What's It Really Like to Have ADHD?
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"We [humans] are not very empathetic," Walker says. She says it’s hard for people who don’t have ADHD to understand someone with it. Walker says she learned through experience: She’s married to Gordon. ”When you live with a person who has ADHD, you realize that there is no one on Earth who would put that much effort into failing over and over again."
Gordon was diagnosed in his early 30s when they were looking for help for their daughter. She was having a lot of trouble focusing in school. They started learning about ADHD and soon found out both Gordon and their daughter had the condition.
Terry Matlen, MSW, is a therapist who specializes in adults with ADHD, particularly women. She too has ADHD. Her diagnosis came after her daughter’s. "A real common theme," she says. ADHD tends to run in families.
She describes having ADHD like this: "It's a chronic sense of overwhelmed. It feels like you're being attacked in all areas of your daily life -- like sounds, and lights, and sensory things can be overwhelming," Matlen is the author of Survival Tips for Women with ADHD."
She says she hit a wall after she became a mother. “And that is what we see a lot with women, once their lives become more complicated, they can't stay on top of things. Both of my children turned out to be hyperactive. I couldn't keep up. I felt like a total failure, someone with two college degrees couldn't do something as seemingly easy as putting dinner on the table every night or keeping the house organized."
She says it took a toll on her self-esteem, “Like, what is wrong with me? There's people with five kids who can juggle all the responsibilities of taking care of a family. Why couldn't I do it with two? Am I dumb? Am I incompetent?"
She wants others with ADHD to understand what she now knows: “You're not broken, you're not hopeless, you just need a little extra help.”
Karen Thompson is an Atlanta-based drafter at an engineering firm who sought help in her 30s. "People said I had no filter, that I would jump from subject to subject and I had a lot of thoughts in my head." A psychiatrist diagnosed her with ADHD and put her on medication, which she says helped her calm down but also made her very sleepy and nauseous. So she came off of it and tries to control her ADHD in other ways, like working out and practicing yoga.
What's It Really Like to Have ADHD?
(continued)
Adults Have ADHD, Too continued...
"We [humans] are not very empathetic," Walker says. She says it’s hard for people who don’t have ADHD to understand someone with it. Walker says she learned through experience: She’s married to Gordon. ”When you live with a person who has ADHD, you realize that there is no one on Earth who would put that much effort into failing over and over again."
Gordon was diagnosed in his early 30s when they were looking for help for their daughter. She was having a lot of trouble focusing in school. They started learning about ADHD and soon found out both Gordon and their daughter had the condition.
Terry Matlen, MSW, is a therapist who specializes in adults with ADHD, particularly women. She too has ADHD. Her diagnosis came after her daughter’s. "A real common theme," she says. ADHD tends to run in families.
She describes having ADHD like this: "It's a chronic sense of overwhelmed. It feels like you're being attacked in all areas of your daily life -- like sounds, and lights, and sensory things can be overwhelming," Matlen is the author of Survival Tips for Women with ADHD."
She says she hit a wall after she became a mother. “And that is what we see a lot with women, once their lives become more complicated, they can't stay on top of things. Both of my children turned out to be hyperactive. I couldn't keep up. I felt like a total failure, someone with two college degrees couldn't do something as seemingly easy as putting dinner on the table every night or keeping the house organized."
She says it took a toll on her self-esteem, “Like, what is wrong with me? There's people with five kids who can juggle all the responsibilities of taking care of a family. Why couldn't I do it with two? Am I dumb? Am I incompetent?"
She wants others with ADHD to understand what she now knows: “You're not broken, you're not hopeless, you just need a little extra help.”
Karen Thompson is an Atlanta-based drafter at an engineering firm who sought help in her 30s. "People said I had no filter, that I would jump from subject to subject and I had a lot of thoughts in my head." A psychiatrist diagnosed her with ADHD and put her on medication, which she says helped her calm down but also made her very sleepy and nauseous. So she came off of it and tries to control her ADHD in other ways, like working out and practicing yoga.