Why Women With ADHD Tend To Have Shorter Lives & 5 Ways To Avoid That Fate
A specialist's perspective on how to help women and girls live long, happy lives.
Mizuno K | Canva Recently, a British Journal of Psychiatry study on ADHD and life expectancy caught my attention, and it’s one that made me stop and think. Researchers Elizabeth Nions and her colleagues at Cambridge University examined how symptoms of ADHD impact the life expectancy of adults in the United Kingdom.
The results were alarming: women with ADHD had a life expectancy reduced by over 8.64 years, while men experienced a reduction of 6.78 years. These findings raise a lot of important questions about the long-term effects of ADHD, especially about how ADHD manifests differently in men and women and how those differences influence health outcomes.
Why women with ADHD have a shorter life expectancy
The researchers attributed these reductions in life expectancy to a combination of factors, including ADHD-related risk factors and unmet needs for treatment and support. But what exactly are these factors, and why does ADHD appear to have a more significant impact on the lives of women compared to men? More importantly, what can women with ADHD do to improve their health and longevity, despite these challenges?
I’m going to guide you through understanding how ADHD can impact women’s health, the factors that contribute to a shorter life expectancy, and—most importantly — how you can create a Personal Wellness Plan to address these concerns. This plan will help reduce physical, emotional, and psychological stress while offering you practical strategies to manage your symptoms and live a healthier, more fulfilling life.
Women's high-demand work — in and out of the home
In the decades following the second wave of feminism, outdated gender roles, and societal norms still expect women to bear most of the weight for their households. Although it’s been 30 years since the publication of “The Second Shift” by Arlie Hochschild, the experience of women in dual-career households remains largely unchanged.
In single-parent households, a lack of partnership means full responsibility for childcare and income can prevent women from educational, work, and social opportunities. For women of color, unequal access to care and systemic racism further complicate their lives. These issues contribute to barriers to diagnosis and treatment related to ADHD (resource allocation, scheduling, healthcare/insurance, etc.).
The stress and difficulties associated with the many roles women with ADHD are expected to play can be overwhelming and, according to Dr. Nions's study results, even life-threatening. These difficulties can lead to poor lifestyle habits, such as neglecting exercise, poor eating habits, and inadequate sleep.
With executive functioning challenges related to planning and prioritizing, women with ADHD may face more significant barriers to accessing proper treatment and support, further exacerbating their health risks.
Lack of diagnosis leads to shame
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Historically, ADHD was considered to be a disorder that primarily affected boys, and women’s ADHD symptoms were often overlooked or misdiagnosed. Women may not exhibit the hyperactive symptoms typically associated with ADHD in men.
Instead, they may experience more internalized symptoms, such as inattentiveness, forgetfulness, and difficulty focusing — symptoms that are sometimes dismissed as “just being disorganized” or “not trying hard enough.”
As a result, many women with ADHD go undiagnosed until later in life, by which time they’ve already experienced the negative consequences of untreated ADHD, such as chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and relationship issues. Research has shown that women with ADHD are more likely to experience co-occurring mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, which can further affect their overall health and well-being.
How women with ADHD can live longer and healthier lives
Now that we’ve explored why women with ADHD may experience a reduction in life expectancy, let’s shift focus to how you can take charge of your health and well-being. A Personal Wellness Plan is a customized approach to improving your physical, emotional, and psychological health. By incorporating a variety of strategies, you can minimize the impact of ADHD on your life and increase your chances of living a longer, healthier life.
1. Learn about ADHD and its 'friends'
Knowledge about ADHD and its common co-occurring conditions (what I often call “friends”) is empowering. Research, such as a study in the Journal of Attention Disorders, about ADHD and neurodivergence gives you facts and statistics you can use to your advantage, and these are not found on TikTok.
Reliable information found on websites such as CHADD, ADDA, ADDitudemag, Psychology Today, NIMH/CDC, etc., and from ADHD expert coaches and therapists also reduces feelings of isolation (“this only happens to me”) and validates your experiences. Plus, verified research informs you about what works and what doesn't work, with the goal in mind of a higher quality of life, more vitality, and efficiency.
2. Zoom out and assess your situation
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Look around at your environment and also at yourself, and ask, “What's happening inside of me, or external to me, that could be contributing to some of the challenges that I'm having?”.
Be honest about whether you are experiencing symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, etc. Maybe you notice your moods are cycling. Maybe you have a history of trauma and you’re having recurring nightmares, as discussed in an American Psychological Association article. Maybe you’re having panic attacks before team meetings at work.
How are you managing these symptoms? Are you using food, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, or the internet to self-medicate or avoid uncomfortable feelings? Improving your understanding of what’s going on will affect your choices for interventions, and help build coping skills that are more easily learned and applied to your everyday life.
3. Ask for help and find support
People do not have to struggle alone. It’s important to ask for help. Often we need an outsider to look at our situation and offer suggestions, interventions, and ideas. I think people often wait too long to get assistance, thinking, “If I just slog through this, the rest will get easier”.
Effective support is both collaborative and compassionate–you work with a provider or coach towards goals that you mutually set. These goals need to address chronic stress, financial issues, unhealthy coping behaviors, and personal relationships. Together you build up your resources (medical, psychological, cognitive, community, religious) and your coping mechanisms by learning new skills or leaning into existing ones.
4. Create simple self-care routines
Self-care entails more than a bubble bath. Self-care habits reduce overwhelm and stress and are most effective when part of a routine. Your goal here is to decrease the ‘too-muchness’ of your life, moment by moment.
Start by brainstorming activities you enjoy and increase your calm. Then, schedule a time in the day when you can do one of them. Keep it simple by aiming for one thing to increase the probability of success over time. Listening to a favorite playlist, doing five minutes of stretching, taking a brisk walk around the block, five minutes with a pet — things that are small, simple, and rewarding.
By creating and sticking to these small routines, you’ll be better able to tackle bigger things like eating, sleeping, personal hygiene, cleaning, laundry, and even spending time with friends. All of these will reduce the sense of “drowning” and keep stress at bay.
5. Adopt a 'whole person approach'
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Accept your brain by taking a whole-person perspective. Create space for who you are while acknowledging your neurodivergence. You are not your diagnosis. A diagnosis is something that is part of a narrative, not the whole story.
In education, teachers are trained to use “person first” language, not “Autistic child” or “ADHD girl”, but rather ”a child with Autism” or “a girl with ADHD”. This is a small but mighty distinction that is also relevant to a whole-person approach for adults.
This shift in language and perspective acknowledges that having ADHD reflects something in you, but it is not you. The sum of your being is so much more than that. Yes, having ADHD affects your executive functioning skills in terms of organization, prioritizing, emotional regulation, and working memory but it doesn’t lessen your value as a person. Those internal judgments from your inner critic can be debilitating emotionally, and psychologically, and harmful to your well-being.
Remember, you are not alone on this journey. Support is available, and there are effective treatments that can help. By implementing a Personal Wellness Plan tailored to your needs, you can take control of your health and improve your chances of living a longer, healthier life.
Sharon Saline, Psy.D., is an international lecturer and workshop facilitator. She has focused her work on ADHD, anxiety, learning differences, and mental health challenges and their impact on the school and family dynamics for more than 30 years.
