The Pain Gap

Reed Beeley is a clinician working at the intersection of mental health, addiction, and ADHD, and what he's seeing points to something much bigger than individual diagnosis. It's a systemic gap in how ADHD is understood, identified, and treated in women. In this conversation, we unpack why ADHD is so often missed, starting with diagnostic criteria built around how symptoms present in boys, not girls. Reed explains how cultural expectations and gender stereotypes delay diagnosis or prevent it altogether, leaving many women mislabeled as anxious, emotional, or burned out. We also get into how ADHD is frequently misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder, and why those misdiagnoses don't just miss the mark; they can lead to the wrong treatments and deeper cycles of shame.At its core, ADHD isn't just about focus; it's about dopamine regulation, emotional processing, and how the brain responds to reward and stress. We explore the connection between ADHD, addiction, trauma, and hormones, including how estrogen fluctuations can directly impact symptoms and cravings. And at the center of it all is disempowerment: women being taught to question themselves, minimize their symptoms, or push through. As Reed makes clear, that disconnect isn't just emotional; it can become a real barrier to getting the care that could actually change everything.Episode Resources:Connect with Reed on Instagram or email him at [email protected] Pain GapFollow Anushay on InstagramLittle SaintsTo learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at [email protected]

Parul Somani was 31 years old, newly postpartum, and had just brought her baby home from the NICU… when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. What followed wasn't just a fight for her life; it was a complete unraveling of everything she thought she knew about control, success, and certainty. Because like so many women, Parul had done everything "right", the degrees, the career, the plan. And still, her body told a different story. In this conversation, we talk about what happens when the healthcare system dismisses your instincts, why self-advocacy can be the difference between life and death, and how women are conditioned to question themselves, even when something feels deeply wrong. We also explore the emotional toll of a diagnosis, the power of reclaiming agency in moments of uncertainty, and how Parul transformed one of the hardest chapters of her life into a framework for decision-making, resilience, and meaning. Because this isn't just a story about cancer, it's a story about listening to your body and what it costs when no one else does.Episode Resources:parulsomani.comThe Path of Least Regret (Forbes Books, March 2026) is available on Amazon and other major booksellersFollow Parul Somani on LinkedIn and Instagram The Pain GapFollow Anushay on InstagramLittle SaintsTo learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at [email protected]

For millions of women, what we’ve been told is anxiety, depression, or just “getting older”… is actually something else entirely. Today, we’re talking about menopause, not just as a biological transition, but as a mental health crisis hiding in plain sight. Mandi Dixon is a therapist who began noticing a pattern: women walking into her office saying, “I don’t feel like myself,” after being dismissed by doctors and handed diagnoses that didn’t quite fit. And what she discovered changed everything, not just for her clients, but for herself. In this conversation, we unpack how hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause impact mood, anxiety, identity, and why so many women are misdiagnosed, dismissed, or left to suffer in silence. We talk about the dangerous gap in medical education, the real mental health consequences of that gap, and what it means to finally feel seen, validated, and understood in your own body. Because this isn’t just about hormones. It’s about the cost of not believing women and what happens when we finally start to listen.Episode Resources:Mandi Dixon's WebsiteMandi Dixon's InstagramMandi Dixon's TikTokThe Pain GapFollow Anushay on InstagramLittle SaintsTo learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at [email protected]

Dr. Zed Zha is a physician, writer, and author of the forthcoming book Consented: A Doctor’s Call to End Medical Violence and Reclaim Patient Autonomy. In this powerful conversation, Dr. Zha takes us inside the hidden culture of medicine to expose how consent is too often treated as paperwork instead of an ongoing act of trust, transparency, and respect. We talk about what happens when medical training strips providers of their humanity, how women’s pain is routinely minimized in everything from Pap smears to childbirth, and why so many patients still don’t know they have the right to stop a procedure at any time. Dr. Zha shares deeply personal stories from her journey through medicine, reflecting on moments that forced her to confront not just the system’s failures but also her own complicity within it. We also explore the realities of caring for underserved communities, the crisis of maternity care deserts, the power dynamics that shape who gets believed in healthcare, and why patient bodily truth must matter just as much as medical expertise. This is a conversation about misogyny, hierarchy, trauma, and what it would look like to build a more human, ethical, and truly consensual healthcare system.Episode Resources:Preorder Dr. Zha's upcoming book Consented: A Doctor’s Call to End Medical Violence and Reclaim Patient Autonomy.Code: ASKTHEPATIENTDiscount: 25% off + free shippingDr. Zha's Substack newsletter - Ask The PatientThe Pain GapFollow Anushay on InstagramTo learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at [email protected]

Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs is a sociologist, 2x NYT bestselling author, and one of the sharpest thinkers we have on erasure, patriarchy, and the stories that shape power. If you've ever felt like women, especially women of color, are living in a version of history edited out of our minds, this conversation will hit home. Anna and I talk about what it means to be erased, not just from textbooks, but from healthcare, policy, culture, and even our understanding of who gets to be fully human in this country. We get into how patriarchy was deliberately built into American systems, why progress can be rolled back so quickly, and what it takes to reclaim the stories, voices, and truths that were pushed aside. We also talk about motherhood, race, power, and why naming what's happening is the first step toward changing it.Episode Resources:Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs on InstagramThe Pain GapFollow Anushay on InstagramTo learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at [email protected]