A few months ago I shared that my daughter was going to be assessed by my son’s Psychiatrist as she had increasing anxiety and continued to struggle with school. I always thought she may have Anxiety as there was evidence from an early age. She really needed a gradual release model anytime she tried something new – I was the Mom in the pool beside the instructor with my daughter the first few lessons of every new swimming set! It wasn’t until her younger brother was diagnosed with ADHD however, that we even started to think that was a possibility for her. Even then it was year after his diagnosis before we considered it.

When he was diagnosed with ADHD we learned there was a genetic link, meaning my husband or I may have ADHD and there was a possibility our daughter did as well. I still didn’t think that was the case for her though. As the time went on and we started to see how hard it was for her to focus on learning tasks and how that was beginning to have a negative impact on her learning in school, as well as an increase in emotional challenges at home, we needed to look deeper.

After a lot of research and reading about ADHD, I realized that often girls are undiagnosed because for some the hyperactivity is internal and can at times present as anxiety, or the inattention is often more quiet and seemingly on-task, but with difficulties focusing or following through. This awareness not only steered us down the road to explore whether our daughter had Anxiety, ADHD or both, but it was also eye opening as I reflected on myself. That is for another post!

In the end, our daughter was diagnosed with both ADHD Combined type and Anxiety. Now that we know for sure that she struggles with both ADHD and Anxiety, as separate disorders, we are working to learn more about how ADHD impacts her, which is very different from how it impacts our son. The bottom line is that although a diagnosis of ADHD is based on very specific criteria, how that criteria presents in each person is so very different. Our job as parents is to find out how having ADHD effects both of our children and to continue to explore the best ways to help each of them. We have already found a pretty successful, although requiring continual reflection and adjustments, path for our son and now the journey for what may help our daughter is just beginning. Having a clear diagnosis was an important step in that journey.

Please share your insights or stories to help us understand your experiences.