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Why Latinas Get Diagnosed with ADHD Later In Life | Capítulo 288 · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And girls, the way that we're raised, right, it's like
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the calladita aspect. It's like, portate bien, no seas más criada.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: So anytime we're having, as girls, like big emotions or we're,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you know, berrinchudas, enojonas, quote unquote, they think that that's
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a way that it gets shut down, right?
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Like, no seas más criada.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: And so maybe these early in life examples or like
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: emotional dysregulation that were occurring were so easily missed because
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: we're taught really early on like portate bien. And so
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: that's I think where a lot of the internalizing happens.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So how do you think that that shapes, you know,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the way Latinas in particular and just girls, right, of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: any race and ethnicity then are forced to like mask
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: or can then be like underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed for most
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of their lives?
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: I feel like there's two ways I could see that going,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: because when I got diagnosed and I.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Started learning more about it and started looking at.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: My family, right, and started looking at my ideas and
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: I was like, wait, like I'm not the first.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: First one in the family. Locatora Radio.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Hola, hola, Locamores. I'm Diosa.
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: And I'm Mala.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: You're listening to Locatora Radio.
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: A radiophonic novella.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Which is just an extra way of saying... A podcast.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: We're so excited to be in studio today. I want
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: to start by saying that in our maxing episode... that
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: we produced and put out a couple months ago now,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I jokingly shared that I was med maxing this past
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: summer because one year ago I was diagnosed with ADHD,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And since then, I've learned that
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: it's extremely common for women to be misdiagnosed or undiagnosed
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: with ADHD. And there's a few reasons for that. One,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: little research explores the effects of ADHD on adult women.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Another reason, children, teens, and cis straight men are more
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: often the focus, even in kids' study shows that boys
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: more often get an accurate diagnosis than girls. There's also
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: gender bias that presents differently in girls, and of course,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: how girls are socialized, which we'll be diving into today.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: So after we put out the episode, we got an
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: email from a listener. Her name is Angelica Diaz, and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: she's an associate marriage and family therapist at And she
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: specializes in late diagnosis for autism and ADHD in the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Latinx community. And she reached out and said, I would
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: love to talk about this with you. And so she's
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: joining us to talk about ADHD, why so many girls
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and women don't get diagnosed until late in life and
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: why there's so few educational resources for our community.
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: We're really excited to have Angelica on this episode. And
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: as a quick disclaimer to all those listening, the information
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: provided in this episode is for general educational purposes to
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: spread the knowledge about ADHD and late diagnosis in women
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: and Latinas in particular. However, this is not intended to
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: be professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: So that being said, we're going to welcome Angelica Diaz.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Locatora Radio.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: Thank you. I'm so excited. So, so excited.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: I had mentioned, I think in the email when I
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: reached out that I've been listening to you guys since
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: day one.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: So this is really exciting.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening and also for reaching out.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I know it's like you're putting yourself out there and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: we really appreciate you reaching out and wanting to share
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: your expertise. And also that the episode and my experience
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: resonated with you as well. Yeah.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. I'm a, I'm a yapper.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: And like I, when, when you shared that and I
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: heard the episode, I was like, ah, this is my chance.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Let's, let's reach out.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: This is it.
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  Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Just, I'm, I'm, I'm so excited. I can't say that enough.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: I'm really excited to get into it.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Amazing. Again, thank you.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: So let's just get started by talking about what ADHD is, right?
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: There's a common representation of ADHD that we see in
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: media and pop culture. And honestly, it's usually a young
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: boy who's hyperactive, either in the classroom, at home. But
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  Speaker 1: we know that it's more complex than that. So can
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you break down what ADHD even is and some of
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the ways that it can present itself?
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: So in the DSM, if we go based off of
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: the definition of or the criteria of ADHD in the DSM.
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  Speaker 4: First of all, I want to point out that it's.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Very deficit focused, right? There's it's defined by what you
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: can't do. So if you look at the criteria, it's inattention,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: problem sustaining attention, often loses things, often forgetful. So that's
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: the pathology, right? Like that's the diagnostic criteria. The name
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder also doesn't fully capture the experience
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: of like what it actually is. So the way that
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: I would define it and what it actually looks like
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: with lived experience is it can be challenges with time
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: management and disorganization, right? Um, we also define ADHD as
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: having a, an interest based nervous system, which means if
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: my nervous system is not interested in the thing, it
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: will not do it.
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  Speaker 4: So as we know that that can be.
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  Speaker 3: A problem when we're in school, right? Like I do
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: not care about history. I have to be here, but like,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: there's nothing that can make me actually pay attention. Cause
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: I don't care about it.
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  Speaker 4: And it's not exciting.
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  Speaker 3: So a lot of challenges with like feeling bored and like,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: you know, feeling motivated. It can also look like indecisiveness.
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  Speaker 4: Social emotional problems.
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  Speaker 3: So the actual criteria doesn't mention anything about emotion dysregulation,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: but that is one of the biggest indicators. One of
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: the definitions that I like to use instead of, you know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: the way that the DSM pathologizes it is ADHD really
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: what it is. It's a regulation disorder. It's hard for
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: me to regulate my focus. It's not that I can't focus.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: I can focus on what I hear out there. I
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: can focus on here. I can hear what's outside my door.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: I just can't regulate what I'm focusing on. Same thing
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  Speaker 3: with emotions. We tend to feel things very intensely. There's
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: a lot of dysregulation. So it's also, I have a
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: hard time regulating my emotions.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: So What we.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: See in the DSM is defined by what we can do, right?
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: Like how we can function. But the actual experience is
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: I have a hard time regulating a lot of different things.
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: So it seems that ADHD research and diagnostic criteria were
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: built around basically almost entirely on studies of young boys,
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: of hyperactive young boys. So that being the case, how
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: much has that shaped what clinicians are even trained to
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: look for when it comes to evaluating a patient for ADHD?
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. So the diagnostic criteria or what we're trained to.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Look at is biased towards externalizing symptoms, right?
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: So, you know, the, the boy that is bouncing off
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: the walls, right. Um, the bias of the.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Medical system or just the bias that we have, the
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: gender biases that we have in general.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: So even teachers, right. Cause we, a lot of the
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: times it's the teachers, you know, elementary school.
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  Speaker 3: Teachers, or even beyond that, might see how somebody is
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: performing in the class and the teacher might be the
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: one to be like, hey, they might be something going
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: on here because the criteria is so biased towards how
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: it presents in boys and like more externalizing symptoms often.
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: The way that it presents in girls is like daydreaming, right?
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  Speaker 3: Like we might not be struggling in school, which is,
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  Speaker 3: I think that's the, like one of the things that
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: people think of, like, Oh, you like, I know that's
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: something that happened to me where like my family was like,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: you can't have any issue.
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  Speaker 4: You did great in school. You were such a great student.
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  Speaker 3: So a lot of us girls have that experience where
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: we might've not been failing.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 3: But like internally we were so anxious and we were
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: overcompensating and we were like, there was so much internally,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: but because we didn't give anybody problems, I think that's
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: the other thing that people look at or how we,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: who gets a diagnosis, like how disruptive are you being
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: to everybody around you? Um, if you're disruptive, then you
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  Speaker 3: must have ADHD. But for like myself, right. That like,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to call attention to myself or like
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: all of my struggle was internal that, and I also
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: was masking it, right.
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  Speaker 4: Which a lot of girls do.
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  Speaker 3: It's not disruptive to anybody. So it's like, oh, there
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  Speaker 3: must not be anything wrong with you, right? But internally,
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  Speaker 3: we are struggling. So I think there's a lot of bias,
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  Speaker 3: not only by what teachers see, right? But like clinicians,
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  Speaker 3: you know, like I had mentioned, I think in my work,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: one of the biggest things that I see is the
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: emotional dysregulation that comes with ADHD that doesn't get addressed.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: And so when typically women or folks assigned female at
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: birth come in, Um, they might be struggling with these
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: intense emotions or, um, intense anxiety.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: And naturally because of our biases, we're like, Oh, that's
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: a mood disorder. Oh, that's depression. Oh, that's anxiety.
