Welcome back to the Human Thrive Podcast. In this first episode of a new season, Amanda — a coach who was diagnosed with ADHD at 46 — invites listeners into a quiet moment of truth: the nagging question many women with late-diagnosed or self-identified ADHD ask themselves — Am I being too much when I’m just being me?

Amanda weaves story and insight as she traces the path from years of masking and shrinking to the moment everything made sense: a postgraduate course on neurodiversity, a lightbulb realization, and the relief of seeing her life reflected in a diagnosis. She remembers schoolyards where silence felt safer than being ‘weird,’ the exhaustion of holding back, and the private rituals — fiddling with hair, clutching a pen — that soothed an overstimulated nervous system.

Through candid examples of impulsive spending, racing ideas, and the baffling co-existence of deep anxiety and sudden creative bursts, Amanda shows how ADHD traits were misunderstood for a lifetime as depression or anxiety. She describes the small, practical strategies that helped her externalize executive function, and how medication and self-compassion became tools to move from surviving to thriving.

The episode becomes an invitation: what if being “too much” is actually being fully alive? Amanda reframes criticism as others’ discomfort — not a flaw — and encourages listeners to experiment with showing up just 1% more as themselves. She paints a vivid picture of finding your people: those who resonate with your frequency and hold space for your energy.

We end with a gentle guided breath and a reflective prompt — where are you shrinking to fit in, and what if that part of you is your greatest strength? Amanda teases upcoming episodes in this series, offers ways to connect through her free and paid communities, and closes with the simple truth she’s learned: your authenticity isn’t too much. It’s you.