Dr. Samantha Hiew

And they start to realize that some of the relationships that were formed before they understood

who they truly are when the relationships that will form based on the mask, you know, that tends to be harder to maintain.

A good example is, say, maybe you have friendship, you know, because of the circumstances that you all went out to the pub together.

But then when you, you know, realize, oh, I'm ADHD, I don't want to drink anymore.

and then i can't hang out so much with those people because they it's called temptation you know then it doesn't align with this journey then you almost go into this spiritual excavation and i say spiritual not in the sense of like you know like going to spiritual healing groups but it's more that questioning of who you are and people um that i have you know created groups for um

with my cohort of women who I'm supporting, they have said that they go through periods of existential questioning.

And yeah, that's when they start to be more discerning and some relationships end and then some begin.

Yeah.

I mean, when you tell somebody about this label or they become more aware of who they are, then they fixate on that.

That then inadvertently increases the anxiety of who you are and then what are you doing?

And then you start to become more aware of what you're doing.

And then maybe you may be more autistic or, you know, more ADHD in some instances.

I definitely, like I heard on Instagram the other day that someone said that after their autism diagnosis, they become more autistic.

Where like say previously, you know, if they were cleaning up, washing up after dinner, they would look at, you know, the pile of food that's collected near the sink in the drainer.

They would just, you know, empty it without thinking.

But now they look at it and they're like, oh, it's squishy.

You know, it's texture.

Like, oh, I hate it.

You know, and you become more aware, right?

Because you are focusing on it.