The National · 2024 · 3 min read
The silent struggle — ADHD in women is rising, or is it just finally being seen?
Dr Ioannis spoke to The National about a Dubai-wide rise in ADHD diagnoses in adult women — and why this isn't a sudden epidemic, but a generation finally being assessed.
Adult women are being diagnosed with ADHD at rates we have not seen before — in Dubai and globally. The condition is not new. The recognition is.
For most of the last few decades, ADHD was modelled on the boy who could not sit still. That picture missed a substantial subset of girls — and the women they became — whose ADHD presented as inattention, masking, perfectionism, anxiety, and exhaustion rather than hyperactivity. They learned to compensate, they were called dreamy or scattered, and they entered adulthood undiagnosed.
What's actually changing
Two things. Clinicians are better trained to recognise the female presentation. And women themselves — often after their own child is diagnosed — are recognising their pattern and seeking assessment. The result is not an epidemic. It is a catch-up.
A proper ADHD assessment takes time and cannot be completed in a single session. At IASO we never make a treatment decision before a thorough evaluation.
If you are a woman who has spent years wondering whether your difficulties were just personality, or laziness, or stress — and the pattern fits — you deserve a proper assessment. That is what we offer.
Originally published in The National, 2024.