CASE STUDY
Jen (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder)

Jen is a 29 year-old woman who presents to your clinic in distress. In the interview she fidgets and has a hard time sitting still. She opens up by telling you she is about to be fired from her job. In addition, she tearfully tells you that she is in a major fight with her husband of 1 year because he is ready to have children but she fears that she is “too disorganized to be a good mother.” As you break down some of the processes that have led to her current crises, you learn that she has a hard time with time management and tends to be disorganized. She chronically misplaces everyday objects like her keys and runs late to appointments. Although she wants her work to be perfect, she is prone to making careless mistakes. The struggle for perfection makes starting a new task feel very stressful, leading her to procrastinate starting in the first place. As a consequence, she has recently received a number of warnings from her boss related to missing deadlines for assignments and errors in her work, which has led to her acute fear of being fired. As her performance at work has plummeted and she has grown increasingly anxious and doubting of herself, she has grown more pessimistic about starting a family. You learn that she received extra time for test taking in school as a child but never had any formal neuropsychological testing.  With Jen’s permission, you conduct additional structured assessments, including collecting collateral information from her fiancé, and conclude that she has adult ADHD.