Reflections on Undiagnosed ADHD in Midlife Women
These posts explore what it can feel like to discover ADHD in midlife — particularly for women whose traits were overlooked for decades.
Many reflect the moment when perimenopause or menopause begins to expose patterns that were once manageable, but now feel impossible to ignore.
You’re welcome to start anywhere. Often, simply recognising yourself in someone else’s words is the first step towards understanding.
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It’s Not Just the Menopause: Undiagnosed ADHD in Women Over 50
Undiagnosed ADHD, Midlife, and the Moment the Mask Finally Slipped For most of my life, I looked like I had it together. From the outside, it was a convincing performance: capable, articulate, responsible, “doing well.” I raised a family, held down jobs, showed up (mostly on time), and managed to pass as someone who coped
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The Day I Realised It Wasn’t “Just Me”: ADHD and Menopause in Women Over 50
For most of my life, I believed I was simply bad at being an adult. Not spectacularly bad. Just… quietly, consistently struggling in ways I couldn’t quite explain. I worked hard. I cared deeply. I looked successful from the outside. But inside, it always felt like I was running an operating system that everyone else
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ADHD and Menopause in Women Over 50: The Quiet Aftershock No One Warns You About
No one tells you what happens after the penny drops. After the late-night Googling. After the “oh… that explains a lot.”After you stop questioning whether it’s “just the menopause” and start recognising a pattern that’s been there your whole life. Because the realisation that you might have ADHD in your 50s doesn’t arrive neatly packaged.
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ADHD and Menopause: The Menopause Multiplier When Masking Finally Fails
There’s menopause.And then there’s menopause with ADHD. This is the bit I wasn’t prepared for. Because while I’d been coping (just about) for decades, menopause didn’t simply arrive with a few inconvenient symptoms. It acted like a menopause multiplier. Everything that had always been there — quietly, manageably, almost invisibly — suddenly got louder. Harder.
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Suspecting ADHD in Midlife: My 18-Month Waitlist Diary
I didn’t arrive at ADHD lightly. This wasn’t a trend I picked up online or a label I wanted to try on. It came after years of anxiety that never quite explained everything, after menopause turned the volume up on my brain, and after a moment of unexpected recognition that stopped me cold. A friend
The Invisible Struggle 