Hi friends, happy weekend.
I am really excited to share this week's episode on the podcast with you. I am diving into why so many women and young girls are often misdiagnosed or the diagnosis is missed altogether when it comes to ADHD.
This is a topic that I find incredibly fascinating and relevant, and I'm seeing it highlighted on the covers of magazines recently around why the ADHD experience looks so different for females and how this contributes to the lack of support, resources, and identification that happens for so many women and young girls.
I'm discussing this in more depth in this week's podcast episode. This is a super personal subject for me as I was diagnosed with ADHD at 15. I’m sharing a bit more in this episode about my experience and why I wasn't identified younger despite my challenges and how receiving a diagnosis does and does not impact our experience.
I'm highlighting two things that I think are super critical to why we're seeing such a lack of awareness and understanding even amongst professionals around identifying and supporting ADHD in women and girls.
It comes down to two things:
Conditioning and the societal expectations that we put on girls (and boys)
The different types of ADHD (inattentive, hyperactive, and combined)
There’s a stereotype and stigmatized idea of what ADHD is supposed to look like that impacts a true understanding of the more internal experience that so many women and girls in the classroom are having.
This can happen to boys, too, so I am also touching on that in this episode as well because there's a lot out there right now about how ADHD presents for women and girls, which is absolutely true and essential to understand. However, there is an additional layer that is discussed less that centers around the different types of ADHD that impacts proper understanding for everyone.
Those with the inattentive type, whether you're a boy or a girl, will have a more internal experience, and the hyperactivity will be experienced inside of the person, making it less visible to the outside world.
This creates a really chaotic, stressful, anxiety-provoking experience for the individual, but from the outside looking in, people don't always see what's actually going on for these people.
There's a whole intersection here of societal expectations because, as women, we're conditioned to be “good girls” and to be more of the pleasers. This impacts the level of masking that can happen in our lives and, therefore, becomes a barrier to identification.
Also at play is the fact that ADHD takes different forms, and there are different types of ADHD (inattentive, hyperactive, and combined type). If you have the inattentive type of ADHD, no matter what your gender, this is going to appear outwardly different than what we’ve been told ADHD is supposed to look like.
In this week's episode, I'm diving into…
why so many girls are not being identified earlier
why we're having a surge of women coming to understand their neurowiring and experiences later in life
how we can step in and support people in receiving the resources, identification, and tools they need from a younger age
how to meet people where they're at, no matter when you find out
If you're interested in this, I'm dropping the episode below.
It's such a fascinating topic that I think is so relevant for anyone who is walking this path, whether you're a woman with ADHD or a parent who has children with ADHD. If you’re curious about understanding the depth of what it means to have ADHD and getting a clearer picture of the experience, not based on outdated stigmas, and with more awareness around how conditioning and societal expectations impact the way we identify and support this population of people, this week’s episode is for you!
Check it out, and leave me a comment if you have any feelings or feedback. I would absolutely love to hear from you!
Sending you so much love,
xo Melissa
P.S. If you’d like more content like this and deeper support, feel free to join our Inner Circle for full access to resources supporting your nervous system + behind the scenes, more personal shares AND priority access to 1:1 support, and customized packages for moms and kids. I’d love to see you there!
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