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  Speaker 3: But in my experience, yes, the depression and anxiety could
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: be there, but I feel like that's just the secondary
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: experience to like this hidden, um, struggle that I've had
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  Speaker 3: all of my life, and I don't know what is
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: going on. So I'd say it's the mood and the
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  Speaker 3: emotional that we're not as clinicians, we're not taught to
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  Speaker 3: see that as a part of the ADHD experience. And
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  Speaker 3: we're only taught like, how disruptive are you to your environment?
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  Speaker 4: Or how can you how unproductive are you? Right? And
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: how do we get you to be more productive and
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: more like everybody else?
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that that makes me think of this. like
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: cultural piece that I think is really significant when talking
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: about neurodivergency or ADHD. Because Latinas and girls, the way
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: that we're raised, right? It's like the calladita aspect. It's like,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: portate bien. Like, no seas mascriada. So anytime we're having,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: as girls, like big emotions or we're, you know, very enchudas, enojonas,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: quote unquote, right? they think that that's a way that
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: it gets shut down, right?
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Like, no seas más criada. Like, pórtate bien. And so
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: maybe these early in life....
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Examples or like emotional dysregulation that were occurring were so
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: easily missed because we're taught really early on like, portate bien.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: And so that's, I think, where a lot of the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: internalizing happens. So how do you think that that shapes,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you know, the way Latinas in particular and just girls, right,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: of any race and ethnicity then are forced to like
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: mask or can then be like underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed for
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: most of their lives.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: I feel like there's two ways I could see that
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: going because one thing that comes to my mind is
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: that when I got, when I got diagnosed, I got
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: diagnosed later in life as well. I was already done
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: with grad school. And so when I got diagnosed and I,
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: you know, started learning more about it and started looking
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: at my family, right. And started looking at my ideas
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: and I was like, wait, like, I'm not the first
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: one in the family.
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: You know, I just started looking at the adults.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: And just thinking like, I'm struggling. So how did how
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: have they navigated this?
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: Right. And I think in some way, like.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Not having a diagnosis or not even being aware that
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: that might be a thing allows us to naturally accommodate ourselves. So,
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: like I said, you know, when I looked at my
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: ideas and I started paying attention to just, you know,
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: the way that they do certain things or like their
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: systems that they built. I'm like, Oh, they built that
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: to like compensate for this. So I think in one hand, right.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Like not having the diagnosis or like not seeing it
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: in that way, like allows us. And I think it
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: goes into the resilience of our culture.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: And like, we just have to like, you just have
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: to show up, you have to do it. Right. But
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: on the other hand and I think this is, the
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: experience that I've had also, it's like, we also grew
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: up seeing these women in our family just functioning and
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: like thinking that it comes naturally to them to just
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: organize things. It comes naturally to them to remember, you know,
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: all the parts of the recipe and like, I know
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: for me, those things don't come. So it's like, am
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: I not a woman? Like, am I not good at
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: being a woman then? Because these things don't come naturally
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: to me.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: I don't like cooking. I hate it. It's so hard
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: to feed myself.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm overwhelmed by like children screaming, right?
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: Like, I don't know if I want to have kids, right?
