Millions Of Adult Women Have ADHD. So Why Does It Feel So Lonely?

Life as a 31-year-old with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) presents certain challenges for Erin Soto, a stay-at-home mom with 7- and 9-year-old boys. She was diagnosed as a teenager and prescribed medication, but it made her feel like a “zombie.” Now, she manages her symptoms with a therapist ― and with lists. Every night before bed, Soto meticulously outlines what she needs to accomplish the next day, a tool that helps keep her focused, but that can also exacerbate her anxiety. “A normal person can create a list and if they don’t get through it, they’ll be fine,” Soto told The Huffington Post. “Sometimes, I have a list and I won’t get through half of it and that will just send me into a tailspin.” “It’s like, you overload your plate so much in your mind that you just crash,” she added. “You can’t focus. You can’t sleep.” A new study published this month found that among a sample of roughly 4,000 adult Canadian women, the 100 or so who said they’d been diagnosed with ADHD had significantly higher rates of serious mental health problem, including anxiety, depression and insomnia. Nearly half of the women with ADHD said they’d seriously considered suicide and nearly 40 percent said they’d had substance abuse issues at some point. All of this suggests that Soto’s challenges managing ADHD and at least one concurrent mental health...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news