WELCOME TO THE SOUTH BAY/SO CAL CHAPTER OF CHADD

 

United in learning, understanding and compassion, peer support empowers individuals in our community to live better, whether as adults living with ADHD or caregivers to a child and families with ADHD. Many of us begin this journey when our child is diagnosed with ADHD. That diagnosis leads to searching for resources to learn about ADHD, treatment options and outcomes. Often when a child is diagnosed, other members in the family, a parent or both parents begin to realize that their lifelong challenges - self-regulation, addictive issues, impulsivity, executive function -lead to additional family members being diagnosed. 

 

Hopefully the search for resources leads to discovering chapters such as ours, the South Bay/So Cal Chapter of CHADD. CHADD's evidence-based approach to ADHD education is one way to better understand what we are dealing with. Peer support is profound when one is coping with life's challenges. Therapy, medication, and peer support are important to managing ADHD. Peer support reminds us that we are not alone. We learn together the undeniable truth...that together we are stronger! 

 

For those of us navigating the complexities of living with ADHD, whether personally or as caregivers, the principles of peer support groups provide a roadmap to better learning, understanding, acceptance and growth. Peer support groups provide a platform where our stories and struggles are shared, heard and understood. Peer support groups offer a unique blend of empathy, practical advice, and emotional solidarity that traditional medical models cannot replicate. Peer support groups are not just about managing symptoms, but helping rebuild lives together, with confidence, understanding, mutual respect and support. Again...we are stronger together!

 

Peer support groups are not replacements for professional medical treatment, but complement traditional treatments. Peer support groups are about "community" in ADHD management...reminding us that we are not alone in facing our challenges. There are others ready to uplift and support us every step of the way. Peer support groups such as ours provide empathy, understanding and acceptance, help alleviate isolation, and empower through shared experience, strategies and coping mechanisms. We hope you will reach out and join us. Together we learn practical insights into managing everyday challenges, complementing clinical advice from medical professionals.

 

Managing ADHD is unique for everyone, but no one has to do it alone. Keep in mind, managing ADHD is a marathon, not a sprint. It is about discovering the right combination of treatment, tools, and support that works for you. It is our hope that you are open to allowing the collective strength of peer support help guide you along your ADHD journey. Engaging with peer support groups for ADHD management can be incredibly rewarding. But there are challenges and it is important to understand these challenges. These include overcoming initial hesitation, finding the right fit, balancing time commitments, dealing with group dynamics, and making a commitment to staying engaged.

 

We hope you will reach out and we hope we can be a supportive community to you to help you manage ADHD effectively. Our Chapter currently holds 2 Peer Support Groups: 

 

CHADD ADHD SUPPORT GROUP:

Peer and Caregiver Meetings are held via Zoom and bi-monthly on Saturdays, from 1 - 2:30 pm (PST.) Justine Ruotolo, an ADHD/Executive Function Coach and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (L.M.F.T) for the past 31 years and his the Group Facilitator. Justine's passion is helping adolescents, parents, couples and adults embrace their diagnosis of ADHD, leading to an understanding of their gifts associated with their “Creative Mindset.”

 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

 

1.  May 16, 2026 (Sat., 1-2:30 pm (PST))

 

For information and to request receiving the Zoom link, please email Carolyn Kelly @ ckellychadd10g@gmail.com and Justine Ruotolo @ justine.ruotolo@narrativeshiftcoaching.com

 

 

CHADD WOW FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP:

 

The CHADD WOW Family Support Group is an ADHD Information and Support group for individuals and caregivers. Professionals are invited to speak on ADHD related topics of interest. These meetings are held monthly, beginning in September and ending in May-June. Meetings are held via Zoom on Thursday evenings, from 7-8:30 pm.  For information or to receive the Zoom link, email Carolyn at: ckellychadd10g@gmail.com.

 

DATE:  POSTPONED, DATE TBA (THU, 7-8:30 PM (PST))

 

SPECIAL GUEST:  Justine Ruotolo, LMTF, ADHD/Executive Function Coach 

 

TOPIC:  The Story You Were Told: What it Means to be Neurodivergent in a Neurotypical World 

 

TOPIC DESCRIPTION: You have been sitting in the wrong chair your whole life. Not because you chose the wrong chair. Because every chair in the room was built for a different body, and no one told you that was the problem. They just told you to sit still. To stop fidgeting. To try harder to fit. So you twisted yourself. Folded your legs underneath you. Perched on the edge. Did everything you could to look like you belonged in a chair that was never designed for you. And when it hurt, when you could not maintain the position, when you finally fell, they shook their heads and wondered why you could not just sit like everyone else. This is what it means to be neurodivergent in a neurotypical world. The chairs are wrong. The instructions are wrong. The expectations are wrong. But the blame lands on you.

