When “Ditzy” Is Finally Diagnosed as ADHD With Jen Barton [Video]

By Understood

After losing her mom at 23 and having kids starting at 27, writer Jen Barton, now 39 with four kids, was in a strange place. For the first time in a long time, she wasn’t feeling overly anxious or depressed. She felt creative and was bonding with her kids. But still, something “wasn’t right.” She started looking under every rock for an answer to her disorganization, “ditziness,” and chaos. What she found…was ADHD.

Hear from Jen, who wrote the “British Vogue” article “Why Does No One Believe My ADHD Diagnosis?” She talks about ADHD in women, parenting with ADHD, and how her perspective has changed now that she’s been diagnosed with ADHD.

To find a transcript for this episode and more resources, visit the episode page at Understood. https://www.understood.org/podcast/ad…

We love hearing from our listeners. Email us at ADHDAha@understood.org.

Understood is a nonprofit and social impact organization dedicated to shaping a world where the 1 in 5 people who learn and think differently can thrive. Learn more about “ADHD Aha!” and all our podcasts at u.org/podcasts.

Copyright © 2021 Understood for All, Inc. All rights reserved. Understood is not affiliated with any pharmaceutical company.

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

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0:41
so i’m someone who has always been
0:45
chaotic
0:46
overwhelmed
0:48
and i have a lot going on so there’s
0:49
always an excuse for my chaos i lost my
0:52
mom when i was 23 and then by 27 i was
0:55
pregnant with my first and then have
0:56
been having children until you know the
0:59
last few years basically so i haven’t
1:01
really come up for air and this was the
1:04
first time that i was able to be lucid i
1:07
didn’t have hormones coursing through me
1:08
i wasn’t pregnant or trying to get
1:10
pregnant or feeding or whatever whatever
1:12
it was and i wasn’t actively grieving in
1:14
the way that i think i had been through
1:16
so much of this period and then i
1:18
realized that actually hang on i’m 39
1:20
i’m not anxious right now i’m not
1:22
depressed but something is not working
1:25
for me i cannot do certain things i am
1:27
struggling to compute in certain ways
1:30
and that’s what made me start thinking
1:32
that hang on something else is going on
1:34
because i know what mental health stuff
1:36
looks like and this was not that
1:40
[Music]
1:43
from the understood podcast network this
1:45
is adhd aha a podcast where people share
1:48
the moment when it finally clicked that
1:50
they or someone they know has adhd
1:54
my name is laura key i’m the editorial
1:56
director here at understood and as
1:58
someone who’s had my own adhd aha moment
2:01
i’ll be your host
2:02
[Music]
2:05
i’m here today with jen barton jen is a
2:07
freelance writer who’s from new york but
2:09
lives in london she has four kids and
2:12
she has adhd welcome jen
2:15
hey thanks so much it’s so nice to be
2:16
here so jen i want to ask you about the
2:19
article that you wrote for british vogue
2:22
called why does no one believe my adhd
2:25
diagnosis i was instantly drawn to this
2:28
title for many personal reasons but my
2:30
main question for you just to kick
2:32
things off is
2:34
why did you decide to write this now
2:36
so i’m someone who
2:39
has had adhd their whole lives but i
2:42
haven’t known it so it’s something that
2:44
i’ve only recently discovered about
2:46
myself through research and putting some
2:50
puzzle pieces
2:52
together that make up my personality and
2:54
a lot of the things i excel at but also
2:56
struggle with and i now have a confirmed
2:59
diagnosis from a psychiatrist which in
3:02
my understanding is how you
3:04
sort of are fully
3:05
diagnosed which isn’t the easiest
3:07
process and i feel lucky that i’ve been
3:08
able to go down that road to get that
3:11
assessment so that’s just been a very
3:13
recent journey for me so this is the
3:14
last six months of my life have very
3:16
much been focused on this and
3:18
recognizing this and looking back and
3:21
also looking forward thinking about how
3:23
i’m gonna lead my life now that i’m
3:25
aware of this because a lot of things
3:27
have clicked into place you mentioned
3:28
putting the puzzle pieces together what
3:30
pieces did you put together so i’m
3:33
