THE THREE PILLARS OF CHANGE FOR WOMEN WITH ADHD

RE-STRUCTURING Your Life At Home And Work*
RE-NEGOTIATING Your Relationships*
RE-DEFINING Your Self Image*

For a woman with ADD, the healing starts in her brain and continues in her heart.

In order for women with the executive function struggles of ADHD to maximize their strengths and increase their feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment, it is usually necessary to re-structure the way they set up their lives both at home and at work.

This means that first, they must come to a deep understanding and acceptance of how they function best, how their brains work, and become willing to ask for support for their challenges.

This may sound simple, but it is far from easy.

Many people often assume the way to help women who face these challenges is to start with suggesting simple solutions and common sense strategies.

This idea is actually a common reason for the failure of women with ADHD in achieving their goals and fulfilling their hopes and dreams.

Even more damaging, this approach, or mind-set, can result in increased shame for a woman who is left with the feeling that, once again, she has disappointed herself – and let others down who are important to her.

The truth is that after the chemicals in her brain are addressed, the focus must then shift to the concepts in her mind and the pain in her heart, which include her sense of failure, her toxic comparisons, and her distorted view of herself.

She doesn’t see the incredible whole human being she is.

On the contrary, women with ADHD often maintain a relentless, oppressive, and narrow focus on their deficits due to internalized and idealized views of what women are like, and should be able to do.

So while Re-structuring is the goal, barriers that keep her from setting up her life in a way that works for her necessitate focusing on Re-negotiating her relationships and Re-defining her self-image.

In order for her to feel entitled to set limits, boundaries, state what she needs, and get support, a woman with these challenges will need to redefine her idea of what it means to a successful, mature, valuable women even when and if her challenges persist!

Only when those difficulties and differences no longer define who she is, when she can see herself as a whole human being, will she be able to renegotiate her relationships to get what she needs by setting limits and not allowing toxic criticism or disrespect to derail her.

So the process by which a woman with ADHD is able to eventually be successful at restructuring her life, starts from the inside and works its way slowly and surely outward.

Books By Sari Solden

A Radical Guide For Women With ADHD

Women With Attention Deficit Disorder

Journeys Through ADDulthood

*3 R’s are from Women with ADD
Copyright Sari Solden 2014

Looking for books about ADHD in Women and Girls?  Check out our top picks here.

Sari Solden, MS
Psychotherapist & author of:
Women with Attention Deficit Disorder
Journeys Through ADDulthood
Email: sari@sarisolden.com
Websites: www.sarisolden.com, www.ADDJourneys.com

For as little as the cost of a cup of coffee a month you can take part in live Patreon community discussions with Rick Green + see our new videos first + other perks

TotallyADD.com is an independent website created & owned by Big Brain Productions Inc. (Rick Green).  We tell you this because so many people ask if pharmaceutical companies paid for any of this and the answer is absolutely not.  Purchases in our shop, and our Patreon community pays for content creation.