Connecting the Dots: My Midlife Journey with Adult AD/HD

by Gabriella West

Overview

Most of us have heard of ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), so why is it so common for women not to be diagnosed until they are in midlife? While boys manifest their ADHD in hyperactive behaviors, female sufferers tend to internalize their symptoms, contending with anxiety, depression, demoralization, and self-esteem issues. Because of this, a woman's diagnosis often comes later on, with the realization that she is just not coping with life, work, and relationships as well as she should be. She's not meeting anyone's expectations, certainly not her own.

So much has been discovered in the last ten years about ADHD in girls and women, but a lot of it's still not commonly known. Awareness of your symptoms is the key to change, and it all begins with self-awareness.

Novelist Gabriella West is refreshingly candid about her journey towards a diagnosis of ADHD, which started a few years ago when she encouraged her female partner to get a diagnosis. She uncovers a family history of the disorder, looking back at her own mother's life as a divorced American in Ireland in the 1970s. In Connecting the Dots she highlights common symptoms that women with inattentive-type ADHD experience, and shows that although getting a diagnosis is not necessarily easy, the relief of finding an explanation for things that previously just seemed "wrong" is enormous and healing.

(Approx. 8500 words--including appendices that offer the scoop on the current range of ADHD meds, a checklist of symptoms for inattentive ADD, and an added section on ADD and creativity.)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045440400
Publisher:	Gabriella West
Publication date:	12/28/2013
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	149 KB

About the Author

Gabriella West was born in Santa Barbara in 1967. In 1969, her parents moved to Dublin, Ireland, and she grew up in Ireland, studying English and Italian at Trinity College, Dublin. She graduated and left Ireland in 1988. She earned an MA degree in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University in 1995. She has published seven LGBT-themed novels: The Leaving, Time of Grace, Elsie Street, The Pull of Yesterday, and A Knight's Tale: Kenilworth. The follow-up, A Knight's Tale: Montargis, was published March 2018. Return to Carlsbad, the last book in the Elsie Street contemporary gay romance trilogy, was released October 2018. Gabriella West lives in San Francisco, CA.