Neurospicy gals…if you’re a high achiever who has asked ChatGPT if you have ADHD, this one is for you. I sat down with Dr. Jolene Brighten, the woman whose book changed my own hormones in my late 20s, to unpack what ADHD actually is and what to do about all of it, especially in overstimulated female entrepreneurs.
So many of the women I work with have masters degrees, PhDs, massive roles. They’ve done the 10 minute consult. They’ve been told their labs are normal. And they’re still sitting there with a racing heart, brain fog, zero focus, quietly asking ChatGPT at midnight if they have ADHD.
Some of them do. A lot of them don’t. And the difference matters, because Dr. Brighten says taking ADHD meds when you don’t actually have ADHD may do the opposite of what you’re hoping.
We get into the two things she checks before she’ll ever send a woman for an ADHD assessment, and the ferritin number most doctors never look at. A client whose TSH was over 7 and her doctor wanted to wait until it hit 10. Why so many high performing women wake up in their 40s feeling like everything is falling apart, and why it’s not that their brain suddenly broke. What masking really costs you, and why “just stop masking” is terrible advice for a woman with a job and a mortgage.
She also gives you the exact sentence to say when your doctor dismisses you. One word. It changes the whole appointment.
And the 20 minute thing she does before every big presentation that buys her 2 to 3 hours of peak focus. It’s so simple you’ll be annoyed.
If you’ve spent your whole life being told you’re smart, you just talk too much or don’t apply yourself, press play.
Find Dr. Jolene Brighten and get her book ADHD & Women
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