Busy Phillips has been diagnosed with ADHD
The 'Girls5Eva' star was getting her 15-year-old daughter Birdie assessed for the condition - which is fornally known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and encompasses symptoms such as a difficulty concentrating, restlessness and impulsive behaviour - when she and her ex-husband Marc Silverstein were stunned to find how much the teenager's discussion with the doctor resonated with her own experiences
5 May 2024
She told Us Weekly magazine: "My older daughter was having some issues in school and we took her to be evaluated. And literally in the evaluation, my ex-husband, Marc, we were looking at each other because everything the doctor was asking Birdie and talking about, I was like, 'But that's me. That's what I have.' "
The 44-year-old actress had felt like "there was something wrong" with her and her own diagnosis has been life changing.
She added: "And then to find out that, oh, no, no, wait, I have ADHD. There are ways to deal with it, there are medications. It has changed my life.
"I had a really difficult time completing tasks. I had a lot of big ideas and not a lot of follow through. I often found myself behind on calls or double booked for things, canceling on people.
"It makes you feel bad because you feel like you're messing up.
"I would forget or I would mix up times for play dates. I would mess up the kids' schedule and my schedule. And the fact is, as women, as moms, as parents, ... we must keep a million things straight."
Busy - who also has Cricket, 10, with Marc - admitted her struggles afftected her self-esteem because she felt like she "wasn't as on top of it as the other people" around her, but things have started to turn around now.
She said: "It's no coincidence really that these last several years of my career have been the best and most productive. And I've been doing so many more things that I've wanted to do for so long, but sort of was lacking the resources and the ability and even just the awareness.
"My ex ecutive function skills have improved so greatly, and I'm also so much more aware and able to prioritise.
"I think that's a big piece of it too, that when everything feels sort of mixed up, it's hard to know how to prioritize things in your brain."
However, the former 'Dawson's Creek' star admitted the mutual diagnoses haven't "bonded" her and her daughter.
She said: "She is a different person and her own experience is her own experience.
"My daughter is so funny. I mean, they both are, but Birdie's always like, 'Ugh, you make everything about you.' And I mean, to be fair, I did a little bit make her ADHD diagnosis about me, because I was like, 'But I have it too!'"
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