Authentically ADHD with Carmen

Where the chaos of ADHD meets self-acceptance, growth, and a whole lot of authenticity
  • 4.6 (5)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

Hi! I'm Carmen, a late-diagnosed ADHDer, ADHD life coach, and early childhood special education teacher who wants to spread awareness, relate to other ADHDers, and have fun while talking and learning about the difficulties, awesomeness, and new research behind the neurodiverse ADHD brain. ARE YOU READY?? Let's get started! carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com

  1. 21h ago

    Your Student Isn’t Refusing to Learn—Their Brain Is Busy Surviving the Classroom

    Neurodivergent students can know the answer, understand the lesson, and still be unable to access learning in a classroom that feels loud, unpredictable, overwhelming, or emotionally unsafe In this episode of Authentically ADHD, Carmen explores what autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD students may need before their brains can fully engage with instruction. We break down the neuroscience behind sensory overload, working-memory challenges, stress responses, executive dysfunction, and co-regulation—and why behaviors that look like avoidance, laziness, defiance, or inattention are often signs that a student’s nervous system is working overtime. You’ll learn practical ways to create more accessible learning environments through visual supports, predictable routines, movement, sensory accommodations, meaningful choices, smaller task-entry points, and connection before correction. Because support is not coddling. Regulation is not the same as compliance. And a student should not have to prove they can survive the classroom before they are allowed to learn in it. Thank you for tuning in! Follow me! This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Guide for Parents and Teachers The Ready To Learn Guide For ND Students First we reframe the behavior, then check access barriers, then build supports, scripts, and a one-week action plan. It includes: * A ready-to-learn access ladder * Behavior-reframing chart * Sensory and environmental access scan * Predictability and transition planner * Working-memory and task-entry supports * Movement, choice, and flexible participation tools * Co-regulation scripts * A response plan for overload, shutdowns, or escalation * Home-school communication tracker * One-page student learning access profile * Seven-day support experiment * Quick-reference page for adults * Research and resource notes The strategies are grounded in current classroom accommodation guidance, Universal Design for Learning, executive-function and stress-response science, co-regulation research, and studies examining sensory access in autistic students. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com/subscribe

  2. 3d ago

    The AuDHD Freeze Response

    Why can you care deeply about a task, fully understand what needs to be done, and still feel physically unable to begin? In this episode of Authentically ADHD, Carmen explores the AuDHD freeze response—the frustrating gap between intention and action shaped by task-initiation struggles, autistic inertia, cognitive disengagement, transition friction, overwhelm, and nervous-system protection. We break down why this is not laziness, defiance, or a lack of discipline, and why shame often makes the freeze even worse. You’ll learn how to identify what kind of “stuck” you are experiencing, reduce invisible steps, create gentler transition ramps, use body doubling and external cues, and choose a first step small enough to actually access. Because sometimes your brain is not refusing to cross the bridge. The bridge simply has no ramp, no lighting, no signs, and one deeply unqualified raccoon in a hard hat yelling, “Figure it out.” This episode is for every AuDHDer who has ever spent an hour thinking about standing up—and then blamed themselves for still sitting. Research and Show-Notes References * Buckle, K. L., Leadbitter, K., Poliakoff, E., & Gowen, E. First-Hand Accounts of Autistic Inertia. Frontiers in Psychology, 2021. * Rapaport, H. et al. “I live in extremes”: A qualitative investigation of autistic adults’ experiences of inertia. Autism, 2023/2024. * Lage, C., Smith, E. S., & Lawson, R. P. A meta-analysis of cognitive flexibility in autism spectrum disorder. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2024. * Hoofs, V. et al. Task switching in autism: An EEG study on intentions and actions. Neuropsychologia, 2018. * Willcutt, E. G. et al. Validity of the executive function theory of ADHD: A meta-analytic review. Biological Psychiatry, 2005. * Diamond, A. Executive Functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 2013. * Becker, S. P. et al. Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome–Clinical Interview. 2024. * Yücens, B. et al. Examining cognitive disengagement syndrome in an adult ADHD evaluation sample. 2024. * Roelofs, K. Freeze for action: Neurobiological mechanisms in animal and human freezing. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2017. * Arnsten, A. F. T. Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2009. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Jul 18

    Why Does My Brain Have 47 Tabs Open and None of Them Are Loading?

    In this episode of Authentically ADHD, Carmen explores why AuDHD brains can feel like they have 47 tabs open and none of them are loading. We break down the overlap between ADHD executive dysfunction and autistic overload, including sensory processing, decision fatigue, transitions, emotional regulation, and nervous system shutdown. This episode explains why overload is not laziness or drama — it is often a bandwidth issue. With research-backed neuroscience, real-life examples, dark humor, and practical tools, you’ll learn how to reduce input, shrink tasks, use scripts, create transition handrails, and support your brain when everything feels like too much and nothing is moving. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Jul 6

    Still Exhausted After Rest?

