ADHD Diagnosed As An Adult: The Signs in Adults That You Might Be Missing

Oct 21

Jorie Houlihan spent three decades wondering why life felt harder for her than for everyone else. She first raised what she was feeling with a doctor at 19, without ever naming it ADHD, and brought it up again at 38, but she was brushed off several times over the years. Her path to being diagnosed with ADHD later in life started when a woman in her mastermind group told her flat out that she thought Jorie had it.

On this episode of Adulting101 Masterclass, host Heather Redisch talks with Jorie Houlihan, known as Your Guide for the Dopamine Deprived™️. Jorie is an ADHD life coach, speaker, educator, and host of the podcast ADHD &... with Jorie Houlihan, and she coaches others through the same recognition she almost missed.

Jorie breaks down ADHD time blindness into three parts and explains why she runs early while most people with it run late. She names signs of ADHD in adults that get brushed off as quirks, like forgetting a bill the moment it's out of sight or blowing through money after a hard day, and shares the owner's manual trick that makes ADHD workplace accommodations easier to ask for.

For anyone facing ADHD after college without a professor or parent tracking deadlines, Jorie offers adult ADHD coping strategies that hold up, from body doubling to a leftover trick that saves your fridge from mystery smells. Her advice comes down to one idea: get to know your brain instead of trying to fight it. Press play to hear the rest of her story.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to Today's ADHD Conversation

01:21 Meet Jorie Houlihan and Her Late Diagnosis Story

02:36 The First Missed Signs in Her Twenties

08:11 The Mastermind Moment That Changed Everything

10:08 Breaking Down What Time Blindness Really Feels Like

17:29 Swapping Self-Blame for a Curiosity Mindset

21:37 Self-Advocacy and the Owner's Manual for Managers

30:49 How to Know if It's Really ADHD

35:45 Daily Life Systems for Managing ADHD

41:07 Accountability Partners and Body Doubling

Connect with Jorie Houlihan: