Why do so many neurodivergent adults resist going to bed even when they're exhausted? In this episode of Divergent Paths, Dr. Regina McMenomy and co-host Russ Catanach explore the psychology and neuroscience behind revenge bedtime procrastination, a common but misunderstood behavior where people delay sleep to reclaim autonomy and personal time.

This episode explores why neurodivergent brains often don’t "power down" like those of neurotypical individuals and what we can do about it. Learn how overstimulation, delayed melatonin release, and unmet emotional needs fuel this cycle, and why rest is more than a luxury—it’s a right.

Plus, Regina shares gentle, practical strategies that support your nervous system without relying on shame or willpower.

Divergent Paths Consulting: Helping late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults live with clarity, confidence, and ease.

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About Dr. Regina McMenomy PhD,

Regina is an educator, consultant, and founder of Divergent Paths Consulting. With over two decades of experience in higher education and instructional design, she now helps individuals create more inclusive, neurodivergent-affirming spaces. A late-diagnosed ADHDer herself, Regina blends academic insight, personal experience, and a healthy dose of nerdy joy to help others unmask, heal, and thrive.

About Russ Catanach

Russ is a marketing executive, podcast host, and longtime friend of Regina’s who brings curiosity, candor, and levity to every conversation. As the co-host of Divergent Paths, Russ plays the role of thoughtful interviewer and relatable everyman, helping unpack complex topics in a way that’s both grounded and accessible.

Is it emotional immaturity or the long-term impact of masking, trauma, and survival mode? In this heartfelt episode of Divergent Paths, Dr. Regina McMenomy explores how neurodivergent individuals often experience delayed or disrupted emotional development, not because they’re broken, but because they’ve been adapting to environments that never fully accepted them. Co-host Russ Catanach asks the big questions as Regina shares lived experiences, cultural insight, and unfiltered emotion, including tears on the mic for the first time. If you’ve ever felt behind in your emotional growth or misunderstood for your reactions, this episode will make you feel seen.

Divergent Paths Consulting: Helping late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults live with clarity, confidence, and ease.

Join N.E.R.D.s (free peer support)

Book a Free Discovery Call with Regina

About Dr. Regina McMenomy PhD,

Regina is an educator, consultant, and founder of Divergent Paths Consulting. With over two decades of experience in higher education and instructional design, she now helps individuals create more inclusive, neurodivergent-affirming spaces. A late-diagnosed ADHDer herself, Regina blends academic insight, personal experience, and a healthy dose of nerdy joy to help others unmask, heal, and thrive.

About Russ Catanach

Russ is a marketing executive, podcast host, and longtime friend of Regina’s who brings curiosity, candor, and levity to every conversation. As the co-host of Divergent Paths, Russ plays the role of thoughtful interviewer and relatable everyman, helping unpack complex topics in a way that’s both grounded and accessible.

What exactly is a special interest and why are they so essential to neurodivergent people? In this episode of Divergent Paths, Dr. Regina McMenomy breaks down how special interests go far beyond hobbies. From emotional regulation to identity formation, we explore the deep role these passions play for ADHD and autistic folks. Joined by co-host Russ Catanach, Regina shares personal stories, clinical insights, and cultural observations about how special interests fuel joy, soothe overwhelm, and sometimes become lifelines. Whether yours is dinosaurs, data, or DIY crafts, this episode validates why it’s more than “just a phase.”

Divergent Paths Consulting: Helping late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults live with clarity, confidence, and ease.

Join N.E.R.D.s (free peer support)

Book a Free Discovery Call with Regina

About Dr. Regina McMenomy, Ph.D.

Regina is an educator, consultant, and founder of Divergent Paths Consulting. With over two decades of experience in higher education and instructional design, she now helps individuals and organizations create more inclusive, neurodivergent-affirming spaces. A late-diagnosed ADHDer herself, Regina blends academic insight, personal experience, and a healthy dose of nerdy joy to help others unmask, heal, and thrive.

