Q & A on Adult ADHD: What Is Personality, What Are Symptoms?

Continuing with last month's theme of sharing questions and my answers from CHADD's Ask the Expert chat, here is a two-part question from a reader named Matt. 


I welcome your responses to both Matt's questions and my answers.

—Gina Pera

1. How do you separate ADHD from the person? Because it is neurological, it just doesn't seem possible. It would be like separating sexual orientation from a person.

Hi Matt,

Boy, that’s a question for the philosophers! But I’ll give it a try. It’s true that, especially with late-diagnosis adult ADHD, you often hear comments such as “I don’t know if I have ADHD or if I am ADHD.”

A 30-something man with ADHD recently told me that his personality is the Life of the Party. But, I asked him, is that really his personality? Or, could it be a behavior developed many years ago because he was unable to follow the many conversational threads at a party? 

Adult ADHD Question-and-Answer: on ADHD and "Denial"

A few years ago, I participated in an Ask the Expert Chat on "ADHD and Relationships", sponsored by the National Resource Center on ADHD. In this free forum, the public is invited to ask questions of a top ADHD expert in a live online chat. This text-based Q&A is later stored in the CHADD Ask the Expert archive (you can view the topics at that link but access is limited to CHADD members). Among CHADD membership's many benefits, I consider this one of the best!

      

Reprinted courtesy of "Kev" 
http://www.kevscartoons.com

The Internet is chockablock with information on ADHD, but some of it is unreliable. You can count on these Ask the Expert chats to be solid. (The latest one was with Dr. Russell Barkley.) Moreover,  back issues of CHADD's excellent Attention magazine are stored in the archives for members' access. So, if you're not a CHADD member, I encourage you to sign up now (it's tax-deductible, too!).

During my Ask the Expert chat, the questions came in massive quantities!  So many that I didn't have time to answer them in the chat itself. Fortunately, I saved the file. In the coming months, I will be sharing the most topical questions and answers with you.  This month: What do you do when an adult in your life is "in denial" about what seem obvious ADHD-related challenges?