Danielle Elliott

Throughout, she treated many people with adult ADHD, and she noticed a pattern.

I think I was just pushing back against the idea that I had ADHD by proposing that maybe none of us women had it. That maybe we just weren't good enough. As if that's somehow better. You can't spell Danielle without denial. My notion of who was talking about ADHD started to expand when I moved into a new apartment that summer. Great light, closet space, friendly building.

I think I was just pushing back against the idea that I had ADHD by proposing that maybe none of us women had it. That maybe we just weren't good enough. As if that's somehow better. You can't spell Danielle without denial. My notion of who was talking about ADHD started to expand when I moved into a new apartment that summer. Great light, closet space, friendly building.

I got to know three of the women on my floor. We were watching TV one night, and one of them mentioned her ADHD. Another one of the women jumped in and said, Oh, I was diagnosed last year. Over the next few months, I started hearing this everywhere. A bartender at my favorite spot, two friends talking on the train, friends telling me about their moms being diagnosed.

I got to know three of the women on my floor. We were watching TV one night, and one of them mentioned her ADHD. Another one of the women jumped in and said, Oh, I was diagnosed last year. Over the next few months, I started hearing this everywhere. A bartender at my favorite spot, two friends talking on the train, friends telling me about their moms being diagnosed.

It's a nirvana they'll never reach without understanding why. She understood this because she'd felt it herself. She thought if she could just get organized, she'd enjoy work more. And just like she came up with workarounds, her patients figured things out as best they could.

It's a nirvana they'll never reach without understanding why. She understood this because she'd felt it herself. She thought if she could just get organized, she'd enjoy work more. And just like she came up with workarounds, her patients figured things out as best they could.

Unlike what I saw on social media, they weren't all white women. Then, researchers published data that supported what I was seeing around me. Tons of women are being diagnosed with ADHD. From 2020 to 2022, the rate of diagnosis skyrocketed. Okay, let me get inside your head for a minute. You're probably thinking, what's the big deal? A lot of women were diagnosed with ADHD in the past few years.

Unlike what I saw on social media, they weren't all white women. Then, researchers published data that supported what I was seeing around me. Tons of women are being diagnosed with ADHD. From 2020 to 2022, the rate of diagnosis skyrocketed. Okay, let me get inside your head for a minute. You're probably thinking, what's the big deal? A lot of women were diagnosed with ADHD in the past few years.

So what? Sounds like you made some new friends and got some helpful meds out of it. Why are you so mystified? Like, this subject needs a podcast mystified. Is this your latest shiny ball? It goes back to what the psychiatrist told me on the phone about why my own ADHD wasn't identified when I was a kid. Girls tend to have different symptoms, she'd said. Hyperactivity is much less common.

So what? Sounds like you made some new friends and got some helpful meds out of it. Why are you so mystified? Like, this subject needs a podcast mystified. Is this your latest shiny ball? It goes back to what the psychiatrist told me on the phone about why my own ADHD wasn't identified when I was a kid. Girls tend to have different symptoms, she'd said. Hyperactivity is much less common.

Because if a woman couldn't do the things women were expected to do, like keep a house clean, there was something wrong with her. Even when they were diagnosed with ADHD, doctors acted like the goal of treatment was to meet these expectations.

Because if a woman couldn't do the things women were expected to do, like keep a house clean, there was something wrong with her. Even when they were diagnosed with ADHD, doctors acted like the goal of treatment was to meet these expectations.

Our brains, though no less unique than that of any rambunctious boys, slipped under the radar. For many, many years, this was the accepted wisdom. doctors weren't diagnosing ADHD in girls because they simply didn't know they had it. One doctor told me that in the 1970s and early 80s, he was taught the ratio of boys to girls with ADHD was 10 to 1.

Our brains, though no less unique than that of any rambunctious boys, slipped under the radar. For many, many years, this was the accepted wisdom. doctors weren't diagnosing ADHD in girls because they simply didn't know they had it. One doctor told me that in the 1970s and early 80s, he was taught the ratio of boys to girls with ADHD was 10 to 1.

This sounds completely absurd, but apparently at least one doctor in the 1990s saw an ADHD diagnosis as solely a way to get women back to cleaning houses. All of this relates back to underlying challenges with what's called executive functioning and what executive functioning looks like in relation to expectations on women.

This sounds completely absurd, but apparently at least one doctor in the 1990s saw an ADHD diagnosis as solely a way to get women back to cleaning houses. All of this relates back to underlying challenges with what's called executive functioning and what executive functioning looks like in relation to expectations on women.

On top of that, the medical community also firmly believed that people outgrow ADHD in adulthood. Those two beliefs together meant that very little thought was ever given to women, grown-up, adult women, having ADHD. When I was in grad school in 2013, and my advisor joked that I had shiny ball syndrome, she didn't consider that I might have ADHD. I was studying science journalism.

On top of that, the medical community also firmly believed that people outgrow ADHD in adulthood. Those two beliefs together meant that very little thought was ever given to women, grown-up, adult women, having ADHD. When I was in grad school in 2013, and my advisor joked that I had shiny ball syndrome, she didn't consider that I might have ADHD. I was studying science journalism.

I read so many journals and articles that year and never came across anything that would suggest such an idea. Obviously, something had changed in the last few years. Women with ADHD were now being found everywhere, from my apartment building to Fox News. I talked to dozens of women who, like me, went undiagnosed until recently. Women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. One woman in her mid-70s.