ADHD — known, named, and welcomed.
A faith-based home for ADHDers and the helping professionals who walk with them. Built by someone who has ADHD, parents kids with ADHD, and has done the homework — twenty-three identified components, the comorbidities that ride alongside them, and the community research says we need to thrive. Not part of the Going Beyond series — its own pillar at DPM.
I am an ADHDer. I parent ADHDers. I sat in classrooms, churches, and offices that were built for a brain I don't have — and I watched the people I love do the same. The research gave me language. Community gave me air. Both belong here.
Three offerings, one purpose.
Education and welcoming community are the two interventions shown to reduce self-stigma and the self-defeating patterns that follow it. These three products do both — for the professionals who serve ADHDers, and for ADHDers themselves.
The ADHD Reference Manual
A comprehensive, research-grounded desk reference covering the twenty-three components of ADHD identified through this work — executive dysfunction, emotional dysregulation, rejection sensitive dysphoria, time blindness, the wall of awful, and more — plus the comorbidities, hormonal shifts, and applied frameworks practitioners actually need at the table.
- 23 components, organized for fast reference
- Comorbidity combinations (AuDHD, anxiety, PTSD, more)
- Sex, age, and hormone-specific presentations
- Applied frameworks for client work
ADHD for Helping Professionals
Learn ADHD from a social psychologist who has it — and parents kids who have it. Available as a weekend intensive or a multi-week course, depending on your schedule and depth needs. Built around the Reference Manual and grounded in lived practice, not just literature.
- Weekend intensive (immersive) — or —
- Multi-week course (deeper, paced learning)
- Earn CE-eligible content (in development)
- Small cohort, real conversation, real cases
The ADHD Group
A sixteen-week group built around an ADHD-friendly curriculum on how to ADHD well — and build community while we're at it. Education and belonging in the same room, every week. For adults who are tired of trying to fit a brain that isn't theirs.
- 16 weekly sessions, ADHD-paced and ADHD-shaped
- Curriculum on how to ADHD well
- Real community, not a lecture series
- Led by a fellow ADHDer with the research at her back
The research is clear — and it's lived.
ADHDers carry measurable burdens that education and belonging can soften. Every claim below is grounded in peer-reviewed evidence, then carried through by a community led by someone who has walked the same road.
Self-stigma harms quality of life.
A 2022 systematic review found that internalized stigma in adults with ADHD is linked to lower self-esteem, worse functional outcomes, and reduced quality of life across psychological, social, and environmental domains.
French et al. (2022). Stigma in adults with ADHD: a systematic review. Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Education and support groups help.
Researchers studying ADHD-related stigma have specifically pointed to psychoeducation, bibliotherapy, and ADHD support groups as appropriate, evidence-aligned paths for reducing the self-stigma and depression that often follow diagnosis.
Kellison et al. (2010). Psychometric evaluation of the ADHD Stigma Questionnaire. Psychiatry Research.
Low self-esteem is a measurable threat.
A 2024 systematic review of adult ADHD self-esteem studies confirmed that adults with ADHD consistently score lower on validated self-esteem measures, and that self-esteem mediates several adverse outcomes including depression, social anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
Skoglund et al. (2024). Self-Esteem in Adults With ADHD: A Systematic Review. Journal of Attention Disorders.
Social support protects mental health.
Drawing on a sample of more than 16,000 adults, researchers found social support significantly predicts lower anxiety and depression — including among adults with ADHD, a group for whom obtaining social support is often itself a challenge.
Bishop et al. (2022). Perceived Social Support and the Relationship Between ADD/ADHD and Mental Health. Journal of Attention Disorders.
Late diagnosis carries weight.
Adults diagnosed later in life report distinct mental health impacts — grief, relief, identity reconstruction — that benefit from peer community and informed clinical support during the post-diagnosis period.
French et al. (2024). The impact of late ADHD diagnosis on mental health. Cambridge Prisms.
Diagnosis itself improves self-esteem.
In a sample comparing symptomatic-undiagnosed adults to diagnosed adults, the diagnosed group scored significantly higher on self-esteem measures — suggesting that naming what's happening, with the right context around it, is itself therapeutic.
Pawaskar et al. (2020), reported in Skoglund et al. (2024). Self-Esteem in Adults With ADHD: A Systematic Review.
The twenty-three components.
ADHD is more than what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR) suggests. While the DSM-5-TR helps professionals use the same wording and definitions as other professionals, it does not give an understanding of the ADHD experience. Thus the need for a new publication with broad application — from professionals who diagnose, to professionals who have ADHD clients, to lay people in relationship with ADHDers, to ADHDers themselves. This Reference Manual was created by Amy C. Pratt and thoroughly supported by research to meet that need.
Across the Manual, twenty-three components are named, defined, and grounded in the research so professionals, lay people, and ADHDers can finally understand each other with shared language — and so ADHDers can recognize themselves on the page.
Be part of the research.
I'm Amy C. Pratt, and in August I begin my doctoral dissertation study on ADHD and Life Satisfaction. I'm looking for adults with ADHD (diagnosed or strongly self-identifying) who are willing to share their experience so the field can move past stigma-soaked stereotypes and toward something honest.
No commitment today — just let me know you're interested and I'll send full details, eligibility, and consent information when recruitment opens. Sharing your experience now (or your 24th component above) helps me build a study that asks the right questions.
Want in on what comes next?
All three products are in active development. Tell me which one fits you — professional, ADHDer, or curious — and I'll let you know the moment it's ready. Real names, real humans, no spam.