Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is well-represented here on Psych Central through Zoë’s …

Ah, Pediatrics. You publish such ridiculous studies sometimes. We called you out for the flawed study on ‘Facebook depression’, a shoddy study which should have never made it past your reviewers without some serious work.

Now you’re in the news again for a study about SpongeBob SquarePants, the apparently evil cartoon that will turn 4-year-old’s minds into mush after just 9 minutes of viewing. While you also published a somewhat more balanced commentary article alongside the study, nobody seemed to notice it.

And why would they? This study was a siren call to over-generalize and suggest we have found one of the enemies attempting to influence our children. And he wears square pants.

I worry about many things, and I probably fear more things than that. So when I find out that other worrywarts and anxiety sufferers are able to successfully overcome their struggles, I get excited. And I get motivated to push through my own fears.

And I don’t feel so alone. That’s because when you’re struggling with something, it’s natural to feel like you’re the only one on the planet with such problems.

Having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can certainly feel this way, especially if you’re a woman. (We typically hear more about boys and men with the disorder.)

Maybe you don’t know any women with ADHD. Maybe you feel overwhelmed by your symptoms. Or you don’t think you measure up because keeping a tidy household is impossible. Or you don’t think you’ll be able to do great things.

People with ADHD tend to have issues with anger for several reasons, said clinical psychologist Ari Tuckman, PsyD, and author of More Attention, Less Deficit: Successful Strategies for Adults with ADHD. One contributing factor is neurology. “People with ADHD tend to feel and express their emotions more strongly,” he said.

Comorbidity with depression and anxiety also is common, and, as a result, leaves individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) feeling “more irritable, emotional and angry.” Plus, the intrusive symptoms of ADHD don’t exactly lend themselves to a relaxed disposition. Problems with planning, for instance, make people feel overwhelmed, and, in turn, triggers negative emotions, Tuckman said.

This constant state of overwhelm just fuels the fire. “Feeling chronically overwhelmed can certainly shorten someone’s fuse,” he said. Also, “people with ADHD may feel like they need to defend themselves or justify their actions too often and thereby react more angrily than they otherwise would.”

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It backs up that statement with a link to 11 research studies which it says demonstrates the effectiveness of this supplement to help people with attention hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, and depression.

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College is a big transition for any student. But when you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), there are added challenges to consider. These obstacles concern everything from studying to managing your time to spending impulsively to planning your future post-college.

But by being aware of these potential problems and being proactive, students with ADHD can accomplish great things in school. Here’s how, according to Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D, a national certified counselor and licensed mental health counselor and author of Making the Grade with ADD: A Student’s Guide to Succeeding in College with Attention Deficit Disorder.

In marriages where one spouse has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or both do), there are often many challenges. One of them is overstepping each other’s boundaries.

For instance, a partner with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might assume without asking their partner that they’ll just take over all the household responsibilities, including chores and finances, or they might refuse to treat their symptoms and give the ultimatum to “take it or leave it.”

A non-ADHD spouse might take over all the responsibilities because they think their partner is incompetent or they might try to change them altogether.

In her book, The ADHD Effect on Marriage: Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps, marriage consultant Melissa Orlov (who I recently interviewed for a piece on pitfalls and potential solutions), discusses the importance of working on changing yourself, instead of your partner. It is unrealistic to try and change others anyway, and it only creates and perpetuates conflict.

Getting kids to pay attention is hard enough. But thanks to today’s technological advances, it can become an even bigger challenge. For instance, a University of Washington study found a link between toddlers watching TV and diminished attention spans by seven years old. Another study from UCLA found that kids who used technology had less reflective thought.

Interestingly, however, they did have greater visual-spatial skills. “Technology is producing learners with a new set of cognitive strengths and weaknesses,” said Lucy Jo Palladino, Ph.D, psychologist, attention expert and author of Dreamers, Discoverers & Dynamos: How to Help the Child Who Is Bright, Bored and Having Problems in School, a guide for kids who are inventive thinkers, crave novelty and are strongly drawn to distraction.

So how do you help your child overcome their concentration weak spots? Here are eight attention-saving suggestions that can help.

Last month, Andrew Brown writing for the UK’s Guardian, noted when Professor David Nutt kept referring to depression as a “brain disease” on a popular UK television program.

We commend Andrew Brown for his calling out Professor Nutt in trying to dumb down the portrayal of mental disorders to simply “brain diseases.” Mental disorders remain complex disorders that involve all aspect of a person’s functioning and life — their brain and biology, their psychological makeup and personality, and their social interactions and relationships with others. The cause isn’t just one of these things in the vast majority of people who have a mental illness — the cause is all of these things, in differing proportions.

I’ve written about this in the past and in fact, I tag it as one of the top 10 myths of mental illness — because it still is. Even well-meaning family physicians and psychiatrists still refer to the false chemical imbalance theory as though it were fact. A theory, by the way, that has never enjoyed strong research support.

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I’m a tad indecisive, not about everything, but most things.

Here’s a typical experience: I’m at a restaurant, perusing (i.e., studying) the menu and pondering. I ask what everyone else is having, and ponder some more. Then I chat with the server. If I’m wavering between two dishes, I ask what’s the better option. If I just have one meal in mind, I focus my questions on that dish. After I get the answer, sometimes, I think some more. Aside from being a super fun dinner date (fortunately, my boyfriend and friends just laugh it off now…most of the time), I clearly have decision issues.

So what’s my problem — and yours if making simple daily decisions feels like you’re gearing up for the choice of a lifetime?

Take a minute and answer this question: Is anyone really normal today?

I mean, even those who claim they are normal may, in fact, be the most neurotic among us, swimming with a nice pair of scuba fins down the river of Denial. Having my psychiatric file published online and in print for public viewing, I get to hear my share of dirty secrets—weird obsessions, family dysfunction, or disguised addiction—that are kept concealed from everyone but a self-professed neurotic and maybe a shrink.

“Why are there so many disorders today?” Those seven words, or a variation of them, surface a few times a week. And my take on this query is so complex that, to avoid sounding like my grad school professors making an erudite case that fails to communicate anything to average folks like me, I often shrug my shoulders and move on to a conversation about dessert. Now that I can talk about all day.

Here’s the abridged edition of my guess as to why we mark up more pages of the DSM-IV today than, say, a century ago (even though the DSM-IV had yet to be born).

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects about four percent of U.S. adults (Kessler, Chiu, Demler & Walters, 2005). Still, many myths, stereotypes and downright fallacies abound — everything from questioning the very existence of ADHD to downplaying its seriousness. Below, we spoke with two experts who treat individuals with ADHD to set the record straight.

1. Myth: ADHD isn’t a real disorder.

Fact: ADHD is a mental disorder with a strong biological component (like most mental disorders). This includes an inherited biological component, notes Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D, a national certified counselor and licensed mental health counselor and author of four books on adult ADD, including Adult ADD: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed.

For instance, studies have identified several genes associated with ADHD (e.g., Guan, Wang, Chen, Yang & Qian, 2009). One study revealed that kids with ADHD had hundreds of gene variations that weren’t found in other children (Elia et al., 2010).