27 Oct A Game-Changing Guide to Chronic Health Conditions for ADHD
In this video, I help you understand and navigate an incredible resource for people with ADHD who struggle with complex health issues. Created by a working group of experts, it guides doctors in assessing and treating a specific constellation of complex chronic health problems that very often affect adults with ADHD and that many doctors do not understand how to treat in this population.
You can find the resource here. Click on the first
green rectangle about a quarter of the way down the page.
Video Transcript
If you have ADHD and a tonne of health stuff is going on, I have discovered the most incredible resource to share with you. This isn’t a sales pitch. It was developed by a working group of 100 experts and focus groups, and I’m sharing it and my story to help others find answers, hopefully, without it taking a decade like it has for me.
For me, it all started when my little guy, Harry was born, and he’s now 10. In this time, my health has been so shite, cognitive decline, joint pain, everywhere, gut issues, dizziness, blinding headaches and extreme fatigue and more have been my norm and have gotten worse and worse.
But finally, about six months ago, I began to unravel what the was behind my health problems one diagnosis at a time. I was finding research that explained my symptoms, and I’m slowly recovering with a lot of trial and error, and I’ve seen some amazing leaps in improvements.
And just as an aside, in case you’re wondering, I’m a registered nurse, and I have a master’s in public health, and I’m also an ADHD coach with ADHD, and as an added bonus, health is 100% my special interest.
So just as my health started to improve, lo and behold, some angel in a US Facebook group shared a resource that explained the whole bloody nightmare.
I can’t possibly fully express how much of a game changer this document is for adults with ADHD and those who are autistic and who are dealing with complex health issues in this short video, but I’ll do my best.
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Essentially, it’s a document for doctors explaining how to assess and treat a constellation of illnesses that we commonly experience. So its purpose is to help you help your doctor manage your health issues. And in my mind, it is, without a doubt, the most valuable piece of info I’ve ever come across, apart from the article that I read that made me realize I have ADHD.
Many of the research papers cited in this document are where I had finally arrived at and was working from with my GP, and things were improving after almost 10 years of searching for answers, but having everything laid out like this document is beyond incredible. My doctor is over the moon, and she is an expert when it comes to ADHD and related health conditions.
So there are some key points I want to make before you rule out whether it’s relevant to you because it’s not always obvious.
Firstly, you don’t have to have evidence of every condition it mentions for it to be relevant. Secondly, you might think some of these conditions aren’t relevant to you, when, in fact, they are. For example, so many people have been told they’re not hypermobile by specialists because they’re not at the extreme end of the hypermobile spectrum. Sound familiar?
Many doctors don’t realize that hypermobility doesn’t have to impact all joints or even be severe to be a problem, and it can be historical. So if you were flexible as a kid, that’s enough.
Another really important point: the reason why this info is so important is that all these conditions are interrelated, and therefore treatment of one the wrong way can make others worse. But similarly, treatment of one the right way for us can have amazing benefits across the other conditions.
Okay, now let me explain how this document works. It’s essentially two tables. The first contains info to help your doctor assess these conditions, and the second contains info about how to treat them.
The overarching areas that these conditions fall under are sleep—no surprises there, as many of us have issues with sleep—hypermobility spectrum disorders or hypermobile EDS or Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, cardiovascular disorders, particularly POTS, allergic and immunologic-type conditions including mast cell activation syndrome and autoimmune disorders.
This is really important, and I’ll say more about this in a moment. Other categories are gastrointestinal disorders; chronic pain and related conditions, including fibro and migraine; post-infectious and related conditions, including long COVID and chronic fatigue; reproductive conditions, including endo, polycystic ovaries, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and even miscarriages.
And finally, craniofacial, skull, and dental issues, the most common of which is temporomandibular joint dysfunction, which many people have that I know who have ADHD.
And there’s one last detail I want to point out in this resource. At the beginning of the table about treatment, as you’ll see here, it says:
“Because mast cell activation disease is so common in this population, this may be a particularly helpful lens to look through.”
The more I read and learn, the more I believe mast cell activation is a key driver of so many of the problems we have. I hear more and more experts saying this too, including the incredible autistic doctor who put this working group together, along with many other experts. And the best bit—the management of mast cell activation syndrome is outlined in this document.
In terms of my own story, much worsening cognition and pain, among so many others, had gotten so bad that they were making functioning almost impossible. But I’m finally on the mend. There’s a link to this info in my bio and a transcript of this video as well.
So please share far and wide, and ask as many questions as you like in the comments, as I’ve seriously deep-dived into this info and so many of the papers listed in the last 18 months. Also, much love and healing vibes.
