Weekly Blog by Evelyn Polk Green

April 22, 2008… Finding Home

Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz had it absolutely correct… there IS no place like home!! (Dorothy probably had ADHD, but let’s not digress!) And for me, “home” has become an adult ADHD support group in suburban Chicago.

Anyone who has ever heard me speak or read anything I’ve written about ADHD, whether to clinicians or consumers or about kids or adults, knows that one of my “take home” messages is always about finding support.

I’m not only a strong advocate of finding support for parents dealing with ADHD, I also strongly believe that we have to help children find support… whether it’s through caring adults, supportive friends or formal or informal groups. But my personal experiences have convinced me that support groups for adults with ADHD are almost a necessary component to successful management of the disorder.

When we first began negotiating through all the issues related to managing my son’s ADHD, I so clearly remember feeling alone, helpless and, quite frankly, lost. And then I found other parents, most feeling exactly the same way, and we came together to start a CHADD group here in Chicago – the very first of my ADHD support systems or “teams” as I’ve come to think of them.

But that was only the first of what has been many different kinds and configurations of support teams. And while I know the journey through managing my kids’ ADHD would have been much more difficult with the support teams I had then… it wasn’t until I began relying on others to help me through my OWN ADHD journey that I found “home”.

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