Podcast
ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast
Are you struggling with the challenges of life as a woman with ADHD? Perhaps you need support with your mental and physical wellbeing, so you can feel calmer, happier and more balanced? Perhaps you’re newly diagnosed with ADHD – or just ADHD curious – and don’t know where to turn for support. Or perhaps you’re wondering how neurodivergence impacts your hormones or relationships?
If so, the ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast is for you. This multi-award-winning podcast is hosted by Kate Moryoussef, an ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach, author, EFT practitioner, mum of four, and late-in-life diagnosed with ADHD herself.
Each week, thousands of women just like you tune in to hear Kate chat with top ADHD experts, thought leaders, professionals and authors. Their powerful insights will help you harness your health and enhance your life as a woman with ADHD.
From tips on nutrition, sleep and motivation to guidance on regulating your nervous system, dealing with anxiety and living a calmer and more balanced life, you’ll find it all here.
The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast will help you live alongside your ADHD with more awareness, self-compassion and acceptance. It’s time to put an end to self-criticism, judgment and blame – and get ready to live a kinder and more authentic life.
“Mindblowing guests!” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Brilliant and so life-affirming” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“So, so grateful for this!” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Obsessed with this pod on ADHD!” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
ORDER NOW! Kate's new book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit! https://www.adhdwomenswellbeing.co.uk/adhd-womens-wellbeing-toolkit
In The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Toolkit, Kate Moryoussef shares the psychology and science behind the challenges faced by women with ADHD and lays out a roadmap for you to uncover your authentic self.
With practical lifestyle tools on how to manage mental, emotional, physical, and hormonal burnout and lean into your unique strengths to create more energy, joy, and creativity, this book will help you (re)learn to not only live with this brain difference but also thrive with it.
- Mental Health chart
- #118
- Episodes
- 322
- Releases
- Twice a week
- Typical length
- 49 min
- On air since
- 2022
- Latest episode
- 2 days ago
Episodes
322 episodes, newest first
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24 min
After an ADHD Diagnosis: How to Build a Life That Feels More Like You
Episode 350
Show notes
Join me live in Manchester this December for The Next Chapter — an immersive event for women ready to move beyond understanding their ADHD and explore what comes next with more confidence, self-compassion and permission to be themselves. Ready for your next chapter? Find out more: Book your place here.
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You understand your ADHD. So… what now?
There can be such enormous relief in finally understanding your brain. The patterns make more sense. The struggles have context. You might start looking at your past, your relationships and even your family through a completely different lens.
But at some point, another question starts to appear:
What do I actually do with all of this understanding?
In today’s More Yourself episode of The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast, I’m sharing something I’ve been developing inside my workshops and that sits right at the heart of my upcoming The Next Chapter live experience.
It’s called the SAFER framework, and it’s designed to help you look at your life differently now that you understand yourself better.
This will provide you with a way of getting curious about what supports you, what drains you, what you’re forcing, what you might be ready to let go of and what you want more of moving forwards.
This episode is really about intentionality.
Helping you notice the environments where you feel calmer. The people you feel most yourself around. The commitments that leave you depleted. The places where you might need more freedom, more space or more support.
Because understanding your ADHD is one thing but using that understanding to make choices that genuinely work for you is something else entirely.
And that’s where my upcoming event, The Next Chapter Begins, comes in.
In this episode, we cover:
• Moving beyond ADHD awareness and asking what comes next
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Why understanding your ADHD can change how you see your past, relationships and family
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Introducing Kate’s SAFER framework
•
How to notice what supports you and what leaves you feeling depleted
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Why your physical and emotional environment matters
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Giving yourself permission to stop living according to who you think you should be
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Reducing commitments and stepping away from always being the fixer
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Asking for help and allowing other people to support you
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Creating more room for what genuinely matters
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Understanding your energy and recognising when you’re pushing too far
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The importance of rest, white space and nervous system recovery
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Building a life that feels more like your own
Timestamps:
00:00 - Why understanding your ADHD is only the beginning
00:50 - The question: what comes next?
01:15 - Introducing the SAFER framework
02:10 - A different way of looking at your life
02:35 - The Next Chapter live ADHD Women’s Wellbeing event
04:00 - Moving from understanding into intentional living
05:20 - Exploring what helps you feel calmer and more supported
08:10 - Simplifying and reducing unnecessary choices
08:30 - Living more on your own terms
09:00 - What helps you feel most like yourself?
09:35 - Stepping away from decades of masking and “shoulds”
10:00 - Reducing commitments and letting go of the fixer role
10:25 - Learning to ask for help
11:00 - Creating more room for what matters
13:20 - Understanding your energy and capacity
14:15 - Protecting your energy and reducing the extremes
15:00 - Cortisol, adrenaline and knowing when you need to come back down
16:35 - One way to protect your energy this week
17:00 - Rest, recovery and recalibration
17:10 - Why ADHD brains need time to decompress
18:00 - Glimmers, nervous system regulation and meaningful connection
19:00 - More Yourself and continuing to understand yourself through a neurodivergent lens
Links and Resources:
•
Find my ADHD Women’s Wellbeing workshops and resources here.
•
Get my book, The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Toolkit, here.
•
Find out more about The Next Chapter event and book your place here.
•
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod.
Kate Moryoussef is an ADHD women's wellbeing author, coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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46 min
The ADHD Sweet Spot: How to Find Work and a Life You Don’t Need to Recover From
Episode 349
Show notes
You understand your ADHD. But what happens when you’re ready to live differently?
Join me live in Manchester this December for The Next Chapter — an immersive event for women ready to move beyond understanding their ADHD and explore what comes next with more confidence, self-compassion and permission to be themselves. All surrounded by neurodivergent women who truly get it.
Ready for your next chapter?Find out more and book your place.
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In today’s episode of The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast, I sit down with Amy Marie Hann, author of Master the Mundane: How to Manage Your Life, Home and Family as a Mom with ADHD.
And this conversation is for anyone who can do really big, complicated, creative things… but still feels completely floored by the dishwasher, laundry, meals, forms, life admin and all the tiny repetitive jobs that somehow never stop coming.
Amy was diagnosed with ADHD at just five years old, and ADHD runs through her whole family. But even with that early diagnosis, medication and years of understanding her brain, adulthood still brought a whole new layer of challenges.
The mental load. The overwhelm. The pressure to keep everything running. The feeling that everyone else seems to be managing it better.
Then perimenopause hit, and everything got harder.
We talk about why so many ADHD women swing between over-functioning and burnout, why complicated productivity systems rarely stick, and why the answer might not be becoming more organised or disciplined at all.
Amy shares how she learned to simplify, work with her actual capacity and focus on the small number of boring-but-important things that keep life moving.
This is a very practical conversation, but it’s also such a compassionate one.
Because if you’ve ever looked around your house, your to-do list or your family life and thought, Why can’t I just keep on top of this? — there is absolutely nothing wrong with you.
You may just be trying to carry far too much.
In this episode, we cover:
• Being diagnosed with ADHD at five, and what Amy understood — and didn’t understand — about ADHD growing up
• Why medication helped with school and focus but didn’t teach the life skills needed for adulthood
• How perimenopause can intensify ADHD symptoms, even when you already understand your diagnosis
• ADHD medication alongside sleep, exercise, lifestyle support and practical strategies
• Losing confidence in your abilities and choosing an “easier” path because of ADHD
• Finding the ADHD “sweet spot” between intense challenge, boredom and burnout
• Why ADHD brains may need meaningful challenge without an unsustainable pace
• Building work and a life around your energy instead of expecting eight-hour-a-day productivity
• Why ADHD mothers carry such a heavy mental load
• Unrealistic expectations, perfectionism and the feeling of never doing enough
• Why everything can feel urgent when prioritisation is difficult
• The cycle of long to-do lists, overdoing it and burnout
• Applying compassionate parenting strategies to yourself
• Amy’s “taxing tasks” approach and identifying the boring things that genuinely matter
• Why new planners and complicated systems often work temporarily because novelty is doing the heavy lifting
• Reducing daily executive-function demands by making basic routines repeatable
• Defining “good enough” instead of aiming for a perfectly organised home
• Why understanding your capacity matters more than copying someone else’s routine
• Simplifying when outsourcing isn’t financially realistic
• ADHD, motherhood and the shame attached to domestic expectations
• Sharing the load with partners and finding the household tasks that suit each person
• The power of ADHD women finding spaces where they can ask honest questions without shameTimestamps:
00:00 - Welcome and introducing Amy Marie Hann
02:00 - Being diagnosed with ADHD at five
03:00 - What an early diagnosis did — and didn’t — explain
04:00 - ADHD, adulthood and perimenopause
05:00 - Medication, school and self-belief
08:00 - Medication, lifestyle and practical strategies
09:30 - Finding the right pace for an ADHD brain
10:30 - The cycle of challenging work, boredom and burnout
11:30 - Finding your ADHD sweet spot
13:00 - Trying different paths and discovering what fits
15:00 - Building work around your actual energy
16:00 - Why your best work may not require eight-hour days
17:00 - Finding something you can stay interested in
18:00 - ADHD, organisation and the myth that every ADHD woman looks the same
20:00 - Perfectionism, over-functioning and coping behaviours
21:00 - The mental load of ADHD motherhood
22:00 - Unrealistic expectations and the endless to-do list
23:00 - Parenting yourself with more compassion
24:00 - The six or seven boring things that matter
25:00 - Why complicated systems fail
26:00 - Executive-function energy and removing daily decisions
27:00 - Amy’s three daily “taxing tasks”
28:00 - Working full-time, parenting and the pressure to do everything
29:00 - Self-care, capacity and realistic expectations
30:00 - Letting things go and simplifying
31:00 - Replacing shame with “good enough”
32:00 - Domestic expectations and ADHD women
33:00 - Sharing household responsibilities
34:00 - Knowing your capacity before dividing the load
36:00 - Master the Mundane and Amy’s practical framework
37:00 - Coaching, body doubling and accountability
39:00 - Why ADHD community can reduce shame
41:00 - Where to find Amy and her work
Links and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women’s Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Visit Amy’s website: https://www.amymariehann.com/
• Follow Amy on Instagram: @amymariehann
• Get Amy’s free resource, Thriving in Motherhood, here
• Find Amy’s book, Master the Mundane: How to Manage Your Life, Home and Family as a Mom with ADHD.Kate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing author, coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1 hr 3 min
40 Years of ADHD: What Pioneer Dr Kathleen Nadeau Has Learned About ADHD Women, Late Diagnosis & Thriving
Episode 348
Show notes
You're understanding your ADHD. But what happens when you’re ready to actually live differently?
