The rise in number of older women being diagnosed with ADHD has turbocharged Tessa Drysdale’s quest to help others with an issue she understands better than most.
The former social counsellor has a psychology degree, a writing degree and, most appropriately, the neurological condition.
Now she is using that mix of learned knowledge and lived experience to help others with ADHD and — just as crucially she says — others experiencing “life limbo” as they await a formal medical diagnosis.
“The waitlist is huge, especially in the country areas because there’s limited staff and a lot of the public hospitals don’t assess ADHD,” she said.
“Let alone offer the coaching that people can actually access while they’re waiting to see a psychiatrist.
“It’s just harder and harder for people to access the help they need. So it can really help to have someone to keep them accountable each week, or each day or each fortnight or each month.”
Ms Drysdale, who lives and works out of Beeliar, is a neurodivergent wellness coach who spends her days helping people with ADHD to get the best out of their day.
It’s a path she chose because of her empathetic nature but also because she knows so few really understand both the challenges of ADHD — particularly hyperactivity and concentration — as well as the neuroscience behind it.
“It’s a structural difference,” she said.
“If you did a brain scan, you’d see someone with ADHD has a smaller prefrontal cortex. And they have it for life. It’s neurodevelopmental.
“The pill helps, you know, and the coaching and tools help.
“But the thing is, there’s no magic fix. You’re still going to have days where you stuff up.”
Her own childhood was one of hyperactive behaviour, constantly being instructed to focus and nicknames like “turbo Tom”, “motormouth” and “jabber jaws”.
At age 16 she made the call to be ADHD assessed without telling her family.
“It was mental health, you know it was taboo and you don’t talk about that,” she said of that seemingly different time, but which was actually just the late 1990s.
“I was sort of the class clown and but then also I was a prefect at school as well.
“So I wanted to please people and work really, really hard, but I had to work three times as hard as everyone else.
“I knew there was something not quite right.”
Now aged in her 40s, she knows that many women her age didn’t undergo the assessment she did as a teenager.
And she is particularly driven to help older women who have been diagnosed — or who may be on their way to diagnosis — with a condition once considered only the playground of “naughty little boys”.
“ADHD wasn’t a thing when they were younger,” Ms Drysdale said.
“It was just ‘oh, they just did talk a bit too much off. They can’t sit still. They just need to be disciplined’.
“For those who find out later on in life, I feel there’s not enough help or info out there.
“And they’re like ‘Oh, my God, I’m not going mad. It’s not menopause. I’ve got ADHD’.
“And they usually only find out when they take their kids for an assessment.
“That’s actually what my new course is on, for newly diagnosed woman especially later in life, because it wasn’t considered a thing when they were young.”
Ms Drysdale’s business, Neurodiverse Empowerment, primarily offers online support and guidance which can help a person with ADHD keep focused and on-track with their goals.
Support mechanisms include life and work coaching, advocating and body doubling, a productivity strategy described by the Attention Deficit Disorder Association for helping individuals with ADHD finish possibly annoying jobs by having another person beside them.
One of her top free tips is telling people about a little-known Federal Government financial support package available which offers about $1600 per year through Job Access.
The Employment Assistance Fund money can be used to pay for coaching sessions but also any work-related needs — even fidget toys.
Her professional advocating help can be as simple as connecting people with the right psychiatrist or writing a letter to an employer or health professional on behalf of someone struggling with the task.
“It’s just really, really hard when you have someone in WA who can’t see someone,” Ms Drysdale said.
“Clearly their life is falling apart, they worry about losing jobs because they can’t focus or get out of bed on time, just daily functioning stuff.
“They can be breaking down overwhelmed because they have things they need to do and they just don’t know where to start with planning, prioritising and organising.
“Like even showering can be a huge thing on executive functioning (of the brain) because of all the steps involved.”
She said getting multiple people in a virtual room “body doubling” each other was actually very effective for helping people with ADHD to stay on task at work or school.
“They get a bit of coaching but also accountability,” she said.
”They can log in at work discreetly on their phone, put the earphones in, get the work done and be more productive, less stressed and less overwhelmed.”
That advice is self-serving too, with Ms Drysdale also partway through studies towards a Masters in counter-terrorism.
“With ADHD you want diversity, you want to be able to have something that holds your attention,” she said.
“I want to continue to work doing my consultancy with nuerodiverse people, but also consult privately with the Government on counter-terrorism matters and get to be involved in conferences and all that jazz and really use all of the degrees together.”