobile phones, arguing passers-by, street musicians and his girlfriend who wanted to talk to him. “I felt helpless.”
Fabian Struwe works as a video producer. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was ten. For three years he has been struggling with the symptoms.
Photo: Florian Genz
Every little disruptive factor, be it just a leaf on a houseplant that has suddenly turned yellow in the home office, distracts him and makes him forget where he is and what he is doing. “But the worst thing is a lack of attention,” he says. “I keep forgetting things my girlfriend tells me.” Fabian Struwe describes himself as an emotional person. When he talks about how considerate his girlfriend is with her, he almost bursts into tears.
How adults with ADHD benefit from “hyperfocus” or creativity
In addition to visiting a psychiatrist, he has developed coping strategies for his everyday life. In order to be able to concentrate while working, he puts on headphones at times and lets himself be lulled by brown or pink noise – monotonous noise in a certain frequency range that lets him ignore the world around him.
Both Fabian Struwe and Angelina Boerger emphasize that ADHD does not only have negative sides. As a video producer, Fabian Struwe benefits from the symptom known as “hyperfocus”: a prolonged but uncontrollable state of intense concentration associated with ADHD. “It’s particularly helpful when I’m familiarizing myself with new video editing programs,” he says. Angelina Boerger is proud of the perspective on the world that her special perception of ADHD gives her. “Thinking differently can be enriching,” she says, “particularly in the media world.”
What helps her to cope with ADHD: her educational work and the exchange with like-minded people on Instagram. After the diagnosis, Angelina Boerger founded the @kirmesimkopf account. Around 24,000 people follow her and share, for example, so-called “ADHD fails”, small things that go wrong in everyday life with ADHD. Boerger provides information on topics such as ADHD medication and road traffic or finding a place for therapy in a colourful, social media-friendly way. In early 2023 she wants to publish a non-fiction book about ADHD with personal anecdotes. Her message: “Not all people are the same. And not all brains are the same either. That’s okay.”