Join me live in Manchester this December for The Next Chapter — an immersive event for women ready to move beyond understanding their ADHD and explore what comes next with more confidence, self-compassion and permission to be themselves.
All surrounded by like-minded neurodivergent women who truly get it. Ready for your next chapter? Find out more: Book your place here.
________________________________________
For decades, ADHD research focused overwhelmingly on hyperactive boys while girls and women with ADHD were missed, misdiagnosed or told they were anxious or depressed. ADHD expert, Dr Kathleen Nadeau has spent more than 40 years helping to change our understanding of ADHD in women.
On this week’s episode of The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast, I’m joined by internationally recognised clinical psychologist, author and ADHD pioneer Kathleen G. Nadeau, PhD.
Kathleen has written or co-authored 18 books on ADHD and was awarded the CHADD Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025. Her ground breaking work has helped bring ADHD in girls, women and older adults into a conversation that once centred almost entirely on hyperactive young boys.
And having ADHD herself, alongside decades of clinical experience and generations of ADHD within her own family, Kathleen brings a perspective that goes far beyond diagnostic criteria.
We talk about what ADHD looked like when Kathleen entered the field in the 1970s, why so many intelligent girls and women were missed and what happens when a woman spends her life believing she simply needs to try harder.
We also get into hormones, perimenopause and postpartum mental health, the physical conditions increasingly being seen alongside ADHD and why our healthcare systems still struggle when women’s physical and mental health needs intersect.
But this isn’t only a conversation about what has gone wrong.
Kathleen talks beautifully about finding the environment in which your ADHD brain can thrive, the healing that can come with a later-life diagnosis and why women need connection with other women who finally understand.
You do not have to spend the rest of your life trying to make yourself fit the wrong environment.
Sometimes, you need to plant yourself in a different garden.
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In this episode, we cover:
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How our understanding of ADHD has changed since Kathleen began working in the field in the late 1970s
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Why ADHD was once seen almost entirely as a condition affecting hyperactive young boys
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The moment Kathleen began recognising ADHD in parents, adults and within her own family
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Why bright, high-achieving children can have ADHD even when they're doing exceptionally well academically
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Looking beyond traditional ADHD diagnostic criteria to understand the wider experience
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How girls and women with ADHD were overlooked and the work that began changing that
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Rejection sensitivity, feeling different and the impact of growing up without an explanation for your ADHD
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Why ADHD can be both challenging and a source of curiosity, connection and different ways of thinking
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Whether our schools and workplaces are asking ADHD brains to function in environments that don't suit them
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ADHD hormones, puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause and why the research is still catching up
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Why women's ADHD symptoms have so often been misdiagnosed as anxiety or depression
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What happens when psychiatry, women's health and other areas of medicine operate in separate silos
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The physical conditions and health difficulties increasingly being seen alongside ADHD
•
Why connection with other ADHD women can be such an important part of healing
•
Receiving an ADHD diagnosis in your 60s, 70s or later, and navigating grief for the life you might have lived
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Why a late diagnosis can offer more healing than regret
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Kathleen's “right garden” approach and finding the environments, relationships and work where you can thrive
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High-achieving ADHD women who hold everything together at work before collapsing behind closed doors
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The invisible expectations still placed on women to manage families, homes, relationships and emotional labour
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Why ADHD treatment needs to go beyond medication, coaching or therapy in isolation
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Learning to care for yourself, follow your heart and stop measuring yourself by how well you meet everyone else's needs
Timestamps:
00:00 - Welcome and introducing Dr Kathleen Nadeau
02:25 - Kathleen's personal ADHD “learning lab”
04:00 - Working with ADHD since the late 1970s
06:00 - How ADHD diagnosis and treatment looked in the early days
07:00 - Realising adults didn't simply grow out of ADHD
09:30 - Writing some of the earliest books about ADHD
11:20 - Who was being missed?
12:00 - Gifted children, hidden ADHD and looking beyond school performance
13:00 - Looking beyond the diagnostic criteria
15:00 - What the early ADHD criteria left out
16:00 - Rejection sensitivity and why girls changed the conversation
17:00 - Kathleen's pioneering work on ADHD in women and girls
18:00 - What decades of following ADHD families can teach us
20:00 - ADHD as a type of brain, not simply a disorder
21:00 - Curiosity, connection and the strengths within an ADHD brain
23:00 - Do our education systems actually suit ADHD brains?
25:00 - Different ways of learning
26:00 - ADHD, hormones and the stages of a woman's life
27:00 - Why women were excluded from so much medical research
30:00 - The resistance to recognising hormones as part of the ADHD conversation
32:00 - Postpartum mental health and the research still desperately needed
35:00 - Why women's healthcare needs a more integrated approach
37:00 - ADHD and associated physical health conditions
39:00 - Why ADHD women connect so powerfully with each other
40:00 - Groups, validation and finally feeling like you fit in
42:00 - Late diagnosis, grief and understanding a lifetime through a new lens
44:00 - Planting yourself in the right garden
46:00 - Kathleen's next chapter and the Institute for Lifespan ADHD Training
47:00 - Why ADHD treatment needs a more integrated approach
49:00 - Giving yourself permission to do life differently
50:00 - High-achieving ADHD women and what happens behind closed doors
52:00 - The expectations still placed on women to hold everything together
53:30 - The ILAT Global Summit and training professionals to better support ADHD
56:30 - Kathleen's advice for women diagnosed later in life
Articles Mentioned:
www.additudemag.com/lindsay-clancy-postpartum-adhd/
Links and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Learn more about Kathleen and the Institute for Lifespan ADHD Training at https://www.ilat.org/
• Visit Kathleen's website at https://www.drkathleennadeau.com/
• Connect with Kathleen on LinkedIn
• Find out more and register for the ILAT Global Summit (online) at http://www.ilatglobal.org/⭐ADHD Women's Wellbeing listeners can use the code ILAT50 at checkout to save $50 on online summit registration.
Kate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing author, coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1 hr 2 min
ADHD Business Burnout: Hyperfocus and Redefining Success with Amanda Perry
Episode 347
Show notes
This October, I'm putting community, real experiences and practical support at the heart of ADHD Awareness Month. Visit the Events page to see we're planning and get involved!
Today's Podcast:
One statistic changed everything for Amanda Perry. More than half of neurodivergent entrepreneurs say they only started a business because the workplace couldn’t support them.
Not a dream. A necessity.
This week’s More Yourself episode comes from my first-ever live podcast recording, with Amanda Perry, founder of Brain First and author of Brain First Business: The ADHD Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success.
Amanda has spent 18 years building businesses, 13 of them undiagnosed. Burnout after burnout. Bankruptcy. A marketing agency that grew from five people to 40 in three months. After her ADHD diagnosis at 42, she sold it and started again, this time brain first.
Champagne dreams and lemonade energy. The fear of burning out again. God mode and the crash that follows. And why so many of us end up building a prison instead of a business.
Recorded live, with your questions answered in real time.
