Sonia Ali - The Teenage Girls Guide to Living Well with ADHD: Improve your Self-Esteem, Self-Care and Self Knowledge

An engaging new book crammed full of easy to understand information for girls about ADHD and many related concerns. There are so many ideas and tips on how to manage the challenges of ADHD and survive the tricky teenage years. This book will be at the top of everyones lists to recommend following an ADHD diagnosis in girls.

Dr Joanne Steer, clinical psychologist and co-author of
Helping Kids and Teens with ADHD in School

How do I start this essay? What should I do first? Why does everything feel so difficult? if you are a teenager with ADHD these questions may be all too familiar. Offering information, guidance, tips and strategies on these and many other common struggles, this is a fun and lively book that takes the reader on an encouraging, upbeat and optimistic journey towards developing practical solutions to everyday frustrations. A fabulous read!

Valerie Ivens, ADHD coach, consultant and advocate

This book is very informative, but still easy to read if you have ADHD. Skipped a chunk of text because your brain was being funky? Doesnt matter, the next section still makes sense and you can read what you missed later! Struggle with starting on large daunting blocks of text? Well, not to worry because all the essentials are in *bold* and you can go from there! And once youve finished reading this book, youll have a better understanding of ADHD: its strengths, weaknesses and countermeasures. Clearly written, engaging and informative.

Anna Munt, history student at Cambridge,
owner of an ADHD brain

of related interest

Understanding ADHD in Girls and Women

Edited by Joanne Steer

Foreword by Andrea Bilbow OBE

ISBN 978 1 78775 400 3

eISBN 978 1 78775 401 0

The Spectrum Girls Survival Guide

How to Grow Up Awesome and Autistic

Siena Castellon

Foreword by Temple Grandin

Illustrated by Rebecca Burgess

ISBN 978 1 78775 183 5

eISBN 978 1 78775 184 2

ADHD Is Our Superpower

The Amazing Talents and Skills of Children with ADHD

Soli Lazarus

Illustrated by Adriana Camargo

ISBN 978 1 78775 730 1

eISBN 978 1 78775 731 8

All Dogs Have ADHD

Kathy Hoopmann

ISBN 978 1 78775 660 1

eISBN 978 1 78775 66 18

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

An Hachette Company

Copyright Sonia Ali 2022

The right of Sonia Ali to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The illustrations in this book have been sourced from iStock.com from the following users: Ilyabolotov, ngupakarti, Zdenek Sasek, RiMotions, bortonia, Christian Horz, Pavel Sevryukov, msan10, Anna_Kolesnikova, hazimsn, Mesut Ugurlu, Tetiana Garkusha, Olga Kurbatova, Tetiana Mykhailyk, Gwens Graphic Studio, FrankRamspott, non-exclusive, Peacefully7, Yuliia_Hrozian, Anna Semenchenko, asmakar, Sudowoodo, katflare, TonBoon, present, 9george, Sonya_illustration, ericb007, Kongphop Petwichai, A-Digit, Aluna1, frimages, S-S-S ,stcook, MarinaBH, eeewah, Serhii Brovko, Igor Levin, wehrmann69, nadia_bormotova, ~Userba9fe9ab_931, mspoint, Amanda Goehlert.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library and the Library of Congress

ISBN 978 1 78775 768 4

eISBN 978 1 78775 769 1

Jessica Kingsley Publishers policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

www.jkp.com

T hank you to Jessica Kingsley Publishers and especially to Sean Townsend for his useful input on this project.

Thank you to all the women and girls with ADHD who have shared their experiences.

To Boyko, Olivia and Felix, thanks for your support. Thank you to Carmen and Ezzeddin.

A wareness about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has improved in recent years, but misconceptions about ADHD are still common.

It might surprise some people to learn that:

not everyone with ADHD is hyperactive or hyperactive in a noticeable way

a person with ADHD is capable of high levels of concentration

ADHD can affect girls as well as boys.

Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls before the age of 12, yet more adult women than men are diagnosed with ADHD.

It tells us that girls with ADHD often remain undiagnosed because ADHD in girls is less well understood .

Although ADHD impacts specific areas such as

attention regulation

hyperactivity and impulse control

emotional regulation

executive function skills.

not everyone is affected in these areas in the same way or presents in the same way.

People associate ADHD with young boys who are extremely hyperactive, but many people (girls and boys) do not fit this template.

Girls and boys are still socialized differently too (take a look at the messages on kids T-shirts!) and this has a big impact on how you may choose to behave at times.

You might have been told you were chatty or fidgety at school, so you worked hard to hide signs of your hyperactivity to avoid being told you were annoying or too much.

Are you internally hyperactive with a very busy mind that is continually whirring with thoughts and songs that play on a loop?

Perhaps you are not particularly hyperactive, but you do have challenges with regulating your attention.

Maybe you have always been hyperactive and feel that hyperactivity in girls is not talked about enough.

Perhaps you tune out and daydream often and to others appear inactive rather than hyperactive?

Maybe you are always striving to excel academically or people please to overcompensate for what you feel are other challenges. (Evidence suggests that low self-esteem and anxiety is 2.5 times more common in girls with ADHD than boys with ADHD.)

This book aims to provide information, support and useful tips for any girl with ADHD (diagnosed or undiagnosed) so that they (you) can develop self knowledge and self-confidence. The book explores a range of issues, including some issues that might affect girls with ADHD disproportionately, such as low self-esteem and low self-image.