someone who has always been
3:36
chaotic overwhelmed
3:38
and i have a lot going on so there’s
3:40
always an excuse for my chaos i can’t
3:43
really function that well in a lot of
3:44
ways but i have four kids and they’re
3:46
you know until recently we’re all under
3:48
10. so of course i’m chaotic and
3:50
suddenly the pandemic happened and i
3:53
really went into myself i
3:55
i actually found it quite calming not
3:57
having to do the scheduled everything
3:59
even though it was i you know it was
4:00
difficult
4:01
trying to keep everyone happy at home
4:03
but actually i find life stressful i
4:06
find scheduling stressful i find getting
4:07
places on time stressful so not having
4:09
that really allowed me to breathe and it
4:12
was also this sort of recognition of
4:14
being
4:15
in probably the best mental health place
4:18
i’d been in for my entire adulthood
4:20
because i lost my mom when i was 23 and
4:22
then by 27 i was pregnant with my first
4:25
and then have been having children until
4:27
you know the last few years basically
4:30
and so have been in that sort of cycle
4:32
so i haven’t really come up for air
4:34
and this was the first time i guess you
4:36
could say that i had come up for air
4:38
that i was able to be lucid i didn’t
4:40
have hormones coursing through me i
4:42
wasn’t pregnant or trying to get
4:43
pregnant or feeding or whatever whatever
4:45
it was and i wasn’t actively grieving in
4:47
the way that i think i had been through
4:49
so much of this period because it had
4:51
been 15 years since that had happened
4:53
and i was in this very s
4:56
strange place for me which was happy and
4:59
calm i’m not overly anxious and not
5:02
depressed and i felt creative and i felt
5:03
like i was bonding with my kids
5:05
however
5:06
something was weird something wasn’t
5:08
right and i couldn’t pinpoint it and i
5:10
was struggling to find it and you know
5:12
this is why i went into therapy i was
5:14
looking under every rock trying to
5:16
figure out what this thing was
5:19
and nobody was giving me the answers
5:22
until suddenly i started seeing all of
5:25
these things about how you know all of
5:28
these terms that i had been referred to
5:30
my whole life
5:31
started coming together as a diagnosis
5:34
and that was just a very sort of i think
5:37
that was an a-ha for me because everyone
5:39
had always called me really ditzy and i
5:42
was always considered really out of it
5:44
and kind of
5:46
i don’t know lost and messy and
5:48
disorganized and i can’t clean my house
5:51
and i remember having this conversation
5:52
with my friends saying i’m really
5:53
stressed out because the pandemic has
5:55
made my house
5:56
unlivable practically i don’t know what
5:58
to do but i don’t even know where to
5:59
start and she had sort of said oh well
6:01
you’re probably too depressed to clean
6:03
it up and that really stood out for me
6:05
because i wasn’t depressed and i said no
6:06
i’m happy i just can’t physically do it
6:10
so it’s sort of this combination of
6:12
those moments maybe it was that
6:13
conversation even what types of symptoms
6:16
were bubbling up to the surface for you
6:18
that were different that felt different
6:20
than say anxiety or other things that
6:22
you may have struggled with so i’ve
6:23
never been good at paperwork i live in
6:25
london and i’m from new york and so i’ve
6:28
definitely been a person who over the
6:30
course of my time here has applied for
6:32
visas and filled out the paperwork wrong
6:34
and you know been denied a visa so
6:37
things that are you know quite
6:38
potentially stressful life-changing
6:40
experiences have become almost
6:42
debilitating so because of that history
6:45
i can’t even look at paperwork i had
6:46
four passports that had expired and the
6:49
idea of renewing them was you know
6:52
making me feel really quite unwell
6:54
physically just even thinking about it
6:56
let alone even attempting to contemplate
6:58
it so that type of stuff there’s a lot
7:00
of sort of normal quote-unquote adult
7:03
functioning behavior that i struggle
7:05
with so i i don’t drive i get lost all
7:08
the time and i get really panicked when
7:09
i’m driving so i try not to drive which
7:12
when you have four children can and they
7:13
have all different activities can be
7:14
difficult so there’s sort of a few
7:16
things like that and i’ve been relying
