ADHD Women

I would like to hear from everyone, not just those going through what I'm currently dealing with, which is perimenopause.

My ADHD is combined with depression. Yay me. As I started perimenopause I dipped into one of the worst cases of depression I ever had. Like "planning stages" bad.

In addition, my ADHD went into overdrive. The scary part was that I began to lose focus while driving. Fortunately there were no accidents, but I had some close calls--running lights unintentionally, having to slam on brakes to stop from rear ending people.

My other ADHD symptoms were amped up to where my house was crazy. My relationships were suffering. All of the "quirks" my husband was used to were dialed up to 11.

When my mother was entering perimenospause we all thought she had gone crazy too, for like years. Four or five. No one knew she had ADHD because the information wasn't out there like it is today (it was the '80s). Her hormone shifting made her a different person. My dad told me later that he considered divorce. Things got better eventually.

I did get medical help and it has taken about four years to finally clear up. I tried different ADHD meds, but what helped more than anything was hormone replacement therapy. Once my hormones were levelled out, my normal treatment was so effective that it was like I was back to my old self and I had been forgetting what that looked like. My husband even jokingly puts his hand on my forehead to see if I'm okay when he sees how sane I'm behaving.

If you have ADHD, be aware that shifts in hormone levels do have an effect on you and your treatment needs to take this into account.

So what is your experience?