Homeschooling ADHD

 About a year ago, I was noticing some crazy things going on in my head. I was extra distracted, extra anxious, and extra burned out. 

I have anxiety, depression and diabetes, so I just chalked up my new frazzle to one or all of those reasons. But I was also, mourning the loss of my Dad, and some other big life changes, like having my teenage daughter getting diagnosed with ADHD, and other stuff. 

I thought I was just a typical homeschooling mom, who was always running around, doing school with my kids, school for myself, and juggling housework and other stuff that a stay-at-home mom does. 

And then...I just fell apart. 

I was oversleeping, struggling to remember day to day tasks, having a hard time quieting thoughts in my head, and there was music playing in my mind on a loop. I grew up with a brother who had been diagnosed with ADHD when he was eight years old (over 30 years ago), and I thought I knew what ADHD looked like. I was wrong.

I realized I needed therapy. I got assigned to a therapist via Zoom, and started sessions. Over the course of several weeks, we realized that I suffered from PTSD from the death of a loved one when I was just a little girl. And because of that, when my father died nearly two years ago, I was rehashing the pain of loss, and it was making me struggle to handle my emotions. 

I was cool with that. 

 But then, my therapist suggested that I could be struggling with inattention. She noticed I would interrupt her when she was speaking; that I was always biting my lip or chewing on my cheek. She also said that since I started seeing her, I shared many thoughts indicating I was burned out over menial daily tasks, like remembering to brush my teeth at night, or dreading the thought of flossing. 

Anyway, she suspected ADHD, and since my Dad had it, my brother had it since he was a little boy, and my sister was diagnosed a year ago, I figured the odds of me having it, was pretty high. 

So she evaluated me, and diagnosed me with Inattentive-Hyperactive ADHD.

And, of course, knowing my luck, I was diagnosed roughly two months after my daughter's diagnosis.

So now, I have to navigate my newly discovered neuro-divergent brain, while my teenage daughter was discovering hers. It has been very overwhelming. 

Though I am still navigating through medications, treatments for me and for my daughter, and coming to terms with what I'm learning, I can now say that I am grateful for this diagnosis in my life. It has answered a lot of questions about myself where I was so critical, and now I have tangible evidence to be kinder to myself and how I am.

Now I'm grateful that I'm going through this journey with my daughter. We have helped each other, and (hopefully) she is taking notes on how to go through bumps and obstacles in life, as they come along. 

So, for those of you out there that are questioning whether you are ideal enough parents to homeschool your kids-if an inattentive/hyperactive hot mess of a mother like me can do it (and we're doing some pretty good schoolwork over here), then you can do it, too.