Advertisement⏐Try AG1 now at http://drinkag1.com/adhdwomen and get £20 off your first order + 5 AG1 Travel Packs for on the go, a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2, and the Welcome Kit for FREE. No risk with the 30-day money-back guarantee. Find all details about the health benefits in the link. Study results are on file with AG1, 2023.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why so many neurodivergent entrepreneurs start businesses out of necessity, not desire
• Amanda’s 13 undiagnosed years in business: burnout, bankruptcy and chasing the LinkedIn version of success
• What rich really means, and giving yourself permission to define success on your own terms
• How Amanda built a prison instead of a business twice, and what she’s doing differently now
• Why delegation feels so hard with ADHD, and the shift from VAs to an inverted Christmas tree structure
• FOBO, the fear of burning out, and why shrinking your life isn’t the same as healing
• God mode, hyperfocus and spotting the first sign of burnout
• Interruptions, motherhood and protecting your focus when you work from home
• Brain First Workplace, the dropped kerb and why neuro-inclusive design benefits everyone
• Live Q&A on breaking the burnout cycle, keeping things simple and disclosing ADHD at workTimestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and Amanda’s journey in business
• 00:43 - Why so many neurodivergent founders start businesses out of necessity
• 02:30 - 18 years in business, 13 undiagnosed: burnout, bankruptcy and borrowed goals
• 05:35 - Permission to create your own version of success
• 07:20 - “Disgustingly rich” and what rich really means
• 10:48 - Building a prison, not a business
• 12:07 - Purpose, values and the pressure to be nice as a female founder
• 13:30 - Delegation, communication and why it’s quicker to do it yourself
• 16:04 - From VAs to a chief of staff: the inverted Christmas tree
• 17:33 - Self-trust, perimenopause and not knowing how you’ll wake up
• 18:14 - Kate on leaving PR and shrinking herself to avoid burnout
• 22:01 - FOBO: the fear of burning out
• 24:48 - Champagne dreams, lemonade energy
• 25:19 - Interruptions, motherhood and the nervous system
• 27:41 - God mode, hyperfocus and the first sign of burnout
• 33:07 - Brain First Workplace and open conversations at work
• 34:26 - Tribunals, “them and us” culture and why managers are scared
• 36:30 - The dropped kerb and designing for every brain
• 42:20 - Live Q&A: breaking out of the prison cycle
• 44:58 - Awareness, alignment and action
• 46:57 - Don’t be afraid of simplicity
• 48:13 - Disclosing ADHD at work
• 50:17 - Ideas, strategy and getting from A to Z before anyone else
• 52:26 - Where to find AmandaLinks and Resources:
Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
Join the More Yourself membership community here
Get Amanda’s book, Brain First Business: The ADHD Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success
Visit Amanda’s website: https://www.amandaperry.co.uk/
Connect with Amanda on Instagram Kate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing author, coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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51 min
Why Do I Need So Much Time to Recover From People? ADHD, Social Exhaustion and the Need to Decompress
Episode 346
Show notes
What Actually Helps You!? This October, I'm putting community, real experiences and practical support at the heart of ADHD Awareness Month. There are live conversations, Instagram Lives, podcast events and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life.
Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved.
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You leave the party first. You pay extra for the room on your own. You say yes, then spend the whole evening counting down until you can go home. And somewhere along the way, you decided that made you the difficult one.
On this week’s episode of The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast, I’m joined by Alice Bramhill, registered mental health nurse, interpersonal psychotherapist and accredited therapeutic coach specialising in neurodivergent adults. Her first book, I Need My Space (But I Like You Too!): A Neurodivergent Guide to All Types of Relationships, is out now.
Alice has nearly 30 years of clinical experience. She was diagnosed with ADHD at 47 and autism at 50, and is a parent carer to two neurodivergent children.
Masking until there’s nothing left. Being the fixer, the capable one, the people pleaser. Families who keep casting you in your old role. A nervous system that panics every time you say no.
You’re allowed to need your space.
This is a fantastic conversation that I know will resonate so strongly with so many of you.
Advertisement⏐Try AG1 now at http://drinkag1.com/adhdwomen and get £20 off your first order + 5 AG1 Travel Packs for on the go, a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2, and the Welcome Kit for FREE. No risk with the 30-day money-back guarantee. Find all details about the health benefits in the link. Study results are on file with AG1, 2023.
_____________________
In this episode, we cover:
• Why relationships sit at the heart of our mental health, and what interpersonal psychotherapy can offer neurodivergent adults
• How masking leads to an erosion of self and a lack of authenticity in our relationships
• What an emotionally sustainable life looks like, and why so many social expectations simply aren't sustainable for us
• Why it's okay to leave the party after an hour, and how to communicate your social battery without shame
• Rejection sensitivity and why it isn't our job to manage other people's emotions
• Shrinking versus discernment, and how to navigate the fear of loneliness when you start pulling back
• Setting boundaries with family when you've always been cast as the fixer, the capable one or the people pleaser
• What emotional labour really means, and where information sharing ends and over-explaining begins
• Why your nervous system may push back when you start saying no, and how to practise it gently
• Noticing the shoulds, starting with a maybe and why it's okay to disappoint peopleTimestamps:
00:00 - Welcome and introducing Alice Bramhill
01:30 - Why Alice wrote I Need My Space
02:30 - Interpersonal psychotherapy and why relationships shape our mental health
05:30 - Masking, authenticity and the erosion of self
07:30 - Building an emotionally sustainable life
09:30 - Redefining the terms of engagement and leaving when you're done
11:30 - Rejection sensitivity and other people's emotions
14:00 - Needing space in friendships and on holidays
16:30 - Shrinking, discernment and the fear of loneliness
20:30 - Shedding, permission and life after diagnosis
21:30 - Perimenopause and caring less about what others think
25:00 - Who Alice wrote the book for
26:30 - Boundaries with family and stepping out of old roles
30:30 - What emotional labour really means
34:00 - The fixers, the capable ones and the people pleasers
36:30 - When your nervous system pushes back
39:00 - Cycle breakers and generational change
41:00 - Noticing automatic yeses and starting with a maybe
42:30 - Catching the shoulds and getting curious
44:00 - Asking why and giving yourself permission to disappoint people
46:00 - Where to find Alice's book, Substack and one-to-one support
Links and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here• Visit Alice's website and join the waitlist for one-to-ones here
• Connect with Alice on InstagramKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing author, coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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16 min
The Overlap of ADHD and Autism: Do I have AuDHD?
Show notes
This October, I'm putting community, real experiences and practical support at the heart of ADHD Awareness Month. There are live conversations and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life. Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved.
Understood.org's The ADHD Channel for Women features three shows hosted by three different hosts, unpacking a different side of life with ADHD. They cover everything from sex, dating, and relationships to deep dives into where neurodivergence meets the biggest news stories, like how a newly discovered gene variant could change the way we treat ADHD. There's also an ADHD coach who answers listeners' questions.
Check out The ADHD Channel for Women here
This episode from The ADHD Channel for Women is called ‘ADHD and autism: Do I have AuDHD?’ You’ll hear a clear and compassionate look at where ADHD and autism meet, where they part ways and what it means when you recognise yourself in both.
AuDHD isn’t a formal diagnosis. But it’s everywhere online, and for many late-diagnosed women it’s the first language that has ever truly fitted. Dr. J, a licensed psychologist and host of Understood.org’s ADHD and podcast, explains why the overlap is the norm rather than the exception. Research suggests that 30 to 50 percent of autistic people also meet the criteria for ADHD.
She unpacks the push and pull so many people with AuDHD describe. Craving routine but struggling to keep it. Wanting deep connection but hitting a wall of social exhaustion. She also talks honestly about what comes next, including the grief that can surface if a label you’ve found community in doesn’t become your diagnosis.
This week’s episode is sponsored byUnderstood.org, the leading nonprofit dedicated to empowering the millions of people with learning and thinking differences, such as ADHD and dyslexia.
For all things ADHD Women's Wellbeing, including the podcast, resources and events, head here: www.adhdwomenswellbeing.co.uk
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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59 min
ADHD, Progesterone and Hormones: Life-Changing Information Every Woman Needs to Know with Dr Jolene Brighten
Episode 345
Show notes
This ADHD Awareness Month 2026, ADHD Women's Wellbeing is putting this community, lived experiences, and practical support front and center. There are live conversations, Instagram Lives, podcast events and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life.
Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved.
We talk a lot about hormones and ADHD. But this conversation goes much deeper.
What if the fatigue, anxiety, gut issues, difficult periods and the way your ADHD seems to shift throughout your cycle aren’t separate problems? What if they’re all giving you information about what’s happening in your body?
This week on The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast, I’m joined by Dr Jolene Brighten for a fascinating and powerful deep dive into the biology behind ADHD in women, and some of the connections we just aren’t talking about enough.
Jolene is a board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist, nutritionist, certified menopause specialist and bestselling author of Beyond the Pill and Is This Normal? Her new book, ADHD and Women: A Guide to Understanding Your Hormones and Thriving with ADHD, is out now.
And she does not hold back in this conversation.
We get into progesterone, histamine, endometriosis, PMDD and perimenopause, and what they can mean for women with ADHD. We explore why symptoms that appear unrelated may be more connected than we realise, why so many women have spent years being passed between specialists and why understanding ADHD as something that affects the whole body can completely change the conversation.
Jolene also shares her own story, from her son’s ADHD diagnosis to being diagnosed with endometriosis after 29 years of periods and later discovering she is autistic.
