As we get older, it is normal to experience forgetfulness, and it can be problematic.
You might be thinking that it is dementia or just stress.
This can be another mental health problem, which is called attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, that disrupts attention and organization.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms last with the whole life. The condition itself doesn’t technically “get worse” as you get older, but the way you experience the problems can change. This often makes the condition feel much harder to manage and feels like ADHD getting worse with age.
Why ADHD Can Feel Harder Later in Life?
When you become an adult and get older, your life changes a lot. You get new responsibilities. Your body goes through changes with hormones. You might also lose the routine that you had from school or a job.
All of these new situations can make ADHD struggles seem more difficult. These problems include:
- Trouble with focus
- Memory problems
- Difficulty controlling emotions
How ADHD Symptoms Change Over Time?
Living with ADHD often feels more frequent as people get older. A 6-year-old and a 60-year-old have different ADHD symptoms. The core biology remains the same, but the outward symptoms may change.
Less Physical Activity, More Inner Restlessness
For many people, the physical restlessness diminishes over time, which is common in childhood, and goes away. You may not feel the urge to run or climb anymore, but a sense of inner restlessness often remains. You may feel unable to relax or find that your mind is constantly racing, even when your body is sitting still.
Attention Problems Become Bigger
As the physical part of being hyperactive calms down, the difficulty with paying attention often becomes the main problem. It may be harder to stay focused on work or follow what people are saying during a conversation. This is not because your brain has changed, but this is so because the demands of your attention have increased.
Difficulty with Getting Things Done
The mental skills that help you complete tasks are called executive functions. These skills include:
- Working memory: This is how you hold information in your mind while you use it.
- Processing speed: This means fast taking in information and reacting to it.
- Task management: It means you plan, decide what to do first, and finish activities.
Research shows that your ability to solve new problems depends a lot on your working memory. For older adults who have ADHD, problems with working memory can make it harder to learn new technology or adapt to a new routine.
Why Symptoms Feel Worse as You Age
It can feel like your ADHD symptoms get worse as you get older, even if the condition itself is stable. This feeling comes from how your ADHD brain interacts with the aging process.
The Loss of Routine After Retirement
For decades, things like having a job and taking care of a family have made up your routine. You have a specific time to wake up, due dates for completing work, and people who rely on you for things. This change in routine in adults acts like a strong helper for the ADHD brain.
When you retire or when your children move out, that helpful routine goes away. Suddenly, you have many hours in the day with no immediate pressure. When the ADHD brain has no strong need to start, it can feel stuck.
Without clear reminders from the outside world, you might find it hard to begin tasks or manage your time. This can make it feel like your condition is getting worse, but you have simply lost your usual routine.
When Normal Aging Meets ADHD
Everyone experiences slow cognitive function as they age. It takes longer to process information and remember things.
- A Double impact: When you combine these normal changes from getting older with the struggles you already have from ADHD, the effect becomes much bigger.
- Worse Memory Problems: If someone who does not have ADHD has a small memory slip, it is just a minor annoyance. For someone with ADHD, who already finds it hard to keep information in their short-term memory, that same memory slip can cause major problems in their day.
Adult Responsibilities Accumulate
As we get older, life often gets more complicated, not easier. We may have to take care of our parents as they age, handle our long-term health issues, or deal with complicated money matters. These jobs require strong skills in planning, organizing, and completing tasks. These are the exact skills that ADHD makes difficult.
Because of this, the difference between what life asks you to do and what you can easily manage gets bigger. This makes the ADHD symptoms feel much worse with age than they did before.
The Difficult Time for Women with ADHD
As women get older, they go through natural body changes that can really change how their ADHD shows up.
Estrogen- Dopamine Connection Helps the Brain
The hormone estrogen is very important for how the brain works. It helps make more dopamine, which is a chemical that controls focus and helps you feel motivated. In simple terms, estrogen acts like a natural help for a brain that has ADHD.
The Drop in Hormones
When women reach perimenopause (often in their 40s) and then menopause, their estrogen levels change a lot and then get very low.
- Dopamine Falls: When estrogen levels go down, the activity of dopamine in the brain also decreases.
- Symptoms Get Worse: This drop can cause a sudden, big increase in ADHD symptoms. You might have severe difficulty thinking clearly (brain fog), trouble remembering things (memory lapses), and feel emotional ups and downs.