About Russ Catanach

Russ is a marketing executive, podcast host, and longtime friend of Regina’s who brings curiosity, candor, and levity to every conversation. As the co-host of Divergent Paths, Russ plays the role of thoughtful interviewer and relatable everyman, helping unpack complex topics in a way that’s both grounded and accessible.

Do you ever feel emotionally overloaded without knowing why? Or find yourself mirroring someone else's mood without realizing it? You’re not alone—and you’re not broken. In this episode of Divergent Paths, Dr. Regina McMenomy and cohost Russ Catanach unpack two powerful but often misunderstood neurodivergent experiences: emotional contagion and alexithymia.

You’ll learn what these terms mean, how they often show up together, and why they’re so common among ADHD and autistic individuals. Regina explains how catching someone else’s emotions (emotional contagion) can collide with difficulty naming your own feelings (alexithymia), creating what she calls “emotional static.” From personal stories to practical insights, this episode helps you build emotional fluency, set better boundaries, and stop absorbing what doesn’t belong to you.

Key topics:

• What emotional contagion is and why it hits neurodivergent folks hard
• Understanding alexithymia and the difference between thinking and feeling emotions
• How these experiences impact relationships, parenting, and workplace dynamics
• Practical tools for checking in with your body and reclaiming emotional clarity

Divergent Paths Consulting: Helping late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults live with clarity, confidence, and ease.

Join N.E.R.D.s (free peer support)

Book a Free Discovery Call with Regina

Regina McMenomy, PhD Regina is a neurodivergent leadership consultant, podcast host, and systems thinker who helps organizations build workplaces where everyone can thrive. With a background in higher education and a passion for inclusion, she brings insight, empathy, and a lot of lived experience to every conversation.

Russ Catanach Russ is a marketing professional, speaker, and co-host of the DIY for Business podcast. Known for his humor and clarity, he brings a grounded, real-world lens to workplace challenges and personal growth conversations.

In this episode of Divergent Paths, Dr. Regina McMenemy and co-host Russ Catanach explore the all-too-relatable phenomena of DOOM piles and task saturation—when your physical and mental clutter team up to ambush your productivity and sanity. From unopened mail to emotional overload, this conversation blends humor, insight, and compassion for chaotic brains trying to survive modern life. If you've ever hidden a mess in a box just to make it "go away" or felt like your brain was made of oatmeal after a big project, this one's for you.

They unpack how executive dysfunction plays into everyday overwhelm, strategies to break the shame cycle, and the power of playful productivity rituals (yes, Duolingo counts). Whether you're neurodivergent or just overworked, this episode validates your exhaustion and offers practical tools to get unstuck, one doom pile at a time.

Divergent Paths Consulting: Helping late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults live with clarity, confidence, and ease.

Join N.E.R.D.s (free peer support)

Book a Free Discovery Call with Regina

Dr. Regina McMenomy is a writer, educator, and self-professed digital hoarder with a deep commitment to unpacking the complexities of neurodivergent life. With a PhD in hand (but not the medical kind), she brings compassion, lived experience, and a sharp wit to conversations about executive dysfunction, ADHD, burnout, and creative recovery.

Russ Catanach is a media pro, digital archivist of everything since 1994, and a long-time advocate for navigating mental clutter with humor and honesty. Equal parts practical and perceptive, Russ helps bridge theory with the lived chaos of doing-all-the-things, often while fighting his inbox and clinging to his boogie board (not the beach kind).

Burnout isn’t just about being tired—it’s what happens when your nervous system is screaming for a better way to live. In this episode of Divergent Paths, host Dr. Regina McMenomy is joined by Russ Catanach for a deeply honest conversation about neurodivergent burnout. They unpack how masking, misaligned environments, and hyperfocus can quietly push us toward the edge and why recovery isn’t about powering through, but embracing rest as a radical act of survival.

Learn how Regina redefined productivity, the cost of perfectionism, and what it really means to live within your capacity. Whether you're in the middle of burnout or trying to avoid it, this episode offers powerful validation and practical insights for neurodivergent minds.

