Busy Phillips And Her Daughter Were Diagnosed With ADHD At Same Time
Busy Phillips is opening up about a health journey her daughter is on—and how it influenced her own.
The Girls5eva star shared in a new interview that she was diagnosed with ADHD alongside her 15-year-old daughter, Birdie.
The 44-year-old told Us Weekly that she realized she might have the condition when she went to an appointment for Birdie.
Busy Phillips is opening up about a health journey her daughter is on—and how it influenced her own. The Girls5eva star shared in a new interview that she was diagnosed with ADHD alongside her 15-year-old daughter, Birdie.
The 44-year-old told Us Weekly that she realized she might have the condition when she went to an appointment for Birdie.
“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,’” she said.
Busy said that she felt like “there was something wrong” with her before her diagnosis. “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,” she said.
Busy shared that she had symptoms of the condition for years, but didn’t know what was behind them. “I had a really difficult time completing tasks,” she said. “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.”
Busy also said that she would forget or mix up times for play dates and would “mess up” her schedule or her daughters’ schedules. “And the fact is, as women, as moms, as parents…we must keep a million things straight,” she said.
Busy said that this impacted her self esteem because she felt like “I wasn’t as on top of it as the other people that were around me.”
Busy ended up taking a non-stimulant medication called Qelbree, which she says has “really helped” her. (She’s now a spokesperson for the brand.)
“My executive function skills have improved so greatly, and I’m also so much more aware and able to prioritize,” she said. “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.”
Busy said that she wanted to share her story because it’s “common” for women to not receive ADHD diagnoses until later in life. She’s right: There’s currently a trend of women discovering that they may have ADHD or are on the autism spectrum after watching videos on TikTok. Some, like Busy, are also getting diagnosed alongside their children.
Busy now says that it’s “no coincidence” that she’s been very productive over the last few years. “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,” she said.
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