Blog:
Welcome to the ADHD Mamas in Midlife Blog! I have been writing blogs and books for over a decade and I’m so excited to now have a space to talk about all things ADHD and midlife. I’ll be covering anything that strikes my fancy, but always with an ADHD lens. Some of the topics I know I’ll be covering are:
ADHD myths & lies
Three types of ADHD
Why girls with ADHD are very often misdiagnosed with Anxiety or Depression
People Pleasing & RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria)
ADHD shame triggers
How to Build your ADHD Toolbox
Is it worth it to get a diagnosis?
How do hormones affect the ADHD brain?
If there’s a topic I haven’t yet covered that you’d like me to write about, feel free to visit my suggestion box here. I’d love to hear from you.
(And yes, having multiple drinks going at once is an ADHD thing. lol)
Everyone Has ADHD (and Other Myths)
I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until I was 43. But I suspected it for probably a decade prior to that. Why did it take me so long to get a diagnosis? Mostly because I believed the myths about ADHD. Any time I brought it up, I heard things like:
“Oh yeah, everyone has ADD these days.”
“Seems like a convenient excuse to cover up for laziness.”
“ADHD was made up by drug companies.”
“ADHD is way over-diagnosed. It’s a shame.”
And those were all just what I heard in my own head!
What Does it Feel Like to Have ADHD?
Having an ADHD brain means you live a life full of paradox. And you’ve likely beaten yourself up over these paradoxes, not to mention you’ve probably been called lazy, unmotivated, or careless by others. Why is it that an ADHDer can spend twelve hours straight writing a term paper (that is due by midnight) but can’t seem to write that email that you asked them to write two weeks ago? Why is it that a teenaged boy can spend hours and hours playing a video game but can’t seem to put away his laundry?
The way the ADHD brain is wired sets us up to be totally confusing to those around us (and to ourselves, as well). We want to do the things we are supposed to do. It is just often monumentally more difficult for us to do it than it would be for a non-ADHDer. This is because our brains tend to work against us when we are supposed to focus on something. Rather than our Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC) lighting up when we need to work on a task, it does the opposite. Yep, you read that right. It goes dark. So we need to learn ways to hack our brains so that we can get that PFC to do its job!