Struggling with a probable but undiagnosed condition of ADHD is a demoralizing and destructive situation for students in college. People coping with the lack of a diagnosis include female university students in Canada such as Evelyna Ekoko-Kay, who is in her fourth year at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Ekoko-Kay cannot afford the diagnosis exam and she has not yet succeed in finding financial aid for it. She emphasizes that an early diagnosis would have made financial aid available to her.
ADHD is both overdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. Will there ever be a firm answer?
Early and correct diagnosis for ADHD learners and adults is crucial.
Ekoko-Kay connects her situation to larger patterns: white male children are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD; girls develop more internalized coping mechanisms for their symptoms; and women are more likely to be diagnosed as young adults with depression or a bipolar condition instead of being diagnosed and treated for ADHD.
This is the year Ekoko-Kay hopes she will receive a college bursary to nance the formal assessment and diagnosis of her adult ADHD. It’s a lifelong struggle of misunderstandings, misdiagnoses and anxieties, she has given up on lengthy provincial waiting lists.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Key takeaways
- ADHD can harm short term memory making reteaching essential to understanding.
- More white males are diagnosed with ADHD while girls suffer as equally from depression or anxiety.
- Minority children are diagnosed with ADHD at a higher rate due to socioeconomic issues.
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