7:18
more and more on my husband who was very
7:20
organized and very good at this stuff to
7:22
do that and that made me on the one hand
7:24
feel really lucky that he was so helpful
7:26
and amazing but on the other hand feel
7:28
really worried because i you know i i
7:30
pride myself on being the
7:31
self-sufficient working functioning
7:34
creative person and actually i wasn’t
7:36
really functioning that well
7:38
i have to share this with you jen
7:39
because it’s so similar to what you just
7:41
said i just changed my name a few months
7:43
ago i’ve been married for 10 years i was
7:45
so overwhelmed at the thought of
7:47
updating my paperwork i could not find a
7:50
way to start that task and i finally
7:52
kind of gathered myself with the help of
7:54
my husband and i was like i want to
7:55
change my name well that’s amazing
7:56
that’s such a huge step so i’m really
7:58
happy for you that you managed to do
7:59
that because i know personally how i
8:02
feel about things like that and that to
8:03
me that would be a huge achievement
8:05
doing that
8:08
[Music]
8:17
can you tell me what you used to think
8:19
adhd was
8:20
growing up in new york and being in high
8:23
school in the 90s at a certain type of
8:25
school there was definitely this thing
8:26
of like adhd was a way to get extra time
8:29
on tests it was definitely like a pushy
8:30
parent wanting it for their kids kind of
8:33
thing so those were sort of my ideas of
8:36
adhd but now i think oh gosh it would
8:38
have been really helpful if i’d had that
8:40
diagnosis sooner and how is that
8:42
different from what you know now what
8:44
does it look like in you can you
8:46
describe your symptoms for me yeah so
8:48
actually according to my psychiatrist i
8:50
have pretty severe adhd which is
8:53
interesting to me because it’s
8:54
astounding that i haven’t known this for
8:57
39 years my biggest symptoms are
9:00
i guess you could describe me as either
9:01
being kind of out of it or
9:04
lost a little bit and both the literal
9:06
sense i mean i lived in new york for
9:09
decades and i couldn’t tell you if you
9:11
asked me for directions in new york i
9:12
would probably send you in the wrong
9:14
direction my executive functioning is
9:16
off-key i lose things all the time i
9:18
lose my keys you know multiple times a
9:21
day now i’ve started losing them
9:22
permanently i’ve had to buy these giant
9:23
sort of stuffed animal keychains just to
9:26
keep track the more i have going on the
9:28
more likely i am to sort of mess up but
9:30
then at the same time i’m incredibly
9:33
impulsive and impulsivity for me
9:35
looks again different to what i thought
9:37
impulsivity could look like so my
9:38
impulsivity is i can’t say no someone
9:40
will ask me to do something and i won’t
9:42
have time or i won’t be able to but i
9:44
won’t be able to address that or even
9:46
take a beat to say
9:48
let me check i’ll just say yes so i have
9:50
days where i’ll have
9:52
25 to 30 things scheduled not an
9:54
exaggeration and will attempt to do all
9:57
of them because i still don’t have a
9:59
sense maybe that this is not feasible
10:02
and so that’s been a big sort of
10:04
struggle and obviously an increasing
10:06
struggle as i’m trying to manage my
10:08
children’s schedules as well as my own
10:10
something that happens a lot on this
10:12
show and it’s not something that i
10:13
anticipated but it’s something that i
10:15
find really
10:16
kind of cathartic at least personally is
10:19
on this show when people come on
10:21
especially
10:22
adults who are talking about their own
10:24
later in life diagnosis
10:26
i find that they often
10:27
retrace their steps from when they were
10:30
kids and there’s a lot of looking back
10:32
and
10:33
remembering things that happened when
10:35
you were growing up that you never
10:37
thought about in a certain way until now
10:39
and now you have this diagnosis and
10:40
you’re like oh that’s why
10:42
does that ever happen for you yes i’ve
10:44
been doing a lot of that in my life just
10:46
because
10:47
you do sort of want to understand how
10:50
this is manifested in different ways but
10:51
definitely as a child
10:53
whenever i had to do anything
10:54
independently
10:56
it was always a bit of a hit or miss
10:59
situation so i’d become obsessed by
11:00
things so i was obsessed with books like
