Girls with ADHD (and more health and wellness news)

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Alive and Kicking with Clare McKenna 13 min 3 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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What is the new Irish Times story about girls and ADHD?

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Alive

Clare McKenna 0:02

and kicking

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with Claire McKenna

Clare McKenna 0:04

on News Talk. Now, Neve and Emir Daly, the Yoga Sisters, are back. They bring sister yoga events to bring people together and have a love for movement. They share all of their wellness news on their Instagram, which is daily d-a-l-y underscore wellbeing. And they're back in studio with the latest in health and wellness news. Ladies, you're very welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having us back. It's good to have you. So we're going to start with a story that was in the Irish Times recently. recently, Emer, about girls and ADHD.

Eimear Daly 0:37

Yes, I absolutely loved reading this story. So this story was written by Aidine Kennedy, who is actually an ADHD coach herself, and she had a diagnosis at the age of 32, and she deep dives a little bit into how male and female symptoms of ADHD can show up very differently. So she mentions at the start of the story that when you think of ADHD, you might have thought of a boy in the class who's very hyperactive, can't sit down and can't really concentrate. But when it comes to girls, it's very different how they kind of have ADHD symptoms and it's all very internalized. So it comes to constant racing thoughts, disorganization, forgetfulness, feeling very overwhelmed and just can't switch off. And the really big theme that is shown with females and ADHD is masking and being able to hide kind of the symptoms that you're feeling.

Eimear Daly 1:26

And that's why People aren't really picking up on like, do I have ADHD or what's going on? And it's not till later in life that they're kind of starting to discover that. And because that masking can go on for so many years, it can start to turn into intense people pleasing, low self-esteem, anxiety, and burnout.

How do female ADHD symptoms differ from the classic hyper‑active boy picture?

Eimear Daly 1:43

And our hormones are really de directly related to it as well. So you might feel at the time, the week before your period, those symptoms are feeling a lot. Worse, especially if you're someone who gets intense PMS or PMDD, you might feel a lot of brain fog, even more disorganized, can't make a decision. And that's kind of when you might take it to your GP and say, I really don't feel myself, like what's going on? And that's when the exploration can start to go a little bit further. So it's really nice that we're seeing this in the story that girls are kind of starting to look a little bit more into ADHD and what it looks like. like, but it does just allow us kind of say what is going on with me, taking a little bit of a pause and maybe going to your GP at an earlier stage if you do start to feel these things.

Eimear Daly 2:27

Um and like many of the stories here, just taking the time to kind of do a little self discovery of yourself.

Clare McKenna 2:32

Yeah, last week we had um Jackie Mulligan on. She was launching a mental health initiative called The Working Mind and we were talking about how you know, you can have like almost a traffic light system of mental health. So you can have a green day one day, and other days it could be a red day that needs a lot of support. And I think that's really positive, that we can all have, you know, good days, bad days, challenging chapters, whatever it is. But I I think what you're touching on there for women with hormones, that can almost be be dangerous because we have that tough week. And then the following week we're okay Okay again and we kind of forget and we're like, No, do you know what? Actually maybe I'm grand, maybe I was just a bit tired and maybe I was a bit stressed and I'm okay again.

Clare McKenna 3:13

So it's really important that we start logging these things or writing them down and paying attention to what's what's happening. Otherwise, you know how quick time goes. Six months, eight months passes and then you realise there's a bit of a a pattern. And we do have the stereotype that ADHD is that um hyperactive boy running around and being in inverted commas bold or naughty all of the time. No, sí

Why is masking such a big issue for women with ADHD and how does it affect self‑esteem?

Clare McKenna 3:37

Whereas girls can still be feeling all those feelings but want to please and want to do well. So they just sit there and try their best to do their work.

Eimear Daly 3:45

Exactly. Yeah. And I think one of the big things that showed up in this story was that, you know, taking the time to just really look at what's going on with you and just really having self compassion because most of the time women with ADHD, we are churning up um