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It’s sunny outside. That means it’s a great day for my signature 5-Mile Rumination Walk.I pack my things into my mini backpack and out the door I go. This is the beginning of a 4.75-mile rumination out in beautiful nature, with a quarter mile at the end reserved for noticing and enjoying said nature — 112 minutes of rumination and 8 minutes of awe.Life is good.

Gen Z can scarcely remember a time before social media promised to make the world more open and connected. Yet today it stands as the loneliest generation alive.Nearly two-thirds of ADDitude readers ages 18 to 29 report feeling lonely “always” or “often,” according to a new survey of 4,170 adults with ADHD.

When I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 40s, I looked back at my life with a new set of eyes. My heart broke for the child I was. Messiness, time blindness, compulsive hyperfocus, emotional dysregulation, and rejection sensitivity were all things I’d internalized as my personal failings and default personality traits rather than what they really were: ADHD symptoms.For most of my life, I did not have the knowledge I needed to understand myself and counterbalance pervasive negative messaging that made me feel inherently defective and ashamed.

Not available June 11? Don’t worry. Register now and we’ll send you the replay link to watch at your convenience.Children and teens with ADHD are most likely to be bullied at school than their neurotypical peers.

Q: My young adult daughter has ADHD. Her new boyfriend seems controlling to me, but she says he’s supportive. How can we recognize the difference?Sometimes it can be difficult to tell when a relationship has crossed a line from supportive to controlling.

Are some of us hard-wired to feel chronic loneliness? Recent neuroscience research suggests that loneliness is associated with brain-processing patterns that can alter cognitive and social-emotional experiences — the ways in which we understand the world — and affirm our perception of being different or not fitting in with our peers. This belief impairs our ability to sustain social bonds.“Social interactions rely on a complex orchestration of brain functions, from understanding another person’s point of view, recognizing their emotional state, feeling their emotional pain, and so on.

The world is seriously misinformed about how women and girls experience ADHD.This is the overwhelming sentiment reflected across Instagram comments in response to ADDitude’s question: What do you wish the world knew about being a girl or woman with ADHD?From the significance of hormonal fluctuations to the weight of stigma, shame, and misunderstood symptoms, here’s what women need you to know about what it’s like to grow up and live with ADHD.What else should the world know about being a woman with ADHD? Tell us in the comments (or join in on the conversation via Instagram!)“Being a mother with ADHD and having children with ADHD is even harder because the world expects you to parent like neither of you have it.” — @softballgarden“Our hyperactivity is internal. It’s in our minds. And we are made to hide it. So we are EXHAUSTED from masking.

The lives of girls and women with ADHD are jeopardized by exponentially higher rates of self-harm, suicidality, and intimate partner violence, as compared with their neurotypical counterparts or with neurodivergent boys and men.“ADHD in girls portends continuing problems through early adulthood that are of substantial magnitude across multiple domains of symptomatology and functional impairment,” write the authors of the Berkeley Girls ADHD Longitudinal Study (BGALS) follow-up study.1 “The sheer range of negative outcomes is noteworthy; the most striking include the high occurrences of suicide attempts and self-injury in the ADHD sample, confined to the childhood-diagnosed combined type.”This is an arresting statistic, particularly considering how self-harm and suicidality have spiked in adolescent girls in general. The most recent CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) report found that 1 in 10 girls has attempted suicide, and 1 in 3 of girls seriously considered suicide during the past year, which is an increase of nearly 60% from a decade ago.Research suggests that neurodivergent girls face a significantly higher risk for self-harm than do neurodivergent boys, or neurotypical people of any gender.

Being a mom is a thankless job. Sure, there’s a full day (a whole 24 hours!) dedicated to appreciating Mothers, but we all know appreciation from loved ones isn’t guaranteed on this day.If you’re a mom who is raising children with ADHD, you may have complicated feelings about Mother’s Day. You may feel unnoticed and left out on this day, as the unique challenges and joys of caring for a neurodivergent child aren’t often widely represented.

Most adults with attention deficit disorder (ADHD) need medication, but that’s not always enough. That’s why many experts recommend meds and psychotherapy. But as Mark, a 30-something sales representative from New York City, discovered recently, not all forms of therapy work particularly well for ADHD.Since being diagnosed with ADHD 10 years ago, Mark has been on, off, and finally back on medication.

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May 7, 2024It’s been a year of new chapters for Jessica McCabe, the creator, writer, and star of the popular YouTube channel “How to ADHD.” In January, she published her first book, How to ADHD: An Insider’s Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It) (#CommissionsEarned), which quickly became a New York Times bestseller. And in March, she became a new mom.McCabe has been called the fairy godmother of ADHD by the iconic Ned Hallowell, M.D. “The world has been waiting for this book,” he says of her debut work.ADDitude had a candid conversation with McCabe just weeks before she gave birth.