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Like, I think when that's missed, it really, and I've
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: heard this from other women in my family, where it's like,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: there's things that didn't come naturally. naturally to me and
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: it really made me feel like I'm less of a
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: woman or I'm not good at being a woman or
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: I'm not good at being a girl or and then
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: you know there's the shame that comes with that or
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: like the invisible like why why am I not good
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: at this so I think it really shapes your your
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: your identity right and like how you think about yourself
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: and then you know that can lead to other things
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: but I I feel like I kind of see.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: It going in in in those ways either you.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: You you know, like I said, find ways to accommodate
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: and build systems.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: And like, you might not realize that you're doing it,
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: but you're doing that.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Or it's the opposite where you just feel like you're
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: failing at being a woman and you don't know why.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I really resonate with like after getting my diagnosis
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: and then seeing all the women around me and my family,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and then starting to recognize, oh, you have a system
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: in place. And one example that I can share is
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: a woman in my life, a señora, she always has
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the clock set like 20 minutes ahead. And that's so
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: that she's always on time. Instead of running late, it's
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: like she has esprisa because it's like, oh, it's 20
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: minutes ahead of the time that it actually is. And
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: she's done that her whole life. And I thought, oh,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: that's your system. That's how you're always on time. That's
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: why you're so punctual. And that's how you're able to
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: stay on track and organize is because the clock, that's
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: your system.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: It's, it's ahead.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: That makes me think of, you know, like one of
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: my P.S.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: She has always gotten up at like, I don't know,
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: like three in the, she might not have to do
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: anything until like eight.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: She gets up at three in the morning and and like,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: does her thing.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: And so in the family, everyone has always joked that like,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: all the things that she does, now that I'm like, oh,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: she's trying not to be late. She's like, that's how
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: she has figured out, like, I get to take my time, right?
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Like I get to, you know, whatever. So I think
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: that also leads into like the crazy making.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Right. And like feeling like you're crazy because it's like,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: why are you doing things like that?
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: Why, why do you do like, why can't you just
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: sit still?
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: Like, why do you, you know, don't go anywhere.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back.
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: I really struggle with eye contact. That's, you know, part
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: of my neurodivergence.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: And so my dad will be like, like, why are
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: you like.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, I love that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: This is just how I process like, I'm not, this
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: is just how my brain is wired.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: But when we don't have that awareness, right. Of like,
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: this is how my brain is wired, or this is
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: how I process the world. There's a lot of shame
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: where it's like, Oh, I shouldn't do that.
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: Maybe I should, you know, keep eye contact. Oh, it's
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: weird to get up three hours before I'm supposed to, Oh, maybe,
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: maybe I shouldn't do that.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: Right. And like, we start trying to fit in and
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: that can lead to like, you know, a whole other thing.
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: So Yeah, I love that example. I resonate with that piece.
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: Like I feel so burnt out by the end of
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: any day. Like by the time I come home, I
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: would rather wake up at four in the morning at
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: five in the morning to like do things before everyone
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: else is awake because it's quiet. I've had a chance
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: to sleep and reset. And then I feel like I
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: have the energy. and like the mental capacity to like
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: accomplish tasks before the rest of the world is up.
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: I think like on the other side of this, or
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: maybe in alignment with this is like the high functioning,
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: high achieving, young woman, like you mentioned at the top
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: of the episode, who does well in school, doesn't give
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: people problems, who is likely suffering in silence. And the
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: result is being severely burnt out later in life. Like
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: you've kind of white knuckled school. and young adulthood, and
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: your 20s, and, like, now you're exhausted. So that can
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: also make it challenging to get diagnosed because it's likely
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: that this girl in particular, like, this archetype, she probably
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: doesn't have a paper trail, right, about her, like, behavior
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: or her issues from middle school or high school. So then, like,
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: later in life trying to get diagnosed, I assume that, like,
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: a clinician is asking, like, oh, well, do you have any—
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: any paperwork or diagnoses or like, you know, trips to
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: the principal's office when you were young, because that's like
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: an indication of ADHD.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: But if you don't.
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: Have that, then how do you seek out your diagnosis
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: as an adult?
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: So like for that type of a situation, what advice
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: would you give?
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: My advice is that self-diagnosis is valid because especially because
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: the diagnostic criteria is not written to capture our experience.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: We don't have the assessment tools.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: We don't have, we don't, we don't actually know what
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: ADHD looks like in BIPOC.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: Folks in general.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: So like, even when you go to the doctor, you
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: talk to a clinician, like sometimes it feels like they
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: don't even know because it doesn't, it doesn't exist. So
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: I feel like self-diagnosis is valid for ADHD. What I
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: mean by that is like, I heard somebody say it
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: this way, but like when somebody comes in with anxiety,
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: we don't ask them to prove, prove to me you
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: have anxiety, prove to me that, you know, we.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Just kind of take it, right?
