All posts tagged: Adult

Stop Bankrolling Your Adult Child’s Stuck Life

Stop Bankrolling Your Adult Child’s Stuck Life

Published by Jenni Sidey

Back in 1973, Pink Floyd built an entire song around the strange hold that money has over us. He sang about how it can dominate a person’s thinking, even when no one’s talking about it out loud. Half a century later, I hear that same undertone in almost every session I have with parents of struggling adult children. Nobody wants to talk about the money, but it’s always in the room. Here are some examples from my parent coaching work (names changed here) of what I mean. A father named Roger told me he “just helped out a little” with his 27-year-old son, Jake’s, rent—but this was for the ninth month in a row. A mother, Louisa, described covering her daughter, Lilly’s, car payment “until she gets back on her feet,” a phrase she’s used for two straight years. Neither parent set out to create dependency. Both did it out of love, but now they’re bankrolling lives that aren’t moving anywhere because the money has become the conversation. Let me make this clear. I am …

Animal Comics for Adult Readers

Animal Comics for Adult Readers

Published by Jenni Sidey

WEBTOON Unscrolled For fans of modern romance and adorable animals. Opposites attract when Pam, recently dumped over her unruly dog ​​Bob, finds an unexpected connection with her mysterious, dog-loving neighbor, Tyler. A mutual dogsitting agreement sparks undeniable feelings, but deep self-doubt and miscommunication threatens to keep them apart. Just when Pam thinks their connection has hit a standstill, Tyler wins a contest and invites her on a tropical getaway to the Caribbean. Will this unexpected trip finally force them to open their hearts? Things are about to get a whole lot hotter. Humans liked to believe that tool usage is a quality exclusive to our species. Jane Goodall did wonderful work with chimps to break that assumption. You’ll find that, if you’re open to it, there is a lot of unchartered common ground between us and other animals. Some of us already know that and spend our time imagining their vivid inner lives, or even project ours into characters that look like them. We even make up creatures that fascinate us and have the capacity …

How Can I Explain My Adult ADHD to People I Know?

How Can I Explain My Adult ADHD to People I Know?

Published by Jenni Sidey

Over my career working with adults with ADHD, I’m often asked for something they can give to loved ones explaining ADHD. Here’s an excerpt of such a synopsis.1 There’s no fix for ADHD The treatments for ADHD are among the most effective in behavioral healthcare. The coping strategies will work—if they’re used. There’ll be consequential improvements, but there’s no complete “solution” or “fix” for ADHD. The symptoms and executive function variability across situations will persist even for those in treatment and with adequate coping skills and support. Effectively managing ADHD is difficult, and there will be slipups, even when progress is being made. The slipups are frustrating for those in the life of someone with ADHD to witness. The desire for a clear, quick fix, though understandable, will be a source of frustration for you. ADHD is annoying Most adults with ADHD know firsthand that their ADHD symptoms are annoying and frustrating. It sure is for them. They know that they affect other people, which is a triple whammy: (1) their symptoms affect you, (2) …

When Helping Your Adult Child Hurts Both of You

When Helping Your Adult Child Hurts Both of You

Published by Jenni Sidey

Few things are harder than watching your adult child struggle. Parents share with me their involvement in their adult children’s challenges with finances, employment, mental health challenges, academic difficulties, or simply a failure to launch. The feeling of wanting to help comes with the territory of being a parent. From the moment our children are born, we are innately wired to protect, guide, support, and sometimes rescue them. What Works In Childhood Can Be Less Effective In Adulthood Many of the parents I work with are not dealing with estrangement. They remain actively involved in their children’s lives. They hear “fire alarms” in the form of phone calls and crisis-laden text messages. They provide financial assistance, help navigate those crises, offer emotional support, and step in wherever they can. Yet, despite these efforts, these parents feel busted up by exhaustion, confusion, and at times, resentment. The reason is not that they care too much. It is that they have problematically learned that caring is carrying. I frequently see the pattern emerge in which the parent …

Emmys 2026: 5 adult animation series to watch

Emmys 2026: 5 adult animation series to watch

Published by Sam Flores

If you want personal stories of survival, family trauma or just how to get over a breakup, look no further than adult animation. Even better: Sometimes these shows do all that and are still funny. We’ve rounded up some of this season’s best examples in the genre. ‘Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal’ (Adult Swim) Set in an anachronistic world where prehumans and dinosaurs fight for survival, “Primal” is told sans dialogue and focuses on a Neanderthal named Spear (whose vocal grunts are provided by actor Aaron LaPlante) and a female Tyrannosaurus rex known as Fang. It’s raw, bloody and, somehow, tear-jerking. “There’s drama, there’s violence, certainly there’s a bit of lightheartedness … we’re not trying to do it like a live-action thing, but we’re trying to get cinematic,” says creator Genndy Tartakovsky. “And because it’s dramatic and there’s no dialogue, we’re leaning into the visual storytelling of it all. This makes it seem a little bit more sophisticated.” Tartakovsky says he even tries to make “the blood spurts look beautiful and designed”: “We’re not doing it for …

