Heather Jean Ransom: Chronic pain, spoons & burnout
Women & ADHD
Katy Weber
4.9 • 685 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2024
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode 172 with Heather Jean Ransom.
“It feels so detached when I say ‘I have ADHD’ because it is part of me. I can't discern it from myself. I am ADHD.”
Heather Jean was born in England and now lives in Germany with her husband and two daughters. She was diagnosed last year with ADHD at the age of 47.
We talk about her journey to diagnosis after a leave of absence due to chronic pain and fibromyalgia, and we discuss the frustrations many of us have felt describing our lived experience and endless rabbit-hole research findings to clinicians, only to discover we know much more than they do about neurodivergence and suddenly we’re in the position of having to convince the “expert” to take you seriously.
Heather Jean does an amazing job of describing what it’s like to have ADHD, Autism, and chronic pain. We talk about spoons and spoon theory — if you’re not familiar with the term, I’ve put a link in the episode show notes that gives a nice quick primer on the concept of spoons.
We also talk about alternative names for ADHD (Heather Jean and her daughter came up with some fantastic ones!) and the inherent difficulty in finding a name that accurately reflects the condition when so many of our experiences are so different from the DSM and from each other.
And, of course, we talk about Scrat from Ice Age, who really should be the official ADHD mascot — you’ll love Heather Jean’s SCRAT acronym as an alternate name for ADHD!
Links & Resources:
Gemma Wilson: Chronic pain, fibromyalgia & ADHD
Pain and Prejudice: How the Medical System Ignores Women―And What We Can Do About It by Gabrielle Jackson
Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price
What Is Spoon Theory? (VeryWell Health)
The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino
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Episode edited by E Podcast Productions
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey friends, it's Katie here. Have you spent your whole life wondering why things feel harder for you |
| 0:05.2 | than they do for everyone else? Do you struggle with motivation even for the things you actually want to do? |
| 0:10.6 | Are you exhausted even though it feels like you're not getting anything done? If you're nodding along, |
| 0:15.9 | then I've got some exciting news. I've recently expanded the women and ADHD team by joining forces with a few |
| 0:22.4 | of my favorite ADHD coaches, each of whom I trust wholeheartedly because they share my values |
| 0:28.1 | of compassionate, neurodivergent affirming support. Consistent one-on-one coaching from someone |
| 0:33.1 | who truly understands what it's like to live with ADHD can make all the difference in life. |
| 0:38.6 | Our women and ADHD coaches provide guidance, support, and accountability you can trust |
| 0:43.6 | with accessible pricing and free consultation calls, so you can find the right coach for you |
| 0:48.6 | without any pressure or pushy sales tactics. Just real support from women who truly get it. Discover what's possible |
| 0:55.3 | when you have the right support. Head to women and ADHD.com slash coaching to book your free |
| 1:00.7 | consult today. Disorder always sounds weird, which is why I actually prefer spectrum, because |
| 1:07.4 | spectrum leaves it open whether it disables you or not. And disorder is always the focus on the other. |
| 1:18.4 | And I don't like that either. It's disorder always means how much does it inconvenience everybody else? |
| 1:24.7 | I mean, hello, thank you. It inconveniences me most, and it inconveniences me more |
| 1:30.1 | when you hate me for it. |
| 1:36.4 | Hello and welcome to the Women and ADHD podcast. I'm your host, Katie Weber. I was diagnosed |
| 1:42.8 | with ADHD at the age of 45, and it completely |
| 1:46.5 | turned my world upside down. I've been looking back at so much of my life, school, jobs, |
| 1:53.3 | my relationships, all of it with this new lens, and it has been nothing short of overwhelming. |
| 1:58.9 | I quickly discovered I was not the only woman to have this |
| 2:01.5 | experience, and now I interview other women who, like me, discovered in adulthood they have ADHD |
... |
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