This is one of those episodes that may have you joining dots you didn’t even realise were connected. If you’ve ever felt as though your hormones, brain and body are all speaking different languages, this conversation could help you understand the bigger picture.
Advertisement⏐Try AG1 now at https://drinkag1.com/adhdwomen and get £20 off your first order + 5 AG1 Travel Packs for on the go, a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2, and the Welcome Kit for FREE. No risk with the 30-day money-back guarantee. Find all details about the health benefits in the link. Study results are on file with AG1, 2023.
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In this episode, we cover:
• Jolene's late diagnoses of ADHD, endometriosis and autism, and why accommodations are so often mistaken for success
• Why fatigue and anxiety are among the most common symptoms of endometriosis, and how it can be present without any pain
• The links between ADHD, endometriosis, PMDD and fibroids, and why medicine so often treats them as coincidences
• How histamine and mast cells may be connected to 2am to 4am waking, irritability and emotional dysregulation
• What happens to dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine and GABA when oestrogen and progesterone drop
• Why hysterectomy and hormone suppression don't cure PMDD or endometriosis, and what this means for ADHD women
• Body identical progesterone versus synthetic progestins, progesterone intolerance and why starting low and going slow can help
• What research tells us about hormonal contraception and depression in ADHD women
• Why movement is so powerful for the ADHD brain, and an honest look at why it can feel so hard to do
• Alcohol, GABA and the luteal phase, and why we were never designed to be productive all the timeTimestamps:
00:00 - Welcome and introducing Dr Jolene Brighten
02:30 - Jolene's journey to ADHD, endometriosis and autism diagnoses
05:30 - Entrepreneurship, accommodations and the support nobody sees
08:00 - What endometriosis can look like, including when there's no pain
10:00 - Jolene's endometriosis story, from childhood gut issues to secondary infertility
15:00 - Mast cells, histamine and the brain, immune and hormone connection
17:00 - Kate's experience with endometriosis, adenomyosis and continuous progesterone
21:00 - Access to care in the UK, US and Canada
23:00 - Why ADHD is the operating system you were born with
25:00 - What happens to the brain when oestrogen and progesterone drop
27:00 - PMDD: why it may be more than one condition
29:00 - NAC, mitochondria and the ADHD brain in perimenopause
32:00 - Progesterone, progestins and the research on contraception and depression
35:00 - ADHD as a full-body condition and the gut microbiome
37:00 - Progesterone intolerance, dosing and different ways of taking it
42:00 - Serotonin, dopamine and how the ADHD brain adapts
43:00 - Exercise, BDNF and giving your brain more energy
46:00 - Hysterectomies, unsupported women and the generations before us
48:00 - Alcohol, GABA and the luteal phase
49:00 - Rejecting productivity culture and honouring the need to rest
53:00 - Superpowers, kryptonite and asking what it's costing you
56:00 - Where to find Jolene's book and resources
Links and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Get Jolene's book, ADHD and Women (also available in ebook and audiobook): https://drbrighten.com/adhd-and-women/
• Visit Jolene's website for free articles on hormones, ADHD, PMDD and endometriosis: https://drbrighten.com/
• Listen to Jolene's podcast:The Dr. Brighten Show
• Connect with Jolene on Instagram: @drjolenebrighten
• Watch Jolene on YouTube: @DrJoleneBrightenSee Explore Worldwide's range of destinations in the link HERE
If today’s episode brought up anything for you, these organisations offer support and information:
• Endometriosis UK Support Network
• The Miscarriage Association helpline and support services
• Campaign Against Living MiserablyKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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21 min
A Community of Support: What's Coming to ADHD Women's Wellbeing
Episode 344
Show notes
What Actually Helps YOU: This ADHD Awareness Month 2026, I'm putting community, real experiences, and practical support throughout the month. There are live podcast recordings, Instagram Lives, podcast events and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life. Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved.
This one is a little different. No guest, no workshop clip — just me, talking to you about what's coming next and why community is at the heart of everything we're building here.
Today I'm sharing a personal update about what's happening at ADHD Women's Wellbeing this October and beyond, including some exciting plans for live events in 2027, how you can get involved in ADHD Awareness Month right now, and how I want your wisdom to shape something I'm creating for this community.
This one is warm, unscripted and very much from the heart. Sign up for the ADHD WW events waitlisthere
Advertisement⏐Try AG1 now at https://drinkag1.com/adhdwomen and get £20 off your first order + 5 AG1 Travel Packs for on the go, a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2, and the Welcome Kit for FREE. No risk with the 30-day money-back guarantee. Find all details about the health benefits in the link. Study results are on file with AG1, 2023.
In this episode, I cover:
• What the first-ever ADHD Women's Wellbeing live event in Manchester taught me, and why I want to do more
• My plans for in-person events in 2027, what they'll look and feel like, and how to get on the waitlist
• Why ADHD Awareness Month 2026 is all about community, lived experience and what actually helps
• The Google Form I'm creating to collect your wisdom — what makes your daily life easier with ADHD — and how your answers will shape a community workbook
• How to attend free live podcast recordings this October and ask experts your questions in real time
• Why I believe lived experience often comes before the research, and why I want more of your voice in this space
• The legacy I want to leave through ADHD Women's Wellbeing and what I'm building towards
• Why I'm doing all of this with very finite energy, a tiny team, and a genuine commitment to keeping things accessibleLinks and Resources:
• Visit the Events page and join the live events waitlist here
• Fill in the What Actually Helps You Form here
• Explore the ADHD Women's Wellbeing Workshop Library here
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_podKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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50 min
Creating a More Meaningful ADHD Life
Episode 343
Show notes
What Actually Helps You?
This ADHD Awareness Month, I’m putting real experiences, community and practical support at the heart of the conversation. Join live conversations, podcast events and opportunities to share what actually helps you. Add your name to my event waitlist as well!
Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved.
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What if the burnout, the guilt and the relentless doing weren't signs that you were failing, but signs that the playbook you'd been given was never designed for you in the first place?
On this week's episode of The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast, I'm joined by Meghan French Dunbar, bestselling author, business anthropologist and founder of Conscious Company Magazine, the first nationally distributed print magazine in the US focusing on impact-driven business.
Meghan's book, This Isn't Working: How Working Women Can Overcome Stress, Guilt, and Overload to Find True Success, is a USA Today bestseller and Next Big Idea Club selection. She works with companies including Coach, John Deere, Torani and Kate Spade on leadership and culture strategy, writes for Forbes, Fast Company and Inc, and hosts the podcast Unbehaved. She was diagnosed with ADHD four years ago, and this conversation made a lot of sense of a lot of things.
We talk about purpose burnout, motherhood, identity, joy and what it actually looks like to build a life and career around meaning rather than productivity. Meghan is warm, honest and brilliantly funny, and this is one of those conversations that leaves you feeling both validated and quietly ready to do something differently.
Advertisement⏐Try AG1 now at https://drinkag1.com/adhdwomenand get £20 off your first order + 5 AG1 Travel Packs for on the go, a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2, and the Welcome Kit for FREE. No risk with the 30-day money-back guarantee. Find all details about the health benefits in the link. Study results are on file with AG1, 2023.
In this episode, we cover:
• How Meghan's ADHD diagnosis four years ago reframed her entire career and the relentless curiosity that drove it
• Why she burnt out running her own organisation, resigned from it, and spent two years rebuilding from the ground up
• The difference between social success and soul success, and the three elements the most fulfilled leaders Meghan interviewed all had in common
• Why sustained leadership is about the quality of your being, not the quantity of your doing
• The six key predictors of burnout, and why ADHD makes several of them almost inevitable without the right support
• What the broaden and build theory tells us about joy, and why nurturing it is not indulgent but a genuine performance strategy
• The joy trip: what it is, why Meghan introduced it into her family and what it has given her every year since
• Why ADHD women are often the outliers who model a different way of working, and why that matters for everyone around them
• What enough looks like, and why deciding that with your partner is one of the most radical acts available to us
• Why autonomy is the non-negotiable for so many neurodivergent entrepreneursTimestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introducing Meghan French Dunbar
• 02:00 - What drives Meghan's passion for business, impact and entrepreneurship
• 05:00 - How her ADHD diagnosis reframed decades of relentless curiosity
• 08:00 - Burning out as founder, resigning in 2020 and two years of rebuilding
• 12:00 - What the outliers taught her: soul success, purpose and quality of life
• 16:00 - Sustained leadership: why quality of being beats quantity of doing
• 19:00 - The practical foundations: sleep, movement, joy and professional support
• 22:00 - Why younger generations are already rewriting the playbook
• 25:00 - The joy trip: how it started, what it involves and why it changed everything
• 31:00 - The broaden and build theory: the science behind why joy makes you better at everything
• 35:00 - Modeling a different way for other women
• 38:00 - What Meghan's working life looks like now, and what enough means to her
• 42:00 - Autonomy, ADHD and why working for yourself so often becomes the answeLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Visit Meghan's website: https://meghanfrenchdunbar.com/
• Connect with Meghan on Instagram
• Connect with Meghan on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to Meghan's Substack: Unbehaved
• Listen to Meghan's podcast: Unbehaved
• Watch Meghan's TEDx talk
• Get Meghan's book: This Isn't Working: How Working Women Can Overcome Stress, Guilt, and Overload to Find True SuccessKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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35 min
The Collision Between ADHD, Femininity, and Gender from Understood.org
Show notes
ADHD Awareness Month 2026: What Actually Helps?
