October is ADHD Awareness Month. Kirby Hansen-McNulty, CEO and founder of Calibrate ADHD, joins me for a conversation about what it means to understand and live with ADHD, not simply recognizing symptoms, but understanding how ADHD shows up in our lives, what support we need and how we can build systems that work with our brains rather than against them.

October is ADHD Awareness Month. I was diagnosed with ADHD two years ago. It changed everything I knew about my mental health. Over the past few months, I’ve used AI to help make work more manageable, challenge my unrealistic expectations of what I can get done, and change how I feel about my work.

We become so skilled at responding to what’s immediately in front of us that we can spend years avoiding what’s happening within us. This is NOT because you don't care. It is NOT because you don't want to. It is NOT because you are selfish, lazy, or any other bogus label your inner critic absorbed from a neurotypical world.

Why do we have to hide? Well if you look at the Cornell case, the Epstein files, Larry Nassar, only to name three very prominent cases, not to mention all the other cases where women are not believed, what would you expect?

If you are still processing what happened at Cornell and are experiencing strong emotions, please join us for a special episode of Shining Light on Shadows.

My whole point is that mental health really affected my schooling. I wasn’t ready for college when I graduated high school. No one told me that it was OK to wait. No one told me that I would not be a lesser person if I took my time deciding what I wanted to do with my life.

Since I was last on Shining Light on Shadows, I’ve graduated high school, moved to college, and I had to change the way I advocate so that the impacts I made at my high school would turn into an enduring movement for change. Moving to college has been the biggest change of my life.

Moving away from home, starting college and suddenly having to manage your own time, responsibilities and relationships can be exciting. It can also bring new pressures, stressors and mental health challenges.

Thursday, September 10, 2026 marks the 33rd anniversary of the day that changed my life forever. It was a day that started out like every other and ended with me in a near-death experience. Luckily I survived a brutal attack, kidnapping, rape and gun violence, and am here all these many years later to talk about the impact of trauma on one’s mental health.

Looking back on that first year after the attack, I can see just how bitter I had become. After the initial heartbreak and devastation of facing permanent injury wore off, I was just angry. Angry that I would never have the athletic career I’d imagined. Angry that I’d never have the life I’d imagined.

Surviving a traumatic event does not mean its effects simply disappear once the physical scars heal. Understanding and learning to live with the invisible scars—including PTSD, anxiety, disrupted sleep and grief—can take much longer.

I cringe when my memories come up daily and I look back at the things I said 17 years ago. Things captured forever that were obviously attention seeking, even if I didn’t know it or think it back then.

If this is what social media can feel like for a fairly educated, 53-year-old, mostly well-adjusted adult who has spent years working professionally with these platforms, what is it like for a teenager growing up with them?

Sree Sreenivasan is our guest for Ep. 55. How do we live with technology that can simultaneously connect us, help us and harm us? The goal isn't necessarily to get off social media. We have to figure out how to use it in a way that is healthy and balanced, particularly for those of us who use it for advocacy and/or as part of our job.

How do you talk to yourself about clutter? From past personal experience and my work as a Decluttering and ADHD Coach, I see how closely clutter and mental health are connected. What looks like "just clutter" on the surface is often tied to something much deeper that may not be immediately visible to others.

Alison DeCamp joins to talk about how decluttering intersects with mental health, including depression, trauma and ADHD.

Dawn Neuburg couldn't participate in Ep. 52. For Ep. 53, we’ll play clips of Vasu Tolia’s answers to my questions. Dawn will then respond. As always, we’ll entertain additional comments and questions from the audience.

Creativity gives us a doorway into what we feel. It can help us begin conversations that are otherwise difficult to start. That is one reason the mission of No Shame On U matters so much to me. Their work reminds us that mental health conversations should not be hidden in silence or shame.

Vasu Tolia joins us on the next episode of "Shining Light on Shadows: A Candid Conversation About Mental Health" to talk about the challenges she faced in finding her footing after retiring from her medical career.

If we really want better outcomes for youth and families, we must begin treating foster parents and caregivers as an essential part of the youth’s team, rather than an after thought.