Women's Mental Health and Neurodivergence

You are not broken. You are carrying too much.

 

Many women are misunderstood when it comes to mental health and neurodivergence. ADHD in women and autism in women are significantly underdiagnosed because:

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• Women often mask symptoms more effectively, appearing “fine” on the outside while struggling internally.

• Challenges frequently show up as anxiety, depression, or perfectionism rather than externalized behaviors.

• Most diagnostic criteria were based on boys and men, leaving women overlooked and misdiagnosed.

 

As a result, women are often given labels like anxiety or depression when the underlying issue is unrecognized ADHD or autism.

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The Invisible Mental Load

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Women, especially mothers, frequently carry the invisible load:

• Managing kids’ schedules, meals, and schoolwork

• Keeping track of birthdays, groceries, family obligations

• Balancing careers, relationships, and caregiving without enough support

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This constant mental juggling is overwhelming and exhausting. When combined with neurodivergence or trauma, it can create burnout, anxiety, and a sense of never being “enough.”

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The Impossible Standards

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Mothers in particular face cultural pressures and skewed expectations:

• Be fully present at work and at home

• Prioritize kids’ needs over your own well-being

• Maintain a perfect home and relationships

• “Bounce back” quickly after childbirth or setbacks

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These standards are unrealistic, unsustainable, and harmful to women’s mental health.

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The Systems Aren’t Built for Women

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It’s not just individual stress, systemic barriers deeply affect women’s mental health:

• Limited parental leave and rigid workplace policies

• Unaffordable childcare and lack of flexible supports

• Parenting without extended family or community (“no village parenting”)

• The political climate and constant news cycle, which create stress, anger, and helplessness

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These are not personal failings, they are systemic realities that weigh heavily on women.

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Perimenopause, Mental Health & Neurodivergence​

Many women notice meaningful shifts in mood, anxiety, focus, sleep, and emotional regulation during perimenopause — often years before menopause itself. Fluctuating hormones can intensify stress responses, disrupt sleep, and amplify underlying anxiety, depression, or trauma patterns.

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For neurodivergent women, these changes can be especially impactful. Hormonal shifts may worsen ADHD symptoms, increase sensory sensitivity, reduce executive functioning capacity, or make coping strategies that once worked feel suddenly insufficient.

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In my work with women, I take hormonal context seriously. I consider how perimenopause and other reproductive transitions may be interacting with the nervous system, mental health, and neurodivergence, and I pace therapy accordingly. You are not “losing it,” failing, or going backward,  your system may be asking for a different kind of support during this season.

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How Therapy & Assessment Can Help

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In therapy and assessment, my goal is to help women make sense of what they’re experiencing — emotionally, cognitively, and physiologically, without reducing it to a single label.

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I work with women to:

• Address anxiety, depression, burnout, and emotional overwhelm in the context of their lived experience

• Explore whether chronic stress, trauma, hormonal changes, or neurodivergence may be contributing to current symptoms

• Provide thoughtful psychological assessment, including ADHD and diagnostic clarification when appropriate, using a developmentally and gender-responsive lens

• Offer trauma-informed, nervous-system-focused therapy that supports emotional regulation, energy restoration, and sustainable coping

• Focus on what is within your control while acknowledging the systemic, relational, and cultural pressures you navigate

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You Don’t Have to Do It Alone​​

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Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, professional, student, caregiver, or somewhere in between, your distress deserves to be taken seriously.

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Therapy and assessment can help you:

• Better understand your emotional patterns and stress responses

• Clarify the roots of anxiety, low mood, or burnout

• Strengthen coping skills for overwhelm, perfectionism, and chronic pressure

• Release unrealistic expectations and self-blame

• Build resilience within systems that often ask too much and offer too little support

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Next Step

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If you’re feeling depleted, overwhelmed, or stuck, or if something that used to work no longer does — support is available.

I invite you to reach out to explore whether therapy, assessment, or a combination of both may be helpful. Together, we’ll work to understand what’s contributing to your distress and create a path toward greater balance, clarity, and steadiness.