Happy October! 

It's time for cooler weather, longer sleeves, socks with sandals, fall decorations, pumpkin spice everything, scary movies and ADHD. .....wait, what? 

Yep, October is also national ADHD awareness month. Woot! Woot!

Do you know or love someone with ADHD? Do you have ADHD or think you have ADHD? I didn't find out I had ADHD until I was an adult learning about ADHD. When I read the symptoms and realized I had many of them listed I was surprised. I knew my brother had ADHD, but I was good at school. So I didn't have it, right? Wrong-o. I was soon diagnosed and started taking medication for ADHD and couldn't believe the difference I noticed. I was able to get more done and didn't have to stay up really late to do it (I still stay up late but that's another ADHD symptom we will talk about later....thanks ADHD!). 

ADHD is one of the most popular reasons parents contact me. Sometimes their child is just entering school and the teachers have complained about their focus and sometimes the transition from elementary to middle school causes parents to worry. Often, when I explain to parents the reasons behind their child's behaviors they feel better and understand their child more.

Did you know that ADHD is genetic? If your biological child has ADHD and you don't have an ADHD diagnosis it's possible you will begin to wonder if you have ADHD the more you learn about it. 

Difficulty with focus and hyperactivity are the most well known ADHD symptoms. But did you know that some ADHD symptoms can mirror anxiety? And by treating ADHD anxiety can get better? And who couldn't use a little less anxiety these days. Right?!?

Here are some other less known symptoms of ADHD:

* Saying mean things to others

* Poor self esteem

* Poor sense of time

* Hypersensitive to criticism

* Difficulty remembering names

* Problems with word retrieval

* Difficulty making decisions

* Often complaining of being bored

And there are so many more. For a free online test click on the link below. And thank you for checking out the first blog from ICT Hope. And if you have ADHD and made it to the end of this, congratulations! Give yourself a pat on the back, you deserve it. And yay for me! I wrote something that caught your attention. :)

In Health and Wellness, 

Heather 

Click the link below for a free online ADHD test

https://www.mind-diagnostics.org/adhd-test