If you have a high self-esteem, you know what are your strength and weak points and that you will never let the weaknesses overcome your strengths. As you know your strengths and weaknesses, you can plan to achieve your goals well.

If you have a low self-esteem, you will mostly feel that others are quite deserving and are better than what you are. In addition, you are not able to perceive your own weaknesses and strengths and do not have confidence to achieve your stated goals or face challenging situations. Further, you feel embarrassed when someone praise you and deliberately accept  negative comments as that is what you feel for yourself too. Such symptoms indicate that you are undergoing from the state of inferiority complex wherein you do not like yourself, nor others like you.

ADHD Affecting Self-esteem

ADHD is the one of the major causes of low self-esteem in children, adolescents, and adults. Low self-esteem is the outcome of improper or no social skills and famous as a bad character in the minds of others. Criticism is one more factor that results in low self-esteem. This actually takes place due to the following reasons.

• Children suffering from ADHD feel difficult to make and maintain friendships.
• Such children act without any proper thinking and therefore, might seem to speak meaningless.
• They are short-tempered and might just burst on others.
• They might also damage the belongings of others.
• They might be bullying other children in fear of them being bullied.

Due to above behaviors, it is natural that such a child mostly faces ignorance, rejection, bullying. In adult life, this is not that common as among children, but rather it affects the relationships at family, workplace, and other social events. The causes or symptoms of low self-esteem that can create difficulties in relationships are:

• Feeling it tough to complete a task
• Disorganized way of handling things
• Poor socialization

Actually, ADHD starts right away in your childhood. As a child suffering from ADHD, you must have faced ignorance to such an extent that you have an in-depth feeling that you are good for nothing. This negative state further worsens in the adulthood state when you fail to get a job or do not obtain the desired project at a job.

Treating Low Self-esteem

Evaluating the patient’s self-esteem is one of the critical assessments while diagnosing ADHD. Listed below are the treatments for improving self-esteem that includes methods wherein the victim itself has to practice certain ways of thinking and acting.

• Medication
• Psychotherapy
• Cognitive therapy
• Behavior management strategies
• Assertiveness training courses

As a part of the treatment plan, the counselors and therapists suggest some ways of encouragement for differently perceiving yourself. Listed are some of these ways.

• Inculcate innovative skills.
• Improve skills that you possess.
• Try to give a thought on what unique you can do to bring about a positive change in yourself or in some another person.
• Learn to be concerned and always think about others to talk to them in a manner in which they feel worthy of themselves.

To track where the problem lies in your thinking, the counselor or therapist will ask you about the situations or events of your past wherein you thought negatively or might have lost confidence. The key of the treatment of low self-esteem is to perceive or look at things, situations, people, and life differently, actually in a positive way. Such a technique is referred to as reframing wherein you view everything with a different vision and understand each entity in a positive manner including yourself.

A plus point of this treatment’s success is improved condition of ADHD.

Assertiveness training courses are designed to recover the lost confidence and feel positive for yourself. You can obtain information on these training courses through the following mediums:

• Internet
• Library
• Education colleges in your residing region

Managing Criticisms

Low self-esteem simply means that you do not have confidence in your own abilities and capabilities. Whenever you face success, you tend to give its credit to luck or other senior or capable people involved with you.

When somebody criticizes you, because of low self-esteem, you simply are not embarrassed. Further, it acts as a support to your negative thinking about yourself. Criticism is a cause and boost for low self-esteem. Unfair criticisms, if any, will make you feel that the entire planet dislikes you.

Face criticisms in the following ways.

• Listen carefully when somebody says negative about you.
• On facing an unfair or unjust comment, you can raise an issue against it calmly with a proper explanation as to why you feel unfair. Role-play is an ideal option to practice this.

If you have low self-esteem and still go ahead to criticize others, just think on how you will feel it if you were the front person. So, to avoid criticisms for others:

• Be just
• Remain cool
• Accept the facts
• Avoid attacking on the front person’s character
• Speak politely even if you have to trace mistakes. For example say, “I worry if you do not come on time to catch the train”; instead of saying, “You are a late comer and do not value time.”

Do you know that you can make criticism a good medium for your child to improve his/her self-esteem? Yes! It just about the manner in which you speak and what words you use. For example, if your child finds it difficult to do a drawing, tell him/her – “I am happy that you are able to do much of the drawing. Tell me your problem and let’s think on its solution together”. This is a better approach rather than saying – “You cannot draw this much?”

