Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurological and developmental disorder that is often initially diagnosed in children. The disorder affects executive functioning: staying focused, paying attention, staying on task, resisting distractions, and controlling impulses and emotions. Struggling with executive functioning is normal in childhood and adolescence, but ADHD compromises a child’s ability to function. Inattention, lack of focus, not completing work, careless mistakes, forgetfulness, distractibility, fidgeting, and walking away impulsively are signs of ADHD in children. They do all these things so often that their schoolwork, peer relationships, and daily life suffer markedly. The core symptoms of ADHD generally improve with maturity. By the teenage years, children usually develop more control over these behaviors. Instead, ADHD in the teen years is more likely to manifest as impulsivity, risky behaviors, procrastination, disorganization, and emotional volatility. Teens with ADHD are more likely than their peers to have other mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and antisocial tendencies. Granted, all of these are symptoms of adolescence, too. The difference is that ADHD significantly impairs the teen’s ability to function. Fortunately, combining treatments can help minimize symptoms and teach adolescents successful adaptive strategies to benefit them for a lifetime.
RELATED: 6 ADHD myths and misconceptions
ADHD symptoms in teens are a common health condition that can affect anyone, regardless of age, sex, race, or ethnicity. Find updated ADHD symptoms in teens statistics here.
Early signs of ADHD symptoms in teens could include inattention, trouble focusing, hyperactivity, procrastination, disorganization, and impulsivity.
Serious symptoms of ADHD in teens usually do not require immediate medical attention.
ADHD symptoms in teens are caused by a neurological and developmental disorder. Teens may be at risk for developing ADHD symptoms if family members have ADHD symptoms. Other proposed risk factors include premature birth, brain injury, pregnancy-related issues, and childhood trauma.
ADHD symptoms in teens require a medical diagnosis.
ADHD in teens generally requires treatment. ADHD core symptoms in teens typically improve immediately or within a few weeks of starting ADHD medications. Still, it may take a few weeks or months to arrive at the optimal medication dosage. Behavioral changes and adaptive strategies may take months or years of treatment.
Treatment of ADHD symptoms in teens may include prescription medications, behavioral therapy, social skills training, classroom management, and parent training. Read more about ADHD treatments here.
Untreated ADHD symptoms in teens could result in complications, such as emotional dysregulation, aggression, antisocial disorders, poor academic performance, substance use, inability to work, and increased car accidents.
Use coupons for ADHD symptoms in teen treatments, like Ritalin (methylphenidate), Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine), and Strattera (atomoxetine) to save up to 80%.
ADHD is less commonly identified in a teen than in a young child. Healthcare professionals don’t usually consider an ADHD diagnosis unless ADHD symptoms are present in childhood. Therefore, the early signs of ADHD present when they are children. These include:
Problems with attention and focus
Problems completing work
Disorganization
Forgetfulness
Hyperactivity
Inability to control or resist impulses
These are the core symptoms of ADHD, but they typically improve as a child grows up. Teens often have better control over these core symptoms, so there are usually other signs that ADHD may be the right diagnosis, provided that they had ADHD symptoms as a child. These other signs include:
Impaired functioning in several environments
Procrastination
Impulsivity
Emotional dysregulation
Frustration
Oppositional behaviors
Risky behaviors
RELATED: Is your child being misdiagnosed with ADHD?
According to the official diagnostic criteria for ADHD, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the core symptoms involve inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. A child must have at least six signs of one of these problems.
Symptoms of inattention include:
Inability to complete tasks
Carelessness or failing to pay close attention when engaged in activities
Inability to stay focused on activities or tasks
Being disorganized when engaged in tasks, chores, or activities
Losing things required to complete tasks or activities
Avoiding tasks that require mental effort
Not listening when spoken to
Easy distractibility
Forgetfulness about routine activities
The hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms of ADHD are:
Frequent fidgeting or squirming
Inappropriately or impulsively leaving a seat
Inappropriately running about or climbing
Inability to play quietly
Frequently “on the go”
Excessive talking
Inability to wait for a turn
Blurting out answers
Frequently interrupting others or intruding on others
Though they may have better control over the core symptoms of ADHD, adolescents may have other signs:
Disorganization
Procrastination
Emotional dysregulation
Frustration
Low self-esteem
Poor school performance
ADHD can easily be mistaken for other mental disorders with similar symptoms. In turn, other mental disorders can easily be mistaken for ADHD. These include autism, learning disabilities, oppositional defiant disorder, sleep problems, language disorders, and anxiety. Contrary to popular belief, anxiety isn’t just one disorder, but it encompasses several disorders, including generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety, phobias, panic, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and selective mutism. Though ADHD and anxiety share some symptoms, anxiety is marked by fear or excessive worry. ADHD primarily involves hyperactivity, inattention, impulsivity, or a combination of these three symptoms.
