110 New Neurodivergence Model

Thanks to Hyperfocus with Rae Jacobson for letting me cross-post this important discussion about one of the first longitudinal studies of ADHD in women and girls!Full show notes, timestamps, and Transcript available on Hyperfocus' site(Ep 5, The “devastating” findings of a decades-long ADHD study, Dec 5, 2024 has the full version; it was reposted Aug 28 2025 with more brief notes)Show notes:Dr. Stephen Hinshaw is one of the leading voices when it comes to ADHD in women and girls. That’s in large part due to his work on The Berkeley Girls Study. (Its full name is The Berkeley Girls with ADHD Longitudinal Study, but most people know it by that shorthand or acronym: The BGALs Study.)Under Steve’s leadership, researchers began studying 140 girls with ADHD and a control group of nearly 90 girls without it. They’ve been following these girls into their adulthood, producing a reams of information that has helped shape current understanding of ADHD in women and girls. That said, Rae Jacobson had plenty of questions for Steve:Why did you want to study ADHD in girls at a time when it was typically seen as a boys’ disorder?Why is it that one type of ADHD seems to lead to such negative outcomes?What do we do about the stigma that still surrounds the disorder?note: This episode includes discussion of suicide and self-harm. Please take care when listening and skip this one if you need to.Listen to more episodes of Hyperfocus here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chronic shame makes us feel all kinds of terrible things that often are the triggers that send people to therapy.It's caused in part by relational rupture without repair, especially as an infant and child.While there's no quick fix, recognizing the signs and beginning to gently work with it does help over time.This is episode 10 of a series of 10 that started with 102 AuDHD Therapy That Works with Joe SostaI'm working on some more materials to pull all these episodes together in a useful way and will add that here when they're done! Crisis Resources:USA-based anonymous crisis chatInternational crisis linesVarious types of crisis resources in about 10 countriesMy Medium article, "Please Stay, We Need You"Mentioned in episode: Book Understanding and Treating Chronic Shame: Healing Right Brain Relational Trauma (I recommend this 2nd edition, affiliate link)Whack-a-Mole Workshop slides/notes and recordings (latter is free & requires free login; a downloadable PDF is also available there on Patreon)AuDHD Flourishing resources:Transcript DocMattia's NewsletterLike Your Brain community space (Patreon/Discord) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Darren Glencross was diagnosed near the beginning of 2025, and since then has written multiple books and come up with a new framework for people to explore outside of the medical model. It includes: Pattern Language, Inner Orbit with 12 satellites (and Their Orbit), and the Carry KitIt's exciting to explore community-led models!Connect with Darren: Message on Instagram @beaconwithinDarren Glencross on LinkedInMentioned in episode:Love Your Brain course (& Sep-Oct live round details)Free workshops already concluded, and will be available most likely in the Patreon soon (I'll update this when they're somewhere!)You may also email questions about Love Your Brain to [email protected]:Transcript DocMattia's NewsletterLike Your Brain community space (Patreon/Discord) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AuDHD brains face many challenges when it comes to projects. It's something I've put a great deal of time and learning into, both personally and professionally. This episode covers many ideas and approaches that tend to work for us.Key Takeaways:We usually learn to use what I call the Adrenaline-Anxiety Approach. While effective short-term, it can lead to burnout and other issues.A monotropic approach is more sustainable and individualized... and it can feel slow at first.Experimentation as a core toolCreating just enough structure and safety to get going, without getting bogged down (loose planning)Working with the brain states you haveManaging interruptions, inputs, and daily lifeFinding the balance that works for youThe episode also walks through the Love Your Brain course, designed to help AuDHDers understand their mind-body system, work with brain states, and navigate project challenges. The course emphasizes self-compassion, experimentation, and building processes tailored to individual needs.Repost - originally posted July 12th 2024Note: not strictly in the current 10-episode series, but still relevant!Links mentioned:Devon Price's Laziness Does Not Exist article, and a PDF if you're not on MediumThe transcript may be especially useful for this episode! (It'll take a few seconds for the link to fully load to this episode)Love Your Brain course (and the Sep/Oct 