{"id":585916,"date":"2026-08-07T11:08:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585916\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T11:08:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:08:35","slug":"late-adhd-diagnoses-in-women-i-started-to-forgive-myself-it-was-amazing-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585916\/","title":{"rendered":"Late ADHD diagnoses in women: \u2018I started to forgive myself. It was amazing\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Ail\u00edn Kennedy was 32 years old when she was first diagnosed with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/adhd\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/adhd\/\">ADHD<\/a>. When ADHD was first raised as a possibility by her psychiatrist, Kennedy disregarded it thinking \u201cthat\u2019s for naughty little boys\u201d. This is, she explains, just one of many misperceptions that persist <a href=\"\" rel=\"\">about<\/a> the condition. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Six years on Kennedy is an ADHD coach and expert. She and her fellow \u201cADHDer\u201d Mike McGrath-Bryan have released a book, Have I Got Your Attention? A Guide to Adult ADHD in Ireland. The book, she says, is a guide for those with the condition or for anyone who wants to learn more about how ADHD can impact daily life. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Speaking on the latest episode of The Irish Times Women\u2019s Podcast, Kennedy tells host R\u00f3is\u00edn Ingle there are vast differences in how ADHD shows up in people. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">The book features the stories of nine Irish people with ADHD, such as fashion designer Helen Steele, and explores their unique experiences. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Kennedy explains how women with ADHD can often be dismissed as \u201chysterical\u201d, \u201chormonal\u201d, \u201clazy\u201d, \u201cditsy\u201d, \u201ctoo sensitive\u201d or \u201ccrazy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">The Cork native says getting her diagnosis made a significant difference to her wellbeing. \u201cFor the first time in my life I was able to fully understand myself &#8230; I was able to start forgiving myself, which was amazing,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">The pair discuss how ADHD affects different aspects of life from relationships to finances. Kennedy also offers tips for \u201cregulation\u201d and discusses \u201cthe four pillars\u201d that can help those with ADHD find motivation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">You can listen back to their conversation on the player above or search The Women\u2019s Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Have I Got Your Attention? is published by Merrion Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ail\u00edn Kennedy was 32 years old when she was first diagnosed with ADHD. When ADHD was first raised&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8094,103,61,60,410],"class_list":["post-585916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-adhd","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}