ADHD: More Than a Learning Disorder

Seren Gellerstedt

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder starting in childhood, characterized by mild to severe impairments in things such as executive functions, inattention, and hyperactivity (1). Someone with ADHD may not experience all of these impairments which makes education and acceptance of this disorder important. While its existence is well known, what it actually entails and how it affects people is still often misrepresented or misunderstood within media. 

For example, many people, when asked what ADHD is, tend to have similar answers, mostly pointing to the idea that primarily young boys who are disruptive in class and have poor grades are the people with ADHD. In some cases this is true, which contributed to my own struggle to get a diagnosis. This sort of misconception of the disorder often occurs due to a lack of knowledge on comorbidity and its relationship with ADHD. Comorbidity is the term used to refer to the concurrence of two mental issues happening alongside each other (2). ADHD is one of the most common disorders in which comorbidity occurs, commonly happening with anxiety, depression, or ASD (3). For me, that comorbid condition has been all kinds of anxiety. Dealing with both conditions simultaneously has caused my experience with ADHD to be very different from those stated above. Much of my experience is an internal struggle that cannot be seen from the outside. I believe this way of experiencing ADHD is not talked about or understood enough, and so that is what I hope to spread knowledge and awareness on through my quilt. 

One of the biggest concepts I try to capture through my quilt is that of mind wandering. This is a symptom of ADHD that many are aware of but only know of the external representation of it. It is often described as being “squirrel-brained”, forgetful, or the inability to focus on one task for extended periods of time. All of these descriptions are true to different extents but again, only shows an external representation. What people do not see is the slowed reaction speed, the mental exhaustion of thinking hard on something, and the sort of tv static that is caused from this mind wandering.  People with ADHD are able to identify things like emotion at the same accuracy as their neurotypical counterparts, however this accuracy comes at a cost of speed. It has been observed that those with ADHD have a slower identification speed of around 200 milliseconds compared to those without which is a significant difference in proportion to how quickly the brain works (4). Mind wandering also plays a large role in the complexity of effective treatment for ADHD as a disorder. Due to the difference that persons with ADHD experience in terms of symptoms, there is not a certain way to start  effective treatment for the disorder, compared to others such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I myself had to learn this when it was becoming evident that behavioral therapy didn’t feel like it did much.  Since ADHD symptoms span anywhere from emotional dysregulation to impairments in the functioning of the body, it is one of the few disorders that nearly requires medication for effective treatment (5), not just a good therapist and outside support.

On the awareness side of everything, there is only so much that researchers can do. The best way to spread awareness and be accepting is by doing research to stay knowledgeable on these types of topics, and by advocating for those who struggle.

I decided to talk about the topic of ADHD because even though it is talked about often, I don’t believe the important parts of the disorder are talked about enough, especially pertaining to how the ADHD mind operates. Along with that, I am a person that has lived with ADHD my whole life but never really learned anything from my doctors about my disorder that would have benefitted me to know previously.

My large blobs of fabric were decided on by me looking through the available fabrics while thinking about how I could make my thoughts into something tangible. The three fabrics I ended up with were ones that I had an immediate connection with. As for the shapes cut from the fabrics, I chose an area of the block I wanted to be covered, chose which fabric I thought best fit in that area and then simply let my hand cut out whatever shape it felt was right while keeping a flat corner to be able to sew it to. I then placed the brain in the center since I am depicting a neurological disorder, and the brain was stuffed with fabric scraps to add more depth to the piece. Then all stitches and embroidery on the quilt were done by hand because of a reason that is important to me.

Even if it is a smaller detail, hand stitching everything on the quilt was one of the most powerful ways I could show the capability of my ADHD along with the fluctuations in energy and focus. Since sitting down doing a repetitive task that requires focus is something I struggle to do for extended periods of time, I believed that hand stitching would be able to show capability and how people with ADHD do not need to be defined by their disorder. Along with that, when looking closely to the stitches you can almost follow my interest through my sewing. There are sections that appear more messy and inconsistent, correlating to a lack of attention; there are also sections that appear the opposite, neat and consistent, demonstrating the times I was very interested in my sewing.

For the embroidered words on my fabric, I thought of three main thought groups I have in regards to my ADHD that I could make large as to be seen further away, then embroidering thoughts that I have had along the edges of that thought “bubble.” These can only be read well when closer to the quilt, representing the known parts of ADHD compared to their more complex natures.

Bibliography

(1) National Institute of Mental Health. “Attention-Defecit/Hyperacrivity Disorder.” Last reviewed August, 2026. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd 

(2) Reale, Laura, Beatrice Bartoli, Massimo Cartabia, et al. “Comorbidity Prevalence and Treatment Outcome in Children and Adolescents with ADHD.” European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 26, no. 12 (2017): 1443–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-1005-z.

(3) Cooper, Paul. “Like Alligators Bobbing for Poodles? A Critical Discussion of Education, ADHD and the Biopsychosocial Perspective.” Journal of Philosophy of Education 42, no. 3/4 (2008): 457–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2008.00657.x.

(4) Helfer, Bartosz, Sara Boxhoorn, Joanna Songa, et al. “Emotion Recognition and Mind Wandering in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Journal of Psychiatric Research 134 (2021): 89–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.12.059.

(5) Oleszczuk, Anna, Noemi Kufrejska, Paweł Hawranik, et al. “Adhd in Young Minds: A New Perspective on Diagnosis and Management.” Medical Science Pulse 19, no. 4 (2025): 41–49. https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0055.4558.