The State of Adult ADHD Today

4 Comments: The State of Adult ADHD Today

1. The quantity and quality of an individual’s support network needs addressing. It’s no good giving someone a tub of pills, especially for those of us diagnosed in later life, and sending us away to sort ourselves out. It isn’t going to happen. And support whether provided as part of treatment or worked out at home, has to be realistic in desired outcomes. Someone aged 60 isn’t gong to be able to change to the extent someone in their 20’s could.
   I’m in England. We get given meds and sent away. They ask, at the assessment, “what’s your home support network like?” but they have no answer to, “non-existent”. Nor are there even leaflets with advice for family members/significant others. Just nothing. It’s scandalous. Akin to agreeing with someone that, yes, they indeed do have only one leg and this is doubtless why walking has been such an issue. And then leaving them without even a walking stick, never mind a wheelchair or a prosthetic leg. And meds are withdrawn at the slightest issue. No flexibility. No individuality. Medics have no agency, no independent thought. They follow rules. To the letter. No matter how obviously stupid doing so is. They have no choice. If they tried to actually mould the treatment to suit the individual they’d be fired for deviating from the guidelines.
   And, at the moment, things are getting a lot worse here, as the current Government has set its sights on the disabled, with those claiming depression and anxiety and other mental problems, being the particular focus. Because obviously it’s our fault for wrecking the economy, and not 14 years of insane, against all the evidence, Neo-liberal policies.
   Thank the gods for lion’s mane mushroom extract. They’re better than meds, and not hidden behind a wall of insane bureaucracy.

2. I’m sorry, “psychiatric disorder”?? You are talking about a neurological difference that comes with just as many strengths as it does difficulties. It is not a psychiatric disorder like bipolar or schizophrenia.
   Recently I have found your articles to be so focused on medicalising and medicating ADHD since the shortage. What about promoting women learning about their brains and using other strategies to improve their lives? What about promoting the need to do what suits your brain, how to self advocate etc. Way to disable a large portion of society by feeding into their narrative of ‘my brain is broken’.

3. Dr. David Goodman is incorrect, ADHD Symptoms do get worse with age in women. AS we age and our estrogen levels go down so does our dopamine and we are more affected by our ADHD- is does essentially get worse. This is the reason that we have so many moms in our 40s getting first time diagnoses when they were a “GT kid” growing up.

4. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!