This October, I'm putting community, real experiences and practical support at the heart of ADHD Awareness Month. There are live conversations and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life. Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved.
Understood.org's The ADHD Channel for Women features three shows hosted by three different hosts, unpacking a different side of life with ADHD. They cover everything from sex, dating, and relationships to deep dives into where neurodivergence meets the biggest news stories, like how a newly discovered gene variant could change the way we treat ADHD. There's also an ADHD coach who answers listeners' questions.
Check out The ADHD Channel for Women here
This episode from The ADHD Channel for Women is called 'I’ve never felt like a good woman...' You'll hear a complex conversation about ADHD, femininity, gender, and why talking about the hard stuff is important.
Cate sits down with Rae Jacobson, host of Understood.org’s Hyperfocus podcast, journalist, and a producer on this show. They talk about something they’ve both struggled to name: the collision between ADHD, femininity, and gender expression. They dig into what it felt like to watch other girls “get it.” The tidiness. The calm. The effortlessness. All things that executive dysfunction made feel out of reach.
They talk about the pressure to be nurturing, organized, and endlessly available — and what happens when your brain doesn’t cooperate with any of it. And they look at the research on outcomes for women and girls with ADHD."
This week’s episode is sponsored byUnderstood.org, the leading nonprofit dedicated to empowering the millions of people with learning and thinking differences, such as ADHD and dyslexia.
For all things ADHD Women's Wellbeing, including the podcast, resources and events, head here: www.adhdwomenswellbeing.co.uk
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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50 min
ADHD, Gut Health and Your Nervous System: A Compassionate Guide with Dr Miguel Toribio-Mateas
Episode 342
Show notes
ADHD Awareness Month 2026: What Actually Helps?
This October, I'm putting community, real experiences and practical support at the heart of ADHD Awareness Month. There are live conversations, Instagram Lives, podcast events and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life. Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved. If you've ever felt shame about what you eat, how you forget to eat, or why your safe foods feel so necessary, this episode is going to be a genuine relief.
On this week's episode of The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast, I'm delighted to welcome back Dr Miguel Toribio-Mateas, clinical neuroscientist, applied microbiologist, nutrition researcher, Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University and Senior Lecturer at the University of West London.
Miguel has just published his brilliant new book, ADHD Body and Mind: A Compassionate Guide to Rewilding Your Nervous System with Neuroscience, Nutrition, and Gut-Brain Health, published by Jessica Kingsley/Hachette. His research has appeared in leading journals including the BMJ and BMC Psychiatry, and his work is known for translating complex science into something genuinely human and accessible.
This is one of those conversations that covers a huge amount of ground while never once feeling overwhelming. We talk about why the ADHD brain is wired for resilience and what that actually costs us, why the gut-brain connection matters so much for neurodivergent people, how to approach nutrition with compassion rather than perfectionism, and why your safe foods are not something to be ashamed of. We also get into the language of science, why terms like comorbidity matter, and how researchers like Miguel are slowly shifting the field towards a more neuroaffirmative approach.
Advertisement⏐Try AG1 now at http://drinkag1.com/adhdwomen and get £20 off your first order + 5 AG1 Travel Packs for on the go, a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2, and the Welcome Kit for FREE. No risk with the 30-day money-back guarantee. Find all details about the health benefits in the link. Study results are on file with AG1, 2023.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why compassion and kindness are at the heart of Miguel's approach to ADHD, nutrition and the nervous system
• How the ADHD nervous system forms in high alert, and what that means for resilience and hypervigilance
• Why ADHD is far more than a dopamine deficiency, and how hormones, gut bacteria and the nervous system are all part of the picture
• The gut-brain axis and why looking after your gut has a direct impact on your ADHD brain
• Why the language of science still creates problems, including terms like comorbidity and healthy cohort, and how researchers are starting to push back
• How to read ADHD Body and Mind in whichever way works for your brain, whether that's cover to cover or jumping straight to chapter nine
• Why understanding the why behind your ADHD behaviours is the keystone to change, even when it doesn't fix things overnight
• Miguel's approach to nutrition: keep your safe foods, add rather than subtract, and never shame what nourishes you
• Why safe foods are doing an important job for your nervous system, and why being pushed out of your comfort zone too quickly never lasts
• The circle approach to expanding your diet gently, starting from your anchors and building outward
• Why a hot bath is an act of self-compassion backed by neuroscience, and why you don't need to get into cold water to support your nervous system
• The self-kindness toolkit at the end of the book and what it coversChapters:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introducing Dr Miguel Toribio-Mateas back to the podcast
• 02:00 - What's at the heart of ADHD Body and Mind, and why compassion comes first
• 05:00 - Why the ADHD nervous system is wired for hypervigilance and resilience
• 08:00 - ADHD as more than dopamine: hormones, gut bacteria and the full picture
• 11:00 - The neuroaffirmative lens in academic research and why language matters
• 15:00 - How the gut-brain axis connects to ADHD and emotional regulation
• 19:00 - The awareness and repetition model: why understanding the why is the keystone
• 23:00 - Nutrition without perfectionism: how to approach food with kindness
• 27:00 - Safe foods, anchors and adding rather than subtracting
• 32:00 - The circle approach: expanding your diet gently from the inside out
• 37:00 - The ADHD cookery school: creativity, condiments and cooking without recipes
• 42:00 - Hot baths, cold water and why softness is sometimes the braver choice
• 46:00 - The self-kindness toolkit and what the book offers neurodivergent readers and cliniciansLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Visit Miguel's website
• Connect with Miguel on Instagram
• Connect with Miguel on LinkedIn
• Get Miguel's book: ADHD Body and Mind: A Compassionate Guide to Rewilding Your Nervous System with Neuroscience, Nutrition, and Gut-Brain HealthKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach, author of The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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22 min
Your ADHD Nervous System Explained: The Polyvagal Ladder, Window of Tolerance and Glimmers
Episode 341
Show notes
ADHD Awareness Month 2026: What Actually Helps?
This October, I'm putting community, real experiences and practical support at the heart of ADHD Awareness Month. There are live conversations, Instagram Lives, podcast events and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life. Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved. If you've ever wondered why some days feel manageable and others feel completely impossible, even when nothing has obviously changed, your nervous system is trying to tell you something.
Welcome to this week's More Yourself Monday episode. Today I'm sharing a clip from one of my workshops on the nervous system, polyvagal theory and how understanding both can genuinely change the way you move through your days with ADHD.
This is not a clinical lecture. This is a simple, accessible explanation of why your nervous system behaves the way it does, what the polyvagal ladder actually means in real life, and how you can start to work with your nervous system rather than against it. I also introduce the concept of glimmers, those small micro moments of safety and joy that can shift your entire day when you learn to notice and actively seek them out.
The full workshop is available on my website, and the link is below.
In this episode, we cover:
• What it means to feel grounded, connected and safe in your nervous system, and why so many of us rarely get there
• A simple explanation of polyvagal theory and why it matters so much for neurodivergent people
• The three states of the polyvagal ladder: ventral vagal, sympathetic and dorsal vagal, and what each one feels like from the inside
• Why the ADHD brain so often operates in fight or flight mode, and what that costs us over time
• What the dorsal vagal shutdown state feels like, and why it shows up as fatigue, numbness and withdrawal
• The window of tolerance: what it is, what opens and closes it, and why ADHD narrows it
• The difference between hyper arousal and hypo arousal, and why each needs a different response
• What glimmers are and why they matter as much as knowing your triggers
• How to identify your own personal glimmers and actively harness them across the day
• Why regulating your own nervous system is not selfish but has a ripple effect on everyone around you
• The role of co-regulation and why our nervous system state affects the people we live and work withLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Get the full nervous system and polyvagal theory workshop series here with a 10% discount for Podcast listenersKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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52 min
Why the ADHD Brain Is the Intuitive Brain with Laura Day
Episode 340
Show notes
ADHD Awareness Month 2026: What Actually Helps?
This October, I'm putting community, real experiences and practical support at the heart of ADHD Awareness Month. There are live conversations, Instagram Lives, podcast events and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life. Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved.Content note: This episode contains references to suicide and family bereavement. If you are struggling, please reach out to a trusted support resource.
In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countriescan be found here. You can also check out the Campaign Against Living Miserably here
What if the traits you've spent a lifetime apologising for are actually the source of your greatest ability?
On this week's episode of The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast, I'm joined by Laura Day, New York Times bestselling author, teacher and intuitive consultant who has spent four decades working with individuals and some of the world's largest companies to help them identify and achieve their goals.
