Last year my son was diagnosed with ADHD. And when the testing and confirmation came back, I didn’t dive into the research right away. Instead, I paused. I let myself wait until I felt ready to learn more. Along with ADHD, he was also diagnosed with dyslexia, which helped so many things make sense.
I’ve always had a complicated relationship with labels, they often feel too narrow, as though they compress our full story into a single category. But they also offer direction and understanding. A kind of roadmap. And for me, they opened the door to compassion, compassion for him as he navigates challenges I didn’t fully understand before, and compassion for myself as a parent learning alongside him.
Recently, I had the privilege of being a guest on my friend Juliet O’Rourke’s Gifted with ADHD podcast. Juliet was diagnosed at age 50, right as she entered perimenopause/menopause and a time when ADHD symptoms often intensify. Her story is powerful, and I had her on my own podcast (Ep. 70) as well (you can listen to that conversation here).
I’ll be excited to share her episode with you when it comes out. In the meantime, here are a few things we talked about:
The Natural Challenge of Sensation
Many of my clients with ADHD describe patterns like:
• Getting intensely focused and simply forgetting to eat
• Having a hard time stopping to eat, even when hungry, because it breaks the “flow” they might be in
• Feeling overwhelmed by the choices of what to eat
• Seeing meal planning as too many steps
• Feeling shame around inconsistent eating: “I should plan better,” “I shouldn’t have chosen that food,” etc.
This week’s free subscriber recipe!
Best Stuffed Shells: My family loves these oversized pasta shells! And, their generous size means you can pack in all kinds of delicious fillings, too!