11:03
totally obsessed so i could read
11:04
non-stop anything related to english or
11:07
literature or reading was just amazing
11:10
and i was hyper focused on and wonderful
11:12
and then it would get to some other
11:14
stuff that i should have been okay at
11:17
and i could not even you know begin to
11:19
engage but that’s something that i’ve
11:21
been thinking about a lot because i’ve
11:22
always just thought oh i’m really bad at
11:24
math for example and actually now i
11:26
think well maybe i wasn’t really bad i
11:28
just didn’t have the tools
11:30
to learn it at the time and then i also
11:32
i used to be a classical ballerina so i
11:34
used to really train very intensively
11:36
for 10 years alongside school and i do
11:39
wonder because it’s really interesting
11:41
because i think well i was never
11:42
hyperactive but then i on the other side
11:44
of the coin i think well hang on i was
11:47
dancing intensely for about five hours a
11:49
day with schoolwork for years and years
11:52
so of course none of that
11:54
sort of energy would manifest itself
11:57
maybe in a negative way because it was
11:58
all being poured into this so there are
12:00
definitely things that are making a lot
12:01
more sense to me now
12:03
that i’m older and have the benefit of
12:05
hindsight i’m definitely also putting
12:07
things together between a lot of my
12:09
mother’s behaviors i just grew up with
12:10
my mom there were no siblings it was
12:12
just the two of us and a lot of things
12:14
you know i think what you think is your
12:15
norm because it’s what you experience
12:17
i’m now starting to think hang on a lot
12:20
of her behaviors actually might have
12:21
been
12:22
adhd sort of related and that’s
12:25
something that i’m also
12:26
fascinated by tell me more about your
12:29
mom what was she like
12:31
i mean she was wild she was amazing just
12:33
very creative and quirky and marching to
12:36
the beat of her own drummer and i think
12:39
one of the reasons i could never see
12:40
myself also as sort of being
12:42
neurodivergent is because i seemed so
12:45
tame so i think that because she was my
12:47
barometer there’s no way i could think i
12:50
was anything other than whatever she
12:52
wasn’t but now i’m thinking hang on a
12:55
second i sort of go left when everyone
12:57
goes right and
12:59
i’m quirky in my own way and i have my
13:01
own style and so i’m starting to think
13:03
hang on maybe the apple hasn’t fallen
13:05
quite so far from the tree how about
13:07
your husband how does he feel about your
13:09
diagnosis does it make sense to him is
13:11
he like oh yeah of course it’s
13:13
definitely been i’d say
13:15
interesting for our marriage and good
13:17
for our marriage it makes sense to him
13:19
in a lot of ways i’ve known my husband
13:21
since i was 20. so a large part of my
13:23
growing up has been with someone
13:26
alongside me who can say i now
13:28
understand why this and this and this
13:29
were happening that’s another thing i
13:31
guess i used to really take things very
13:34
personally my sensitivity was off the
13:36
charts i was always called super intense
13:39
by people who never knew me and that’s
13:41
been a big struggle my whole life so
13:43
he’s had to deal with a lot of likes
13:44
he’s known me for a long time
13:46
and
13:47
one of the best things that he’s seen
13:49
come out of this is that i’m on a low
13:51
dose of medication from adhd and the
13:54
emotions have really
13:56
quietened and it’s not that i’ve changed
13:58
or become someone different i’m still me
13:59
i’m still creative and funny and quirky
14:02
but oh my gosh i’m not raging or sobbing
14:05
or mad at myself and telling myself i’m
14:08
horrible that took up a lot of emotional
14:10
energy for both of us so that’s been
14:12
really good can you tell me about
14:14
before you took medication and you used
14:16
the word raging can you tell me about
14:18
that one good example that i can think
14:21
of is so i was in therapy this sort of
14:23
delayed grief therapy over the pandemic
14:26
and it quickly became apparent that
14:28
actually a lot of the stuff that i
14:30
thought that i was worried about this is
14:32
one of the reasons i ended up getting
14:33
the adhd assessment is that i thought i
14:35
was really upset about grief and
14:37
abandonment from my dad and it turned