Laura's new book, The Prism: Seven Steps to Heal Your Past and Transform Your Future, is the book she describes as an ADHD manual — a practical, evidence-informed framework for building the scaffolding that helps neurodivergent brains thrive. With two New York Times bestsellers to her name and a 40-year teaching community, Laura is also someone who has lived with ADHD her entire life, and this conversation is one of the most honest, warm and genuinely surprising I have had on the podcast.
We talk about Laura's childhood in a household where neurodivergence was everywhere but unnamed, why girls of her generation were never allowed to act out and what that suppression cost them, how she built a career advising billion-dollar companies using her intuitive mind, and why the ADHD brain is uniquely suited to intuition, just not always in the way we expect.
In this episode, we cover:
• Laura's diagnosis at 10 or 11, and why girls of her generation were never treated
• Growing up in a household where neurodivergence showed up in multiple family members, often with devastating consequences
• How Laura used survival, focus and necessity as her prosthetic scaffolding before she understood her own neurology
• Why the ADHD brain is the intuitive brain, and how to make that work for you rather than against you
• Why intuition is not something you tap into but something that is always downloading, and how to structure it usefully
• The difference between the voice of fear and the voice of intuition, and why documentation matters more than belief
• How Laura advises billion-dollar companies using intuitive methods, and why business and science do what works regardless of belief
• Why Laura says you are your own worst intuitive, and why community-based intuitive practice is so powerful
• The shame and blame pages: a research-backed tool for releasing what no longer serves you
• Why doing just the next thing is one of the most powerful strategies for ADHD brains
• How Laura built scaffolding for her household without knowing it was for neurodivergence
• Why vulnerability is not a weakness but the source of extraordinary ability
• The Prism: what it offers neurodivergent people and why Laura considers it her ADHD manualTimestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introducing Laura Day
• 02:00 - Laura's diagnosis at 10 or 11 and why girls weren't treated in her generation
• 05:00 - Growing up with neurodivergence all around her, and what it cost her family
• 08:00 - How she used her role as oldest child to create focus and structure
• 10:00 - Spatial difficulties, irritability and the compensations she built over decades
• 13:00 - Why the ADHD brain is the intuitive brain
• 16:00 - How intuition actually works and why it is always downloading
• 20:00 - Documenting intuition and building a feedback loop with the world
• 23:00 - How she works with billion-dollar companies and why they don't need to believe in it
• 27:00 - Social dynamics, masking and forgetting to say hello
• 31:00 - Emotional regulation, overstimulation and learning to step away rather than snap
• 35:00 - Generational patterns, self-awareness and raising neurodivergent children
• 40:00 - Just do the next thing: why this is the most powerful ADHD strategy
• 44:00 - The shame and blame pages and the research behind letting go
• 47:00 - The Prism: seven steps, and why Laura considers it her ADHD manual
• 50:00 - How to find Laura and join her teaching communityLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Visit Laura's website: https://lauraday.com/
• Get Laura's new book: The Prism: Seven Steps to Heal Your Past and Transform Your Future, also available as an audiobook narrated by Laura herselfKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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49 min
Why Your GP Doesn't Know More About ADHD with Victoria Galvis
Episode 339
Show notes
If you've ever left a GP appointment feeling dismissed, confused or like you had to fight to be taken seriously, this episode will help you understand why, and what you can actually do about it.
On this week's episode of The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast, I'm joined by Dr Victoria Galvis, a GP based in Greater Manchester with over 20 years of lived experience of neurodivergence and a fierce passion for changing how the healthcare system supports neurodivergent people.
Victoria qualified as a doctor in Colombia and has been practising in the UK since 2010, working across both hospital medicine and primary care. Alongside Dr Safiya Virji, GP and Associate Professor at Queen Mary University of London, she has written Neurodivergence in Primary Care: A Practical Guide for UK Healthcare Professionals, a comprehensive, research-backed resource designed to educate clinicians and support patients in navigating the system more effectively.
In this episode, Victoria explains the structural reasons why GPs often don't know enough about ADHD and neurodivergence, and it is not as simple as them not caring. She talks about the discrimination she faced as a neurodivergent doctor, why the 10-minute consultation is both a challenge and something patients can learn to work with, and how the book came about from 20 years of clinical experience and a determination to change things for her son, her patients and the next generation of healthcare professionals.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why GPs receive less than two hours of ADHD training and have zero budget to update their knowledge
• How media narratives and ableist assumptions about ADHD have shaped clinical attitudes
• Victoria's own experience of disability discrimination as a neurodivergent doctor, and why she kept going
• Why ADHD and autism could not even be co-diagnosed until 2013, and what that means for the doctors currently practising
• How the 10-minute GP consultation works, and practical ways to make the most of it
• Why bringing a list to a GP appointment is genuinely helpful, not annoying
• How to ask for the right GP in your practice for your specific needs
• When and how to share your own research with your doctor, and how most GPs actually receive it
• Why executive dysfunction affects how patients experience healthcare at every stage
• The importance of bringing someone with you, recording the appointment or using other memory tools
• Why most mental health presentations in primary care have a deep-rooted neurodivergent component
• Kate and Victoria's grassroots idea for getting this book into every GP surgeryTimestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introducing Dr Victoria Galvis
• 02:00 - Victoria's ADHD diagnosis at 19 and her early career in the UK
• 05:00 - The discrimination she faced as a neurodivergent doctor and why she fought back
• 09:00 - Why GPs don't know more about ADHD, and why it is not their fault
• 13:00 - Zero training budget, no CPD funding and what that means in practice
• 16:00 - Why most mental health presentations have a neurodivergent component
• 19:00 - How the 10-minute consultation works from the doctor's side
• 23:00 - Practical tips for making the most of your GP appointment
• 28:00 - How to share your own research with your GP and what to expect
• 32:00 - When to ask for a follow-up, and why you should book with the right person
• 36:00 - How the book came about, and what it covers
• 40:00 - Kate and Victoria's grassroots idea: getting the book into every GP surgery
• 43:00 - How to get the book and where to find VictoriaLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Connect with the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Visit Victoria's website: https://www.victoriagalvis.com/
• Get the book: Neurodivergence in Primary Care: A Practical Guide for UK Healthcare Professionals -Also available free on Kindle UnlimitedKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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22 min
Rethinking Routines: A Gentler Approach to Structure with ADHD
Episode 338
Show notes
Looking for further guidance and support on ADHD Women's Wellbeing? Check out my workshop library here or search for any topic on the Podcast here. Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
September has always felt more like a new start than January. And if you're ready to think differently about how you structure your days, this episode is a good place to begin.
On this week's More Yourself Monday episode, I'm sharing a clip from one of my workshops on ADHD routines and structures, because this time of year tends to bring up that familiar urge to get organised and finally get on top of things.
But this isn't about neurotypical productivity systems or trying to force your ADHD brain into a shape it was never meant to hold. This is about understanding your own energy, working with your nervous system rather than against it, and finding a rhythm that actually feels sustainable for you.
In this clip I introduce my four-pillar framework for building a personalised daily flow, talk about the difference between rituals and routines and why that distinction matters, and explore why so many of us get stuck in boom-and-bust cycles, even when we genuinely want things to be different.
The full workshop is available on my website with a discount code below.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why ADHD brains seek both structure and stimulation, and how that tension creates the boom and bust cycle
• How dopamine, executive function, working memory, hormones and emotional regulation all affect our ability to build and maintain routines
• Why neurotypical systems can feel suffocating and punishing for ADHD brains
• The difference between rituals and routines, and why rituals often feel softer, more grounding and more sustainable
• How to visualise the version of you that's working in flow, and what that tells you about what you actually need
• What it means to be your own energy detective and do a daily or weekly audit of what fills and depletes you
• Why knowing your why is one of the most powerful grounding tools you have
• Kate's four-pillar framework: energy awareness, time perception, body-based cues and returning to your values
• Why interoception, noticing hunger, thirst, tiredness and sensory input, matters more than most productivity advice acknowledgesLinks and Resources:
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Get the full ADHD Routines and Structures workshop with a 10% discount hereKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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45 min
Why You Keep Snapping at the People You Love with Anna Mathur
Episode 337
Show notes
The sharp words, the slammed drawer, the guilt that follows. If you've ever wondered how you became someone who snaps at the people you love most, this conversation is going to feel very familiar.
On this week's episode of The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast, I'm welcoming back psychotherapist and bestselling author Anna Mathur for a conversation that is honest, warm and full of the kind of insight you don't often get permission to sit with.
Anna is the author of multiple bestselling books and the host of The Therapy Edit podcast, which has reached over four million downloads. She's passionate about taking therapy beyond the consulting room and into the everyday moments where we actually need it most. Her new book, How to Stop Snapping at the People You Love (As Well As the Ones You Don't): A Compassionate Guide to Rage, Regulation and Repair, is out now, and we get into a lot of it here.
Anna and I talk about why snapping isn't a character flaw but a signal, what it's really communicating when everything feels like too much, and how so much of it connects to what we hold inside as women, as ADHD women, as people who were never really taught that anger was allowed. We also talk about hormones, perimenopause, sensory overwhelm, the cheese incident, WhatsApp groups, and why buying calm every day is not a luxury but a necessity.