The Testaments review – This is Bridgerton meets Lord of the Flies, a young adult epic for the ages

The Testaments review – This is Bridgerton meets Lord of the Flies, a young adult epic for the ages

Published by Daniella Wilson

In the 34 years between the publication of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and its sequel, The Testaments, her 1985 book became a classic. It was adapted for film, for television, and became a staple of classrooms across the world. So, there was an anxiety about this delayed extension of the saga. Was this a cash grab? A desperate stab at relevance? Would it sully its predecessor? And then The Testaments came out and it was… good. So good it won the Booker Prize. That’s where the new Disney+ adaptation picks up: with a story that feels fresh and vital and every bit as compelling as the original. Agnes Mackenzie (Chase Infiniti) is the daughter of a commander in the theocratic, patriarchal state of Gilead. She attends an elite finishing school run by the formidable Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), where she is being groomed to lead a household and – God willing – become a mother. “I was a precious flower,” she muses. “Then why did I sometimes feel like a prized pig?” As Agnes …

I was diagnosed with autism as an adult. These traits might mean you are autistic

I was diagnosed with autism as an adult. These traits might mean you are autistic

Published by Daniella Wilson

Entrepreneur Natasha Nelson always knew she was different. The 35-year old from Stone Mountain, Georgia, struggled with establishing social norms. She found small talk difficult, and couldn’t understand why people did things like make the bed. She was diagnosed with autism in 2023 – just after her youngest daughter was also diagnosed. Now, Nelson is encouraging people to seek a diagnosis if they also think, or have long had suspicion, that they could be on the spectrum. “If your life has always felt like it was in chaos and you don’t feel comfortable and you don’t feel like you thrive and you just feel like you’re constantly surviving and going from one thing to the next, what you got to lose?” Nelson said. Common signs of autism include trouble with social communication and a fixation on certain routines or topics — Nelson says “people have become my special interest now” — and may go unnoticed during someone’s childhood. But it can be costly and difficult to obtain an autism diagnosis later in life due to …

Needed: Providers Who Can Diagnose and Treat Adult ADHD

Needed: Providers Who Can Diagnose and Treat Adult ADHD

Published by Jenni Sidey

The most recent data on adult ADHD from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that for the past year, 6% of adults qualified for a diagnosis of ADHD. Lifetime diagnoses were 8%. Half of these adults were diagnosed after age 18 with 61% of these late identified cases being female.1 These numbers are on par with the roughly 6.8% worldwide prevalence of adult ADHD. Critics focus on the rising numbers but in isolation there is a lack of adequate context and reference points.2 A New Look at Adult ADHD Relative to Rates of Depression and Anxiety In 2005, the U.S. National Comorbidity study results showed that diagnosed depression (6.7%) in the previous year was the most frequent psychiatric diagnosis in adults. The second-most frequent adult diagnosis in the previous year was ADHD at 4.1% (with 4.4% lifetime prevalence).3 Anxiety came in third (3.1%) Sifting through more recent CDC data on adult diagnoses in the past year showed anxiety as the new most-frequent diagnosis (12.5%), with depression falling to third place (5%). …

YA Authors Making Their Adult Debuts in 2026

YA Authors Making Their Adult Debuts in 2026

Published by Jenni Sidey

It’s a cheeky subject, of course, but it’s worth starting this fun booklist out with a big, highlighted, underlined, oversized note: no, YA authors choosing to write adult fiction is not proof they’re finally adults. Storytelling for all age groups and categories is legitimate, so an author who once wrote for teens choosing to write for adults in their next book does not mean they’ve finally “graduated” or are writing “real” books now. Creative writers tell the story that comes to them, and who that story is best for depends on a whole host of elements. That said, it is a lot of fun to see where and what authors whose careers have primarily been in one category do when they try something new. That’s precisely why I love to dig into the YA authors who are making their debut as adult authors. It takes tremendous skill to navigate thinking about audience during the writing process, and while some decisions about who a book is for happen in the marketing department, seeing authors skillfully try …