40 Years of ADHD: What Pioneer Dr Kathleen Nadeau Has Learned About ADHD Women, Late Diagnosis & Thriving
You're understanding your ADHD. But what happens when you’re ready to actually live differently? Join me live in Manchester this December for The Next Chapter — an immersive event for women ready to move beyond understanding their ADHD and explore what comes next with more confidence, self-compassion and permission to be themselves. All surrounded by like-minded neurodivergent women who truly get it. Ready for your next chapter? Find out more: Book your place here. ________________________________________ For decades, ADHD research focused overwhelmingly on hyperactive boys while girls and women with ADHD were missed, misdiagnosed or told they were anxious or depressed. ADHD expert, Dr Kathleen Nadeau has spent more than 40 years helping to change our understanding of ADHD in women. On this week’s episode of The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast, I’m joined by internationally recognised clinical psychologist, author and ADHD pioneer Kathleen G. Nadeau, PhD. Kathleen has written or co-authored 18 books on ADHD and was awarded the CHADD Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025. Her ground breaking work has helped bring ADHD in girls, women and older adults into a conversation that once centred almost entirely on hyperactive young boys. And having ADHD herself, alongside decades of clinical experience and generations of ADHD within her own family, Kathleen brings a perspective that goes far beyond diagnostic criteria. We talk about what ADHD looked like when Kathleen entered the field in the 1970s, why so many intelligent girls and women were missed and what happens when a woman spends her life believing she simply needs to try harder. We also get into hormones, perimenopause and postpartum mental health, the physical conditions increasingly being seen alongside ADHD and why our healthcare systems still struggle when women’s physical and mental health needs intersect. But this isn’t only a conversation about what has gone wrong. Kathleen talks beautifully about finding the environment in which your ADHD brain can thrive, the healing that can come with a later-life diagnosis and why women need connection with other women who finally understand. You do not have to spend the rest of your life trying to make yourself fit the wrong environment. Sometimes, you need to plant yourself in a different garden. ________________________________________ In this episode, we cover: How our understanding of ADHD has changed since Kathleen began working in the field in the late 1970s Why ADHD was once seen almost entirely as a condition affecting hyperactive young boys The moment Kathleen began recognising ADHD in parents, adults and within her own family Why bright, high-achieving children can have ADHD even when they're doing exceptionally well academically Looking beyond traditional ADHD diagnostic criteria to understand the wider experience How girls and women with ADHD were overlooked and the work that began changing that Rejection sensitivity, feeling different and the impact of growing up without an explanation for your ADHD Why ADHD can be both challenging and a source of curiosity, connection and different ways of thinking Whether our schools and workplaces are asking ADHD brains to function in environments that don't suit them ADHD hormones, puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause and why the research is still catching up Why women's ADHD symptoms have so often been misdiagnosed as anxiety or depression What happens when psychiatry, women's health and other areas of medicine operate in separate silos The physical conditions and health difficulties increasingly being seen alongside ADHD Why connection with other ADHD women can be such an important part of healing Receiving an ADHD diagnosis in your 60s, 70s or later, and navigating grief for the life you might have lived Why a late diagnosis can offer more healing than regret Kathleen's “right garden” approach and finding the environments, relationships and work where you can thrive High-achieving ADHD women who hold everything together at work before collapsing behind closed doors The invisible expectations still placed on women to manage families, homes, relationships and emotional labour Why ADHD treatment needs to go beyond medication, coaching or therapy in isolation Learning to care for yourself, follow your heart and stop measuring yourself by how well you meet everyone else's needs Timestamps: 00:00 - Welcome and introducing Dr Kathleen Nadeau 02:25 - Kathleen's personal ADHD “learning lab” 04:00 - Working with ADHD since the late 1970s 06:00 - How ADHD diagnosis and treatment looked in the early days 07:00 - Realising adults didn't simply grow out of ADHD 09:30 - Writing some of the earliest books about ADHD 11:20 - Who was being missed? 12:00 - Gifted children, hidden ADHD and looking beyond school performance 13:00 - Looking beyond the diagnostic criteria 15:00 - What the early ADHD criteria left out 16:00 - Rejection sensitivity and why girls changed the conversation 17:00 - Kathleen's pioneering work on ADHD in women and girls 18:00 - What decades of following ADHD families can teach us 20:00 - ADHD as a type of brain, not simply a disorder 21:00 - Curiosity, connection and the strengths within an ADHD brain 23:00 - Do our education systems actually suit ADHD brains? 25:00 - Different ways of learning 26:00 - ADHD, hormones and the stages of a woman's life 27:00 - Why women were excluded from so much medical research 30:00 - The resistance to recognising hormones as part of the ADHD conversation 32:00 - Postpartum mental health and the research still desperately needed 35:00 - Why women's healthcare needs a more integrated approach 37:00 - ADHD and associated physical health conditions 39:00 - Why ADHD women connect so powerfully with each other 40:00 - Groups, validation and finally feeling like you fit in 42:00 - Late diagnosis, grief and understanding a lifetime through a new lens 44:00 - Planting yourself in the right garden 46:00 - Kathleen's next chapter and the Institute for Lifespan ADHD Training 47:00 - Why ADHD treatment needs a more integrated approach 49:00 - Giving yourself permission to do life differently 50:00 - High-achieving ADHD women and what happens behind closed doors 52:00 - The expectations still placed on women to hold everything together 53:30 - The ILAT Global Summit and training professionals to better support ADHD 56:30 - Kathleen's advice for women diagnosed later in life Articles Mentioned: www.additudemag.com/lindsay-clancy-postpartum-adhd/ 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 Learn more about Kathleen and the Institute for Lifespan ADHD Training at ilat.org Visit Kathleen's website at drkathleennadeau.com Connect with Kathleen on LinkedIn Find out more and register for the ILAT Global Summit (online) at ilatglobal.org ⭐ADHD Women's Wellbeing listeners can use the code ILAT50 at checkout to save $50 on online summit registration. Kate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing author, 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
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