Episode 146 with Gina Marie Rodriguez.

“I feel like I’m more ADHD than ever before because I’m just now learning how to fully be myself.”

Gina is a curly hair specialist, hairstylist, and educator in Northern California.

Like many of my guests, Gina was always moving from one idea to the next with lightning speed and was somehow able to hold everything together and appear successful after having children and experiencing extreme bouts of depression and anxiety and the soul crushing feeling of being unable to manage it all.

After beginning the Autism diagnosis process with her younger daughter, she started to question her own experiences and began to unravel a whole hidden interconnected web of neurodivergence in her own family.

Gina talks about her medication journey and the internal experience of what she calls “ADHD episodes.” We talk about the pressures of giftedness and never feeling like we’ve reached our potential. We also talk about unmasking after a diagnosis and embracing our eccentricities, and we talk about the science of hair and how being a hairstylist can actually be a great fit for someone with ADHD.

Website: thecultivatedcurl.com

Instagram: @gina_thecultivatedcurl

Links:

Cultivated Curl Academy

Resources mentioned:

The Big Picture documentary

The Disruptors documentary

Life, Animated documentary

Your Brain’s Not Broken by Tamara Rosier

ADHD 2.0 by Halloween & Ratey

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Episode Sponsors:

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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As a Women & ADHD listener, you’ll receive 10% off your first month of BetterHelp when you use this link: betterhelp.com/womenadhd