14:39
out that a lot of what i wanted to talk
14:40
about with the therapist was actually
14:42
what was going on every day like i’d
14:44
have this sort of irrational fight with
14:46
my eldest who’s a tween and it was
14:48
always escalating and then i was like
14:50
i’m the adult why am i escalating this
14:52
and i couldn’t really understand and it
14:54
was becoming something that was really
14:55
upsetting for me because i wasn’t really
14:58
being the mom in that situation i was
15:00
being like the wounded friend and that
15:03
has been a pattern my whole life and so
15:05
sort of recognizing that or you know i
15:07
would just go from zero to
15:10
a thousand based on nothing but it it
15:12
wasn’t in my control and then afterwards
15:14
i would be sort of ravaged by guilt and
15:16
it’s not like anything would happen i
15:17
mostly would just sort of sob and i have
15:20
to take myself out of the situation but
15:22
it was very difficult i think to be
15:24
around me oh wow jen yeah i am so much
15:27
more of an adult i guess quote unquote
15:29
with my kids when my medication is on
15:32
and working at night i think you use the
15:34
term wounded child that happens with me
15:36
as well and it just makes me feel so
15:37
awful when i act like that it makes me
15:39
feel ashamed and i feel guilty and like
15:41
come on laura you’re better than this
15:43
two things have been transformative a
15:45
recognizing
15:46
that there’s a name for all of this
15:48
stuff that it’s not just that i’m bad at
15:50
stuff or that i’m
15:51
non-functional you know you start to
15:53
really beat yourself up if after 10 20
15:56
30 years of still not being able to do
15:58
this thing that everyone else seems to
15:59
find effortless you start to call
16:01
yourself names or at least that’s what i
16:03
was doing in my head i really thought
16:05
i’m a massive loser failure and why do i
16:07
find everything so hard so just even
16:09
knowing was huge for me because it made
16:12
me feel like hang on i’m not alone
16:14
i’m just different and i just need
16:16
different ways to approach things and to
16:18
be gentle on myself about things and to
16:21
recognize what i need help with and what
16:22
i don’t so that was already huge and
16:24
then the medication was
16:26
also just
16:28
really helpful because it just regulated
16:30
me in a way and helped me to think
16:33
straight and to concentrate often a lot
16:35
of my moods would come from me being
16:37
totally distracted and unable to do what
16:39
i needed to do than to procrastinate and
16:42
then to end up in like a tearful puddle
16:44
which then would be exacerbated by
16:47
someone saying something so even you
16:49
know just having that
16:50
in place is really helping
16:57
[Music]
17:04
you’ve told me a lot about your
17:06
experience with your husband and with
17:07
your kids what about
17:09
the outside world well something really
17:12
striking that’s happened
17:13
is my social anxiety had gotten really
17:16
bad and to the point where in recent
17:18
years it was paralyzing i would say
17:20
something to a stranger which was
17:22
totally irrelevant to anything it didn’t
17:24
matter what they thought of me it was an
17:26
innocuous comment i should say and i
17:28
would come home
17:30
and i would genuinely spend
17:32
hours panicking stressing sort of pacing
17:36
really intensely worried and sick to my
17:38
stomach about the implications of this
17:40
sort of
17:41
imagined disaster and that was becoming
17:44
an increasingly big issue and since i’ve
17:47
started the medication and identified
17:49
the adhd a that doesn’t happen anymore i
17:52
can have much calmer just
17:54
social interactions that i don’t take
17:56
home with me and the other thing is i
17:59
just feel like i can be a lot gentler on
18:01
myself about things so my anxiety has
18:03
gone way down because a lot of the
18:05
things that i used to stress about it
18:07
doesn’t feel like they matter in the
18:09
same way anymore so i’m getting much
18:11
better at separating that what is it
18:14
like parenting for children when you
18:16
have adhd well i i love parenting a lot
18:19
i love a lot of the stuff that
18:21
parents are supposed to not really be
18:23
into like i’m really into the newborn
18:24
stage when you’re just cooing and
18:26
hanging out with them and they’re you
18:28
