Dr. Samantha Hiew

Many ADHD women say the autism assessment is really traumatizing.

It brings up so many questions about how you are socially and how you communicate.

It is very regulating for the nervous system to be in connection with someone but it's when it doesn't work out it can be really really tough.

Dr. Samantha Hu is a specialized female ADHD and autism expert with a PhD in medical sciences.

She's here to spread awareness of ADHD and autism and help you process a diagnosis.

Autistic ADHDers have encountered adverse childhood experiences, so they never really had that role model of someone who was there for them, who can validate their experience.

And when you are born with this increased intensity, you learn quite quickly.

Not everyone can host the space for that.

Well, speaking as somebody who has... Can I have just a second of your time?

Thank you so much for having me again.

So great to see you.

Yeah, so, I mean, these days, we get, you know, children as young as, you know, five years old.

But for most of us, late diagnosed adults, I find it tends to happen in a time when people are either encountering, you know, anything online that,

makes them think, oh, that sounds like me.

But for those of us who are going through perhaps transitions in our lives, when we feel like I'm finding it really hard to cope or something isn't going well in their lives, you know, I've once mentored somebody who said that they found it really hard

to keep relationships and that really made them want to pursue a diagnosis maybe get support and then they think that then you know i can understand myself better and i can you know be in this relationship but then most women tend to come to an adhd diagnosis because of hormonal changes that happen or you know a history of premenstrual dysphoric disorder pmzd

For me, I came to an ADHD diagnosis first at the age of 40 after the birth of my second child.

And at the time, I was going through really, you know, big dip in my sex hormones that I didn't know, obviously, you know, how it then impacts on my ability to function as a person, you know, whether to think or manage, you know, my anxiety was through the roof.

And that led me to then look for some answers.

That sadness, you know, about the years that people thought that they have lost because of not knowing who they are or constantly trying to work out which one's me now.