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: And we're like, okay, so it should be that way
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: with our, you know, experiences as well. And so I
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: hadn't thought about what, you know, the way that you
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: said it, like we don't have a paper trail, but
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: I'd say our paper trail, I think there is a
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: pattern to like, relationships, uh, struggles, right? Um, yeah just
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: like relationship struggles so like for example me I can
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: be forgetful right and I forget to text people back
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: and so like that might be a pattern over my
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: life that I've always struggled with relationships because I forget
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: to call people.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Or like out of sight out of mind you know um.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: The emotions right is the other one like historically um,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: it was when we said, right.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: Like, I think that's our paper trail. And I think
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: that that's so.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Valid and that's enough to validate at least for yourself
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: that like, there's something else going on besides just like
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: depression and anxiety.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: Right. Um, yeah.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: So just kind of like validating your own experience and
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: like talking to other folks that might have a similar
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: experience or maybe someone that did get a diagnosis. Cause
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: getting it, like, I can go into that as well,
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: but like even getting a diagnosis in and of itself
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: is not very accessible. ADHD is thought of to be
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: a childhood disorder. So getting assessed as an adult is,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: can be really challenging because of that reason. So just
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: kind of like validating your own experiences, talking to other
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: folks that maybe have been able.
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: You know, were able to access a diagnosis.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Um, I think doing your own research, I think that
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: is something that helped me, right?
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: Like, and granted, I'm, you know, in the clinical field.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: And, you know, maybe I had access to resources that
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: somebody outside of this field might have might not have.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: But after the pandemic, I.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Feel like there's been this wave of people finding out
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: that there's just been more like, it's more like a buzzword.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: And I personally think that social media has really It
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: helped me get a diagnosis. That's how I got, like,
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: that's how I figured it out by talking to someone
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: on social media.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: So like social media is helping us like connect.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: And even though you might say like, oh, we're not
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: professionals though, or not, but like, we are the experts
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: of our own experience and this field has failed us.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: So we kind of have to carve that out for ourselves. So, yeah,
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: that's what I'd say. Just kind of like validate your
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: own experience, do your own research and, you know, advocate
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: for yourself when you go to the doctor.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: So I whenever I have had to talk to a doctor,
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: like I have to go.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: In there kind of like prepared to be like, no,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: like this is what I know. Like, I need you
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: to believe what I'm telling you. And like, this is
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: how I'm backing it up. So it's a lot of
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: like doing your own work. Um, but I think it's
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: so important to do that because like I said, the
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: criteria doesn't exist. Like we don't, the resources aren't there. Um,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: so we really need more people to kind of like
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: tell us, right. Like what has this been.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: Like for you?
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I don't want to be the, first of all, thank
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: you for sharing all that. I don't want to be
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: reductive and make a joke, but I do want to
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: say like, if you were called an Anahona growing up,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: you might have.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: ADHD, you know, like, That was me. That's funny.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: And, you know, when you're talking about like the your
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: own experience, your lived experience of like emotional dysregulation, like
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that might be a sign.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: You know, of course, that's not the whole picture.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: But I do think that that now looking back, I'm like, oh,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: that's what that was about. And I think I do
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: want to share an experience that I had once. There's
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: so much about ADHD and the stigma of medication because
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: there's you can be prescribed stimulants, which is a controlled substance.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And when I went to the very first psychiatrist that
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I saw. to seek medication, I had a script prepared
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: because I knew I was going to face some type
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: of pushback. And he very frankly told me, you have
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a business, you have a master's degree, you're married. I
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: don't think you have ADHD. And I said, OK, well, cool.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I have an assessment from my therapist. So here it is.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: He never read it. He didn't believe it. He like
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: kept just saying, like, I think you just have really
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: severe anxiety.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And I told him, like, to be clear, I'm not
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: here for a stimulant like that. If that if you
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: prescribe me that.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Cool.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: But that's not why I'm here. I've just been internally
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: suffering my whole life. And I think this is part
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: of the puzzle. And I want to explore medication. If
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: you don't want to give me a stimulant.
