Mighty Oaks Counseling, PLLC

"I thought my ADHD was under control…until suddenly it wasn't." Many women describe this feeling at different stages of life. Perhaps it happened during puberty. Maybe after having a baby. Or during the years leading up to menopause, when familiar coping strategies suddenly seemed to stop working. For years, ADHD research focused primarily on boys and men. As a result, many women were left wondering why their symptoms seemed to change over time. We're finally beginning to und

"If I had known then what I know now, I would have parented differently." It's something I hear from parents all the time after their daughter is diagnosed with ADHD. Not because they didn't love her. Not because they weren't trying. But because they were responding to behaviors they could see without understanding what was happening beneath the surface. They saw forgotten homework. Messy bedrooms. Emotional outbursts. Lost jackets. Incomplete chores. What they couldn't see w

"I've always felt like everyone else got a friendship handbook that I somehow missed." It's a sentence I hear often from girls and women with ADHD. Many can tell you exactly when they began feeling different. Maybe it was elementary school when friendships suddenly became more complicated. Maybe it was middle school, when social groups became less forgiving. Or maybe it wasn't until adulthood, when maintaining friendships started to feel overwhelming. While ADHD is often asso

"I can handle forgetting my keys. What I can't handle is feeling like every emotion is turned up to full volume." When most people think about ADHD, they think about distractibility. They picture someone who loses their phone, forgets appointments, interrupts conversations, or struggles to finish projects. What they don't see is what many girls and women experience internally every single day. The overwhelming emotions. The intense self-doubt. The shame that lingers after a s

If you picture ADHD, what comes to mind? For many people, it's a young boy who can't sit still, blurts out answers, or seems constantly in motion. But ADHD often looks very different in girls. Many girls with ADHD aren't disruptive. They're quiet. Responsible. High-achieving. They're the ones who spend hours rewriting homework, cry over getting a B, or stay up until midnight trying to make everything "just right." Instead of appearing inattentive, they often become perfection