Max Siegel (he/they) was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. Throughout that process, Max encountered some of the same fears and myths around ADHD as he does around transness: “You just want an excuse.” “You just want to be lazy.” Max, an LGBTQ+ transgender and neurodiversity inclusion speaker and consultant, found that coming out gave him resilience. And that same resilience helped him cope with his ADHD diagnosis.
Max and host Laura Key also talk about ADHD symptoms and gender identity. Max, who was assigned female at birth, was socialized as a woman until his 20s. He talks about anxiety, rejection sensitivity, and other ADHD-related challenges he’s faced — and how ADHD can get missed because of a person’s gender.
A note about this episode: Max talks about how he felt he needed to “convince” his doctor he had ADHD. We can’t speak to the differences between how ADHD is diagnosed and treated in the UK vs. the United States. However, well-trained and credentialed evaluators should be capable of making accurate diagnoses without convincing. For detailed, easy-to-understand information on ADHD diagnosis in adults, listen to Season 2 of our Understood Explains podcast.
To find a transcript for this episode and more resources, visit the episode page at Understood.
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Getting your child the support they need at school shouldn’t feel like a fight. But for millions of families, it does. In Zero Reject, an investigative podcast from Understood.org, award-winning journalist Anya Kamenetz looks at how changing federal policies are reshaping special education — and what’s at stake for families trying to access the support their children are legally entitled to. Start listening now.
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