”ADHD and Black Girls” - The Undiagnosed Neurodivergent Superwoman!

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“Many women don't get diagnosed until their kids get diagnosed because people miss it,” shares ADHD coach, IngerShaye Colzie, MSW, LSW. IngerShaye went 50 years wondering why certain things were so difficult while others were easy. In spite of noticeable struggles in her childhood continuing into her work and college life, her ADHD went unnoticed until her own child was diagnosed. Today, IngerShaye joins host D-Rich to talk about ADHD and how it presents in Black women and girls.

ADHD is a brain based condition affecting the way someone’s brain is wired that tends to show up differently in girls than it does in boys. Many people are familiar with the textbook idea of a distracting, impulsive little boy with ADHD, but are less adept at recognizing girls with ADHD. For girls, it often shows up as the inattentive or combined version versus strictly hyperactive. And when it is hyperactive in girls, that hyperactivity is directed inward. IngerShaye shares that some of the challenges of ADHD are time blindness causing her to be late constantly, trouble prioritizing, impulsivity, disorganization, and getting overwhelmed easily. She also explains that ADHD comes with strengths like empathy, a strong sense of fairness, resilience, hyperfocus, passion, and creativity.

It is important to build awareness and seek support for Black women and girls with ADHD because it is not okay that so many are slipping through and not being diagnosed until much later in life. When Black women have ADHD, they face additional challenges. There is a lot of misinformation circulating about ADHD and when we come together to talk about our experiences, more of those myths can be dispelled and replaced with the truth.

Quotes

• “Once we went from learning to read to reading to learn, it just got harder and the ADHD started to kick in.” (2:42-2:49 | IngerShaye)

• “Many women don't get diagnosed until their kids get diagnosed because people miss it.” (10:44-10:51 | IngerShaye)

• “The thing about ADHD, the H part, the hyper part, it's not outward. For women especially, it turns inward.” (11:49-11:56 | IngerShaye)

• “When I got diagnosed with ADHD, my whole life flashed in front of me because all the things that were confusing began to make sense.” (12:33-12:40 | IngerShaye)

• “Kids with ADHD get, I think they say, 20,000 more negative messages by age 12 than other children.” (24:44-24:51 | IngerShaye)

• “I think what encourages me more than anything else is that, seeing this is a room full of people of color that we are furthering this conversation about something that's so important in our community that we haven't been saying out loud, and it's so encouraging to see so many people in the chat and in the breakout room who are realizing that they need to learn more about this, because it may be something that's really relevant in their lives." (1:20:10-1:20:38 | KD)

Links

Connect with IngerShaye Colzie, MSW, LSW, ADHD Coach:

Website: www.ingershaye.com

Instagram: @ingershaye

Resources Available to Parents

Quizzes for ADHD Symptoms

Books

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