National Center for Gender Issues in AD/HD

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 …

To take good care of your child, first take good care of yourself.

If you are a mother with ADD, your first step should be to get treatment for yourself. A mother’s usual tendency is to focus on her child’s difficulties while neglecting her own. Just as the airline flight attendant instructs you to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting your child, you must first get help for your own ADD before you can effectively deal with your child’s problems.

A recent study suggests that parent training programs are not very helpful when the mother has untreated ADD, lending even more weight to the importance of treatment for women with ADD.

For more information about ADD in women, check out the following:

• Understanding Women with AD/HD by Kathleen Nadeau and Patricia Quinn
• Gender Issues and AD/HD by Patricia Quinn and Kathleen Nadeau
• Women with ADD by Sari Solden

…

Sometime along the road to “rehADDilitation” it comes to one’s attention that words have meanings — new meanings! What follows is a beginning compendium of words which many people with AD/HD have been hearing, and using, for years, without truly grasping their fullest and most accurate meanings. Some people find it amusing to make light of such errors, but the cognitive lapses responsible for “not getting it” are serious business. Relationships at home and at work are all affected by our use, and misuse, of words and the concepts they are intended to convey.

Leaving means your hand is on the doorknob. It does not mean you start gathering up your stuff, looking for your coat, grabbing a few things to take to the dry cleaners, making out a quick grocery list, perching on the edge of your chair saying, “I’m coming …” in a pressured tone. Leaving means your …

Review: SHADES OF TRAUMA, by Jane Uttley Adelizzi, Ph.D. Published by Jones River Press, Plymouth MA.

Patricia O. Quinn, MD – Having worked with girls and women with AD/HD for quite some time now, I was very excited to discover this book on my desk. I went home and devoured it the first evening. This brief, powerful book deals with the shades of trauma as they exist in the everyday lives of girls and women and describes how traumas large and small can step in the way of ordinary getting about in school, home, friendships and work. Presented as a collection of stories drawn from the life experiences of many women who share their thoughts, insights, and hope about surviving psychological trauma, Dr Adelizzi illustrates how psychological traumatic events affect learning and functioning in women with LD/ADD.

Dr. Adelizzi defines classroom trauma as … “a significantly unpleasant (or horrific) external event …

Dr. Patricia Quinn is a developmental pediatrician in the Washington, D.C. area. A graduate of the Georgetown University Medical School, she specializes in child development and psychopharmacology. Dr. Quinn has worked for over 28 years in the areas of ADHD and learning disabilities. She gives workshops nationwide and has appeared on Lifetime TV’s New Attitudes and the PBS show, To the Contrary discussing the issue of girls and women with ADD. Dr. Quinn also appeared in the video aired on PBS titled, OUTSIDE IN: A Look at Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Dr. Quinn is the author of several other books on ADHD. These include the best-selling book, Putting on the Brakes: A Young People’s Guide to Understanding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder for children in the 8 to 12 year old group, the companion workbook, The “Putting on the Brakes” Activity Book for Young People with ADHD, and The Best …

Dear Dr. Nadeau,
I have suffered with most symptoms of ADD my entire life, but wasn’t diagnosed with anything until college. In college, a thorough assessment was made and I was diagnosed with symptoms of ADD relating to anxiety (or vice versa, as in, one was causing the other). I was medicated for the anxiety for almost two years and that made the problem quite manageable.

However; I have stopped taking the medication because of potential side effects and because I would prefer to cope with the problem in other ways (I don’t want to be dependent on a medication).

In most areas of my life I have kept things manageable (in organization and money areas, for example) but in other major areas (like completing important projects) I am still having major difficulties. The anxiety is also a significant problem; for example, when I wake up in the morning, I …