Masking, school success and missed diagnoses

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Dr. Gilly Kahn spent years studying psychology before realizing how much of her own emotional world had been shaped by ADHD.

Dr. Gilly earned a Master’s in Experimental Psychology, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and built a full clinical practice before receiving her ADHD diagnosis in her early thirties. Looking back, the signs had been there all along: migraines that never made sense, intense emotional reactions, shifting hormones, and a lifelong habit of masking so well that even she missed the patterns. Like many of us, she excelled in school and in her career, which kept her symptoms invisible until they could no longer be explained away.

Now based in Atlanta, Dr. Gilly specializes in neurodiversity and emotion regulation, helping women understand the parts of ADHD that rarely get named. 

In this conversation, she and Tracy explore why women are so often misdiagnosed, how migraines and PMDD intersect with dopamine and estrogen, and why emotional dysregulation is often the hardest part for women who appear “put together” on the outside. Dr. Gilly also breaks down the science behind sleep, memory, and hormones, and explains why trauma is often confused with ADHD in clinical settings.

Her new book, Allow Me to Interrupt, brings clarity to the experiences so many women have carried silently for years and focuses on the emotional patterns that shape women’s ADHD, from hormonal shifts to migraines to the pressure to stay composed even when everything feels overwhelming.

Resources:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilly-kahn-m-a-ph-d-1996892b4  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgillykahn 
• Website: https://www.drgillykahn.com
• Article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kAg0EnN_nwN1cVTM3P9cyD1wFspLg71m/view?usp=sharing

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