Find a therapist to help with ADHD

ADHD does not always look like hyperactivity or impulsivity.

ADHD can also look like the student or child who is trying to be "perfect" to compensate for their challenges.

That perfectionism creates exhaustion behind the scenes.

Parents can help by offering their children reassurance, flexibility, and permission to be imperfect.

When they imagine attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), many parents envision a child who can’t sit still, forgets homework, or gets in trouble for talking too much. But there’s another group of children we don’t talk about enough.

These children often get good grades, follow the rules, and seem responsible or even mature. Yet inside their internal world, they may be worried, tense, and afraid of falling apart.

In a child who has ADHD, this can be understood as a kind of high-functioning anxiety. This subset of children may look like they’re coping well, but behind the scenes, they're running on stress. They’re getting it all done, but their internal world can sometimes feel like a pressure cooker.

How Does ADHD Turn Into Perfectionism?

Children with ADHD often hear subtle (or not-so-subtle) messages, such as:

“Why can’t you just focus?”

“You’re so smart, but you’re not applying yourself.”

Often, over time, kids with ADHD begin to........

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