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: Fine.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: That's not what I'm here for. And it just took
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: me advocating for myself. Of course, I went on to
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: find a different psychiatrist because I knew like this was
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: just not the person that I wanted to give me care.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: And having that script, I think, is really important because
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: in those moments where you're you basically have to prove yourself,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: those examples go out the window. I had to talk
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to my therapist and say, like, what do I go
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: through again? Like, remind me.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: And she's like, yeah, girl, you have all these systems
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: in place. well on paper.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: And she was like, in many ways you are well,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: but there's like a lot of internal turmoil. And it
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: took really me facing that and seeing like, okay, yeah,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: you're right. And, but having to write that down because
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: in the moment, like I knew I was going to forget.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: And so, and then thinking.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: About the accessibility piece, you know, I paid $ 500 to
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: be assessed and my therapist was very kind and broke
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: it up into payments for me so that I could
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: afford it. However, there was also a caveat. She said,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do this assessment, but it's possible that
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: a psychiatrist might want to do their own assessment. I
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: knew that I wanted my therapist to do it because
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: she knew everything about me at this point in my life.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Like she was going to have a holistic approach. So
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to go to a stranger. And so
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I paid it. And luckily, when I finally went to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the second psychiatrist, she accepted the assessment and said, oh, yeah,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: you've been seeing this therapist for X amount of years.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I trust the assessment. And so it's a very different experience.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: And so I share that because you might. have those pushbacks,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you might come up against a doctor, a man who
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: doesn't believe it, who doesn't want to see it, doesn't
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: even want to read the assessment. But that shouldn't stop
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: you from getting additional care. Like it's okay to keep
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: going and keep advocating for yourself.
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: I think as you were saying that, I kind of
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: go back to thinking about like, how did our tias
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: and our abuelas do it?
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: Like, I don't know. That's something that I always think about.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: Like they navigated this, they figured it out without medication, right.
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: Without like, so I just, I think about that a lot.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I don't have the answers, but it does give me
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: a different perspective on like the, the like mean Tia
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: or like, like it's muy fria, you know, like now
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: that I look at women in particular in my family
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: with this lens of emotional dysregulation, it's really opened up
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: like some empathy for them and doesn't, necessarily excuse treatment
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: or past behavior.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: But it does give me a bigger picture, a clearer picture,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: if you will. So how does that do you think
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: that that also like this underdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, like masking, like
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: how that also gets complicated with the like in our culture,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: we have Marianismo is so embedded in our culture. So
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: many women in our families are self-sacrificing to the point of.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: Their own detriment.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: How does that then also get complicated by ADHD and
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: that underdiagnosis?
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: Hmm.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: I think I, I also think of that maybe in
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: two ways, because in one way, maybe I can use
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: myself as an example. Um, you know, growing up, you
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: see the women in your family functioning, right? Like from
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: a place of Marianismo. And so you're like, Oh, that's
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: how I'm supposed to function.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: And you grow up and you're functioning that and you're
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: burnt out, right?
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: Like I'm burnt out, right?
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Like my nervous system can't handle it the way that
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: theirs can.
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: So I think in my experience, it has really forced
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: me to deconstruct me at Marianismo more, um, and like
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: rejected and then not like rejected, not.
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: Even intentionally, but it's just like the way that my
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: brain is wired.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: Like I can't, I can't do it that way. Like,
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: it's detrimental to me. And that's when we get.
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: The the mean Tia, right? Or like the Tia that's like,
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: I don't know, loca, right?
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: Like, I feel like that's me. And that's who I
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: am in the family, right? Like, look, like doesn't have kids, right? Like,
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: you know, does all these things like I think what
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to get at is there's like a natural
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: rejection to Marianismo and because you naturally reject it, right?
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: Like then in the family, you almost become rejected because
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: you don't fit into this like role. And then on
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: the other hand, one of the things that really helps
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: with ADHD is having accountability and like being accountable to
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: other people. And like that can help us feel more motivated, right?