 

You know the Narrative by heart. You have heard it so many times it has become the voice inside your own head. You are so smart, why can you not just apply yourself? Everyone else can do this. Why is it so hard for you? You have so much potential. You just need to try harder. If you really cared, you would remember. Stop being so sensitive. Why do you always have to make things so complicated? These words were not neutral observations. They were stories, told about you and eventually by you, that shaped how you see yourself. Stories that turned brain differences into character flaws. Stories that made neurodivergence feel like a personal failure rather than having a magical brain. You have carried these stories for years. Maybe decades. They have whispered to you in moments of struggle, shouted at you in moments of failure, and quietly hummed in the background even during success, reminding you that you do not deserve it, that it will not last, that eventually everyone will see you are not what you pretend to be.

 

I want you to know something: Those stories were wrong. Not partially wrong. Not wrong in some ways but right in others. Wrong. The framework that produced them was wrong. The assumptions underneath them were wrong. The conclusions you drew about your own self worth were wrong. You are not broken. You are not lazy. You are not too much or not enough. You are a person with a brain that works differently, trying to navigate a world that was not built with your brain in mind. The struggle is real. The pain is real. But the story that the struggle means something is wrong with you? That story is a lie.

 

Justine introduces a book that she wrote for the people who have sat in her office, cried with relief when they finally understood why everything has been so hard. For the parent running on empty, juggling on your own overwhelm while trying to help a child whose brain you don’t fully understand, whose struggles echo your own in ways you are only beginning to recognize. You are not failing yourself or your child. You are fighting a battle without a map, and you deserve one. For the professional who has achieved things that look impressive from the outside while hiding the chaos, the compensations, the sheer exhaustion of performing normalcy, you are not an imposter. You are someone who has to work twice as hard to get half as far, and that is not a character flaw. For the adolescent and young adult who feel fundamentally different from everyone around you, who wonders if you will ever figure out how to just BE without so much effort. You are not weird. You are not broken. You are not alone. You hide behind a mask, which is exhausting. There are millions of brains just like yours, and there is nothing wrong with any of them. The shame you feel is huge. For anyone who stared at a task they knew how to do and could not make themselves star. Who has lost hours to a screen without knowing where the time went. Who has said something wrong in a conversation and replayed it for days. Who has been told they are too sensitive, too intense, too scattered, too much!

 

Then you might be interested in learning not how to fix you, but how to have another tool to help you understand yourself, how your brain works, and for others to learn how to better understand you. Through shared experience presented in this book, it may help better understand your neurodivergent brain.  With three decades of working with neurodivergent individuals, it is shame that makes you feel that you are uniquely broken. We are not broken, but specifically different. And we are not alone. It is important to stop believing the story that there is something fundamentally wrong with you. But learning how your brain works. With learning comes understanding and power…the power to work with yourself, to find ways to cope, to eliminate feelings of shame and to better connect with those who understand. This is empowerment…to live as yourself, fully and unapologetically. Justine invites you to join, turn the page, and begin!

 

Bio: "My Story" ...My name is Justine Ruotolo. I have been an ADHD/Executive Function Coach and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (L.M.F.T) for the past 31 years and have an intense passion for helping adolescents, parents, couples and adults embrace their diagnosis of ADHD, and understand their gifts associated with their “Creative Mindset.”

I was diagnosed at age 40, and it highlighted years of struggles that encompassed my life. It explained my childhood and teenage years being labeled stupid, lazy, procrastinator, and impulsive. These words developed a negative narrative that followed me throughout my life. We are a family with ADHD and ASD as my two children ages 37 and 34 were diagnosed very young. Remembering my own negative experiences growing up with ADHD I decided to meet my children’s diagnoses with positivity so they could seek out and develop their incredible creativity.

Over the past 18 years I have done difficult work to unblock the past and embrace my own creativity, to truly shift my narrative about how I felt about myself. After experiencing trauma, I decided to turn it into positive growth. Through this work on my narrative, I learned how to accept my life, and develop self-awareness concerning my thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. I was able to take responsibility for my actions and regulate my emotions. I am presently putting a book together which will help all clients understand their own executive function deficits and personal narratives related to their ADHD. I want to give others the guidance and resources to shift their narratives to find a way to create lives full of peace, positivity, and productivity.”