ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast

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 surgery

Timestamps:

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 Victoria

Links 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: victoriagalvis.com

Get the book: Neurodivergence in Primary Care: A Practical Guide for UK Healthcare Professionals - Also available free on Kindle Unlimited

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

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 acknowledges

Links 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 here

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

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 unmask

Timestamps:

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 mess

Links 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: 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 here

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

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 episode

lookingAre you Looking for further support on ADHD Women'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 regulated

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 the full What Is RSD? workshop with 10% off here

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

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 act

Timestamps:

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 predictable

Links 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 Body

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices