You’ve spent years being told your memory is unreliable, that you missed a significant social cue, that you’re too sensitive. So when somebody tells you the thing you saw didn’t happen, part of you already believes them.

Dr. Regina McMenomy and co-host Russ dig into gaslighting: where the term comes from, what separates deliberate manipulation from careless invalidation, and why late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults are so often on the receiving end. They unpack how working memory differences, years of masking, and rejection sensitivity can make someone else’s version of reality feel more trustworthy than your own, and how manipulators use power dynamics to exploit that gap.

Regina also shares her own experience in a relationship where gaslighting showed up as a steady stream of small corrections, laying the groundwork for bigger moments where her perception was supposed to give way. The good news: recognizing the pattern is where rebuilding self-trust begins.

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Chat with Regina on Instagram @drreginaphd

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About Dr. Regina McMenomy, PhD

Regina is a neurodivergent coach and educator who helps late-diagnosed adults unmask, heal from burnout, and build lives aligned with how their brains work. She founded Divergent Paths Consulting to provide the type of coaching and support that late-diagnosed nerdy neurodivergent folks need after receiving their late diagnoses.

Someone tells you something you said didn’t bother them but their face said something different. Days later, maybe years later, you’re still replaying that moment, trying to figure it out. That isn’t you being too sensitive. It’s your brain trying to close a loop that never got closed.

In this episode, Dr. Regina McMenomy, Ph.D. explores why late-diagnosed and late-identified neurodivergent adults experience more moments of misattunement and why so many of them become moments we can't let go. High-resolution perception, the double empathy problem, and masking all raise the odds of a miss. Many of us also never learned repair growing up, so those moments stay open. The goal isn’t to stop noticing. It’s to build relationships, including the one with yourself, where missteps get resolved instead of replayed.

Sign up for N.E.R.D. Notes and get weekly nerdy neurodivergent insights!

Chat with Regina on Instagram @drreginaphd

Book a Make it Make Sense Call with Regina

About Dr. Regina McMenomy, PhD

Regina is a neurodivergent coach and educator who helps late-diagnosed adults unmask, heal from burnout, and build lives aligned with how their brains work. She founded Divergent Paths Consulting to provide the type of coaching and support that late-diagnosed nerdy neurodivergent folks need after receiving their late diagnoses.

What happens when everyone in a family is masking, and nobody knows it?

Dr. Regina McMenomy, Ph.D. and Russ explore how late diagnosis reveals patterns of behavior that run through generations. Neurodivergence is highly heritable, so when you look to your family to figure out what’s “normal,” you may be comparing yourself to people who are masking the same traits. Children learn to mask by watching the adults around them and attachment built between two masks is compromised from the start.

This episode covers how masking gets passed down, why gender expectations kept so many women from being diagnosed, how fawning and contingent love take root, and why loving someone isn’t the same as seeing them. It also makes clear that this is not about blaming parents. Most were doing their best without the understanding to do otherwise.

Most importantly, it’s about cycle breaking: what repair looks like, how small shifts change what the next generation inherits, and why understanding your neurotype is part of that work.

Sign up for N.E.R.D. Notes and get weekly nerdy neurodivergent insights!

Chat with Regina on Instagram @drreginaphd

Book a Make it Make Sense Call with Regina

About Dr. Regina McMenomy, PhD

Regina is a neurodivergent coach and educator who helps late-diagnosed adults unmask, heal from burnout, and build lives aligned with how their brains work. She founded Divergent Paths Consulting to provide the type of coaching and support that late-diagnosed nerdy neurodivergent folks need after receiving their late diagnoses.