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Or like maybe that's what gives us the dopamine or the, right?
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: And so on the other hand, I think we can
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: also maybe self-medicate with Marianismo. Maybe I can't, it's easier
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: for me to do things for somebody else, but it's
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: harder for me to do it for myself. So I'm
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: just going to, you know, serve everybody else because it's
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: easier and like, forget about me.
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: Right. Which is almost the essence of Marianismo.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: So like, I don't know, I kind of see it
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: going either like really you're, you're really rejected.
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: Or like you really, embrace it, right? Or like self-medicate
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: with it to manage it.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: Right now, we're in a moment where there's a lot
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: of conversation about mental health, ADHD, autism on social media.
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: And I'm wondering in your own practice, if you seen
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: the adult diagnosis rate among women rise as awareness increases
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: on social media. There's like a lot of daily mainstream
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: chatter about this topic on basically a constant basis.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I... I mean, like I shared, that was part
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: of my experience.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: So I connected with someone online and, you know, they
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: were telling me their misdiagnosis story. And I was like, oh,
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: that sounds so much like me. Like I didn't, you know, bam, bam, bam.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: That's all me.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: So I think that social media is helping us like
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: talk to each other.
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: Right. And like really connect. like, Hey, we all have
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: this shared experience, right? Like there's something going on here.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I can say that, like in
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: my practice, I've, I think the folks that I work with,
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: I don't know if we've really talked about like social
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: media hasn't come up. I think more so what I
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: do see is more like maybe labeling things as ADHD
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: or autism, or it's like, that's not really, that's not
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: really what that means.
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: Or that's not really what that is. Right.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: So it's like, can you talk more about that?
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Cause there is, I feel like that slippery slope of like,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: self-diagnosis is, can be affirming, but then we'll not, not
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: like you said, like, well, not everything is that.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: So what's that? How do you navigate that?
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: I think the difference is that, for example, I'll use
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: like the forgetfulness trait, right?
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: Of ADHD. Everybody struggles with forgetfulness, whether you have.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: It or not, right?
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: Whether you're ADHD or not, it's more so.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: How much is impacting your life? Right.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: So I might've forgotten to text my friend back yesterday,
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: but like no big deal.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: But there, I have a pattern of forgetting to respond
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: to work emails and now I'm in trouble at work.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: Right. Or now I'm in trouble with my kid's school.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: Cause I keep missing the phone.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: Like I think it's, it's more so how it's impacting
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: your functioning. That's really what tells us to look at
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: it a little bit more deeply.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: Um, I'm trying to think of an example with autism.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: Um, I think I had somebody one time, um, I
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: like asked for permission to get like, sit closer to them.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: And I was like, you know, are you okay if
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: I put my hand on your shoulder?
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: And they were like, I'm not autistic.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: Like, yeah, that's fine. I was like, uh, okay.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: You don't have to be autistic to not be okay
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: with touch, right?
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, we don't, we don't have to be
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: okay with people touching us just because we're not autistic.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: So I think it's like the sensory, maybe I think
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: about the sensory in terms of like autism, right? Like
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: I don't like that loud noise. Oh, I must be autistic, right?
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: Like maybe, but there's more to it than that.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I think that's really important for those who are online,
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: who are, you know, taking in this content and learning
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: and then self-reflecting and thinking about themselves. Like, sometimes it's
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: just the human experience, right? Like we all exist on
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: this spectrum and we all experience like, some of the
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: same issues, whether that's anxiety or like, uh, trouble focusing
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: or disinterest in something or like sensitivity to light sound,
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: you know, pressure, whatever, um, lateness, but that's just human.
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: And I think it's important to then recognize like, When
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: is it something to get checked out? When is it
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: something to investigate further to go see a professional about?
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: Is it negatively impacting your life in such a way
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: that it's not manageable?
