If anyone had doubts about whether my guest or I have ADHD, in this episode of ADHD Focus we provided decisive proof that indeed we do. In a wide-ranging discussion we touched on girls/women with ADHD, student struggles with ADHD, the shame experienced by women with ADHD  due to impossible-to-meet societal expectations of a woman, a housewife, a mother, and a person with a business – in any combination of those roles. And probably more…(I was in the moment, not taking (detailed) notes). 

Pippa Simou has “lived experience” as the mother of an ADHD child and a woman surprised by her own “late diagnosis” of ADHD as an adult. The desire to help her son cope with his ADHD in every way possible led her to in-depth reading and inquiry about ADHD. She changed careers after teaching for 20 years to one of training teachers about ADHD and coaching other parents with ADHD children, after returning to school to get her Masters in Psychology degree. She is a coaching psychologist in London (yes, the London, the city in the UK), a coach/trainer, and is developing a unique program for mentoring young teen girls with ADHD, to “give them hope, to be the voice I wish I had heard”.  

She is actively pursuing grants to fund research in ”proof of concept” for her mentoring program, the concept being that mentoring can prevent the painful “lived experience” girls with undiagnosed ADHD so commonly go through. [ If you have access to funds for this research, or know someone who does, please contact Pippa!

Micromoments of shame* – stepping over the box you were going to take upstairs as you go upstairs, passing by the unfolded laundry, discovering the clothes in the washer from two days ago…we have them daily. Maybe neurotypical folks do too, but ADHDers have many more every day. *this expression is not originally mine, a friend passed along a meme with that title. Apologies to the author, I do not know your name. Spot on concept.

Shame. The elephant in the room with ADHD, the feeling at the root of our familiar self-concept as “not good enough”. How it develops in people with ADHD and how we grow to believe and talk about ourselves in negative terms – a dummy, an idiot, a failure, incompetent, not good enough – join me and my guest Linda Roggli as we uncover the role of shame in the lives of people with ADHD. We have ADHD, it does not have to define us. Shame has us believing otherwise.

Linda Roggli a person I call a “thinker” in the field of ADHD, one who steps back and looks at the big picture, in her case also informed by her own ADHD (as is my perspective by my own ADHD).

She created the ADHD Palooza series starting in 2016 and now holds one for Women in the Spring (April 1-6, don’t miss it! Register https://fn101.isrefer.com/go/women24/pomeroy/ ) and one for Couples in the Fall, she is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) in the field of ADHD, an award-winning author – Confessions of an ADDiva – and founder of the A-D-Diva Network for ADHD women 40-and-better – www.addiva.net 

Come join us, listen and learn!

Check out our video chat!

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Menopause and the hormonal swings leading up to it, perimenopause, often causes mood swings, brain fog, and always hot flashes. ADHD added to the mix compounds everything! Join Linda Roggli and I for a discussion of how hormonal shifts during this time affect ADHD, from the basic level of estrogen helping dopamine work better to what you can to get through this challenging time more smoothly. Listen and Learn! 

Linda Roggli is the creator of the ADHD Palooza series – one for Women and one for Couples, a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), an award-winning author – Confessions of an ADDiva and founder of the A-D-Diva Network for ADHD women 40-and-better – www.addiva.net 

ADHD Palooza for Women April 1-6, 2024, for Couples Nov 10-12, 2024

https://.adhdpalooza.com

Inattentive ADHD, the Stealth Diagnosis. People with Inattentive ADHD tend to fly under the radar for years, decades even, women and girls more often (inadvertently) than men and boys. They are labeled as disorganized, always late, space case, overwhelmed and over-committed, the kid with no friends, the school dropout. After High School (almost half the kids with not treated for their ADHD drop out) life is even more of a struggle. How can these folks be identified earlier, so they can have the chance to climb up to the level of function of neurotypicals? Later-in-life diagnosis, in 30s, 40s, even 50s and beyond, results in lost opportunities and more mental health problems along the way, primarily anxiety disorders and depression.

My guest today is Cynthia Hammer MSW, founder of two non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the lives of ADHDers everywhere, author of the recently published book Living with Inattentive ADHD: Climbing the Circular Staircase of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and a good friend of many years. Cynthia recently started the Inattentive ADHD Coalition (www.iadhd.org ) to advocate for universal screening of children for ADHD, to identify and enable treatment of children with ADHD so they do not have lifelong struggles with ADHD, at least not so many and so severe as those diagnosed later in life.  Join us to enjoy a wide-ranging discussion about Inattentive ADHD, including debates on certain points. Which points? Listen and find out! 

Women with undiagnosed ADHD of either Type “pay” more for it than do men, this is the Female ADHD Tax. Women and men who have undiagnosed ADHD struggle with life; they have higher risks of relationship issues, involvement with unwanted pregnancies, lower educational progress, lower-paying jobs, AND higher incidence of anxiety, depression, and domestic partner violence (to name a few) than neurotypical folks, and women with ADHD have a higher “tax rate” than do men.

Deborah Brooks is a psychotherapist in Ottawa, Canada. She joins me today to discuss The Female ADHD Tax, how it comes about and what can be done to “lower the tax rate”. Listen, and learn!

Do you feel that the treatments for your child’s ADHD and co-occurring Anxiety and/or Learning Disorders and/or Depression are not working for …something else but you don’t know what? That there are signs – behaviors, meltdowns, struggles with friends – that things are not yet OK, that something is being missed. You are totally spent by the end of each day, your house is a mess, you have given up seeing friends – in order that you can put 100% of your time and energy into helping your child.

Maybe this is not your struggle, but you see this going on in a friend, or a relative, or a neighbor, or co-worker.

My guest today is Elaine Taylor-Klaus, founder of IMPACTparents, author of The Essential Guide to raising Complex Kids, Master Certified Coach, and parent to four neurodivergent children. Her experiences, personal and professional, have led her to believe that the “something else” for many girls (and women) is Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Join us as we discuss the clues, the behaviors, the symptoms that suggest an evaluation for ASD is in order; the role that parents play and how critical it is that parents get coaching in how to parent these exceptional children, it is the single most-important thing they can do to help their child. Parents need validation, recognition that the difficulties they face every day are way beyond the norm of parenting challenges AND that they are not alone. Many families are in the same struggle.

Download Elaine’s article about these struggles, Parenting VERY Complex Kids: Underestimated, Undervalued & Underutilized . And a special bonus for listeners/viewers of ADHD Focus,  here is the link for you to download a free chapter of her book, “Everyone’s So Tense All The Time”.  Join us!  Listen, and Learn!