Exclusive | More and more moms are being diagnosed with ADHD because of their kids

Growing up in a small midwestern town in the 1980s, Cassie Blakely learned to mask her symptoms early.She’d ask the teacher to help sharpen pencils so she didn’t have to finish a task.

She learned that winning people over could be a superpower, especially when she struggled academically.It took decades before Blakely was officially diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, at 37, thanks to her two daughters’ own diagnosis processes. “I realized through them, because they started being under the microscope” at speech therapy and occupational therapy, Blakely, now 51 and living in San Diego, told The Post.“Watching both of my daughters struggle kind of felt like my own childhood was being repeated in front of me.”For Sarah Todd, a 45-year-old mom who works at the Texas Cannabis Policy Center in Austin, Texas, it was a friend’s child who lit the spark with an ADHD diagnosis about three years ago. That friend received his own diagnosis soon afterwards, followed by Todd’s husband earlier this year, and then Todd herself.

While she’d always struggled with anxiety, as she entered perimenopause a few years ago, she started feeling depressed.She tried hormone replacement therapy, but that didn’t seem to totally solve the issue.Now, four months past her initial diagnosis, Todd finally feels like herself again. “Oh my God! [ADHD] medication changed my life.

I feel so much better,” she said.“The first day that I took this medication, it was almost like I felt the depression lift out of my body.”Todd and Blakely are among a growing cohort of mothers across the US who are realizing, to their surprise, that they have ADHD —  long after finishing school, launching successful careers and raising children of their own. In fact, it has become increasingly common for moms to learn about the lesser-known signs and symptoms of ADHD as they’re going through the diagnosis process with the next generation, suddenly realizing...