Do also go back and listen to our previous conversation, which we'll link in the show notes, where we talked about burnout, exhaustion and holding it all together.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why snapping and irritability are signals of overwhelm rather than signs of being a bad person
• How the good girl conditioning many of us grew up with can turn unexpressed anger inward
• Why women with ADHD and neurodivergent women often have a more activated nervous system as a baseline
• The connection between perimenopause, hormonal shifts and rising irritability and sensory sensitivity
• Why masking all day means the dysregulation has to go somewhere, often home
How circumstantial overwhelm and internal stress create a perfect storm
• The unspoken narratives and generational conditioning that keep us holding what isn't ours to hold
• Why anger is not the enemy, and what happens when we finally listen to it
• The difference between rage and snapping, and why shame makes it harder to process either
• Practical ways to create circuit breakers across the day rather than relying on one big reset
• Why co-regulation starts with us, and how to buy calm when you have nothing left
• Anna's untangling framework from the book, and how to start befriending the anger rather than suppressing it
• The importance of finding people and spaces where you can fully unmaskTimestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introducing Anna Mathur back to the podcast
• 02:00 - What led Anna to write the book and why snapping shocked her so much
• 05:00 - The pressure cooker: why it all has to come out somewhere
• 08:00 - Viewing snapping through a neuro-affirming and hormonal lens
• 11:00 - How perimenopause amplified sensory sensitivity for Kate and Anna
• 14:00 - Circumstantial versus internal stress and why both matter
• 17:00 - The unspoken truths, suppressed emotions and generational conditioning
• 20:00 - The things we're not saying and how to start listening to that inner voice
• 24:00 - Rewiring the cognitive narrative that keeps us agreeable at our own expense
• 27:00 - Late diagnosis, masking and the dysregulation that comes home with us
• 30:00 - Recognising your personal warning signs before the Richter scale tips
• 34:00 - The WhatsApp group tipping point and what it's really about
• 38:00 - How to buy calm: rest, joy, unmasking and snacking on regulation
• 42:00 - Why co-regulation with our children starts with resourcing ourselves
• 45:00 - Anna's untangling framework: befriending anger and finding grace in the messLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Connect with the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Visit Anna's website: https://www.annamathur.com/
• Connect with Anna on Instagram
• Listen to Anna's podcast: The Therapy Edit
• Get Anna's book: How to Stop Snapping at the People You Love (As Well As the Ones You Don't)
• Listen to Kate's previous conversation with Anna hereKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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23 min
What is RSD Alongside ADHD?
Episode 335
Show notes
Want to join our first-ever live podcast and Q&A this week?More info here
Have you always been more sensitive than most people you know to rejection, criticism or the feeling that you've fallen short? If that question just landed somewhere deep, this episode is for you.
Today I'm sharing a clip from one of my most popular workshops, "What Is RSD?," as a way of bringing this topic back into focus, because rejection sensitive dysphoria is one of those things that so many of us have felt our entire lives without ever having the language for it.
In this clip, I talk about what Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria actually is, how Dr William Dodson first articulated it, how it shows up physically and emotionally, and why understanding it as a neurological trait rather than a personality flaw changes everything. I also share some practical ways to begin working with RSD rather than against it, including how EFT tapping can help calm the nervous system response in the moment and over time.
The full RSD workshop is available on my website with 10% off here
In this episode, we cover:
• What rejection sensitive dysphoria is and how it was first identified and named
• Why RSD shows up as part of the emotional dysregulation profile of ADHD
• What RSD can feel like physically, not just emotionally, and why that matters
• How RSD shows up across childhood, relationships, work, parenting and social life
• Why RSD episodes can feel all-consuming and then end surprisingly quickly
• How past social trauma can resurface and amplify RSD triggers later in life
• Why keeping your guard up to avoid RSD can become its own form of exhaustion
• The self-regulation tools that can help including EFT, DBT, somatic work and breathwork
• How lifestyle foundations like sleep, movement and nutrition build resilience against RSD
• Why EFT tapping helps calm the amygdala and reduce cortisol in the moment
• A simple introduction to tapping and how to use it before, during or after an RSD episodelookingAre you Looking for further support on ADHDWomen's Wellbeing? Check out my workshop library here or search for any topic on the Podcast here.
Timestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introduction to today's More Yourself episode
• 01:30 - Why RSD is such an important part of understanding ADHD
• 04:00 - The workshop clip begins: Dr William Dodson's defining question
• 05:30 - What RSD is and how it shows up emotionally and physically
• 08:00 - The clear trigger, the mood shift and why episodes can end as suddenly as they start
• 10:00 - How past social trauma can keep RSD patterns alive
• 12:00 - How RSD impacts self-esteem, relationships, parenting and career
• 14:00 - What we can do: self-regulation tools, EFT, DBT and somatic approaches
• 16:00 - Why brain and gut health matter for RSD resilience
• 18:00 - Self-talk, journaling and the self-compassion that only you can give yourself
• 20:00 - EFT tapping explained: the meridian points, cortisol reduction and the amygdala
• 22:00 - How tapping creates perspective and shifts the threat response
• 24:00 - Using tapping before a difficult situation to stay regulatedLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Get the full What Is RSD? workshop with 10% off hereKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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49 min
Hormones Are the Missing Piece of the Female ADHD Puzzle
Episode 336
Show notes
Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
So many of us were told for years that our painful periods, flooding cycles, monthly mood crashes and hormonal struggles were just something to push through. This compilation episode is about what's actually been going on hormonally all along.
This week's episode is all about the overlap between ADHD, hormones and women's health — a connection Kate has been talking about since the very beginning of the podcast, and one that is still not being taken seriously enough in clinical practice.
We hear from three conversations. Dr Lotta Borg Skoglund, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and specialist in ADHD and hormonal health, on the link between estrogen and heart health, why perimenopause doesn't follow a straight line, and why so many neurodivergent women are still being told they're too young or not symptomatic enough to be taken seriously.
Dr Liz Murray, doctor, activist and author of Not Just Painful Periods, on her own decade-long road to an endometriosis diagnosis, what coming off the pill without the right information can do, and what she's doing through her charity to change the way the next generation of doctors are trained.
And Laura Federico and Morgan Miller, authors of The Cycle Book, on why cycle tracking is so much more than period data, how it can help us understand RSD, mood, energy and focus across the month, and why reconnecting with our bodies might be one of the most compassionate things we can do for ourselves.
In this episode, we cover:
• The link between estrogen, heart health and menopause, and why this is the number one cause of death in post-menopausal women
• Why perimenopause doesn't follow a straight line, and why symptoms can start long before periods become irregular
• Why neurodivergent women are more likely to experience PMDD, endometriosis, PCOS and severe PMS
• How losing estrogen suddenly can significantly raise cardiovascular risk, and why this is so often dismissed
• Dr Liz Murray's own endometriosis story, and why being a doctor didn't protect her from a delayed diagnosis
• What can happen when women come off the pill without understanding what it may have been masking
• Why the conversation GPs need to have with women about the pill is still not happening
• What women need to know about the red flag symptoms that warrant further investigation
• The overlap between ADHD, hypermobility, connective tissue issues and hormonal conditions
• Why cycle tracking is far more than knowing when your period is due
• How tracking can help you notice patterns like RSD intensifying in the second half of your cycle
• Why reconnecting to your body, even briefly each day, is a genuinely life-changing actTimestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introduction to this week's compilation
• 03:00 - Dr Lotta Borg Skoglund: estrogen, heart health and what women need to know
• 06:00 - Why cardiovascular risk rises after menopause, and what that means for ADHD women
• 08:00 - The lifestyle factors that compound risk for neurodivergent women
• 10:00 - Why perimenopause symptoms can appear while periods are still regular
• 12:00 - The confusion of fluctuating estrogen levels and what it feels like from the inside
• 16:00 - Dr Liz Murray: a decade to diagnosis and what went wrong
• 18:00 - How the pill masked endometriosis and what coming off it without guidance cost her
• 20:00 - What GPs can do, and the conversations that still aren't happening
• 22:00 - Red flags that warrant further investigation, and why you don't need to wait
• 24:00 - The overlap between ADHD, neurodivergence and hormonal conditions
• 28:00 - What Liz's charity is doing to change how future doctors are trained
• 31:00 - Laura Federico and Morgan Miller: cycle tracking as a tool for self-understanding
• 35:00 - Tracking through perimenopause, HRT and changing cycles
• 37:00 - How cycle data helps you understand mood, energy and RSD across the month
• 39:00 - Coming back into your body as a radical act of self-compassion
• 42:00 - Tracking when your cycle isn't regular or predictableLinks and Resources:
Kate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity. Discover my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here• Visit Dr Lotta Borg Skoglund's website: lottaborgskoglund.com
• Connect with Dr Lotta Borg Skoglund on Instagram
• Get Dr Lotta Borg Skoglund's book: Female Hormones and ADHD: The Impact on Brain and Body
• Visit Dr Liz Murray's website: drlizmurray.com
• Connect with Dr Liz Murray on Instagram
• Get Dr Liz Murray's book: Not Just Painful Periods: Endometriosis, Fibroids and Menstrual Health
• Visit Laura and Morgan's website: itslauraandmorgan.com
• Get The Cycle Book: An Interactive Step-by-Step Guide to Tracking Hormones and Knowing Your BodyLearn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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47 min
The Diagnosis Is Just the Beginning: Self-Acceptance with ADHD
Episode 333
Show notes
Looking for further guidance and support on ADHD Women's Wellbeing? Check out my workshop library here or search for any topic on the Podcast here.