Not available June 4? Don’t worry. Register now and we’ll send you the replay link to watch at your convenience.Despite highly esteemed and plentiful literature on the use of stimulant and nonstimulant medication to treat ADHD, relatively little information is available on the treatment of complex ADHD — that is, attention deficit disorder plus at least one comorbid condition like anxiety, depression, or an eating disorder. Few studies address the treatment of comorbid conditions, the order of treatment, or the treatment of cognitive deficits and/or hard-to-treat ADHD symptoms.This presentation will integrate data from controlled and open trials to highlight strategies for illustrative cases of complex ADHD.

Women with ADHD suffer from serious comorbid conditions with more frequency and severity than do men with ADHD or the neurotypical population. A staggering 93% percent of women with ADHD report at least one related diagnosis, according to a 2023 ADDitude survey.

The most effective parenting style balances warmth and clear limits. Experts call it “authoritative parenting,” and it has been found to be positive for a child's overall development.Parents raising neurodivergent children — kids with ADHD, autism, learning disorders, and other conditions — generally benefit when they apply a wider range of these strategies more frequently and over a longer period of time.

A decision-free day. A personal chef. A magic wand.

A small study suggests that menstruating people with ADHD may achieve more effective and consistent symptom control by increasing the dosage of their prescribed stimulant medication in the luteal phase, when estrogen levels hit their lowest point.There is a dearth of research examining the changes in ADHD symptoms and medication efficacy during all phases of the menstrual cycle, and during other times of hormonal change.However, one 2023 study published in Front Psychiatry found that increasing a patient’s dosage of stimulant medication during the week prior to menstruation can significantly improve cognitive and emotional symptoms of ADHD during this notoriously difficult phase in the menstrual cycle.1 The study was the first of its kind to examine the impact of adjusting stimulant medication dosages during the menstrual cycle for women with ADHD and co-occurring depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) – a severe form of PMS.Prior to the study, these women experienced “diminished response to amphetamines in the late luteal phase” and an “exacerbation of their ADHD and depressive symptoms in the premenstrual week” that was not helped by their regular ADHD medication. This experience was echoed in ADDitude’s 2023 survey of nearly 2,000 women with ADHD, two-thirds of whom said they experienced intense symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or PMDD, beginning, on average, at age 14 and lasting for up to 40 years.

The following is a personal essay reflecting the opinions of the authors.May 5, 2024Every ADHD expert that we know believes that girls and women with ADHD are underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed.In 1994, a meeting of ADHD experts was convened at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to make recommendations about ways to better meet the needs of girls. This committee strongly recommended the creation of diagnostic criteria designed to better identify girls with ADHD.

Not available May 28? Don’t worry. Register now and we’ll send you the replay link to watch at your convenience.Many boys with ADHD struggle to cultivate and sustain in-person friendships.

Do you impulsively unload private details to new acquaintances? Do you feel an inexplicable urge to break awkward silences or build connections by divulging intimate, sometimes inappropriate, information about yourself? Do you find it difficult to stop oversharing, even when you know that you’re making others uncomfortable?Neurodivergent minds like ours are prone to oversharing because we love to immediately zing with people. We enjoy giving, sharing, and feeling like someone is our best friend after five minutes of meeting them.

A quarter of adults in the U.S. right now are feeling the “sandwich generation” squeeze as they perform the tireless and often thankless feat of simultaneously caring for their aging parents and raising their growing children.

Play is the unsung hero of stress management and wellbeing. Intentional and regular practice of playfulness is vital for busy ADHD brains that field many competing interests at a time – from careers and families to household obligations, symptom management, and more. Play, unfortunately, is often pushed to the bottom of the priority list.Play – engaging in a fun, amusing, entertaining, activity for the joy of it – is an effective way to boost the feel-good hormone dopamine that so many ADHD brains crave.

If you grew up in the ‘90s like me, you undoubtedly watched sitcoms featuring the Dumb Dad. From Homer Simpson and Ray Romano to Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, the Dumb Dad trope was as much a part of our generation as were chunky heels and butterfly clips.On the flip side, mothers were portrayed as multitasking heroes who kept their families and homes from falling apart. Sure, these are stereotypes, but they’re mostly grounded in real-life expectations.