    In this episode of Authentically ADHD, Carmen breaks down why AuDHD recovery is so much deeper than simply lying down, sleeping, or taking a “lazy day.” For autistic ADHD brains, exhaustion is often not just physical — it can be sensory, cognitive, emotional, social, demand-based, transition-based, or masking-related. Still Exhausted After Rest: Why AuDHD Recovery Is Not Just Lying Down explores the frustrating experience of resting all weekend and still feeling like your brain is wet cement and your nervous system is running on 3%. Carmen explains how burnout, sensory overload, executive dysfunction, transitions, masking, guilt, and chronic stress can keep the body stuck in survival mode even when we look like we’re “doing nothing.” With research-informed insight, dark humor, and lived experience, this episode helps listeners name what kind of tired they actually are and choose recovery that matches the real load they’re carrying. Carmen offers practical tools like identifying your exhaustion type, creating a decompression bridge, building a recovery menu, reducing sensory input, lowering demands, and using scripts for boundaries, cancellations, guilt, and overstimulation. This episode is a compassionate reminder that AuDHD recovery is not laziness, weakness, or drama. It is an access need. You are not failing to recharge — you may simply need safer conditions, fewer demands, less input, and more honest support. Because collapse is not the same thing as rest. And lying down while your nervous system is still sprinting through a haunted corn maze? That’s not recovery, babe. That’s burnout in pajamas. Thank you for tuning in! Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Jul 2

    Live Recording Replay - AuDHD with Carmen

    Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Tom Owens I did answer the question you left on my post! In this episode of Authentically ADHD, Carmen turns a Substack Live AuDHD Ask Me Anything into a clear, compassionate, and deeply relatable conversation about what it actually means to be both autistic and ADHD. This episode breaks down the biggest questions people have about AuDHD, including how autism and ADHD can coexist, why the traits can feel so contradictory, why routines help but also feel impossible, and how executive dysfunction, sensory overload, masking, burnout, emotional intensity, transitions, and social exhaustion show up in real life. Carmen explains AuDHD in a way that is research-informed but actually human — because nobody needs another cold clinical checklist when they are trying to understand why their brain wants structure, novelty, silence, stimulation, connection, and isolation all in the same afternoon. Whether you are newly diagnosed, self-identifying, late-realizing, supporting someone you love, or just trying to understand why “simple tasks” are not simple for neurodivergent brains, this episode offers validation, language, and practical insight. It is part education, part nervous system hug, and part “oh my god, I thought this was just me.” You are not broken. You are not lazy. You are not too sensitive. Your brain has layers — and bestie, we are finally naming them. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Jul 2

    Dear AuDHDer, Your Nervous System Is Not a Group Project

    In this episode of Authentically ADHD, Carmen gets into the nervous-system chaos of being AuDHD around unpredictable people, last-minute plan changes, emotional demands, masking, and the soul-deep exhaustion that comes from confusing love with constant availability. “Dear AuDHDer, Your Nervous System Is Not a Group Project” breaks down why boundaries are not selfish, cold, dramatic, or rude — they are regulation. For AuDHD brains, unpredictability is not just inconvenient; it can overload executive function, sensory processing, emotional regulation, and the already-tired little gremlin in charge of transitions. This episode explores why plan changes can feel so destabilizing, why emotional availability is still labor, how masking makes boundaries harder, and why some people mistake your kindness for unlimited access to your time, energy, and peace. Spoiler alert: absolutely not, bestie. Carmen also shares practical, simple boundary scripts and strategies for handling unpredictable people, including how to pause before saying yes, ask for clear plans, protect your recovery time, create reply delays, and deal with guilt when you stop over-functioning for everyone else’s comfort. Because being loving does not mean being endlessly available. Being kind does not mean becoming someone else’s coping skill.And your nervous system? Not. A. Group. Project. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Jun 28

    Your AuDHD Brain Does Not Need More Discipline. It Needs Better Ramps

    Your AuDHD brain does not need more discipline. It needs better ramps. In this episode of Authentically ADHD, we’re breaking down why willpower is the crusty old motivational poster of nervous system support — and why accommodations, scaffolding, visual supports, sensory tools, body doubling, timers, scripts, and low-capacity plans are not cheating. They’re access. For AuDHD adults, tasks are not just “easy” or “hard.” They come with invisible barriers: executive dysfunction, sensory overload, demand pressure, shame, working memory load, transition difficulty, time blindness, and emotional threat. So when your brain freezes, avoids, spirals, or shuts down, the answer is not always “try harder.” Sometimes the answer is: build a better way in. We’ll talk about the neuroscience behind why task initiation, planning, transitions, and follow-through can feel so physically impossible for AuDHD brains — and why support systems work better when they reduce friction instead of demanding perfection. This episode is a love letter to every late-diagnosed neurodivergent adult who has spent years thinking they were lazy, inconsistent, dramatic, or broken. You were never broken because stairs were hard. You deserved a ramp. We’ll end with five practical tips for building your own AuDHD ramps, including how to identify access barriers, externalize memory, create low-capacity versions of tasks, pair demands with regulation, and review your supports without shame. Because support is not failure. It’s architecture. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Jun 20

    Medicated, Misdiagnosed, and Mildly Electrified

    Medication is not a morality test. It is a tool — and for AuDHD brains, that tool needs nuance. In this episode, we’re unpacking stimulants, non-stimulants, off-label meds, comorbid medication combos, misdiagnosis, and why treating anxiety or depression without recognizing ADHD/autism can leave people stuck in the same nervous system fire drill. Disclaimer: Educational only. Not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber before changing anything. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com/subscribe

    Medicated, Misdiagnosed, and Mildly Electrified
See All (250)

4.6
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Hi! I'm Carmen, a late-diagnosed ADHDer, ADHD life coach, and early childhood special education teacher who wants to spread awareness, relate to other ADHDers, and have fun while talking and learning about the difficulties, awesomeness, and new research behind the neurodiverse ADHD brain. ARE YOU READY?? Let's get started! carmenauthenticallyadhd.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Where the chaos of ADHD meets self-acceptance, growth, and a whole lot of authenticity
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    250
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Carmen Irace
  • Show Website
    Authentically ADHD with Carmen

You Might Also Like