There are some women with ADD who have successfully compensated for their ADD, but the price they pay is to expend most of their waking energy combating their natural tendency to be disorganized. Many women with ADD feel a powerful sense of shame and inadequacy. They feel constantly behind, overwhelmed and frazzled. Some women with ADD feel that their lives are so out of control that they rarely invite others into their home - too ashamed to allow anyone to see the disorder, too overwhelmed to combat the disorder that pervades their lives. ADD can be mild, moderate or severe.
Some women are able to cope with the demands of daily life until they become a mother.
For other women, their coping abilities don't collapse until baby number two comes along. The job of housewife and mother is especially difficult for women with ADD because of its very nature. To raise children and to run a household well we are required to function in multiple roles at the same time, to cope with constant, unpredictable interruptions, to function with little structure, little support or encouragement, and to not only keep ourselves on track, but also be the scheduler of everyone else in the family. And in the midst of all this we are supposed to keep on track, planning meals, doing housework, laundry, planning social events, and , for the majority of mothers, working full time. ADD has become a more challenging problem for women as the demands in our late twentieth century lifestyles become greater and greater.