From: Comparison of the burden of illness for adults with ADHD across seven countries: a qualitative study
 | Work Difficulties |
---|---|
 | Approximately 79 participants reported work issues (73%); 69 (87%) noted difficulties with work |
Canada | I had to quit school. I couldn’t follow. […] So I went to a public school where I just wanted to have fun, and I became a manual worker because I couldn’t do anything else. |
France | I never spent more than 2 or 3 years in the same job because… I did things differently to other people. Another thing was that I sometimes had to mime, to pretend to be concentrating when I couldn’t. |
Germany | It hinders your job performance. Often what people demand from you on the job, in your professional life, continuity, working hard, being realistic if you really have to work hard and be the supplier for your family that is a different story. |
Italy | I am lucky because I have a secretary at work and my wife at home and they solve part of my problems. If I have a work due on next week, I postpone it one day, then two days, the last day I manage to finish it all. I am an architect. You always postpone. |
The Netherlands | One day you are in a super condition, you see everything like you have 4 eyes and you’re doing very well. But the other day you will just sink in because everything takes so much energy, you have some kind of relapse. And when you are doing very well one day, people think you are capable of quite a lot, but the other day I show a lot less quality. |
United Kingdom | I’m a medical student and I think ADHD affects me differently depending on the setting. If I’m on the wards it doesn’t affect me much because I’m on my feet and I’m going from patient to patient and it’s just constantly changing, so I don’t really have the opportunity to get distracted but if I’m sitting in on a clinic with a consultant and a patient, then my mind can wander because I’m just observing passively and I start to get distracted and look out the window. |
United States | It’s hard to sit still in my own meetings. I squiggle. I don’t know what other word to use. You are sitting there with people who don’t and they look at you and I just don’t think I’m taken as professionally serious because I’m sitting around—we can all be dressed to the nines in our suits or in my case in heels and whatever but I’m a squirmer. |