Psychiatrist Who's Diagnosed 10,000 Women With ADHD & Autism: "THIS Still Shocks Me!" - Dr Shyamal Mashru
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
On the pros and cons of an ADHD diagnosis.
What is the most life-changing ADHD diagnosis story shared?
Children with ADHD by the age of 12 have received 20,000 more critical comments. If you're constantly receiving those messages from early childhood, that's going to start battering your self-confidence.
What emotions do people experience after receiving an ADHD diagnosis?
Then you're going to go into work environments where you're struggling much harder than others to get things done. That narrative, it just keeps going and going and going.
Why do individuals with ADHD often feel broken?
Can getting an ADHD diagnosis and understanding ADHD rebuild self-esteem?
What is the impact of a lifetime believing you're the problem?
I often tell patients... Can I have just a second of your time? If this podcast has helped you understand your brain or made you feel less alone, can you do me one favor? Can you hit the follow button? And I'll repay the favor by continuing to book the best and most exclusive conversations on this topic. Please enjoy the episode and always remember, you're not broken, just different, and you have always been enough.
How can self-understanding transform one's life after an ADHD diagnosis?
Some people don't get diagnosed with ADHD. They get an explanation for their entire life.
What is rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD) and how does it affect individuals?
What's the most life-changing late ADHD diagnosis you've ever seen?
Yeah, so good question. One story that really sat with me was a lady that came to see me. She was in her 70s and she had a diagnosis of cancer.
How does ADHD contribute to feelings of loneliness and isolation?
And she probably had two years left to live. She had seen our first podcast and she wanted an explanation for herself. She didn't actually want treatment. She just wanted the assessment to really know. And her story was a tragic one. So she'd had three divorces, lots of broken friendships. She'd lost contact with her siblings. Even her children were a bit strange to her. And educationally, she struggled. She had a very checkered employment history, breaking down relationships with her colleagues and with her employer. Lots of people around her had labeled her selfish, careless. She just felt like a horrible human being. And so she was really broken when she came to see me. We did an ADHD assessment and it was a very clear history of childhood symptoms.
But we analyzed her relationships because that was the big problem area of her life. And we realized that she had very impulsively got into romantic relationships with a lot of enthusiasm. and then suddenly felt trapped and bored and then she impulsively ended them similarly with friendship she was described as too much for people too intense overly sensitive and then she would take that really badly and break those friendships And she was much more sociable when she was younger, but as she'd got older, she'd just become much more of a recluse. When we joined the dots and she started to understand why she'd been the way she'd been, she could look at her life in a different way. There was a shift from I am the problem to I have a problem that hasn't been managed.
Now, a diagnosis in her case didn't repair her relationships. But I would like to think that the last couple of years of her life, she spent in a much more compassionate way towards herself. And I think that's a really critical time for her to have that moment.
That's a super impactful story, Shai. Thank you so much for sharing it. When someone gets a diagnosis later in life like that lady, what sort of emotions does somebody experience when they get that? It's ADHD. It's been ADHD all this time.
There's a mixture of emotions. There is a sense of grief, a bit like a bereavement process, where they mourn the lost years, right? Of not understanding why they were struggling where other people weren't struggling. There's a sense of relief as well, because they finally understand the cause behind their lifetime struggles. It all, the kind of the jigsaw pieces come together, right? Then, inevitably, for most people, there is a sense of anger because they feel angry that other people didn't pick it up sooner. The same people that might have labeled them, actually, right? Especially when there's very clear-cut childhood histories of symptoms. One remark that someone said to me stuck with me about this.
They said, it's like I've given an instruction manual to my brain. Yes. So... I often tell patients, you've been blaming your character for what is actually your wiring.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:29
2
What is the most life-changing ADHD diagnosis story shared?
0:29–0:42
3
What emotions do people experience after receiving an ADHD diagnosis?
0:42–0:50
4
Why do individuals with ADHD often feel broken?
0:50–0:55
5
What is the impact of a lifetime believing you're the problem?
0:55–1:21
6
How can self-understanding transform one's life after an ADHD diagnosis?
1:21–1:27
7
What is rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD) and how does it affect individuals?
1:27–1:42
8
How does ADHD contribute to feelings of loneliness and isolation?
1:42–45:15
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from ADHD Chatter
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