▲ Adult ADHD, which causes depression and anxiety disorders as well as forgetfulness (Source: Gettyimages Bank)

Do you feel like you're losing concentration and keep frequently forgetting something recently, when doing work or assignments? Forgetfulness is a temporary problem with the brain's ability to draw out stored memories due to overload in the processing of various tasks. This is a natural aging phenomenon, but if you are forgetful at a young age, you need to find the exact cause. Unlike forgetfulness, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a brain disease, caused by a lack of the frontal lobe function. Symptoms, such as attention deficit, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity appear. ADHD occurs mainly in 3-5% of Elementary School students, but more than half of them are not fully treated, so the symptoms persist until adulthood. In addition, there are cases where there are no symptoms in childhood, yet they then appear as adults. Therefore, if you can't systematically plan and deal with something as well as forgetfulness, act too impulsively, have no plans, and have a lack of concentration, you can suspect adult ADHD.

Individuals with adult ADHD often forget their tasks and cannot focus on work, due to severe symptoms of attention deficit. As a result of this, work motivation may decrease and depression may worsen. However, many patients often think of it as their incompetence and do not seek immediate treatment for it. Jeon Bo-young, a sophomore in the Department of Food and Nutrition, said, "Sometimes, I can't remember what I have to do or I can't concentrate well when I take classes. Whenever that happened, I was so tired that day that I thought I was in a bad condition and passed it off lightly. I learned from this opportunity that it may be the effect of adult ADHD". Jeong Sung-hoon, a Professor of Psychiatry at Eulj Medical Center, said, "People suffering from ADHD are distracted and impatient, as they get older and adapt to social life, impulsiveness improves a little. However, even as they become adults, men often behave antisocially or women suffer from adaptation disorders".

Adult ADHD symptoms closely related to social life can be divided into three categories. First, the 'Mistake Type', which repeatedly makes the same mistake, is greatly related to: Visual Cognitive Ability Decline. For example, the same sentence may be repeatedly read or replaced with another word, due to a lack of ability to follow the sentence. Second, there is a, ‘Loner Type’, who lives in a group and does not understand the atmosphere well. A person identifies his or her situation through the right cerebrum. Adult ADHD patients with poor functionality, have difficulty in saying things or answering questions that are not suitable for the situation, because it is not easy to grasp the situation or atmosphere. Third, the ‘Transfer Type’, a combination of Mistake and Loner Types, often makes mistakes, has difficulty in social groups, and often moves to a new company. These adult ADHD patients often overreact because they cannot tolerate the words or unfairness of their bosses, and eventually quit their jobs. Genetic and environmental factors are the causes of ADHD. Genes with ADHD are deformed in the dopamine gene, a neurotransmitter of the brain, causing carelessness and poor performance. In addition, smoking or drinking alcohol, stress during pregnancy, and underweight childbirth may be factors of developing ADHD.

If adult ADHD is treated smoothly through medication, concentration can be improved and life can become stabilized. In addition, one can learn how to organize and systematically manage thoughts through cognitive behavior therapy, and learn how to express your feelings in words and control your anger, through emotional control training. Self-healing methods include having a habit of, ‘schedule management’, through diary writing and having a, ‘hobby’, that can emit energy. Since the treatment of adult ADHD is not fully systematized and symptoms are very diverse, diagnosis and treatment should be carefully performed through consultation with experts. If you are forgetful and have concerns due to poor concentration, don't think lightly about it and go to an expert for appropriate examination and treatment.

By Jung In-hee, cub-reporter  sugar3870@naver.com

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