Surprise... Kim Has ADHD (Part 1)

Laugh Lines with Kim & Penn Holderness

Kim Holderness

Holderness Podcast, Self-improvement, Parenting, 40s, Laugh Line, Gen X, Penn Holderness, Laugh Lines, The Laugh Line, 50s, Kim Holderness, Aging, Getting Older, Humor, The Holderness Family, Marriage, Education

4.9 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For years, I’ve stood on stages and said, “Hi, I’m Kim. I don’t have ADHD, but I love and support people who do.” Penn and I wrote books, made videos, and chatted on podcasts about it. I’ve given advice about how I partner with my ADHD husband and parent my ADHD son. And then (at almost 50 years old) after an extensive evaluation process and a lot of hard conversations, it turns out...

I have ADHD too. Surprise.

In this episode, we talk about my journey, why the signs were always there, and how I was scared to make my diagnosis public. (I've known for a while, but I wasn't ready to tell anyone.) But in true form, Penn reframes every fear I have into a strength and every doubt into evidence of resilience. Seriously, if you ever get diagnosed with ADHD, I highly recommend calling Penn Holderness, because he will absolutely gas you up about your brain.

Next week we bring in an expert to talk about the emotional side of ADHD, especially in women. But this week? It's messy and honest. So if you’ve ever quietly wondered, “Wait, do I have ADHD?” - this episode is for you (because that was me too.) Thanks for being here with us. We love to hear from you! Leave us a message at 323-364-3929 or write the show at podcast@theholdernessfamily.com. You can also watch our podcast on YouTube.

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Laugh Lines with Kim & Penn Holderness is an evolution of The Holderness Family Podcast, which began in 2018. Kim and Penn Holderness are award-winning online content creators known for their original music, song parodies, comedy sketches, and weekly podcasts. Their videos have resulted in over three billion views and over nine million followers since 2013. Penn and Kim are also authors of the New York Times Bestselling Books, ADHD Is Awesome: A Guide To (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD and All You Can Be With ADHD. They were also winners on The Amazing Race (Season 33) on CBS.

Laugh Lines is hosted and executive produced by Kim Holderness and Penn Holderness, with original music by Penn Holderness. Laugh Lines is also written and produced by Ann Marie Taepke, and edited and produced by Sam Allen. It is hosted by Acast. Thanks for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The alarm bells were going off, but because I'm a woman and I was told like, oh, you're just a little anxious.
0:08.3	Like, it just never even came up that that could be ADHD.
0:12.3	There are some things that come with that brain, and I've got to remind you, and everyone who has it, those things make you the person that you are.
0:20.0	And it's a great person. If somebody is going
0:22.3	to be diagnosed with ADHD, you need to have them call penholderness because he is going to hype you up.
0:27.7	The thing that you said to me that I'll never forget was we can't both have this. Yeah.
0:33.2	I remember saying back, yes, we can. Yeah, we get older every day.
0:38.1	Got more wrinkles, that's okay.
0:40.1	Yeah, we're laughing when we age.
0:42.2	Life is like a comedy stage.
0:45.8	And that's what we got laugh lines.
0:52.0	Hi, everybody.
0:53.1	I'm Kim Holderness.
1:00.1	And I'm Penn Holderness. And boy, did you pick a good laugh lines to click on. We're so glad you're here.
1:07.4	So, um, if you've ever had someone in your family get diagnosed with ADHD and thought, hmm,
1:10.8	that sounds like like it might be me. No. Maybe?
1:11.6	No.
1:13.8	You're in the right place.
1:14.6	Yeah.
1:20.2	So we're going to kick off a two-part episode this week, just pen and I yapping uncovering some things.
1:21.9	Next week we're going to have an expert talking about the emotional side of ADHD.
1:26.7	I don't know why I'm so emotional.
	...

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