Matt Klein thought he was dealing with depression. After a job change and the arrival of a new baby, he found himself in a fog. Listless. Unmotivated. And vaguely “off.” He just didn’t want to do anything. His wife noticed the shift, too. But the depression diagnosis never fully explained it. It wasn’t until he was evaluated as an adult that inattentive ADHD and slow processing speed brought his story into focus.

Matt, a software engineer, shares a story about a door that hung slightly askew — and how intensely it bothered him. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. That crooked door became a metaphor for his experience with undiagnosed ADHD: the mental friction, the fixation, the sense that something was out of alignment.

For more on this topic

• Read: What is slow processing speed?
• Listen: ADHD and emotions in men (Marc’s story)

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at adhdaha@understood.org

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Listen to Everyone Gets a Juice Box, a new podcast from Understood.org where host Jessica Shaw has honest talks with parents raising kids who learn and think differently.

Understood.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. If you want to help us continue this work, donate at understood.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Fellisia Robinson was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, everything started to make sense.

In this episode, she talks with Laura about what it was like to finally get answers later in life. For years, she struggled with burnout. She felt relentless pressure to achieve — like she always had to prove herself. Her diagnosis helped her understand herself in a new way and then rethink what productivity even means.

Fellisia shares what it was like growing up as a first-generation eldest daughter and navigating corporate spaces as a Black woman. She talks about perfectionism, masking, and choosing soft productivity over constant hustle. Along the way, she’s learning to slow down and give herself grace. And she’s seeing ADHD as a doorway to self-awareness and strength, not a limitation.

Fellisia is the founder of Brown Girl ADHD, which provides education and community for Black women and women of color with ADHD.

For more on this topic

• Listen: Masking ADHD to go above and beyond (René Brooks’ story)
• Listen: Breaking the burnout cycle
• Read: ADHD and perfectionism
• Follow: Fellisia on IG and TikTok

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at adhdaha@understood.org

.

Listen to Everyone Gets a Juice Box, a new podcast from Understood.org where host Jessica Shaw has honest talks with parents raising kids who learn and think differently.

Understood.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. If you want to help us continue this work, donate at understood.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Andrea Jones-Rooy — data scientist, comedian, and fire-eating acrobat — talks candidly about feeling like a failure even when all evidence points to the contrary. With sharp humor and vulnerability, she describes having “no self-esteem” (not low — none), limited willpower, and a reliance on fear and external pressure to get things done.

Andrea, who hosts the podcast Behind the Data, gives herself very little grace. She remains skeptical of her ADHD diagnosis. But one ADHD challenge feels impossible to dismiss: time blindness. Together, Andrea and Laura explore what it means to be present — and why that presence often comes more easily at work or on stage, where the stakes feel high, than with the people we love most.

For more on this topic

• Read: ADHD and time blindness
• Listen: Behind the Data podcast

For a transcript and more resources, visit ADHD Aha! on Understood.org. You can also email us at adhdaha@understood.org.

Listen to Everyone Gets a Juice Box, a new podcast from Understood.org where host Jessica Shaw has honest talks with parents raising kids who learn and think differently.

Understood.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. If you want to help us continue this work, donate at understood.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.