know sort of you’re we used to do these
18:30
book mornings where i’d have all of my
18:32
kids on top of me and i’d be feeding a
18:33
newborn and we would just read like a
18:35
thousand books and i love that stuff a
18:37
lot i love parenting especially when
18:39
it’s on my own terms so we definitely do
18:42
a lot more sort of like free range
18:44
parenting type stuff and
18:46
you know the kids are exposed to a lot
18:48
because you know i’m impulsive and a lot
18:50
of my impulses are quite fun so like we
18:52
were roller skating non-stop over
18:54
lockdown and then now i have a
18:55
skateboard and so we’re skateboarding
18:57
and so we definitely do lots of fun
18:59
adventure things but it’s a lot less
19:02
formal and a lot less routine and
19:04
structured because i find that stressful
19:06
everything you’re describing first of
19:08
all like you’re just you’re fun attitude
19:10
right the roller skating i can picture
19:12
you roller skating through the pandemic
19:13
do you think that adhd makes you a
19:15
better parent well it’s interesting
19:16
because i actually wrote an article
19:18
saying precisely that since i’ve been
19:20
diagnosed i’ve been trying to gobble up
19:22
every sort of experience that i can with
19:24
adhd so i’m constantly looking for other
19:26
people’s experiences there’s a lot to
19:28
celebrate and there’s a lot to learn
19:30
from i really believe that like the more
19:33
sort of diversity that we have in terms
19:35
of everything the more amazing and
19:38
exciting and the more we can all learn
19:40
and i feel like neurodiversity is one
19:42
aspect of that like how interesting is
19:44
it to have someone whose brain is
19:46
thinking about things in a completely
19:47
different direction or who finds
19:49
something that you find utterly
19:52
unremarkable and they’re so passionate
19:53
about it they find it absorbing and they
19:55
can do it for hours and that’s certainly
19:57
something that i do like to think that i
19:59
can bring to the equation
20:01
as a parent i mean obviously the
20:03
parenting journey is long and i’m still
20:04
early in the game and there’s a million
20:06
challenges and i guess just a final
20:08
thing to say about kids and adhd is the
20:11
reason i’m most grateful for my
20:12
diagnosis is not just for me but because
20:15
i’m
20:15
pretty confident that at least one of my
20:17
children also has adhd and i’m now
20:20
starting to explore that path and i feel
20:24
so empowered for them because i i just
20:27
feel that like they’re going to have
20:28
this advocate and i think it’s going to
20:29
be adhd in a way that’s or at least it
20:31
looks like it might be presenting in a
20:32
similar way to the way mine did so no
20:34
one is flagging this child however i
20:38
feel very strongly because i’m seeing a
20:39
lot it’s bringing up a lot of emotions
20:41
of myself in middle school
20:43
in terms of being an advocate one of the
20:45
things that really drew me into your
20:47
british vogue article was the title why
20:50
does no one believe my adhd diagnosis
20:52
jen that is such an alluring title and
20:54
it makes me wonder have you found that
20:56
people aren’t actually believing your
20:58
adhd diagnosis i think there’s
21:00
definitely this sense of you know i have
21:04
a fairly like traditional path in terms
21:07
of my schooling i never had any problems
21:10
with education i went on to higher
21:11
education i had all of these sort of
21:14
life obstacles and sort of
21:17
you know quote unquote bounced back and
21:19
so and a lot of the things that i’ve
21:21
done in my life it’s really funny
21:22
because a lot of them make sense to
21:24
someone who has taken my path in life
21:27
but actually really makes sense if you
21:29
have adhd so for example i could never
21:32
do an office job that was a huge
21:34
struggle for me and so i haven’t worked
21:36
in an office since my mid-20s and people
21:40
as soon as i got pregnant at 27 people
21:41
were like oh that makes sense this is
21:43
why you didn’t want to work in an office
21:45
and you know you sort of let people go
21:46
with it but it’s like no i like
21:48
physically can’t work in an office
21:50
because it’s too stressful for me and i
21:51
can’t handle it and i need to be you
21:53
know in my own space and i’m too
21:54
distracted and all the stuff and so all
21:57
