Marisa is a web designer, front end (front end is the section of an internet page in which the user interacts with the page), she has more than 5 years of experience in her work and she is concerned that she still has a difficulty: it is difficult for her to follow detailed instructions, especially when receiving such instructions verbally. Of course, when you are in a conversation and you detect that you are not being able to grasp the details of the instructions, you feel anxiety, you become distressed and that triggers a vicious circle that makes everything worse.
A few weeks before consulting us, she received excellent news that scared: she was going to be promoted and that meant that she was going to have more meetings, with more people, and greater difficulty.
His level of anxiety had increased because one of the roles assigned to him was functional analyst: listening carefully to the client to try to interpret how his needs were going to translate into web design. In this scenario, he imagines himself incapable of filtering the multiple stimuli and being able to take these data as clear.
Reading this you may wonder what Marisa's experience has to do with hyperactivity, and the answer is "it has everything to do". One way to define hyperactivity in adults is excessive motor, cognitive (thinking), or verbal activity. That is, the person experiences a number of thoughts or words that make the behavior ineffective and maladaptive.
To learn more about the characteristics of ADHD read the article on "ADHD in adults: causes, characteristics and diagnosis"
To understand Marisa we are going to tell you the 5 basic signs that indicate that she may suffer from hyperactivity.
- Internal motor restlessness.
- Flood of cognitive stimuli.
- Difficulty fixing the eye point .
- Talking excessively or feeling the need to talk excessively.
- Feeling of boredom or chronic dissatisfaction.
- Internal motor restlessness: a significant proportion of adult ADHD patients, and more so women, "internalize" their motor hyperactivity. That is, instead of moving excessively, they have a sensation of being propelled by a motor, but they manage to keep their body still and in place.
In Marisa's case, this impulse interferes with her attention, in meetings she must invest a considerable amount of energy in curbing her desire to move or leave the meeting. This feeling worsens as meetings go on longer. "I admit there are times when this feeling gets so intense that it makes me fantasize in remote meetings about cutting up and going to do something physical."
- Flooding of thoughts: While Marisa is receiving instructions, she often feels that her "brain makes many ideas quickly" and also that her attention changes rapidly due to the multiple stimuli that are presented. "Being instructed by my boss on where to put a button can trigger me 10 ideas on how to configure that button and of course I completely lose the thread of the conversation." The issue gets worse when It is not up to her to decide where but to execute the instruction, that is, those ideas are superfluous.
- Difficulty fixing the eye point: studies have found that people with adult ADHD of the Hyperactive/Impulsive type tend to change the point of their gaze up to 10 times more per minute than the general population. During the interview with Marisa, it was evident that her eyes moved rapidly and repeatedly. "Sometimes I can't pay attention because I'm focused on looking you in the eye because I know it's rude to look away when someone is talking to you.Thisis clearly a sign of motor/visual hyperactivity.
- Talking excessively or feeling the need to do so: verbal impulsiveness generates "verbal hyper-production", people with ADHD tend to speak quickly, a lot, and at times when it is not appropriate to do so. "There are times when I start to speak without realizing it and when I become aware I have already lost the axis of the conversation." "Many times I promise myself that I'm going to stay silent, and I never keep it". Inpractice there are situations where it is essential to remain silent in order to receive the full idea and instruction. Marisa is greatly affected by this.
- Boredom or dissatisfaction:perhaps this is one of the signs or symptoms that generate the most suffering but is more trivialized. Hyperactivity or restlessness generates a very intense feeling of boredom. In our view, what people with ADHD describe as boredom is much more unpleasant than what people in the general population experience. This feeling of boredom or "emptiness" can arouse emotions such as irritability, anger, anxiety or anguish. When analyzing the context and the triggers of her difficulties, Marisa details: "I noticed that my ability to follow instructions is inversely proportional to my feeling of boredom, when I feel bored it is as if I lower my arms and decide that nothing that happens is relevant .Obviously, he stopped paying attention and I trust someone to take notes for me."
Bottom line: Hyperactivity can be a very limiting or disabling symptom that can be disguised in various ways. In young people and adults who intend to do complex activities, it is almost never presented in an obvious and visible way as it occurs in school-age children. Whether at work, college or any level of training course there are 5 signs you can watch for if you suffer from hyperactivity that is affecting your performance.