Review: 100 Questions & Answers about ADHD in Women and Girls

100 Questions & Answers About Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Women and Girls

Patricia Quinn is our hero as women with ADHD. She’s the doctor  who understands and advocates for furthering study and information about the significant differences in the female experience of ADHD and even in the response to ADHD medications. So it goes without question that I was excited to read this new book. It’s not her first book on the subject, but I hoped it would provide a very (ADHD-) accessible source of information on various related issues. It does, in a female-friendly way. That sounds horrid, a female-friendly way, but what I mean is that it includes a lot of basic overview about ADHD, treatments, manifestations, co-occurring disorders (comorbidities), etc, in a way that you know that, if you are female and have ADHD, it is actually about you- and is not based in the many years of assumption that fidgety boys were the people with ADHD. I’m not saying we aren’t beyond this- just that it’s nice to have a book that has the basics, and in a way that makes you feel, yes, we get that you aren’t that boy.

And that there are real differences. Though I’d love a lot more detail on cyclical hormonal fluctuations and their interaction with both ADHD and medication efficacy, in this Q&A form of book I’m quite happy with the fact that she points out that this is an issue. It’s something I’ve spent a lot of time discussing and tracking with clients who are trying to get a handle on this issue, and it is hard to find a lot in print about it, let alone physicians who understand it.

Dr. Quinn covers the basics, but also addresses some real life issues like moving and motherhood; dating and sexuality; and of course coaching. (Had to throw that in.) It’s a lot but it’s not overwhelming because of the format, and I feel like she’s further opening the discussion on many of these things that is far too often neglected and not very advanced.

But beyond this, I am pleased as punch to find a book with a bunch of the basics of the facts, and experience of, ADHD in women and girls, in a format that I can read like a woman with ADHD. I can start by picking up and reading something in the middle and get something out of it- and then go back and read contents, or look things up in the index. And, if you’re me, do that for a while and then go back and read chapter by chapter. Later, return and pick it up for a question or two. In other words, you can read and absorb the information whichever way fits you without feeling like you have to read cover to cover to have “read” it. Though after getting a peak here and there, you’ll want to.