ADHD Roller Coaster: "Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?"
News and Essays about Adult ADHD, with author Gina Pera
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A quick note to let you know that my book, Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?, is available as a download from Amazon.com for 
Kindle devices and Kindle applications for iPads, iPhones, PCs, and so forth. Just click on the book title above to go directly to the product page.
Please tell your friends in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom that the Kindle is available on Amazon.com in those countries. (This is the English version.)
Thank you for spreading the word.
Tags: Adult ADHD, Adult ADHD books, France, Germany, Italy, Kindle, Spain, UK
If you live within broadcast range of Atlanta’s public TV station WPBA, be sure to catch an airing of ADD & Loving It?! (View film trailer below.) Better yet, let this PBS station and others know that you support such programming by pledging during the airing.
This funny-factual documentary about ADHD will first air on WPBA (PBA 30) Sunday, August 8th, at 1:00 PM and August 9th at 3:30 AM. (It will repeat later in the month, so check the schedule.)
Please share news of this with your friends in the Atlanta area. (And, it’s a perfect “primer” on ADHD for the CHADD’s 22th International Conference, held in Atlanta this November.) You can forward this page as an e-mail or use the “share” link below to post to your Facebook page, Twitter, etc. Word is spreading…one PBS station at a time!
Tags: ADD & Loving It?!, Adult ADHD, CHADD conference in Atlanta, Totally ADD, WPBA
Do you have your grade-school report cards handy? These artifacts can be useful when it comes to being evaluated for Adult ADHD because the diagnosis requires evidence of symptoms in childhood. Case in point: the childhood reports (below) for San Diego-based psychotherapist and ADHD specialist Lew Mills, who has graciously agreed to share them here.
Such records aren’t mandatory, however, so when I hear from readers whose physicians demand such, I suspect these clinicians simply don’t want to (or don’t know how to) conduct a proper evaluation. In other words, it might be a stalling tactic. A wearing-you-down obstacle to diagnosis. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Adult ADHD, childhood report cards for diagnosis of ADHD, late-diagnosis ADHD, Lew Mills
I knew something was up when a greater-than-usual number of “help, please!” e-mails appeared in my in-box this morning.
Then my friend Doreen gave me the heads up on Facebook: MSN.com had featured a “When Your Lover Has ADHD” tag on its Valentine’s-themed homepage. It linked to an interview I’d done last year with Health.com: “When Someone You Love Has ADHD: Frequently Asked Questions About Helping Your Partner and Yourself.” It begins this way:
When journalist Gina Pera married a man with undiagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) she embarked on a wild ride that took her from frustration and confusion to understanding and advocacy. Today she runs support groups for people with ADHD and their partners, and her book Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.? was published in 2008.
“Wild ride” indeed. But our marriage started out more on the rainy side. (That’s us at our outdoor wedding in 1998. Despite the huge two-person umbrella, my husband still managed to position the dripline right over me. Fortunately, that kind of center-of-the-universe tendency is a relic of the past — or neither one of us, not to mention our marriage, would have survived!) Here’s a sample of the questions:
Q: How did you realize that your husband had ADHD?
Q: In the title of your book, you used the outdated term “ADD.” Why that instead of ADHD? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ADHD and Relationships, ADHD Roller Coaster, Adult ADHD, Gina Pera, is it you me or adult add?
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.
Tags: ADHD Awareness Week, Adult ADHD, Dancing with the Stars, Karina Smirnoff, Philadelphia, WPVI
Maybe we so often associate ADHD challenges with schoolwork, paperwork, and housework that we don’t often think of ADHD putting a kink in, um, bedroom fun. Or, that activity that we assume most people can do “in their sleep”: sleep.
Ah, but what you don’t know can hurt you. It can hurt your love life. And it can hurt your ability to get to bed on time, go to sleep, and stay asleep, not to mention leaving you prone to gasping for air (sleep apnea) or dancing the cucharacha with your restless legs all night.
I invite you to visit my blog on ADHD and Relationships to learn a bit more on those two subjects and, best of all, read the many insightful comments from readers that follow. (While you’re there, please sign up to follow this monthly blog so you’ll be notified of new posts.) I guarantee you’ll find some kindred spirits.
1. ADHD and Sex: No Shame, No Blame
“Gina, sex is difficult for people with ADHD; it’s tough to stay focused!” says a female Facebook friend, responding to my query on this topic. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ADHD and sex, ADHD and sleep, Adult ADHD, Adult ADHD relationships, Gina Pera, Insomnia, intimacy, Restless Legs Syndrome, sleep apnea
To watch a short interview on NBC’s The Today Show with preeminent ADHD research scientist Dr. Russell Barkley, click on the link above. He introduces the studies examining long-term outcomes of children diagnosed with ADHD. For details on this groundbreaking research by Dr. Barkley and colleague Dr. Mariellen Fischer, read ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says
TO LEAVE A COMMENT, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN. NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED!
Tags: ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says, Adult ADHD, Children with ADHD, Dr. Mariellen Fischer, Dr. Russell Barkley, Milwaukee Study, The Today Show, video
Read through a few online archives where adults with ADHD share their thoughts, and invariably, you will encounter just a few like this:
“Those of us who do take meds take them so we can function in a non-AD/HD world.”
They would operate just fine in the world, they maintain, if it weren’t for all the “neurotypical” types making them toe the line. Betsy Davenport, a Portland clinician who specializes in treating AD/HD (and has it herself), responded to one such post this way:
“Actually, I take medication to maximize my functioning in THE REAL world, which includes my home, where we ALL have Quirky Brains. It has nothing to do with the rest of the people, or the conventional expectations of the rest of the world’s people, or the rigid social climate in which we live, or any of that rot. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ADHD medication, Adult ADHD
“I have a patient with 2 PhD’s and a Master’s Degree, about 55 years old [two degrees in physics, and the other in another field of science] – he simply can’t think when the variables become unpredictable and, in the context of time, too abundant to manage in a give time frame. He is wonderful in the context of mathematics, but simply can’t take the responsibility of working socially with the unpredictable variables present in management with a team.
“In math he can think, in the team he freezes.
“Do you know anyone that has been overlooked like this… just think for a moment.”
—
So writes Dr. Charles Parker this week in his excellently informative CorePsychblog (Brain & Body Connections: Core Science Findings for Everyday Psych Problems). Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Adult ADHD, advanced degrees, corepsychblog, Diagnosis, Dr. Charles Parker, Misdiagnosis
This article by reporter Sam McManis is short, but it goes straight to the heart of the matter. (I just discovered it is a sidebar to a much longer article — see next post.) I’m very grateful to read one of the rare articles on Adult ADHD and relationships that doesn’t deny, minimize, or otherwise sugarcoat the challenges of untreated or unacknowledged ADHD.
http://www.sacbee.com/273/story/1229847.htm
We need more articles like this. Because until Adult ADHD is better understood, people will continue to suffer needlessly. That would be a shame, because we have terrific solutions; we just need better awareness.
If you have a minute, please leave a comment on the article at the Sacramento Bee site, thanking Mr. McManis and the Sacramento Bee for this article. We can’t blame “the media” for poor coverage of Adult ADHD if we let good coverage like this go unacknowledged. (And unlike websites that pick up stories like this, violating copyright, this newspaper actually pays people to produce strong content.)
Tags: Adult ADHD, couples, is it you me or adult add?, relationship, sacramento bee, sam mcmanis, solutions
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