Hannah Ramsey always felt like multiple radio stations were playing in her head at once. By the time she finished her first year of college, the noise had become impossible to ignore. So she did what any young person with a health-related question now does: She hopped on the internet.
She soon found herself down a very busy rabbit hole. On Reddit, in a channel with more than 366,000 members called ADHD Women, Hannah read post after post that resonated deeply with her. On YouTube, she watched videos from cultural commentators she admires—the experiences they described, the symptoms they mentioned, so many of them mirrored her own. (TikTok wasn’t Hannah’s personal go-to, but it, too, hosts lots of similar content, including 66 million videos with the term “ADHD women late diagnosis.”)
Hannah’s research motivated her to find a psychologist and get formally evaluated. And at 19, she was officially diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, a chronic neurodevelopmental condition that impacts how the brain develops, functions, and processes information, according to the CDC. Getting confirmation of something she’d long suspected was a relief. Plus, she says, “finding community with other women who have ADHD helped alleviate the shame, self-doubt, and feelings of inadequacy I had throughout my life.”
Hannah’s story is far from rare. Usually considered a “little boy’s issue” and primarily diagnosed in male kids, ADHD seems like it’s now hitting adult women hard. From 2020 to 2022, new diagnoses in women ages 23 to 49 roughly doubled, according to Epic Research data. In 2021, prescriptions for stimulant medications like Adderall, used to treat ADHD, skyrocketed, with the biggest leaps being for women in their 20s and 30s.
The obvious question is why. Why would a disorder considered prevalent only in boys have shifted to an entirely new demographic? The surprising answer: It hasn’t. Experts now believe it’s been there, undiagnosed and untreated in the women who have it, all along.
Better Late Than Never but Damn
For the longest time (decades, really), the medical community’s understanding of ADHD was based on studies done almost exclusively among white boys. That research highlighted the symptoms generally associated with the disorder: difficulty focusing, difficulty sitting still, difficulty staying quiet. But many girls and women experience ADHD differently. It’s not that they never get hyperactive or impulsive, but “their more prominent symptoms are inattentive ones,” says clinical psychologist Julia Schechter, PhD, codirector of the Duke Center for Girls and Women With ADHD. Things like staring into space or constant doodling in class.
Keena Michon, 32, noticed this disconnect firsthand, when she got tested for ADHD after multiple people in her life pointed out that she tended to get hyper-focused or be very disorganized, among other symptoms. Her evaluation took five hours, but the doctor she saw didn’t even look through all her paperwork. “He was just like, ‘Based on your history, I believe that you have PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder,’” she remembers, adding that he cited where she grew up as a reason. “I told him, ‘Being a Black woman, these signs and symptoms present themselves very differently than what you have on the books.’” He ignored her and recommended 10 weeks of therapy. But Keena had been in therapy for years. In fact, it had been her therapist who’d suggested she get evaluated.
Keena eventually got on a waiting list to see a different doctor and still doesn’t have the formal diagnosis needed to receive medical treatment. In the meantime, her therapist helps her manage her symptoms. But her experience should be a cautionary tale to all because a long-delayed ADHD diagnosis can have serious consequences. “Women with undiagnosed and untreated ADHD have higher rates of suicide attempts, are five times more likely to experience intimate partner abuse, and have double the risk of engaging in self-harm,” says Schechter. “It’s imperative we identify people early because the more support they receive, the more the interventions can help mitigate these risks.”
Women who escape the harsher repercussions of going undiagnosed can still suffer from chronic frustration or low self-esteem, like those feelings of inadequacy Hannah once had. During that first year of college, she’d pull all-nighters but still fall behind in classwork. “I told myself, This is just how it is for you—suck it up and do it,” she says. Even though living like that didn’t feel sustainable. (Keena has cycled through similar feelings: “I’m not thoroughly confident about who I am with an ADHD brain.”)
Science Is (Sort Of) Catching Up
As awareness spreads and more and more women wonder if they’ve actually had ADHD their entire lives, there’s still no standardized way to assess them (or any adult, for that matter). The American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders is in the process of creating an official adult evaluation. Its arrival is TBD.
The best bet, for now, for anyone struggling with ADHD-like symptoms is to be persistent in trying to find a trusted health care professional who can perform an evaluation based on a brain and mental health condition manual called the DSM-5. People who do receive a diagnosis are often treated with medications like Adderall or therapy. But all of this is still based on research that doesn’t reflect the nuanced experiences of women or marginalized groups. So the likelihood that women with the condition will keep getting overlooked remains high
This story was originally published in our Winter 2024 issue.
Christen A. Johnson is the senior lifestyle editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers health and wellness, home, sports, astrology, food, travel and more for print and digital. She also dabbles in culture writing, and wrote Cosmo's first-ever digital cover story. Before joining the magazine, Christen was a lifestyle features reporter at the Chicago Tribune. Several of her health and style stories made the paper's front page. When Christen isn't digging through antique stores, she's likely drooling over home renos on HGTV, sharing her latest therapy revelation, redoing old workouts from her college basketball days, or trying to perfect her homemade buttermilk biscuit recipe. Follow her on Insta for BTS ~ editor life ~ tingz!
