Sari Solden of Ann Arbor, Terry Matlen
of Birmingham and Wilma Fellman of
West Bloomfield all have written books
aimed at helping those with Attention
Deficit Disorder.

"The good news is that
ADD is one of the few
disorders that can be
treated successfully. You
have to reframe your
thinking. Someone who
says, `I'm lazy, is really
'saying, 7312 over-
whelmed, I don't know
what to do first'."

— Terry Matlen, who has ADD

17

Women cope with Attention Deficit Disorder, too.

RONELLE GRIER
Special to the Jewish News

A

s a young girl, Brooke M.
knew that something about
her was different, but she
never understood exactly what it was.
She hated school from the time she
started kindergarten, daydreamed fre-
quently and felt that she was always
making "stupid comments.
"I dreaded Mondays," said
Brooke, now 25 and living in
West Bloomfield. "In the third
grade, I got caught cheating on
a test. It seemed like everyone else
could do the work and stay organized,
and I just couldn't."
What Brooke didn't know was that
she was experiencing the symptoms of
Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD, a
neurobiological disorder that affects
the information transmission system
in the brain. Approximately 3-7 per-
cent of school-age children and 4 per-
cent of adults are affected, according
to statistics from the Attention Deficit

"

Disorder Association (ADDA).
Although the exact cause is not
known, ADD has a genetic compo-
nent and tends to run in families.
When hyperactivity is also present,
the condition is called ADHD, or
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder, typically characterized by
people who are "bouncing off the
walls," unable to sit still or focus for
more than a few minutes at a time.
ADD was thought to be much
more common in boys until
experts began to discover that the
majority of girls with .the disorder
have been overlooked or misdiagnosed
because, like Brooke, they do not have
the hyperactivity component.
"Girls who have ADD are usually
diagnosed later than boys because
they're not hyperactive, they're not the
`squeaky wheel'," said Dr. Beth Lowe,
assistant director of Oakwood
Pediatrics in Dearborn.
According to Sari Solden, nationally
recognized author and psychotherapist
specializing in the treatment of women

ON T HE
C017 Eli

with the disorder, ADD is a chronic
condition that affects attention, activi-
ty and impulsivity levels, causing seri-
ous and negative impact on one's life.
Solden, who has learned to cope
successfully with her own ADD, says
that common symptoms include disor-
ganization, emotional reactivity,
under-achievement, low self-esteem,
problems with relationships and
depression.
She explains that many women with
ADD have difficulty with "executive
functioning," causing them to become
easily distracted and overwhelmed,
especially with many of the household
management tasks that typically fall to
women. Things like meal planning
and grocery shopping, planning a bar
mitzvah or birthday party, arranging
car pools or scheduling the kids'
extracurricular activities can seem
daunting.
"Women hit a wall of shame," said
Solden, who has a private practice in
Ann Arbor. "They have internalized a
cultural idea of what a woman should
be, and many of them feel like failures
and become isolated. They need coun-
seling and a lot of support; it's impor-
tant for them to be around other
women with ADD."
Solden said her book, Women with
Attention Deficit Disorder, has been
very popular in places such as Japan,
where women's roles are more rigidly
defined and worn
- en with ADD have
more difficulty living up to expecta-
tions.
She added that women in the
Orthodox Jewish community, like
Brooke, also are especially challenged
because of the many organizational
skills required to run an observant
household.
Finally, Brooke started taking the
prescription drug Ritalin, which
helped her to focus. Her grades
improved, and she was accepted to the
University of Michigan in Dearborn.
She discontinued the Ritalin when she
started to abuse it, taking more than
the prescribed dose and snorting it to
increase its effect.
"College was very overwhelming,"
she said. "I didn't do well, and I went

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2005

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