ADHD in Teenagers
When teens have been undiagnosed or untreated for many years, they may have “flown under the radar”… right up until Junior High / Middle School. This is when the wheels tend to fall off: multiple teachers, subjects, sets of expectations, and increased expectations for academic performance and independence all contribute to what can look like a spectacular collapse.
But it didn’t start there, and the affects of ADHD have been quietly (or not…) piling up for years. Typically by early adolescents, teens have already developed a sense of themselves as “bad kids”: they may have always struggle with their peers, with teachers’ frequent negative feedback, with a sense of themselves as lazy or stupid or both. You may have been struggling to help them build consistent routines for years without much success; while teens tend to brush this off as if they don’t care, they have often been internalizing all of this and come to the conclusion that they are broken.
Therapy can help them begin to understand that their brain’s biology has been contributing to all of this, that their struggles are not because they are failures. With support and guidance at home, school, and in therapy, they can begin to experience themselves as capable, kind, lovable.
It’s not too late. I can help.