ADHD Aha!

Derek Sheen spent decades being told he was difficult, a bad listener, not smart enough — while testing in the top one percentile of his state. That’s ADHD for you.

Derek is a comedian whose special Unrelatable is on YouTube. In this episode, he talks about the “hidden passenger” he always suspected was there, why the stage was the one place he felt completely in control, and how a late ADHD diagnosis forgave a lifetime of things he’d blamed on himself. Also: a childhood story full of twists and turns, hyperactivity then and now, and a joke at the very end that’s worth sticking around for.

For more on this topic

• Listen: Rejection sensitivity and ADHD as an Emmy-winning comedy writer (Dan McCoy’s story)
• Read: Signs and symptoms of ADHD in adults
• Watch: What’s so funny about ADHD? (Jim Tews’ story) 

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected].

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Journalist Lizzie O’Leary spent decades asking sharp questions for a living. Then the words started disappearing. Brain fog. Surprising rage. A head full of buzzing bees.

Lizzie, who hosts Slate’s What Next: TBD podcast, was diagnosed with ADHD at 50 after perimenopause made her ADHD symptoms too powerful to push aside. Lizzie talks about emotional regulation challenges that hurt her career, sensory sensitivity she’d written off as quirks, and what she wishes she’d known when she was younger.

For more on this topic

• Listen: How menopause and hormones impact ADHD symptoms in women
• Read: ADHD and emotions: What you need to know
• Watch: Psychotherapist explains ADHD mood swings and emotional regulation

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected].

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jim Leitch could intubate a patient in the middle of the night — alone, short-staffed, smiling — and feel completely calm. Ask him to follow a pasta recipe? That’s where things got hard: Everyday tasks and executive function challenges.

Jim is a former critical care respiratory therapist and current VP who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. In this episode, he talks about the exhausting gap between knowing where you want to go and not being able to get started, growing up with perfectionism and a fear of mistakes, and how he quietly created pressure-cooker situations just to get things done. Also: a Christmas pageant in second grade that left a mark he’s never forgotten.

For more on this topic

• Listen: ADHD and the fear of failure
• Read: ADHD and perfectionism
• Watch: Executive dysfunction explained: Why ADHD makes everything so hard

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected].

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A former boss once described their first meeting this way: “She showed up late and disheveled, and I hired her anyway.” That’s Sabrina Caluori in a nutshell.

Sabrina is the chief marketing officer at Chief, the largest private network for ambitious women. Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, she describes herself as a contradiction: “High achieving and a hot mess in equal measure” — a leader who can hold an entire company’s strategy in her head but can’t manage her own calendar.

Sabrina shares what it’s like to be gifted with ADHD — twice exceptional — and how that experience bonds her to her 2e child. She gets into ADHD burnout, self-doubt, and how the things she once considered character flaws turned out to make her exceptional at reading people and leading teams.

For more on this topic

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected].

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the outside, Susie Owens looked like she was gliding. Straight-A student, entrepreneur, devoted mom — and exhausted in ways nobody could see. When you’re an ADHD high achiever, masking is a whole job.

Susie spent years in therapy for anxiety, quietly holding it together. A second child tipped the scales. Through her ADHD diagnosis, she learned that her struggles weren’t a reflection of who she was as a person or as a mom. It was just ADHD. 

For more on this topic

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected].

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cold-calling strangers about Brazilian butt lifts wasn’t exactly the plan. But for Taryn Delanie Smith — comedian, actor, former Miss New York, and creator of the viral TikTok character “Denise, Heaven’s Receptionist” — the detours turned out to be the whole story.

In this episode, Taryn talks about competing in the Miss America pageant with undiagnosed ADHD, the curses and gifts of ADHD, a learning disability in math, and struggling in corporate America. Plus: justice sensitivity, farting around time, and why waitressing might be the perfect job for an ADHD brain.

For more on this topic:

• Listen: What’s so funny about ADHD? (Comedian Jim Tews’ story)
• Read: ADHD and creativity
• Watch: What is dyscalculia?

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected]. 

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cold-calling strangers about Brazilian butt lifts wasn’t exactly the plan. But for Taryn Delanie Smith — comedian, actor, former Miss New York, and creator of the viral TikTok character “Denise, Heaven’s Receptionist” — the detours turned out to be the whole story.

In this episode, Taryn talks about competing in the Miss America pageant with undiagnosed ADHD, the curses and gifts of ADHD, a learning disability in math, and struggling in corporate America. Plus: justice sensitivity, farting around time, and why waitressing might be the perfect job for an ADHD brain.

For more on this topic:

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected]. 

Understood.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. If you want to help us continue this work, donate at understood.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why does sitting still feel like a physical emergency? Kate Moryoussef, ADHD lifestyle and wellness coach and host of the “ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast,” spent years convinced she was the problem.

It wasn't until her daughter's meltdowns, daydreams, and overwhelm mirrored her own childhood that everything clicked. In this episode, Kate unpacks restlessness and what ADHD actually feels like in the body, how generational ADHD shapes families, and why so many women spend decades doubting themselves before finally getting answers.

For more on this topic: 

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected].

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if the clue to an ADHD diagnosis was making a different tiny mistake every night on stage?

John Garden is a therapist and professional musician. He shares how years of strong emotional reactions, rage quitting, boredom with repetition, and feeling like a failure eventually led to an ADHD diagnosis.

The conversation explores emotional regulation, inattention to detail, perfectionism, and the hidden ways ADHD can show up. It also highlights how ADHD realizations are often not a single lightning-bolt moment. More often, they come from years of experiences that slowly add up until everything starts to make sense.

For more on this topic

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected].

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

KC Davis, counselor, author, and host of Struggle Care, talks about the everyday realities of ADHD and executive dysfunction: messiness, boredom, and keeping up with household tasks like laundry. She shares how caring for a newborn and a 2-year-old during the COVID shutdown pushed her coping strategies to the breaking point — “I lost my mind,” she says — and ultimately changed the way she understood herself.

KC reflects on ADHD signs that showed up throughout her life, from forgetting to turn in homework to biting her tongue until it bled to stop herself from interrupting people. She also discusses working memory, addiction, and the years she spent fighting for radical acceptance in therapy — and why understanding her ADHD sooner might have made that journey much easier.

For more on this topic 

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at [email protected].

Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.

Understood is a nonprofit where millions of people who are navigating neurodivergence find clear guidance, practical tools, and people who get it. To help us continue this work, donate at u.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.