How offices can help people with ADHD

WELL-BEING FOR EVERYONE Whether one is clinically diagnosed with ADHD or not, caring and flexible environments benefit everyone. Fixed working hours, when people switch off after a certain time, gives employees time to rejuvenate, spend time with family, exercise or pursue hobbies. Nutrition plays a key role in mental well-being and offices can make small interventions such as stocking the office pantry with seeds, fresh fruit and nuts, instead of sodas, sugary snacks and chips.

- Natasha Joshi

In the last five years, Google searches for "ADHD" in India have increased 614%. The rates of diagnosis in both children and adults have also increased in the same period. What was virtually unknown as a condition in India 20 years ago is now on many lips, with many people wondering if they have ADHD—attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—or diagnosing themselves with it. Social media has played an important role in putting ADHD on the map, but credible information is still hard to come by.

UNDERSTANDING ADHD At Mannotsava, a national mental health festival co-hosted by Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences) and NCBS (National Centre for Biological Sciences), late last year, Dr Eesha Sharma of NIMHANS helpfully outlined what ADHD is. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental delay that typically reveals itself in early childhood, and relates to a child's diminished ability for focus, self-regulation and impulse control in a way that is considered appropriate for their age.

The key aspect here is "age appropriateness." Expecting three-year-olds to sit still or focus on any task for more than a few minutes is unrealistic. Asking that of seven-year-olds is understandable. According to Dr Sharma, "developmental abilities, if they become problematic, become problematic in a context." Unlike mental illnesses where the difficulty is the same no matter what the environment, ADHD being a developmental disorder, turns into dysfunction when the developmental ability doesn't match what one is expected to do.