1. Consult a GP and discuss what makes you recognize that you might be having ADHD.
2. Ask the GP to examine you physically and mentally (even if he/she is of the opinion that ADHD is not a disorder to be found in adults).
3. Get a reference from the GP of a psychiatrist for diagnosis if he/she suggest you for the same, as it is difficult for the GP to alone diagnose ADHD.
4. Visit the referred specialist for a proper and complete diagnosis.

Be prepare to wait in the queues, as there can be a line of patients that vary in number depending on the area, visiting your GP and the referred specialist.

The extent to which adults can remain unknown about the presence of this disease within themselves is that they often come to know when their child is diagnosed with ADHD. Further, according to a little research done on adult ADHD only in America, about eight million adults are affected by ADHD in the U.S. itself. Amazed at these facts? But, they are true! Do not let this happen to you. Go for a check up immediately on any suspicion.

If you contact your local ADHD support group, you will get information about the private specialists in adult ADHD in your residing or official areas. A private specialist in adult ADHD works with your local authority and accepts an NHS referral. Currently, there are two NHS centres dealing with adult ADHD and accept the referrals of a GP or consultant psychiatrist only. These two NHS clinics are:

• Maudsley Hospital in London
• Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridge

Sometimes, the co-existing disorders along with ADHD make it difficult to detect ADHD, because they might get diagnosed; but not ADHD. These disorders are:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Substance use disorders
• Learning disabilities

Checklist of ADHD Symptoms

Listed below are the symptoms of ADHD, out of which if you exhibit 12 at the minimum, you are suffering from ADHD.

• A feeling of not able to achieve your goals irrespective of how much you have really accomplished
• Difficulty in being organized
• Chronic procrastination
• Difficulty in managing multiple projects simultaneously
• Speaking whatever comes to mind irrespective of the time or suitability of the remark
• Searching for more motivation frequently
• Intolerance of tediousness
• Getting easily distracted
• Difficult in paying attention
• Seem to move out in the middle of a discussion or while reading something, but when with it, seem to hyper focus
• Being creative and highly intelligent
• Difficulty in implementing a systematic procedure
• Impatient
• Difficulty in bearing frustration
• Impulsiveness (orally or in action), for instance, changing plans quickly, being hot-tempered
• Worrying without any reason endlessly
• Disregarding actual dangers
• Looking into a prospect to seek something to worry about
• A sense of insecurity
• Constant changes of moods, specially when not engaged in work or talking to a person
• Physical or mental restlessness
• Addiction in behavior
• Chronic problems with self-confidence
• Inexact self-observation
• Family history of ADHD
• Manic-depressive illness or depression
• Substance misuse or other mood disorders

Source

Attention Deficit Disorder by Edward M Hallowell, MD, and John J Ratey, MD (Fourth Estate, London 1996)

Preparation for Appointment with Your GP

Here are some tips to prepare yourself before attending an appointment with the GP.

• Observe the symptoms and collect evidences that indicate you seriously have them. Try to maintain a diary of the symptoms that you exhibit in your daily life and take it along to show to the GP.
• Seek for some up-to-date research related to ADHD.
• Collect old school reports.
• Gather and bring any job evaluation if you feel that you have problems in your office.

At the First Appointment

When you visit your GP for the first time, your GP will:

• Enquire about the medical history of your entire family including yourself too.
• Find out your childhood history to detect when ADHD started with you, as the diagnosis might never have been done at the time of childhood
• Conduct a medical examination to skip other medical conditions such as thyroid problems.
• Speak to a family member who is close to you and knows you very well for more information.

After the above tasks, your GP might refer you to a specialist for diagnosis.

At the Appointment of a Specialist

Similar to a GP, the psychiatrist will require:

• Your medical past
• Past and current symptoms of ADHD
• Your school and work history
• Your psychiatric history along with the prescribed medications

Further, the psychiatrist might conduct psychometric testing to look for a learning disability. Next, the psychiatrist will assess your concentration, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity using a rating scale, which can be one of the following:

• DSM-IV (for children)
• Wender Utah
• Brown
• Conners

ADHD Treatment after Diagnosis

A combination of the treatments including the ones below can be offered.

• Making the family members aware of ADHD and teaching them how to deal with it
• Prescribed medications, such as stimulants, atomoxetine, or tricyclic antidepressants
• Counseling
• Time management and behaviour management strategies

You can also contact support groups that can teach you to deal with common problems related to work and family life.