Is Your Recurring Depression Undiagnosed ADHD?

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Depression can feel like the demands of the outside world cost you more than the resources you gain each day. You spend energy and time working, using cognitive resources to have conversations, or with emotional regulation skills to maintain relationships. Yet, none of those things are enough to compensate for the fact that your energy faucet is continuously leaking.

With this, comes the crushing certainty that you are slowly wasting away, becoming a shell of yourself, every day a little bit more than the previous one. Eventually, you may get to a point where getting up to go to the bathroom becomes too much.

For some people, these instances happen only once in their lives, or after major events. Others cycle through episodes. They live in a continuous storm where therapy or medication allows them to occasionally come up for air, before being swallowed by a wave and drowning again.

Each episode takes a toll. Each time it may become more difficult to get up again. But what if that didn’t have to be your story?

ADHD and Recurrent Depression

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition in which people experience difficulties sustaining attention, starting tasks, and regulating emotions, and they often feel restless or hyperactive. Depression accompanies ADHD in nearly 50 percent of diagnosed individuals.

These people often have recurring episodes.

Living with ADHD is exhausting. It takes immense energy to correct mistakes caused by distraction or forgetfulness. It requires emotional labor to mend relationships strained by impulsivity and emotional dysregulation. But, beyond these direct challenges, there’s also the mental effort required to suppress ADHD symptoms—to triple-check assignments to avoid mistakes, to hold back from interrupting conversations, or to constantly monitor oneself to avoid being perceived as “too much.”

The life of someone with ADHD is filled with negative feedback and stigma. When their struggles go unrecognized and unaccommodated, many begin to wonder if something is inherently wrong with them. This internalized self-doubt often marks the beginning of a cycle of depression.

Breaking the Cycle

Addressing depression is crucial, but for individuals with ADHD, it is often not enough. If the underlying cause of their distress is left unaddressed, the cycle repeats itself. In contrast, treating ADHD has long-term benefits.

A large longitudinal study found that treating ADHD reduced the risk of depression in adults by 45 percent. Additionally, individuals who were currently taking ADHD medication had a 20 percent lower risk of experiencing depression. When ADHD is accommodated or treated, comorbidities like depression and anxiety become more manageable—if they don’t disappear altogether.

Yet, ADHD is often missed, even when patients come back again and again for the same problem.

In a cohort of women with recurrent depression, 12.5 percent showed symptoms of ADHD, and 3.5 percent met the full diagnostic criteria. Not one of these women had ever been screened. Their recurrent depressive episodes might have been prevented if they had received an ADHD diagnosis earlier.

THE BASICS

ADHD: The Underdiagnosis of a Treatable Condition

Traditionally, ADHD was thought to be a childhood disorder, primarily affecting boys. Early research suggested that only one girl received a diagnosis for every four boys. Recent studies instead revealed that ADHD is just as prevalent in women as in men and persists well into adulthood.

The difference lies in how symptoms present. Compensatory strategies, societal expectations, or educational environments can mask or modify how ADHD traits appear.

Despite these insights, many clinicians remain unaware of these advances or are reluctant to adjust their diagnostic practices. Concerns about overdiagnosis and medication misuse have created additional barriers, making it even harder for individuals to receive proper evaluation and treatment.

ADHD Essential Reads

This may be the reason why, despite a recent increase in awareness of ADHD, underdiagnosis remains a problem.

Is My Depression Caused by ADHD?

To know if your depression is the result of an underlying ADHD, we must understand first whether you have ADHD. The road to diagnosis can be long and difficult, so the first suggestion would be to identify whether you relate to the core symptoms of ADHD. Other common symptoms can be difficulties perceiving time or regulating your emotions. You may have been branded as “too sensitive” or as someone who often “overreacts,” for example.

One thing that stands out in ADHD is that, although the consequences of experiencing symptoms are not always dire, they exist in all settings of life, even positive ones. For example, forgetting to close all the doors of the wardrobes and cupboards in your house hurts no one, and has no obvious negative consequences, but is seldom seen in non-ADHD households.

As Dr. Russel Barkley expressed in one of his conferences: “There isn’t a single area in life that isn’t affected by ADHD.”

ADHD Is Not a Curse

ADHD does not have to be a curse. When accommodated and treated, people can live happy and successful lives. Understanding it, and shedding much of the guilt associated with not being “normal,” can help a lot. Although the road to diagnosis is paved with obstacles, it is often a path worth taking.

Having ADHD does not mean that you have to suffer from ADHD.

Authored by Ludovico Saint Amour di Chanaz, Ph.D, Author of the book “The ADHD User’s Manual”

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