What Your Doctor Needs to Know About ADHD — and How You Can Help
- Tanya Murphy
- Apr 21
- 3 min read
Last Monday, The Society for ADHD hosted our first Educational Luncheon, It's a Family Affair, at Avalon North in Arlington, VA. What an extraordinary morning of honest conversation, shared learning, and community connection. Thank you to everyone who joined us.
Today's post is for everyone who has ever sat across from a healthcare provider and felt unseen, dismissed, or misunderstood, and for the providers themselves who want to do better.
The Problem With "You Don't Seem Like You Have ADHD"
Despite growing awareness of ADHD, many adults, particularly women, people of color, and late-diagnosed individuals, report entering clinical settings and being told directly or implicitly that they do not fit the expected profile. These encounters are not simply frustrating. They are clinically consequential. Research published in the Journal of Attention Disorders found that patients who feel dismissed by providers are significantly less likely to pursue further evaluation or engage with treatment, even when they genuinely need it.
The image of ADHD that many providers carry, a hyperactive white boy struggling to stay in his seat, is not wrong, but it is radically incomplete. And when providers rely on incomplete mental models, patients suffer.
What Current Research Says Providers Should Know
ADHD presents differently across gender: Women and girls disproportionately present with inattentive rather than hyperactive symptoms. They often develop sophisticated compensatory strategies that can mask symptom severity in clinical settings. A provider who only screens for hyperactivity will miss many female patients entirely.
ADHD presents differently across race and culture: Cultural factors influence how symptoms are expressed, interpreted, and reported. Providers need training in recognizing ADHD presentations that diverge from the majority-population profiles used in most standardized assessment tools. Implicit bias in clinical judgment must be actively examined and addressed.
ADHD frequently co-occurs with other conditions: Anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and learning disabilities frequently accompany ADHD. Treating ADHD in isolation without assessing for and addressing co-occurring conditions produces incomplete results. Comprehensive assessment is the standard of care.
Adult ADHD is real and underdiagnosed: The persistent myth that ADHD is a childhood condition that resolves at adolescence is not supported by evidence. Research published in The Lancet Psychiatry confirms that ADHD frequently persists across the lifespan and that adult diagnosis substantially improves quality of life when followed by appropriate support.
How to Advocate for Better Care
If you are an individual seeking ADHD evaluation or care, you have the right to ask your provider directly about their experience assessing ADHD in adults, in women, or in patients from your cultural background. You have the right to request a second opinion. You have the right to bring documentation, previous assessments, school records, or a symptom history, that supports a complete clinical picture.
You also have the right to feel heard. If a provider dismisses your concerns without adequate evaluation, that is important information about whether that provider is the right fit for your care.
For Healthcare Professionals
The Society for ADHD actively supports professional development for healthcare providers who want to strengthen their ADHD practice, particularly as it relates to serving diverse communities. Founder and CEO Tanya Murphy has contributed to faculty-level professional education through collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics. We believe provider education is one of the most powerful levers for closing the diagnosis gap in marginalized communities, and we are committed to supporting that work.
JOIN THE SOCIETY FOR ADHD
Better care begins with better education — for providers and for the communities they serve. Join The Society for ADHD and help us build a healthcare landscape where no one with ADHD is left without the support they need.
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