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We Demand Attention on Self-Harm, Intimate Partner Violence, and Substance Abuse Among Women with ADHD
The lives of girls and women with ADHD are jeopardized by exponentially higher rates of self-harm, suicidality, and intimate partner violence, as compared with their neurotypical counterparts or with neurodivergent boys and men.“ADHD in girls portends continuing problems through early adulthood that are of substantial magnitude across multiple domains of symptomatology and functional impairment,” write the authors of the Berkeley Girls ADHD Longitudinal Study (BGALS) follow-up study.1 “The sheer range of negative outcomes is noteworthy; the most striking include the high occurrences of suicide attempts and self-injury in the ADHD sample, confined to the childhood-diagnosed combined type.”This is an arresting statistic, particularly considering how self-harm and suicidality have spiked in adolescent girls in general. The most recent CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) report found that 1 in 10 girls has attempted suicide, and 1 in 3 of girls seriously considered suicide during the past year, which is an increase of nearly 60% from a decade ago.Research suggests that neurodivergent girls face a significantly higher risk for self-harm than do neurodivergent boys, or neurotypical people of any gender.