ADHD in Women Over 50: When Midlife Reveals What You’ve Been Masking

This site is for midlife women who, somewhere in their forties or fifties, have begun to notice that life has always felt a little harder for them than it seems to for others — and who are beginning to wonder whether undiagnosed ADHD may be part of the reason.

This space explores undiagnosed ADHD in midlife women — why it’s so often missed, why it can surface during perimenopause and menopause, and what understanding it might mean for you now.

Perimenopause and menopause can expose what has been quietly masked for decades. Traits of undiagnosed ADHD — difficulty focusing, overwhelm, emotional intensity, the exhaustion of constant coping — can suddenly feel impossible to ignore.

Maybe you’ve always coped — just about. Maybe you’ve been capable, responsible, the one who held everything together. And yet, quietly, something has always felt harder for you than it seemed to be for everyone else.

You are not lazy. You are not failing. And you are not alone.

That moment — when you begin to see the cracks — can be the first real clue that ADHD may have been there all along.

Midlife can be when the ADHD mask begins to slip

The coping strategies that worked for decades may start to fail. Tasks feel heavier. Emotions louder. Patience thinner.

It can feel like everything is unraveling — when in reality, something important is finally becoming visible.

If this resonates with you, start here…

The articles below explore undiagnosed ADHD in midlife women — especially how it can surface during perimenopause and menopause. Many women recognise themselves in these experiences for the first time.