2025 live round info) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This ep also available on YouTube"use more lube:" do what you need to do to make life easier, more comfortable, and more pleasurable for you in the moment.This goes beyond sensory needs, though that's often where we start.You may not be sure what you want on the grand scale (or it feels impossible to get there). But being kind to yourself, and meeting your needs moment-to-moment, helps create a communication feedback loop with the body.Better communication and care for the body makes everything easier.ep. 8 in an interconnected 10-episode seriesMentioned in episode:Free Workshops registration linkLove Your Brain course (& Sep-Oct live round details)Resources:Transcript DocMattia's NewsletterLike Your Brain community space (Patreon/Discord) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Intuition has been a way to interface with my body, even when the relationship with my body was contentious.While I won't share the trauma stories that led to the subtitle (Intuition Saved My Life), I have a variety of examples of how unconscious information can surface in a useful way.ep. 7 in an interconnected 10-episode seriesMentioned in episode:Free Workshops registration linkLove Your Brain course (& Sep-Oct live round details)Resources:Transcript DocMattia's NewsletterLike Your Brain community space (Patreon/Discord) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It often feels easiest to do what's right in front of us. And that's lovely, a lot of the time, and uses our strengths!And... it starts to feel bad if we're in whack-a-mole mode almost all of the time, and don't have spacious time to comprehend the whole of our experience.This ties into our sensory needs and leans more into the psychological side of these needs.Mentioned in episode:Free Workshops registration linkLove Your Brain course (& Sep-Oct live round details)Resources:Transcript DocMattia's NewsletterLike Your Brain community space (Patreon/Discord) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maria Bowler recently published the book Making Time: A New Vision for Crafting a Life beyond Productivity. It's a relaxing take on doing what you want to do, and feeling okay while doing it.One of the main themes is being present, and being true to yourself even if you're doing boring stuff you don't want to do. Finding those moments of resonance that turn the entire activity into building self-trust.If you already read the book and found it resonant even though it doesn't mention AuDHD... that's because Maria is AuDHD and snuck all that good neurodivergent content in!Connect with Maria: Maria's website, MariaBowler.comMaria's Substackthe book Making Time (affiliate link)Resources:Transcript DocMattia's NewsletterLike Your Brain community space (Patreon/Discord) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Autistic community has taken many approaches to reframing what the diagnostic criteria calls "Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts." There's the double-empathy problem, for example, in which Autistic people have an easier time understanding each other where allistics struggle and vice versa. Childhood Emotional Neglect, while a relatively new idea from 2012, aligns remarkably with autistic social "deficits." While I'm by no means trying to draw a single causal line, I also wonder in this episode if maybe some of our social difficulties are actually signs of CEN. Even if our parents were quite well-meaning, we were more likely to experience CEN via a lack of appropriate mirroring of our internal responses, especially if our internal world was especially intense or complex. This episode covers the effects of CEN primarily. To learn more about examples of how it can develop, or how to address it, you can read the books below, or search for articles about them. Books mentioned: Running On Empty Running On Empty No MoreBoth are affiliate linksResources:Transcript DocEmail Newsletter: Nothing Wrong With UsLike Your Brain community space (Patreon/Discord) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is also on YouTubeIf our sensory needs are not met, even an otherwise okay day will still feel... off somehow. And then that gap between how we feel and how we think we "should" feel can make it even worse (that one's not a topic in this episode, just a thing that happens).If our sensory needs ARE met, sometimes even tough circumstances can feel not that bad.To be clear, this is not about avoiding bad days, which are bound to happen sometimes!But meeting both our comfort and mental sensory needs makes everything easier. It's a big part of feeling better first.Resources:Transcript DocEmail Newsletter: Nothing Wrong With UsLike Your Brain community space (Patreon/Discord)How Can I Help (request coaching support) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.