By Audrey Spencer;I was diagnosed with ADD after having been in counseling most of my adult life, having completed a master’s degree program and after having my 2nd and 3rd children (twins). In the four years since my diagnosis I have gone through many changes. I credit my growth to educating myself about ADD, to trying different treatments until I found the combination that works best for me.

Most of the literature on women with ADD revolves around diagnosis and treatment. I had not come across ideas or theories of how women with ADD develop socially and emotionally. Recently I learned about a theory of women’s development called Women’s Ways of Knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, Tarule, 1986) that gave me another layer of understanding about myself and the influence of ADD. Although Belenky’s research did not focus on women with disabilities, I see a relationship and benefit to …

 

Success Stories By Melissa Davis

It never fails. The same question comes to mind each time I enter through the gates of NASA Johnson Space Center.

“How in the world did I get here?!”

I’m still amazed by the fact that this small-town Indiana native has worked for nearly two years at the home of human spacefight. I’m even more amazed that I went from being the Center’s newspaper editor to recently being promoted to Senior Communications Specialist, serving as my team’s lead. Sometimes I find myself shocked that the chief of Mission Control’s Flight Directors doesn’t laugh at me when I call for an interview or an astronaut doesn’t stop in the middle of a press conference to point out that I don’t belong there.

Don’t they know that basic algebra terrifies me, or that I never took physics? Can’t they tell by looking at me how pathetic …

(Melissa Davis is a science writer and woman with AD/HD. She has offered to write a monthly diary of her experiences as she makes her journey learning about AD/HD and how to take charge of her life.)

I sit here in pure exhaustion. My body aches unmercifully and my brain is depleted beyond belief. Anxiety tying my stomach into knots and a dull throbbing fills my head.

I just finished another 13-hour workday – my second of the week. Tack on a three-hour roundtrip commute and I’m all but spent right now. Leaving home at 7:30 a.m. and returning at 11:30 p.m. makes for a hellacious day.

If only it were just a fluke. No, I’ve been going like this for about a month now. I just finished a December filled with holiday stress and air travel combined with a bad head cold.

If that weren’t enough, this entire month …

A website visitor writes: My daughter is eight and has recently been diagnosed with ADD. The psychiatrist only wishes to medicate her. We are very concerned about her and want to do what is best for her and her future, but don’t believe that immediately medicating is the answer. Please help.

The concerns of this mother reflect the concerns of many mothers whose daughters are diagnosed with ADHD.

There are many things that can be done to help an elementary school aged girl with ADHD other than medication. Whether or not your daughter takes medication, many other structures and supports need to be put in place to help her function at her best.

• Develop a strong working relationship with her teacher. Communicate and problem-solve with her teacher regularly.
• Make sure that your daughter’s teacher is aware of the very different issues facing girls with ADHD. (Providing her with a copy

…

Transitions

Now, what the heck are those? What does “Transition” mean, exactly? “Transit —” now there’s an interesting word that conjures the notion of travel, or motion. Innocuous-sounding enough, until one considers that setting oneself in motion is what motivation is all about (not desire — go look up the root for “motivation” in a good dictionary — it’s “movere“).

That’s ironic: hyperactivity combined with poor ability to get moving, at least in an organized way, in a directed activity, when one wants to.

There are more such ironies about AD/HD. The same people known to have a poor sense of time can, if notified of a deadline extension of, say, 3 hours, immediately shift speed (requiring the same gears which usually freeze in Neutral when the pressure mounts, or in Overdrive when Time To Leave was 5 minutes ago) and change direction and destinations (interruption? what interruption?).…

Dear Drs. Nadeau and Quinn,

I became a member of NCGI recently not only because I was undiagnosed until 8 years ago when I was 40, but also because I teach students with severe behavior disorders, and many are girls with untreated or undiagnosed ADHD. But all that aside, I need a little personal direction if you could.

As you are well aware, ADHD can be a gift but it can also try the patience of one of its most vocal advocates (me). I am having a number of problems in which my doctors seem to have few answers for. Ok, here is the laundry list. I have ADHD with comorbid depression. Severe depression usually cycles every 4-5 years and I am in one of those cycles now. Last time we just did a med adjustment, however this time we have the added issue of menopause. I have started seeing …

Dear Dr Quinn:
I recently attended your lecture on Girls with AD/HD. After listening to your speech, I feel my 5 1/2 year old daughter shows many signs of AD/HD.

Last year, her preschool teacher brought to my attention her inability to focus and how easily she was distracted by other kids. At that point, she felt my daughter’s problem was more a fine motor skill issue.

My daughter is now in kindergarten and her teacher tells me that she is always the last to finish projects. Overall, she is slow at most tasks they are asked to complete. However, the teacher said she is not yet concerned because Susie is not the last one to finish her academic worksheets.

My husband and I have also seen signs of limited focus at home. We have to ask Susie many times to do things and then when she finally does the …

I’m 51 years old, and just finished Sari Solden’s book “Women with ADD.” As I was reading it, I kept thinking “that’s me, that’s me!” I definitely fit a majority of the symptoms related to ADD without HD. I am planning to follow up with my family practitioner, but had this question: Is it consistent with ADD/no HD to be a good listener?

A friend of mine whose mother and a brother were diagnosed with ADD told me that there was no way that it applied to me, as I’m too good of a listener. (Other people generally describe me as a good listener, also.) Thanks — I realize you may not be able to answer, but it’s always worth a shot.
JJ

DEAR JJ:

I’ve learned over the years not to rely too heavily on a particular symptom being characteristic of AD/HD in any one person. Many with AD/HD …

By Julia Riutzel – As I’m driving home I wonder whether the kitchen will be clean enough to make dinner. Some evenings I come home to a clean kitchen with dinner started and other evenings I come home to one child on the computer, another watching TV and the oldest off somewhere. All families struggle with these issues. The AD/HD family struggles more but there is a more negative impact on the family and individuals. Remember that most of the symptoms of AD/HD are present in the general population as well, but they aren’t extreme enough to significantly or so unremittingly affect daily functioning.

As a life coach and therapist, I help other families set up family structure, establish routines and develop consequences for not following through with responsibilities. As a wife and mother of persons with AD/HD, I get to struggle along with my clients in making this work …

It’s warmer again – the cool mornings yield to the sun by mid-morning. Days are longer, summer seems once again possible, and we’re headed, pell-mell, to the end of school (and its structure, so for the mothers reading this, it is already time enough to be planning for some kind of substitute to get you and your family through the weeks of unregulated time stretching before you), to tall weeds, flowers, mosquitoes, sunburn and window fans.

But as the afternoon heat gives way to chilly April evenings, time seems to back up again and we are once more dashing for the sweaters, turning the heat up (what, again?) and wondering if it’s a night for the comforter, or a light blanket. And, um, where would the “light blankets” be, anyway, at your house?

This issue of ncgiadd comes to you after some of us have filed our tax returns on …