So many of us arrive at an ADHD diagnosis carrying years of shame, self-criticism and the quiet belief that something is fundamentally wrong with us. This episode is about what starts to shift when we finally have the right information.
Welcome to this week's summer compilation. This one follows the journey from diagnosis to self-acceptance: the barriers so many of us still face in getting taken seriously, the practical tools that can help us quieten the inner critic, and a completely different way of seeing our ADHD traits, not as defects to fix, but as strengths that just need the right context and support.
We hear from three guests across three different conversations. Vicki George, clinical nurse specialist and founder of The ADHD Nurse, on what the DIVA-5 assessment is really meant to be, why ADHD still carries more stigma than almost any other mental health condition, and how to advocate for yourself with a GP even when it feels uncomfortable.
Cynthia Hammer, author of Living with Inattentive ADHD and founder of the Inattentive ADHD Coalition, on how understanding and accepting a diagnosis can bring more happiness even when the symptoms themselves haven't changed, and why replacing negative self-talk requires something to replace it with.
And Hannah Miller, author of The Purpose Pursuit and host of The Purpose Pursuit Podcast, on what limiting beliefs actually are, how self-sabotage shows up for ADHD women, and her four-part framework for taking stock of where you are and finding your way forward.
In this episode, we cover:
• What the DIVA-5 assessment is and why it should be a guided conversation, not a form you fill out alone
• Why ADHD diagnosis still carries more stigma than most other mental health conditions, and how unhelpful media headlines keep feeding that
• Why a GP cannot refuse to refer you for an ADHD assessment, and how to keep the appointment focused on that goal
• The challenges of titration and why finding the right medication is rarely a quick or straightforward process
• How understanding and accepting a diagnosis brought more happiness to the women Cynthia interviewed, even when their symptoms hadn't changed
• Why you can't simply get rid of a negative thought without replacing it with something else, and what that can look like in practice
• Why earlier diagnosis matters so much, and why girls with inattentive ADHD are still so frequently missed
• Hannah's four-part framework: taking stock, naming your strengths, identifying limiting behaviours and clarifying your values
• Why our traits are not defects, and how Clifton Strengths can help neurodivergent women begin to see themselves differently
• Why we don't have to be everything, and how leaning on others' strengths is part of thriving, not failingTimestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introduction to this week's compilation
• 03:00 - Vicki George: what the DIVA-5 assessment is and why it matters
• 06:00 - Why the person being assessed is always believed over a parent or observer
• 08:00 - Why ADHD still carries more stigma than other mental health conditions
• 10:30 - How to advocate for yourself with a GP and what they can and can't do
• 13:00 - Titration, medication and why the process is so rarely straightforward
• 18:00 - Cynthia Hammer: how diagnosis brings happiness even when symptoms remain
• 21:00 - Interrupting negative self-talk and why replacement matters
• 24:00 - Why girls with inattentive ADHD are still being missed by standard tools
• 27:00 - Why whole-family screening matters when one person is diagnosed
• 30:00 - Hannah Miller: what happens when diagnosis collides with limiting beliefs
• 33:00 - The four-part framework: taking stock, strengths, limiting behaviors, values
• 36:00 - Why traits we've labelled as flaws can become our greatest strengths
• 39:00 - Clifton Strengths and why it works well for neurodivergent women
• 42:00 - We don't have to be everything, we just have to be good at somethingLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in e-book and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Visit Vicki George's website: https://theadhdnurse.co.uk/
• Connect with Vicki George on Instagram
• Visit Cynthia Hammer's website: https://www.iadhd.org/
• Connect with Cynthia Hammer on Instagram
• Get Cynthia Hammer's book: Living with Inattentive ADHD: Climbing the Circular Staircase of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Visit Cynthia's advocacy project: https://findtheadhdgirls.org/
• Visit Hannah Miller's website: https://www.hellosidekick.co/
• Connect with Hannah Miller on Instagram
• Get Hannah Miller's book: The Purpose Pursuit
• Listen to Hannah's podcast: The Purpose Pursuit PodcastKate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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43 min
Stop Trying to Hack Your ADHD and Do This Instead
Episode 333
Show notes
Looking for further guidance and support on ADHD Women's Wellbeing? Check out my workshop library here or search for any topic on the Podcast here.
If you've ever tried an ADHD productivity hack, felt briefly hopeful, and then quietly gone back to exactly how you were before, this episode is for you.
Welcome to this week's summer compilation. This one is all about redefining what productivity actually means for ADHD brains, and letting go of the neurotypical advice that was never designed for the way our minds work.
We hear from four guests across four different conversations. Ari Tuckman on why productivity isn't about doing more, but about creating a life that has more meaning and breathing room in it. Dr Jacob Santhouse on automaticity, why everyday tasks like filling in a form are so much more mentally exhausting for neurodivergent brains, and why that is not a character flaw. Sonia Ponzo on the paralysis state, interoception, and why ADHD brains so often struggle to read what their body actually needs in any given moment. Dr Claire Plumbly on the three states of the nervous system, what it means to get stuck in fight or flight, and how burnout can build so slowly we almost don't notice it. And Laura Willis on digital overload, the default mode network, and why a real rest is not the same as switching from emails to scrolling.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why quick-fix productivity hacks rarely work for ADHD brains, and what to aim for instead
• How genuine productivity creates meaning and more time for the things that matter, rather than just getting more done
• What automaticity is and why struggling with everyday admin tasks is a neurological difference, not a personal failing
• Why form-filling, reading and life admin can deplete an ADHD brain so much faster than people realise
• What the paralysis state is and why knowing what to do is not the same as being able to start
• What interoception is and why ADHD brains often misread what they actually need, leading to cycles of shame and self-blame
• The autonomic nervous system explained: green, amber and red, and why so many of us get stuck oscillating between the last two
• How burnout can build quietly over time rather than arriving all at once
• Why scrolling on your phone during a break is not actually a break, and what the default mode network needs instead
• Practical, sustainable ways to create boundaries around technology that protect your energy and your headspaceTimestamps:
• 00:00 - Welcome and introduction to this week's summer compilation
• 03:00 - Ari Tuckman: why productivity hacks rarely work for ADHD brains
• 05:30 - What real productivity looks like: meaning, not just output
• 08:00 - The importance of immediate rewards over vague long-term goals
• 10:00 - Sleep, nutrition, movement and flexible routine as the actual foundations
• 13:00 - Kate and Ari on the ADHD brain's contradictions and daily recalibrations
• 16:00 - Dr Jacob Santhouse: what automaticity is and why it matters
• 19:00 - How automaticity affects working memory and executive function
• 21:30 - Why form-filling is exhausting, and what to do about it
• 24:00 - Playing to your strengths and letting go of the guilt
• 27:00 - Sonia Ponzo: the paralysis state and why you can't always start
• 31:00 - What interoception is and why ADHD brains struggle with it
• 35:00 - The cycle of self-shame when we misread what our body needs
• 37:00 - Practical ways to start training interoception
• 41:00 - Dr Claire Plumbly: the autonomic nervous system explained
• 44:00 - Green, amber and red: rest and digest, fight or flight, and shutdown
• 48:00 - What it looks and feels like to get stuck in amber or red
• 51:00 - Kate on losing access to contentment and compassion during burnout
• 53:00 - Laura Willis: why scrolling is not a rest
• 55:00 - The default mode network and what a real mental break actually does
• 57:00 - Practical boundaries: phones out of reach, batch working and scheduled screen timeLinks and Resources:
• Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
• Connect with the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
• Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
• Join the More Yourself membership community here
• Visit Dr Ari Tuckman's website: https://www.drarituckman.com/
• Connect with Dr Ari Tuckman on Instagram
• Get Dr Ari Tuckman's book: The ADHD Productivity Manual
• Connect with Dr Jacob Santhouse on Instagram
• Get Dr Jacob Santhouse's book: Dyslexia Explained: Your Toolkit to Understanding and Thriving
• Visit Sonia Ponzo's website: https://www.outsetwellness.com/
• Connect with Sonia Ponzo on Instagram
• Visit Dr Claire Plumbly's website: https://www.drclaireplumbly.com/
• Get Dr Claire Plumbly's book: Burnout: How to Manage Your Nervous System Before It Manages You
• Connect with Dr Claire Plumbly on Instagram
• Visit Laura Willis's website: https://www.laura-willis.com/Kate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity, and clarity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
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