Happy Monday and welcome to your mental health mini.
This week's guest is Kristen Carter, and we're talking all
things AD. HDI think that for most people,
we have a stereotypical stigma in our head of what ADHD looks
like, which is like a little white boy in the classroom kind
of bouncing off the walls, maybe being a little, you know, loud
with the teacher and interrupting his classmates.
But really, ADHD is so much more than that.
And so if someone in their teens is struggling with
disorganization, chronic stress, chronic overwhelm, inability to
manage things and be able to kind of like juggle all of the
balls, so to speak, those are really good things to look out
for because so much of what children have to go through,
their parents help them. It's very age appropriate.
It's very developmentally appropriate for a parent to help
a kiddo remember their homework, you know, make sure the forms
are filled out, all of that. But as the support system is
lessened because the person is aging out of it developmentally,
that's when usually things start to fall apart.
So a diagnosis is so helpful because it gives you
information. It just allows you to see
through a much clearer lens what's going on and the root
cause of all of the obnoxious symptoms that are coming up.
Because that's the thing with ADHD, is that the symptoms are
really just kind of annoying. And another thing about it that
is tricky is that every single human struggles with
organization from time to time. Every single human struggles
with emotional dysregulation from time to time.
So the things that are actual diagnostic criteria for ADHD are
things that the majority of the human race struggle with from
time to time. But the difference is for an
ADHD are those symptoms are debilitating, Those symptoms are
keeping them from reaching their potential.
So if you can, I always, always, always encourage people to get a
diagnosis. Even if you don't plan to
medicate, it's still helpful to have the information because
information is power and it can show you where to give support.
As a very high functioning now adult with ADHD, I have so much
support in place. Doctor Russell Barkley calls it
scaffolding. We have to have that scaffolding
of support so that we can really forward without having to worry
about all of the organization, all of the problem solving, all
of the time management, all of those things that for the
typical brain it just comes naturally and for our brains it
doesn't. I think that we have so much
shame around our struggle that we think we should major air
quotes here. We should be able to do it
without help. My friends don't need the help,
so why should I have to use it? And it's just really a shameful
diagnosis in so many ways. And so cutting through that
shame and taking advantage of whatever support it is doesn't
give you a leg up. It just levels the playing field
so that the starting line is where you're starting and not
way, way back. What I like to say to people is
no matter what you experience emotionally when you are
diagnosed, it's valid and your experience is valid.
So if you're relieved and happy, perfect.
If you're angry and feeling tons of regret, perfect.
It's supposed to feel this way and then the journey of
accepting it can really take a while.
You know, there's some flaws in our system when it comes to a
diagnosis because a lot of times the clinicians diagnosing, they
don't even have a robust understanding of the diagnosis.
It often goes misdiagnosed or undiagnosed, especially in women
and girls. And So what I would say is make
sure to be your own advocate and do all kinds of research.
The statistics right now for the percentage of the population
that's diagnosed with ADHDI think is around 3 to 4% of
children. I believe that that is most
likely an under diagnosis. I think there's a lot more
people with ADHD than have been diagnosed.
And I think that goes back to all of the symptoms of ADHD are
pesky symptoms or things that people struggle with, you know,
every now and again. But now that we have so much
access to information, there are so many people saying, wait a
second, I don't think it's anxiety that I have or I don't
think it's depression that I have or I don't think it's
bipolar that I have. I think it's actually ADHD.
And so I think it's a result of self advocacy.
We're seeing an upswing in diagnosis because of access to
information that we haven't always had.
And one of the good things coming out of it is there's a
lot of coaches being trained to support people with ADHD.
And coaching changed my life. And it's changed, you know,
thousands of people that I've worked with.
I know that coaching can be an amazing medium for those who
have access to the funds for it. It is so powerful to have
someone else kind of take your hand and lead you through a
journey. It's very, very validating.