Dr Eve Holden (she/her)

Update: it was a success, I managed the shopping, and now have fresh veg in the house, and freezer reserves have been stocked back up !

a close up of a cat 's face with mathematical equations on it ALT: a close up of a cat 's face with mathematical equations on it

Accountability post:

The ADHDer is yet to do a proper food shop in 2026

Maybe today will be the day...!

#adhd #whatyoufindeasyifindhard

🥰🥰🥰

Miss. Diagnosis: A Systematic Review of ADHD in Adult Women The aim of this review was to explore the impact of living with undiagnosed ADHD and adult diagnosis on women. A systematic literature search was completed using three databases. Eight articles were considered relevant based on strict inclusion ...

📚 Research & evidence (for those who like receipts):

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
elifesciences.org/articles/104...

🧠 No academia without neurodivergent minds
theprofessorisin.com/2024/12/10/n...

🧬 Being neurodivergent in academia (ASBMB)
www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...

In @natureportfolio.nature.com
's recent documentary we talk about women's experiences being diagnosed with ADHD as adults

Watch here: youtu.be/8atR9SGoVLA?...

Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The lexicon adapts to competing communicative pressures: Explaining patterns of word similarity Cross-linguistically, lexicons tend to be more phonetically clustered than required by the phonotactics of the language; that is, words within a langu…

⚠️ New paper! Why do words sound so similar? In an agent-based model + communication game, we show that production/comprehension pressures trade off to shape lexicon structure.

In @cognitionjournal.bsky.social w/ @simonkirby.bsky.social & Jenny Culbertson.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Adverse experiences of women with undiagnosed ADHD and the invaluable role of diagnosis - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Adverse experiences of women with undiagnosed ADHD and the invaluable role of diagnosis

"Participants found diagnosis revelatory, their lives finally making sense; citing healing, improved self-esteem, and life feeling more worth living." 💯

It's was liberating! Great 📚
I'll keep commenting on it because it's so important as a scientist to reflect on the role of my diagnosis #ADHD 🧪🧐

👇 interview on collaborative (research 🧪) cultures

Thanks to @humboldt-foundation.de for funding my work on cooperative subsistence across cultures, w/ @sheinalew.bsky.social, and my network at @durhamdcerc.bsky.social: @mandolinguist.bsky.social @amandinevisine.bsky.social @chimpanzeve.bsky.social

Durham's Dunagree Lab continues to be the most wonderful workplace. Thank you to @sheinalew.bsky.social, @chimpanzeve.bsky.social, @fhillemann.bsky.social, @amandinevisine.bsky.social and others not on Bluesky for the surprise baby shower today 🥹

late diagnosed women with ADHD found diagnosis revelatory, their lives finally making sense; citing healing, improved self-esteem, and life feeling more worth living.

The adversities faced from delayed diagnoses were described from early childhood, through adolescence, and adulthood

late diagnosed women with ADHD “commonly reported internalising criticism & described disconcertingly low self-esteem; citing guilt, shame, and negative self-perception due to delayed diagnoses.

investigate the perspectives of 28 women with late-diagnosed ADHD.

Results starkly demonstrate the criticism and lack of support participants faced from society and medical professionals, illustrating the negative consequences of delayed ADHD diagnosis on quality of life and mental health.

We're super interested in this too, & are doing followup research to see how experiences may be similar or different across genders. We talk a bit about it in the podcast episode we did

I think zencaster has a transcript you can use to be able to skim to the relavent part
bsky.app/profile/chim...

A lot of disability is invisible

But it also goes deeper than that…

You might only see what we choose to show you

Society teaches us to hide the hard days
To keep pushing through
To prioritise productivity
To mask our pain
To feel shame about who we are
And to fear judgment for being different

@hkobayashiwood.bsky.social

Have you seen the reposts 🥰💔

Obviously I'm not a woman and it's much, much more likely that ADHD goes undiagnosed in women than in men, but this is exactly what it looked like for me as well. Diagnosis changed my life in a big way.

the amount of stories I read from women being diagnosed at age 30+ is honestly such a big failure and I'm glad they (and me!) are finally getting the support they need after this amount of time.
imagine having a broken wrist for 30 years and nobody noticing? that'd be unconsciable. alas!

Yep. There was a year in my childhood where a teacher I didn't get along w/ suggested I might have ADD. My mom took offense & I managed to do "better," but man. If I had been diagnosed then, my life would have been so different. I still struggle w/ self-worth, but the diagnosis did help at the time.

We did a podcast episode on it too, starts a bit slow discussing our methods, but gets much juicier as we talk about results and policy towards the end zencastr.com/z/Jr_wK-NO

Its really amazing to hear such positive feedback - its nice to know its reached people in the adhd community, and we hope people find it valuable to feel less alone

Thanks for sharing <3

The “overdiagnosed ADHD” debate continues… but here’s what late diagnosis looks like for many women:

❌ Years of criticism
❌ No support = low self-esteem, guilt and shame
✅ Diagnosis = clarity, healing and feeling like life is more worth living

This matters. So does the research

#AuDHD

This is so accurate to my own experience with a late diagnosis. Some of the statements from the participants are exactly what I would've said.

Adverse experiences of women with undiagnosed ADHD and the invaluable role of diagnosis - Scientific Reports Girls and women are disproportionately affected by delayed diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but research on the impact of this is limited. Our study aimed to centre lived experiences of women with late-diagnosed ADHD to increase understanding of the impact of such delays. We employed a mixed methods survey to investigate the perspectives of 28 women with late-diagnosed ADHD. Results starkly demonstrate the criticism and lack of support participants faced from society and medical professionals, illustrating the negative consequences of delayed ADHD diagnosis on quality of life and mental health. Participants commonly reported internalising criticism and described disconcertingly low self-esteem; citing guilt, shame, and negative self-perception due to delayed diagnoses. Participants found diagnosis revelatory, their lives finally making sense; citing healing, improved self-esteem, and life feeling more worth living. The adversities faced from delayed diagnoses were described from early childhood, through adolescence, and adulthood. Participants reflected on ‘what could have been’, and described grieving the lives they could have led if diagnosed earlier. The negative impacts of missed ADHD diagnosis are broad and span life stages. With potential implications for public health policy, this work highlights the importance of increasing girls’ and women’s access to ADHD diagnoses to address avoidable detrimental hardship.

A study in Scientific Reports surveys women with late-diagnosed ADHD. The results illustrate the negative consequences of delayed ADHD diagnosis on quality of life and mental health. 🧪

In ADHD science podcast's new episode we talk to @maxdavie.bsky.social about our paper on women's experiences being late diagnosed with ADHD

Thanks so much for having us!

Listen to the ep here:
zencastr.com/z/Jr_wK-NO
Find the paper here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@natureportfolio.nature.com

Thank you to Max for inviting and hosting us on the podcast! Most importantly, thank you to our research participants for their time and raw honestly which made our paper possible.

#adhd #adhduk #adhdresearch #adhdinwomen

Want a summary of our new paper on the impact of delayed ADHD diagnosis in women?

Well I have just the ticket! Perfect for people who don't have an academic background, or those looking for a lighter read :)

otherprimates.wordpress.com/2025/07/04/u...

#ADHD #DelayedDiagnosis #WomensHealth

@hkobayashiwood.bsky.social @theadhdacademic.bsky.social @adhdjesse.com