May 2, 2024The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has issued a proposal to reclassify marijuana from the most tightly regulated Schedule I category to the less stringent Schedule III group of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Research tells us that women experience distinct and distinctly impairing symptoms of ADHD, which they are more likely to mask and hide due to shame.Though clinical and research bias has historically overemphasized young male presentations of ADHD, Patricia O. Quinn, M.D., and Manisha Madhoo, M.D., emphasize in a 2014 review that, “several characteristics are unique to the expression of ADHD in women and girls.”1 A review of 41 articles and studies led Quinn and Madhoo to conclude that women are more likely than men to have inattentive ADHD and…These findings were echoed in a 2021 report by Stephen Hinshaw, Ph.D., director of the Berkeley Girls and ADHD Longitudinal Study (BGALS) — the only longitudinal study on females with ADHD conducted to date.2 That report concluded that “Females with ADHD experience, on average, serious impairments, with a particularly heightened risk for problems in close relationships and engagement in self-harm.” He notes that clinicians may overlook symptoms and impairments in females because of less overt — but nonetheless impairing — symptom manifestations that girls and women frequently mask. Several experts posit that gender norms and expectations may explain why girls and women with ADHD mask their symptoms.

Parenting has changed dramatically over the last century or so. It has evolved from raising obedient children — often using harsh, authoritarian techniques — to raising happy, well-adjusted, resilient kids whose emotional and cognitive development is a priority.

ADHD is a significant risk factor for the development of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and postpartum depression (PPD), both of which are debilitating and potentially life-threatening conditions that disproportionately impact women with ADHD.Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) is a more serious form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) that causes clinically significant and impairing depression, anxiety, mood swings, and uncomfortable physical symptoms in the week leading up to the onset of a period. PMDD impacts about 2% of the general population of women (though actual prevalence rates may be higher)1, often requires medication (typically, hormonal birth control and antidepressants), and is associated with an elevated risk for suicidality and suicide attempts.Research on PMDD and ADHD is limited.

Hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause intensify ADHD symptoms, revealing a direct correlation between estrogen and dopamine levels.Estrogen is the hormone responsible for the sexual and reproductive development of girls and women. It also manages important neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine, which is central to executive functioning; serotonin, which regulates mood; and acetylcholine, which aids memory.

It is indefensible how little is known about ADHD in women today. Research is nearly non-existent in the way ADHD symptoms change with the hormonal fluctuations of puberty, pregnancy, menopause, and beyond.

Research tells us that girls and women with ADHD are diagnosed much later in life than are boys and men due to misunderstood symptom profiles in women 1, outdated gender stereotypes, strong coping mechanisms among women, poor clinician awareness, and a high prevalence of comorbidities. 234Studies on gender differences show that ADHD is consistently under-diagnosed, misdiagnosed, or undiagnosed in girls and women for the reasons above — and many more.

The wild hormonal swings of perimenopause and marked estrogen drop of menopause correlate to more severe and sometimes new symptoms of ADHD in women. As they enter perimenopause around age 47, women will begin to experience irregular, extreme, and worsening drops in total estrogen and progesterone levels.

May 1, 2024“Female ADHD isn’t male ADHD-lite. If anything, research indicates that ADHD may be even more impairing for women than it is for men.” — Lotta Borg Skoglund, M.D., Ph.D.Most of what we know about ADHD stems from research done on men and boys.

The following is a personal essay reflecting the opinions of the author.It began with an Adderall shortage in 2022. Today, prescriptions for many stimulant medications used as the first-line treatment of ADHD are consistently and frustratingly difficult to fill. So it’s unsurprising that ADHD features prominently in the majority of public comments submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by stakeholders impacted by long-term medication shortages involved in the treatment of many conditions, including cancer.

April 25, 2024Women with ADHD can continue using the stimulant medication dexamphetamine and the painkiller acetaminophen (brand name: Tylenol) during pregnancy, according to two recent studies that refute a long-standing medical consensus.An observational study published in the Archives of Women’s Health found that use of dexamphetamine (DEX), the main ingredient in brand-name ADHD medications such as Adderall, Dexedrine, Zenzedi, and ProCentra, does not put women or their babies at increased health risks. However, women who ceased using DEX during pregnancy were more than twice as likely to have a threatened abortion (mild to moderate bleeding during the first trimester) compared to those who continued DEX or who did not use the stimulant during pregnancy.1“This could indicate a possible association with DEX withdrawal,” the study’s authors wrote.

Not available May 21? Don’t worry. Register now and we’ll send you the replay link to watch at your convenience.Every month, about a week or two before menstruation, many women with ADHD experience what feels like premenstrual syndrome (PMS) — but on steroids.

Q: “What are the causes of postpartum depression? As an expectant parent with ADHD, what should I know about factors that increase risk for postpartum mood disorders? How can I protect myself after I have my baby?”The causes of postpartum depression (PPD) and postpartum mood disorders are complex and combine differing sources for different people. These sources are not always fully understood.