Divergent Paths Consulting: Helping late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults live with clarity, confidence, and ease.

Join N.E.R.D.s (free peer support)

Book a Free Discovery Call with Regina

Regina McMenomy, PhD Regina is a neurodivergent leadership consultant, podcast host, and systems thinker who helps organizations build workplaces where everyone can thrive. With a background in higher education and a passion for inclusion, she brings insight, empathy, and a lot of lived experience to every conversation.

Russ Catanach Russ is a marketing professional, speaker, and co-host of the DIY for Business podcast. Known for his humor and clarity, he brings a grounded, real-world lens to workplace challenges and personal growth conversations.

Welcome back to Divergent Paths, the podcast that explores neurodivergent life beyond the stereotypes. In this episode, host Dr. Regina McMenomy, Ph.D. dives deep into one of the most misunderstood aspects of neurodivergence—Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), sometimes reframed as a Persistent Drive for Autonomy.

If you’ve ever irrationally resisted a task—even one you actually want to do—this episode is for you. Together with co-host Russ Catanach, Regina unpacks the emotional toll of PDA, how it’s often masked, and what it means to work with your nervous system instead of against it. From dishes to diagnoses, this is a candid, compassionate, and occasionally hilarious look at what happens when autonomy becomes essential.

In this episode:

• What PDA really is and how it shows up in daily life
• Why well-meaning suggestions can trigger intense resistance
• How PDA intersects with masking, burnout, and RSD
• Real-world strategies for navigating PDA at home and work
• Why leading with curiosity builds better relationships

Whether you’re newly diagnosed or just starting to explore neurodivergent traits, this episode will help you make sense of your “why can’t I just do it?” moments—and maybe even laugh at them a little, too.

Divergent Paths Consulting: Helping late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults live with clarity, confidence, and ease.

Join N.E.R.D.s (free peer support)

Book a Free Discovery Call with Regina

Regina McMenomy, PhD Regina is a neurodivergent leadership consultant, podcast host, and systems thinker who helps organizations build workplaces where everyone can thrive. With a background in higher education and a passion for inclusion, she brings insight, empathy, and a lot of lived experience to every conversation.

Russ Catanach Russ is a marketing professional, speaker, and co-host of the DIY for Business podcast. Known for his humor and clarity, he brings a grounded, real-world lens to workplace challenges and personal growth conversations.

What if your struggle to focus, stay motivated, or meet deadlines wasn't a character flaw—but a mismatch between your nervous system and your environment?

In this episode of Divergent Paths, I explore the concept of interest-based nervous systems—a defining feature of many neurodivergent experiences, especially ADHD. We break down how traditional motivation models fail neurodivergent folks and why "just try harder" is both unhelpful and inaccurate. Joined by my longtime friend and co-host Russ Catanach, we talk about what it means to have a brain that runs on passion, urgency, and novelty—and how you can stop pathologizing your process.

We’ll discuss:

• Why executive dysfunction is often misunderstood
• How interest-based nervous systems challenge workplace norms
• What businesses need to know about motivation, burnout, and task initiation
• Strategies to honor your own rhythms and build systems that work with your brain, not against it

Whether you're neurodivergent yourself, managing neurodivergent employees, or simply rethinking how we define productivity—this conversation is packed with insight, humor, and real talk.

Divergent Paths Consulting: Helping late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults live with clarity, confidence, and ease.

Join N.E.R.D.s (free peer support)

Book a Free Discovery Call with Regina

Regina McMenomy, PhD Regina is a neurodivergent leadership consultant, podcast host, and systems thinker who helps organizations build workplaces where everyone can thrive. With a background in higher education and a passion for inclusion, she brings insight, empathy, and a lot of lived experience to every conversation.

Russ Catanach Russ is a marketing professional, speaker, and co-host of the DIY for Business podcast. Known for his humor and clarity, he brings a grounded, real-world lens to workplace challenges and personal growth conversations.