It’s Not What You Think

Award-winning ABC journalist and independent filmmaker, Adelaide Miller has a lot going on. Over the last five years she's been diagnosed with OCD, an eating disorder, mild tourettes and ADHD. 
 
Adelaide talks to Penny and Alison about the symptoms she experienced as a child, the painful and awkward lengths she would go to, to make others feel happy and loved and how she's worked to unpack the different components of her neurodivergence and mental health. 
 
We discuss eating disorders in this episode, so if you need help please contact The Butterfly Foundation
 
Show notes: 
The Man Who Couldn't Stop by David Adam

Season 3 is here! We're kicking things off with a relaxed catch-up between the girls-  chatting about Angie's recent ADHD diagnosis, Penny's honest account of an OCD relapse and Alison's mental gymnastics in the holidays. We also give you a little taste of the incredible guests we have lined up for the season ahead.

OCD can take so much from people, and a devastating effect of this illness is that it can complicate friendships. In this last episode of season 2, Alison Cosker joins Penny and Ange again to talk about how and why this is the case.

They touch on:

- How hard it can be to tell friends about an OCD diagnosis 
- The strain a mental illness, with no end-date can put on friendships
- The boundaries that people with mental illness often have to put in place to look after themselves, and how this can be misconstrued
- How friends can get entangled in the reassurance web
- Trying to take the ego out of friendship where possible 

They end by giving tips for trying to maintain precious friendships; from the point of views of the person with and without OCD

The guest this week is Monique Mitchelson, a neurodivergent clinical psychologist and co- host of the very popular Neurodivergent Woman podcast. 

 
Monique very generously shares her story about growing up in Queensland as an undiagnosed autistic adhd’er with OCD and learning more about her brain (and her family’s brains) once she became a psychologist. In this ep the following subjects are discussed:
- Why Monique decided to get into psychology 
- How so much changed once she received her diagnoses as an adult 
- Being a neurodivergent clinician and being open about being on medication 
- The interplay of symptoms when you have ASD, adhd and ocd with chronic health conditions 
- The motivations that drive the behaviour of people with neurotypical vs neurodivergent brains
- The risk of burnout for neurodivergent women
- Some of the differences behind the motivations that drive behaviours of kids with ocd and ASD 
 
The Neurodivergent Woman podcast

Did you know that Tourette Syndrome (TS) and OCD frequently co-occur? Penny and Angie talk to Jason McCurry who has TS and OCD. Jason talks so generously about:

- Experiencing both TS and OCD symptoms as a kid in a country town
- How OCD and TS interrelate 
- What actually happens physically when he starts ticking
- How physically arduous constant ticking can be for someone with TS
- His trepidation about coming onto the podcast, particularly with his TS flaring up a bit recently
- How he would like people to react if his TS symptoms flare up in public 
- How and why he now helps young people experiencing disability 
 
CYDA
For more info about Tourette Syndrome:
Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia