Christina Parise, LCSW
Is it ADHD.
Is it trauma.
Or is it honestly both?
You have been Googling this at 1am for years. I am a licensed clinician who can actually tell the difference, and I built a 5-minute screener to help you start figuring it out.
Sound familiar
Everyone had a theory.
None of them fit.
Anxiety. Depression. Just try a planner. You have collected explanations like receipts, and not one of them made the day feel any easier.
Here is what nobody explained: ADHD and trauma share a striking number of symptoms. Executive dysfunction. Emotional flooding. Rejection sensitivity. Hypervigilance that looks exactly like "not paying attention." Dissociation that looks exactly like distraction. The restlessness, the overwhelm, the way you cannot start the thing you actually care about most.
Treat the wrong one and nothing changes. Have both, treat one, and you stay stuck wondering what is wrong with you.
Nothing is wrong with you. The framework you were handed was just incomplete. The overlap is where most women get lost. It is also where I work.
Four Pattern Domains
Where ADHD and trauma
look identical from the outside.
And why working with the wrong frame is exhausting on purpose.
Attention & focus
Where your mind goes when it leaves. And how it leaves.
Time & follow-through
What happens in the gap between knowing and doing.
Emotional regulation
How loudly things land. And how long they stay loud.
Body & rest
What your nervous system refuses to put down.
And yes. Both can be happening. That is most of you.
Ways to start
Wherever you are,
there's a door in.
Three ways in, depending on what you need today. No wrong door. No pressure. No free "discovery call" that is secretly a sales pitch.
Start with the Screener
Five minutes. Four pattern areas. A written read on what you might be working with, and what kind of next step actually makes sense for you. Built on my clinical framework. Not a personality quiz.
Book a Diagnostic Evaluation
Two sessions. A written report. Real clinical answers on whether what you are experiencing is ADHD, trauma, or both. The kind of clarity most women have been waiting years to get.
Join Held It Together
Ongoing community, weekly structure, body doubling, and a clinician's brain on rotation. For women who have been holding it together long enough and want somewhere to finally put some of it down.
Not another Buzzfeed quiz
I built you a starting point.
Most "do you have ADHD?" quizzes online were written by someone's marketing intern. This one was not. I built this screener around the exact patterns I look for when a real client sits across from me trying to figure this out.
Five minutes. Four pattern areas. A written read on what your patterns actually look like, why they get confused for each other constantly, and what kind of next step makes sense for you.
It is not a diagnosis. I will say that a few times because it matters. What it is: a clearer place to start than "well, the internet said." And it is free, because the bar for figuring out what is going on in your own brain should not be a paywall.
Free. Takes about 5 minutes. Not a diagnosis.
Christina Parise, LCSW Licensed Clinical Social Worker Nevada #8099-C | Michigan #6801115510 | Iowa #133535
The Pattern Screener is an educational tool. It is not a diagnosis and does not establish a therapist-client relationship. If you're in crisis, please contact 911 (call or text) or go to your nearest emergency room.
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