ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast

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.

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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:

How our understanding of ADHD has changed since Kathleen began working in the field in the late 1970s

Why ADHD was once seen almost entirely as a condition affecting hyperactive young boys

The moment Kathleen began recognising ADHD in parents, adults and within her own family

Why bright, high-achieving children can have ADHD even when they're doing exceptionally well academically

Looking beyond traditional ADHD diagnostic criteria to understand the wider experience

How girls and women with ADHD were overlooked and the work that began changing that

Rejection sensitivity, feeling different and the impact of growing up without an explanation for your ADHD

Why ADHD can be both challenging and a source of curiosity, connection and different ways of thinking

Whether our schools and workplaces are asking ADHD brains to function in environments that don't suit them

ADHD hormones, puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause and why the research is still catching up

Why women's ADHD symptoms have so often been misdiagnosed as anxiety or depression

What happens when psychiatry, women's health and other areas of medicine operate in separate silos

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

Why a late diagnosis can offer more healing than regret

Kathleen's “right garden” approach and finding the environments, relationships and work where you can thrive

High-achieving ADHD women who hold everything together at work before collapsing behind closed doors

The invisible expectations still placed on women to manage families, homes, relationships and emotional labour

Why ADHD treatment needs to go beyond medication, coaching or therapy in isolation

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 ilat.org

Visit Kathleen's website at drkathleennadeau.com

Connect with Kathleen on LinkedIn

Find out more and register for the ILAT Global Summit (online) at 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 work

Timestamps:

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 Amanda

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 Amanda’s book, Brain First Business: The ADHD Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success

Visit Amanda’s website: 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

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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 people

Timestamps:

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 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 by Understood.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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 time

Timestamps:

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): drbrighten.com/adhd-and-women

Visit Jolene's website for free articles on hormones, ADHD, PMDD and endometriosis: drbrighten.com

Listen to Jolene's podcast: The Dr. Brighten Show

Connect with Jolene on Instagram: @drjolenebrighten

Watch Jolene on YouTube: @DrJoleneBrighten

See 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 Miserably

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 megaphone.fm/adchoices