My Three Ring Circus, Part 1

Come and join me these next few weeks as I re-visit my journey parenting two daughters with very different types of ADHD.  Hopefully you will find something that resonates with you at some level - a thought, a verse, a new idea, or even a chuckle as you read some of my experiences.  These were written long before I ever pursued my counseling career but they have influenced my entire journey and they still feel very real!

Parenting a child with ADHD is quite possibly one of the most difficult assignments in the parenting world and one for which there is very little preparation.  There are three strikes against you before you are out of the gate.  First, because ADHD is not readily recognizable in an infant, you leave the hospital with high expectations, believing things are normal in every way.  Secondly, since ADHD is not diagnosable by any one concrete, defining test, observers make assumptions about your skill as a parent.  They do not understand that you have very few weapons in your arsenal  such as proven methods of long-term treatment.  Thirdly, because individuals with ADHD are very different, there is no definitive treatment plan that can predict an outcome with reliability. Parent support can be non-existent except through print or not available at all.  All of that was very real to me as I directed my circus.  I felt very alone at times as I walked this path.

There are 5 segments to this particular post so check back each week! I welcome you to ADD HOPE Counseling, PLLC, where my primary goal is to walk out  II Corinthians1;3-4 "Now praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in trouble , with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."