The first few months after a baby is born — sometimes called the “fourth trimester” — is a critical time for the emerging parent-infant relationship. You and your newborn are rapidly adjusting to a new way of life, a reality that is often complex and unexpected.These common factors — combined with dramatic hormonal fluctuations following childbirth — can increase risk for postpartum depression (PPD) during this critical stage.Characterized by persistent and acute feelings of sadness, guilt, irritability, anxiety, and lethargy — well beyond the baby blues — PPD is a condition that interferes with your wellbeing and how you bond with your baby.

by Phyllis Greenberger, M.S.W., with Kalia DonnerBiological sex impacts health. However obvious this may seem, gender disparities in health care persist — and women continue to pay the price.

April 19, 2024Adults and caregivers harmed by the ongoing ADHD medication shortage have contributed thousands of impassioned, irate impact statements to a joint Request for Information (RFI) issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeking public comment on drug prices and availability.

As an AuDHD woman (autistic with ADHD) who was diagnosed later in life, I know what it’s like to be discriminated against and exploited, especially in the workplace, for my differences. It was those demeaning experiences that inspired me to pursue a Ph.D.

April 20, 2024The diagnostic criteria for ADHD are largely based on studies of young white boys. The symptoms spelled out in the DSM-5 — i.e., Is often “on the go” acting as if “driven by a motor” — do not reflect the lived experiences of many adults with the condition.

Many parents experience sadness, anxiety, stress, and feelings of overwhelm after the birth of a child. When these emotions persist and significantly interfere with functioning and parent-newborn bonding, it may be indicative of a postpartum mood disorder.Also known as perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs), these conditions affect about one in eight women or birthing parents, and as many as one in ten fathers or caregiving partners.

Not available May 13? Don’t worry. Register now and we’ll send you the replay link to watch at your convenience.When we fell in love with the YouTube viral video “Xmas Jammies” 10 years ago, we didn’t know that Penn Holderness had ADHD.

We know that ADHD symptoms respond best to a multimodal treatment plan that includes medication plus helpful interventions ranging from mindfulness meditation to exercise to brain training. These complementary supports can help curb symptoms and enhance well-being for many individuals with ADHD.

For more than 10 years, I ran trail ultramarathons of 35 to 100 miles. I was decent at it, and I loved running those distances. But I’ll tell it straight: Long runs are hard, even if you’re trained for them.Distance runners anticipate difficulties and know to support themselves in any way possible to get to the finish line.

ADHD symptoms in women and girls aren’t “hidden” or “easy to miss.” They are obvious, persistent, and often quite serious. Why, then, do we continue to disregard or misdiagnose ADHD in girls and women? And why do we more accurately diagnose boys, who get a head start of about four years on treatment?1The reason: ADHD is still viewed from a largely male-centric point of view.

One of the greatest gifts you can give your child is a strong understanding of their ADHD brain. The more your child understands about their brain wiring and systems for internal and external information, the greater their self-awareness, confidence, and self-advocacy skills.Use the examples below to help you explain ADHD to your child in easy-to-understand language that diminishes shame and accentuates strengths.Register for free to attend a live webinar with Penn and Kim Holderness, authors of ADHD is Awesome on May 13 at 1 pm ETOur brains are like busy airports with control towers that guide the airplanes of executive function — planning, prioritizing, organizing, managing time, and other skills that help us get through everyday life — to take off and land smoothly.Except the ADHD brain’s control tower isn’t always well-staffed.

Do you feel like you’re faking it through life – winging it more than others and barely hiding the chaos? Do you feel like you’ve tricked everyone into thinking that you’re a competent, intelligent person? Do you worry that you’ll be exposed someday? If so, you may be experiencing imposter syndrome.“Someone with imposter syndrome feels like a fraud or a phony,” writes Sharon Saline, Psy.D. “You doubt your abilities and successes, believing that your mistakes and moments of imperfection are proof that you’re not an intelligent person.”According to Saline, imposter syndrome, rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD), social anxiety, and perfectionism – all common among individuals with ADHD – can be traced back to one thing: a core belief of deficiency.Answer these questions to see whether you show signs of imposter syndrome, and to what degree. Find more resources on imposter syndrome at the end of this self-test.The questions in this resource were informed, in part, from the ADDitude article titled “You Are Enough: How to Counteract Imposter Syndrome, Perfectionism, and RSD” by Sharon Saline, Psy.D., and from research literature on imposter syndrome. 12Time is Up! Time's upCan’t see the self-test questions above? Click here to open this test in a new window.1 Huecker MR, Shreffler J, McKeny PT, et al. Imposter Phenomenon. [Updated 2023 Jul 31]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK585058/2 Chandra, S., Huebert, C. A., Crowley, E., & Das, A. M. (2019). Impostor Syndrome: Could It Be Holding You or Your Mentees Back?. Chest, 156(1), 26–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2019.02.325