Why Are So Many Black Women Diagnosed with ADHD Only in Midlife?
Many Black women are diagnosed with ADHD for the first time in their forties, not because the condition is new, but because the coping strategies that hid it for decades are finally failing under the weight of perimenopause.
For most of her life, the woman in question has been known for her competence. Then, somewhere in midlife, that competence becomes harder to summon. The diary she once managed instinctively becomes unreliable. Familiar work takes twice as long. Names slip mid-conversation.
The usual explanation is stress, burnout or menopause, rarely ADHD. That gap in explanation is the starting point for this article.
