A Game-Changing Guide to Chronic Health Conditions for ADHD

If you have ADHD and a ton of health stuff is going on, I have discovered the most incredible resource to share with you. 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.

My health has been so shite. Cognitive decline, joint pain everywhere, gut issues, dizziness, blinding headaches, and extreme fatigue have been my norm and have gotten worse and worse. But finally, about six months ago, I began to unravel what the hell 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.

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. It’s a document for doctors explaining how to assess and treat a constellation of illnesses that we commonly experience. Its purpose is to help you help your doctor manage your health issues, and 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, 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. And this is really important, and I’ll say more about this in a moment. 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 and premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and even miscarriages. And finally, craniofacial and skull and dental issues, the most common of which is temporomandibular joint dysfunction — which many people I know with ADHD have.

There’s one last detail I want to point out in this resource. At the beginning of the table about treatment, it says, “Because mast cell activation disease is so common in this population, this may be a particularly helpful lens to look through.” And the best bit? The management of mast cell activation syndrome is outlined in this document.

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. And I hear more and more experts saying this too.

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 realise 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 because all these conditions are interrelated. And treatment of one, the wrong way, can make others worse. But treatment of one the right way, for us, can have amazing benefits across the other conditions.

And in terms of my own story — much worse cognition and pain, like so many others, had gotten so bad that they were making functioning almost impossible. But I’m finally on the mend.

So please, share far and wide.
Much love and healing vibes.