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Right. Exactly.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: I'd say that's exactly it.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: How much it's it's impacting your ability to just like
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: do life.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, that's really important. And it shows up for
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: everyone so differently, right? Especially seeing women in particular share
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: their experiences with ADHD online.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: A lot of it doesn't apply to me you.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Know so if I'm basing it off of that I
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: would say no like yeah I I have good personal
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: hygiene like that's not something I struggle with I remember
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: to eat like I I'm very regimented about my meals
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: so if I'm basing it off of that I would
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: say no like I don't have that but when you
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: dig deeper and you start to ask yourself these questions
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: of like how has it affected my life in a
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: negative way how have I been like struggling you know
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: in these ways and And I have a laundry list
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: of examples that I will not share on the air. Uh,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: but yeah, I think that also keeping that in mind too,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: is like how people are also sharing about their own
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: experiences may not look like yours. Yeah.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: I think that there's also no one way to be,
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: to have ADHD or there's no one way to be autistic.
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: So like we both have an ADHD, but it might
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: look different, right? Like things that I struggle with might
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: not be what you struggle with, right? Like I think
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: the other thing that I forgot to mention is that
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: like ADHD, there's three types, right? There's like the hyperactivity,
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: which is more of like the externalized symptoms. There's the inattentiveness,
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: which is more of like the internal, right? Like hard
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: to focus. And then you can have both, right? So
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: my husband and I both have ADHD and it's very different.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: The things that he struggles with are like different from
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: my struggles, right? So even ADHD and autism are a spectrum.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: But when we think of a spectrum, instead of thinking
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: about it linearly, I like to think of it like
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: if you imagine a pizza, right? And each slice of
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: the pizza represents our executive functioning.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: And so your pizza is going to look different from.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Mine, right?
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: Like this slice might be.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: You might function better in this area, but my functioning
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: might be like this.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: And like, you know... That's one of the things.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: That I really love about working with this is that
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: it's so different. Like your ADHD experience is so different
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: from mine. And that also makes it hard to like categorize.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: So I do think just like having a lot more.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: curiosity and like exploring and, you know, um, yeah, just
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: being more like critical about it.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I love the example of it
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: being a pizza, not a spectrum. I mean, it is
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: a spectrum, right? But that it's not linear. It's instead
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: like a pizza. I think that's, that's such a holistic.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: Way of looking at it.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: So last question for you is about really advice you
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: would give to someone listening, someone who's just and is
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: now starting to think of their own experience and maybe
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: the wheels are turning or maybe they feel like someone
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: in their life may need some additional support. What would
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: you tell a listener right now who suspects she has
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: ADHD or someone they know has ADHD but has never
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: told anyone or never talked about it?
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: What should they do next?
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: The first thing that comes to my mind is it's
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: going to be okay. It's going to be okay. No
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: eres la primera ni la ultima. And so even though
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: it feels like you might not have answers or like,
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: should I, should I get assessed? Should I not get assessed?
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: Should I talk to my therapist? Like, I'm thinking that's
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: the questions that I'd probably have, right? Like, where do I,
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: where do I start? And I think, first of all,
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: it's like, you are not defined, right? by your ADHD
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: that doesn't define you. But I would maybe sit and
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: reflect on what has my experience been with managing my emotions?
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: Because like I said, I think that's probably one of
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: the main ways it shows up for us as women.
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: Finding somebody that you can trust.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: Whether that's a therapist, whether that's a friend, but finding
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: someone that you trust and that will really validate your
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: experience and that will hear you out.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: Um, doing your own research.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: So there's, um, you know, channels on YouTube where people
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: are talking about their own experience. And so, um, just
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: listening to, you know, how other people have navigated this journey. Um, the,
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: the resources and the education are, they're just a little
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: bit hard to find, but it's.
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: There and everything's going to be okay. That's what I
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: would say.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: Angelica Diaz, thank you so much for joining us today
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: and for sharing your knowledge and your wisdom and helping
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: our listeners to orient themselves to this conversation, especially as
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: they're scrolling online and taking in content about ADHD. So
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: we really appreciate you.
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate this as well. This
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: is so fun.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes. Thank you.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: All right, Locamores, thank you for tuning in to another
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: capítulo of Locatora Radio.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: We'll catch you next time. Besitos.
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: Lokalandia!