I was halfway through my degree at the University of Minnesota when I was first diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, a diagnosis my psychiatrist at the time said I’ve likely had since I was a child.

When considering my past education and social life, I began to pinpoint exact moments where my progress was halted by ADHD. Only when I started to examine my own experiences did I realize just how significant it was in my development.

An estimated one in nine college students has an ADHD diagnosis, and yet much of the prominent reputation of the disorder seems to revolve around how it affects children in relation to their hyperactivity.

ADHD has caused some of my most debilitating mental health symptoms. Combined with some of the most difficult social and academic challenges I’ve faced in college, it can be hard to keep up. 

Because of the challenges that come with ADHD, it’s important to recognize just how significant this disorder can be for college students.

It’s also important to acknowledge the less-discussed symptoms of ADHD and how they can negatively impact college students’ abilities to fully function in the classroom and in their social lives.

University psychiatry professor Lidia Zylowska said ADHD is not just about attention and hyperactivity.

“It’s more about self-regulation of attention, emotions and behavior,” Zylowska said.

Zylowska said that difficulties with emotional sensitivity or impulsive emotions are also a large part of the struggle for those with ADHD.

Being seen as too sensitive or emotional in casual conversation, or impulsively sharing your thoughts and opinions with others, may leave students with ADHD feeling ostracized in social settings.  

Zylowska said the rejection sensitivity aspects of ADHD can be so significant that they become entwined in our interactions with each other.

“Avoiding conflict or people-pleasing or perfectionism, because you really are sensitive and trying to avoid the feeling of rejection,” Zylowska said. “So there’s these other strategies that you develop that may work but may also, by themselves, be a burden.”

The emotional aspects of ADHD have always impacted how I navigate my own interpersonal relationships, and it can be easy to imagine how these symptoms could hinder positive social progress for other college students.

Students who struggle to emotionally regulate themselves may find that they intensely fear rejection and take neutrality as a sign that someone doesn’t like them.

Trying too hard to be liked by everyone around you leads to intense stress in social situations. Even just communicating with others can become an insurmountable task for college students with ADHD.

College is a time when people have immense social growth, and it’s also a great opportunity to form lifelong relationships. However, someone with ADHD may find it more challenging to bond with others due to the emotional symptoms of the disorder.

Although these emotional impacts of ADHD are not as popularized as some of the other aspects of the disorder, they play a huge role in how individuals with ADHD navigate the world around them.

Another aspect of ADHD that can negatively impact college students is the concept of executive dysfunction. While it does include attention issues, this term encompasses so many lesser-known symptoms of ADHD, such as struggles with memory recall, self-motivation, time management and organization.    

Not being able to regulate the symptoms that come with executive dysfunction can cause huge issues for students who have to balance school and life responsibilities.

Students with ADHD who struggle with memory recall might do worse on tests that require them to memorize a vast amount of knowledge about the material, despite their best study efforts. Organizing class schedules alongside social and extracurricular obligations can be especially hard to navigate as well if a student with ADHD has issues with time management.

University psychology professor Nicola Grissom said changes in the ability to focus on specific tasks are also one of the unique challenges college students with ADHD have to face. Students with ADHD struggle with managing time and assigning importance to deadlines.

“Not everything is getting taken care of at the same pace,” Grissom said.

Grissom said students with ADHD can struggle with being very locked in to a task sometimes, but other times they can’t focus on anything.

Zylowska added that self-regulation is another part of ADHD that can be tied to struggles with following through on your intentions.

“You know you have to do your homework, and it’s not that you don’t want to do it, it’s just that it may be difficult to get engaged with it,” Zylowska said.

Having to devote extra mental effort to motivate yourself to finish school-related tasks like projects or homework puts more stress on college students who already deal with a lot.

“College is both the time of academic focus and work, but also a time of a lot of social interaction and developing who you’re going to become,” Grissom said. 

Although there are many unsung challenges for students with ADHD, it’s important to remember that you owe it to yourself to be proud of your accomplishments, no matter what you may face in college and beyond.