Parent of Young Adult w/ ADHD

[Pinkcats46]

I am the mom of a 24 yr old young adult that has ADHD and a mood disorder. She is just starting her career and she is really struggling to keep things all together. She lives on her own, and I want to strengthen our relationship so that I can hear/listen understand what she needs and how I can guide her to make good decisions on her own. I would love to hear from someone else who can share their personal experiences and what worked for them.

[eaw49]

Hi! My daughter is 31 and has finally settled into a career where she is feeling successful. It has been a long and difficult journey for her to get to where she is now. Before this job she worked several gigs or for herself. Every time she would start a “regular job” she would end up losing it because her ADHD symptoms were so bad and she couldn’t get good medical care because she couldn’t keep a job long enough to get benefits. It was extremely frustrating for her and made her self esteem take a dive every time. It was completely heartbreaking.. This current job she is at she has managed to keep it long enough to get the benefits and get under a doctors care. The doctor was able to convince her to try first Prozac and then finally ADHD medication .I’m not sure what the ADHD medication is called. She was always resistant to taking medication in the past and would only start it, didn’t like the way it made her feel, and would quickly stop. After several years of feeling like she was failing she was finally desperate enough for something to work and stuck with it. She was finally convinced that the key to her success was taking medication. Unfortunately she didn’t come to the realization until she was no longer able to be on our insurance. I often wonder how much better her self esteem would of been and how much sooner she would of gotten there if she would of been able to get on meds and had a competent doctor sooner. Like most people, she was determined to figure that one out on her own. The good news is because of all the experience working different gigs and for herself she was able to land a job she enjoys and keep it. She had the ability to hyper focus on the things she enjoys and became an expert in those things. Fortunately her ability’s are exactly what her current job is looking for. We are still concerned that things will change and we will be back at square one again but every day that passes and she is still working that job makes her dad and I breath a little bit better.

. Looking back I wish we were able to convince our daughter to take meds sooner and also had gotten her an ADHD coach. I think she would have been more receptive to help if it wasn’t just her parents offering it.

Good luck to your daughter. I wish you both the very best.

[Ejcox2002]

Hey! Okay... So...

I'm finally in a decent well paid job.

How did I get there? Well messed a lot of jobs up, spent money I didn't have... Ruined some good relationships with some great partners.. Yeah I messed up a lot.

How did I make things better? Coaching with someone who understood ADHD. We made strategies together (it was important that my parents didn't know what we were talking about) from there in directly I had a better relationship with my dad who now is able to support me.

Also, I reviewed my meds and found my meds from childhood were not as effective.

To sum up; ADHDers never take the easy road (ever) 🤣🤣. But we get there!