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RELATED: Anxiety treatments and medications
ADHD has two major types of symptoms: inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Some people with ADHD have mostly one type of symptom, while some have both types of symptoms. For this reason, mental health professionals may sometimes describe a teen with ADHD as:
Predominantly inattentive (formerly called attention deficit disorder or ADD)
Predominantly impulsive or hyperactive
Both inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive
These are not medically useful terms because the medical treatment is the same. However, they are relevant to setting goals and treatment plans for behavioral therapy, school accommodations, and parenting.
Talk to a pediatrician if ADHD symptoms are noticed in a teen struggling to function at school, at home, or with friends. There is no test for ADHD, so the pediatrician will probably refer the child to a psychiatrist, who will make the final diagnosis.
It’s not easy to diagnose ADHD. The psychiatrist will weigh several factors:
Symptoms
The history of ADHD symptoms when the teen was a child
Problems functioning in school, at home, among friends, and in the community
Interviews with parents and others
Other behavioral or mental health issues
RELATED: Is your child being misdiagnosed for ADHD?
Untreated ADHD in teens does not cause medical complications, but living with untreated ADHD is difficult, frustrating, and bruising at an age that is already difficult to navigate. As a result, untreated ADHD in teens can lead to long-term social, behavioral, and mental health complications, such as:
Academic underachievement
Difficulty finding and keeping employment
Antisocial behaviors, including aggression, withdrawal, conduct disorder, or oppositional defiant disorder
Mood disorders, such as anxiety or depression
Substance use
Injury from risky behaviors
ADHD symptoms in teens require several complementary treatments, including:
Behavioral therapy
Parenting education
School interventions and accommodations
Medications
Healthcare providers use medications to control many symptoms in teens with ADHD. None of these drugs cure ADHD, but they can minimize symptoms. They include stimulant medications, such as methylphenidate and amphetamines. These are the first-line treatments and often improve core symptoms with the first dose. Non-stimulant medications, including the antidepressants atomoxetine and bupropion, are also effective, but they may take weeks or months to improve core symptoms.
RELATED: The benefits of ADHD medications for teens
There is no cure for ADHD. As teens age, they may develop strategies to control and live with ADHD symptoms. Some strategies may be unhealthy and unsuccessful, like substance abuse, procrastination, or aggression. Other strategies might be successful and healthy. That is why behavioral therapy, parenting, and school interventions play a major role in treating teens with ADHD. ADHD medications reduce symptoms, which gives the teen enough relief to develop successful and healthy strategies for achieving goals and completing necessary tasks. As a caregiver, there are a few things that can be done to help young adults succeed:
Learn about ADHD
Understand and actively take part in the teen’s treatment plan
Make sure the teen takes medications as prescribed
Understand the goals and methods of therapy
Work toward therapy goals in family life
Use what the teen is learning in therapy when parenting
Work with the school
Keep close track of the teen’s behaviors and symptoms and share this information with the treatment team and school
Be positive and optimistic
Reward progress
Keep home life structured and organized
Maintain consistent, predictable, and fair rewards or consequences
RELATED: 6 best exercises for ADHD
ADHD is difficult for both the teen and caregivers. For that matter, so is adolescence. When ADHD collides with adolescence, the challenges can seem overwhelming. The first step is to see a healthcare provider, get a medical diagnosis, and start down the path of appropriate treatment. Medications are the easy part. Therapy, guidance, parenting, advocacy, and support take more time and effort. The secret to success is to set reasonable, incremental, and achievable goals for yourself, your teen, the school, therapists, and healthcare providers. Stay focused on these goals. You may find that a major component of this involves changing your behaviors and lifestyle. You should strive to become a model of healthy and successful strategies that the teen should adopt, like organization, task completion, and emotional regulation. Done right, done purposefully, and done patiently, these incremental goals will produce astonishing results.
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and teens: what you need to know, NIH National Institute of Mental Health (2021)
Diagnosis and management of ADHD in children, American Family Physician (2014)
Is your child being misdiagnosed for ADHD?, SingleCare (2023)
Symptoms and diagnosis of ADHD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022)
ADHD treatments and medications, SingleCare (2023)
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, StatPearls (2023)
Age-related clinical characteristics of children and adolescents with ADHD, Frontiers of Psychiatry (2023)
Anxiety treatments and medications, SingleCare (2023)
OCPD vs. OCD: Compare causes, symptoms, treatments & more, SingleCare (2023)
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