Overview

A ground-breaking blend of memoir, neuroscience, and feminist medical history that reframes what it means to be a woman with ADHD For Carla Ciccone, the feeling of not quite knowing how to perform adult life was all too familiar. After a lifetime of muddling through shame and self-blame, Carla was finally diagnosed with ADHD at thirty-nine years old. With this late diagnosis came the realisation that her most troubling traits weren't deep personality flaws, but symptoms. The knowledge that her ADHD had gone unnoticed all her life felt like a missing puzzle piece. It prompted Carla to explore the cohort of women and girls (the 'nowhere girls') that science had ignored. Through scientific research, interviews with experts, and the warmth and wit of her own lived experience, Carla explores how the gendered approach to ADHD left girls just like her to struggle in silence for years. A powerful and deeply personal account Nowhere Girl is a source of explanation and solace for women who are embarking on their own journey of discovery of life with ADHD.

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9780241647349

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Reviews

Nowhere Girl is at once lucid, captivating, poignant, terrifying, and ultimately uplifting. Once I opened it, I literally could not put it down. In captivating prose, Ciccone conveys four-decades of non-diagnosed ADHD, replete with unanswered questions, shame, trauma, dashed efforts at coping, and periods of despair, deftly interweaving current science into the story. This lifespan account surges with pain but also with hope, given that an accurate diagnosis after becoming a mother has forged a hard-won sense of peace and acceptance, along with finding optimal supports. Five stars, highest recommendation. * Stephen P. Hinshaw, Ph,D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley; author, Straight Talk about ADHD in Girls: How to Help Your Daughter Thrive * We live in a mainstream and health culture that demands us to ‘fit in.’ This is the opposite of living an authentic life. Our bodies and minds are speaking to us and doing their job in raising their red flags. The question remains: are we truly ready to listen? Carla’s candid memoir about being diagnosed with ADHD after years of feeling lost and ignored shines a light on the inconvenience of truth. That in itself is a sacred gift to make sure we head somewhere together instead of nowhere. * Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, bestselling author of Closer Together *

Nowhere Girl is at once lucid, captivating, poignant, terrifying, and ultimately uplifting. Once I opened it, I literally could not put it down. In captivating prose, Ciccone conveys four-decades of non-diagnosed ADHD, replete with unanswered questions, shame, trauma, dashed efforts at coping, and periods of despair, deftly interweaving current science into the story. This lifespan account surges with pain but also with hope, given that an accurate diagnosis after becoming a mother has forged a hard-won sense of peace and acceptance, along with finding optimal supports. Five stars, highest recommendation. * Stephen P. Hinshaw, Ph,D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley; author, Straight Talk about ADHD in Girls: How to Help Your Daughter Thrive * We live in a mainstream and health culture that demands us to ‘fit in.’ This is the opposite of living an authentic life. Our bodies and minds are speaking to us and doing their job in raising their red flags. The question remains: are we truly ready to listen? Carla’s candid memoir about being diagnosed with ADHD after years of feeling lost and ignored shines a light on the inconvenience of truth. That in itself is a sacred gift to make sure we head somewhere together instead of nowhere. * Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, bestselling author of Closer Together * A journey through a realm of neurodivergence we explore reprehensibly seldom and address—still!—with a negligence that would be astonishing were it not so routine. Truly eye-opening. * Anna Mehler Paperny, journalist and author of Hello, I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First Person * A powerful, vulnerable testament to the necessity of empathy and understanding when navigating ADHD. This book made me feel seen, heard, and not alone. * Anne T. Donahue, author of Nobody Cares * Ciccone's in-depth research…opens up space for the hard, messy and complicated truths of life with ADHD for girls and women. * Julie S. Lalonde, author of Resilience is Futile * Funny, wise, infuriating, and deeply moving. I wanted to press this book into the hands of every woman who has ADHD, or knows someone who does—in other words, all of us. * Elizabeth Renzetti, author of What She Said * Goes beyond the usual clinical definition [to] describe girls who have come late to the ADHD party with a set of different symptoms. Ciccone places you squarely on the road to forgiving yourself. * Catherine Gildiner, author of Good Morning, Monster *

Author Information

Carla Ciccone is a freelance writer who has written essays, reported features and humor pieces for Harper's Bazaar, The New Yorker, The Cut, Catapult, Bon Appetit, Romper, Chatelaine, Elle Canada, The Walrus and more. Originally from Toronto, Carla grew up near the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, and now lives in Toronto with her partner and daughter.

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