- Medicine Changes: The stimulant medicines that have helped for years might not work as well. This is because the overall amount of dopamine has changed in the brain.
Surveys show that a large number of women with ADHD feel that their symptoms become “life-altering” during this transition.
Physical Health Risks
ADHD does not just affect your focus; it can put older adults at higher risk for other serious health issues.
Heart Health Risks
Recently, large-scale studies have shown concern for heart problems. Recently, large-scale studies have shown concern for heart problems. Adults who have ADHD may be more chances to suffer from heart illness as compared to those who do not have ADHD.
- Lifestyle: Part of the increased risk comes from things that make adhd worse, even harder for people with ADHD. It can be tough to stick to a healthy diet, get enough exercise, and reduce the use of smoking.
- Biological Link: Some data suggest there is a direct connection between ADHD and heart problems that is not related to just your lifestyle.
- The Key Point: People with ADHD must keep a close eye on their heart health. Regular doctor visits to check your blood pressure and how your heart works are very important.
Sleep Disorder
Trouble sleeping is very common when you have ADHD. It may affect 75% or as many as three out of every four adults.
- Sleep Timing: Many people with ADHD have a “delayed sleep phase.” This means their body naturally wants to go to sleep and wake up later than most people.
- Other Conditions: There are also more problems with restless leg syndrome (RLS) and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in the ADHD community.
- The Cycle: When you do not sleep well, it makes it harder to manage your feelings and use your planning skills. This, in turn, makes the symptoms of ADHD worse with age.
Mental Health Overlap
People who are older and have ADHD often have other mental health complications, too, like anxiety and depression. These conditions frequently happen together.
- Anxiety and ADHD
About 47% of adults with ADHD also experience an anxiety disorder. This makes sense. The constant struggle to remember things can turn into stress. That constant stress can easily lead to ongoing anxiety.
- Depression and ADHD
Around one out of every three adults with ADHD deals with depression. This often happens because they spend their whole lives feeling like they are “behind” everyone else or struggling to live up to their potential.
When To See A Doctor?
It is important to distinguish ADHD from other age-related mental health symptoms like dementia. If you experience new cognitive symptoms, like forgetting names of close family members, losing things behind you, and rapid personality changes, and you have no history of attention issues in childhood, this may not be ADHD.
You should consult a medical professional if your mental lapses start to interfere with your safety, like if you leave the stove on and forget to turn it off, your mood swings become a problem and unmanageable. Another condition is when your heart and sleep quality are disrupted.
Treatment Options For ADHD Later in Life
Treatment options include some therapies and medication. However, most effective treatments are therapies because sometimes medications can have side effects, as older people are already on medicines for other health problems.
These therapies are widely used approaches for addressing psychological and behavioral challenges for multiple mental health challenges like ADHD, anxiety, and depression.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
This is a well-established approach that helps individuals to diagnose and change negative thought patterns and replace them with more natural and positive ones.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for ADHD in adults can effectively tackle the functional impacts of ADHD by teaching skills to manage executive functions like time, organization, and procrastination. It is effective to manage negative thought patterns that worsen the symptoms.
Behavioral Therapy
Behavioral therapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy, is highly effective for adults with ADHD symptoms. It teaches skills to manage time, improve organization, handle impulsivity, and reframe negative thoughts. Besides that, this type of therapy boosts self-esteem and daily functioning by creating new habits and coping strategies for life challenges like work, relationships, and anxiety.
It focuses on practical strategies, structured sessions, and important homework to change unhelpful patterns into positive, productive ones.
The Bottom Line
ADHD is a lifelong condition. While it does not biologically worsen with age, the context of your life changes. The loss of structure, hormonal shifts, and the natural aging process can make symptoms worse.
However, awareness is power. By understanding these shifts, you can reduce your symptoms. With the right combination of psychiatric care, lifestyle structure, and self-compassion, you can maintain clarity and focus well into your later years.
For more information about these treatment approaches and to determine which might be right for a specific condition, individuals can analyze resources from professional bodies like the Inland Empire Behavioral Group. We provide all kinds of therapies and help to manage your symptoms. Whether you want help for yourself or for someone special to you, our services are available at any time. Call us and book an appointment.