of these things that have sort of
21:58
happened it’s really interesting because
21:59
i think oh wow that’s adhd but then from
22:02
an outsider’s perspective it’s like no
22:04
that’s not adhd you did that because you
22:06
had kids and you want to spend time with
22:07
them or of course you forgot that
22:10
i mean how can you make it at the door
22:11
with four kids and i think people wanted
22:14
me to
22:15
feel like i was you know quote unquote
22:16
normal but i’ve never you know nothing
22:18
in my life circumstances has been really
22:20
normal and i’m okay with that normal is
22:22
not always better normal is not always
22:24
the best and i think that being able to
22:27
say that and to say i have adhd and i’m
22:30
okay with that and i want help or i
22:32
might struggle or i might interrupt or
22:34
this might happen or you need to explain
22:36
that to me i feel so much happier being
22:38
able to say that that i did just sort of
22:41
feeling like i have no idea what’s going
22:42
on and everyone else seems to there’s so
22:46
many more stories about women getting
22:47
diagnosed with adhd later in life i find
22:50
it so exciting and heartening and i
22:52
imagine that maybe in i’m hoping that in
22:55
10 years or hope no how about in two
22:58
years that title wouldn’t work for your
22:59
article
23:00
yeah no the stories have been amazing i
23:02
guess the other side of the coin is that
23:04
there are definitely some people who are
23:06
sort of like hang on what made you think
23:09
that you might have this because
23:11
i’m trying to put a few things together
23:13
and i’m thinking so that’s the other
23:15
thing so there’s definitely a few people
23:17
i think coming out of the woodwork with
23:19
their own awareness of things because
23:21
you know women are radically under
23:23
diagnosed is my understanding and
23:26
especially ones who have sort of slipped
23:28
through the cracks managing to you know
23:31
tick all of the boxes that were meant to
23:33
be ticked on the path of whatever and
23:35
then it’s only now maybe that they’ve
23:37
stopped or changed career or done
23:39
something else that they’re starting to
23:41
realize hang on a second like maybe this
23:44
is leading back to something else it’s
23:46
kind of amazing to me
23:48
that you’ve only had this diagnosis for
23:51
as short a period of time as you do i’ve
23:53
been diagnosed for 10 years and i cannot
23:55
articulate
23:56
my experience nearly as clearly as you
23:59
have thank you there is not one element
24:02
of my life i know you know people say i
24:03
don’t want my condition to define me and
24:05
that’s fine but at the same time i can’t
24:08
think about anything in my life that
24:09
this doesn’t touch on somewhat and i
24:12
have to think of that as a positive
24:14
thing in some ways because otherwise i’m
24:16
not going to get very far well jen it
24:18
has just been so lovely to talk to you
24:20
thank you for spending this time with me
24:21
and i hope that you just keep enjoying
24:24
and helping your kids experience all
24:25
this joy that it sounds like you’re
24:26
helping them experience thank you so
24:28
much it’s been really nice to chat
24:38
[Music]
24:39
you’ve been listening to adhd aha from
24:42
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24:44
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24:49
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24:57
and if you want to share your own aha
24:59
moment email us at
25:01
adhdaha understood.org
25:04
i’d love to hear from you you can go to
25:06
u.org
25:07
adhd aha to find details on each episode
25:11
and related resources that’s the letter
25:13
u as an understood dot o r g slash adhd
25:18
aha understood as a non-profit and
25:21
social impact organization
25:23
we have no affiliation with
25:25
pharmaceutical companies
25:26
learn more at understood.org
25:30
mission
25:31
adhd aha is produced by jessamine mali
25:34
say hi jessamine hi everyone justin d
25:37
wright created our music seth melnick
25:39
and brianna berry are our production
25:41
directors scott cochier is our creative
25:43
director
25:44
and i’m your host laura key editorial
25:47
director at understood thanks so much
25:49
for listening
25:57
[Music]
26:13
you

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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