Gina Out and About

Consider this your personal invitation to join us next weekend (11/14/09) at ADD Resources’ Eighth Annual Fall Conference in Bellevue, Washington.  The theme this year is ADHD: Acceptance is Empowering.

Knowledge is power, too, and this is a wonderfully cost-effective opportunity to both expand your knowledge of ADHD and familiarize yourself with the ADHD community in the Pacific Northwest.

Nationally known ADHD expert and psychologist Ari Tuckman (author of the new book More Attention, Less Deficit) will travel from Pennsylvania to present the morning keynote address: “Control What You Can, Let Go of the Rest.” Judging by the overflow capacity at Dr. Tuckman’s recent presentation at the CHADD conference in Cleveland, you won’t want to miss this candid, practical, and engaging expert! Read the rest of this entry »

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I will be joining ADHD specialist Dr. Alan Graham of ADDvisor.com for a free teleconference on “ADHD and Success Strategies for Couples.”

Date: Wednesday, October 14.
Time: 8:30 pm EDT.
To Pre-register: click here.

Thanks to Philadelphia ABC affiliate WPVI-TV for airing this well-balanced segment during ADHD Awareness Week, and thanks to Dancing with the Stars star Karina Smirnoff and the amazing Kavanaugh family for sharing their stories. (Oh, I make a small cameo appearance, drawn from a 30-minute interview with Health producer Dawn Heefner. Astute, intelligent questions all!)

PHILADELPHIA, PA.; September 22, 2009 (WPVI) — Attention deficit disorders are common among children. But few people know that they affect anywhere from 4 to 16% of American adults too – though most don’t know it. But identifying the disorder can be a big step in learning how to live a good life with AD/HD.

Karina Smirnoff moves across the dance floor in “Dancing With the Stars” with a precision that shows hours & hours of practice.

That’s not easy for someone with attention deficit disorder – ADD….

Continue reading at KPVI’s website, and PLEASE leave a note of appreciation there for this story.

If you live in Anaheim, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or Princeton, the ADHD Roller Coaster is coming to your town! Well, actually, it’s just me, Gina Pera, but I’ll be talking about the ADHD Roller Coaster. Next week, join us at the CHADD Regional Conference in Anaheim, August 22, where I’ll talk about how Adult ADHD affects parenting. In honor of ADHD Awareness week in September, I’ll be visiting East Coast three cities: Read the rest of this entry »

While I was enjoying the tremendously fun crowds at CADDAC’s ADHD conference in Toronto, my book was whooping it up in New York City….winning four national awards!

Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.? , by Gina Pera (that’s me), was twice-named a winner in both the Independent Book Publishers Association’s (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Awards and ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards.

IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards:

1. Silver for best psychology book
2. Silver Bill Fisher Award for Best First book (non-fiction)

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards:

1. Gold for best psychology book
2. Silver for best book on family and relationship

What’s most exciting about these honors is the potential Read the rest of this entry »

I am eagerly anticipating CADDAC’s first-ever Two-Day ADHD Conference & Comedy Night — ADHD: ALL IN THE FAMILY. (That’s right, a comedy night fund-raiser…what a great idea!)

Featured Speaker: Dr. Russell Barkley
This is a great opportunity to learn from Dr. Russell Barkley, an internationally recognized authority on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in children and adults. Read the rest of this entry »

If you live in the United Kingdom, and you or someone you love have ADHD, you know that the non-profit organization ADDISS is a peerless source of education and support. The name stands for The National Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service.

ADDISS’ Ninth International Conference on ADHD: The Spirit of ADHD:
Resilience, Hope, Opportunity, Success takes place in London March 31-April 1, 2009.

I am looking forward to speaking about “You and Me and Adult ADHD: Success Strategies for Couples” at the conference as well as at a free public lecture on March 31. Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of presenting my talk on “You, Me, and A.D.D” to the Santa Rosa Chapter of CHADD. What a fun crowd! About 60 adults with ADHD and/or their partners turned out. That’s a lot of people for a small town! Coordinator Pauline Laurent is doing a great job creating awareness in Sonoma County.

As I made motored up Highway 101, anxiety swelled. A public speaker I’m not — or at least I thought I wasn’t. Being the much-youngest of seven in a very verbal Italian family, it was hard to get a word in edgewise. And my journalism career has mostly been spent behind a desk and on the phone. Would I lose my train of thought and start jabbering? Would they like the cartoons or my sense of humor? Would the adults with ADHD be defensive that my talk focused more on the challenges posed by ADHD — and what to do about them?

Read the rest of this entry »