Speaker 1: Welcome to Healthy Ish. Yes you have tuned into the
Speaker 1: podcast from Body and Soul. I am your host of
Speaker 1: Felicity Harley. To celebrate summer, we're dropping our top Healthish
Speaker 1: episodes of the year. Now. This one we dropped earlier
Speaker 1: in the year. I think it was around April. It
Speaker 1: is with fitness Mogul and pt Emily Sky and she
Speaker 1: shared how for decades she felt broken and then she
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with ADHD and suddenly everything made well, somewhat sense.
Speaker 1: She shares more about that in this episode today. Now
Speaker 1: make sure you're listening to Extra healthy Ish as well,
Speaker 1: where she shares more about her entire ADHD journey. You
Speaker 1: can catch that one where we get your podcasts. Emily
Speaker 1: is so nice to have you back on healthy She's
Speaker 1: been a few years since you were on here.
Speaker 2: Actually it has, Felicity, it's been too long, so it's good.
Speaker 1: To be better. Yeah, nice to have you back. And
Speaker 1: do we say congratulations or what do we say? I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what to say. I just want to say
Speaker 1: thank you, well, thank you. That's probably the best words,
Speaker 1: isn't it. It takes a lot of courage to come out
Speaker 1: and talk about a diagnosis of neurodiversity. How are you feeling?
Speaker 2: I think it's the reason I decided to share is
Speaker 2: because I think it's so important that we do talk
Speaker 2: about these things and we don't feel shame around it,
Speaker 2: which I think a lot of people do. And I
Speaker 2: think the more you talk about it, the more people
Speaker 2: can get help and they become aware of themselves and
Speaker 2: they know what to do as well because they can
Speaker 2: see what other people do help themselves.
Speaker 1: Are you feeling relieved? Are you feeling prior do you
Speaker 1: feeling less shame?
Speaker 2: Yes, I have a sense of relief because now I
Speaker 2: know I've got answers right. All my life I've felt
Speaker 2: odd and now I know, hey, could this has been
Speaker 2: affecting me? And I know that there is something that
Speaker 2: I can actually do about it. So there's a sense
Speaker 2: of relief, but also a bit of grief because of
Speaker 2: the life that I may have. I don't know if
Speaker 2: missed out on is the right word, because I have
Speaker 2: had an amazing life and I'm very blessed, but there's
Speaker 2: been a lot of situations where I felt like I
Speaker 2: could have dealt with them better had I have had
Speaker 2: the support and the knowledge.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Actually that's a really valid emotion, isn't it,
Speaker 1: Because I've never actually heard of someone talk about grief
Speaker 1: when they've been diagnosed with with whatever it may be,
Speaker 1: but grief of thinking Okay, I could have managed this better.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it was a lot. It was very confronting.
Speaker 2: And one of the things the psychiatrist said to me
Speaker 2: after I sat with him ninety minutes actually it took
Speaker 2: he said, I'm surprised that you didn't end up a
Speaker 2: drug addict on the street with the way that your
Speaker 2: brain is. Wow. And I was like, whoa, wow, Wow.
Speaker 1: He was surprised that I don't do drug Wow. Maybe
Speaker 1: fitness is your is your other? Is your other drugs?
Speaker 2: Exactly? And he kept saying, he kept saying, how do
Speaker 2: you deal with this? And then I told him, with fitness,
Speaker 2: I have to stay active otherwise I start just losing
Speaker 2: my mind a bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, I mean I feel like, well, there has
Speaker 1: been a long list of home profile women that you've
Speaker 1: now joined who have shared the ADHD journey. I mean
Speaker 1: Abby Chatfield and Riachiana. Actually we had her on the
Speaker 1: podcast discussing it as well. I mean, women have been
Speaker 1: too long ignored in this space. How does that make
Speaker 1: you feel.
Speaker 2: We have definitely been ignored and the funny thing, it
Speaker 2: was not funny, definitely, the wrong turns were ironic. Thing. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's back back when I was a kid and a teenager.
Speaker 2: I was actually put on antidepressants around the age of
Speaker 2: twelve or thirteen, and I really struggled as a kid
Speaker 2: with my mental health, especially all through my teens, and
Speaker 2: I spoke to many psychologists and counselors, doctors trying to
Speaker 2: figure out what's wrong, and nobody mentioned ADHD because I
Speaker 2: was shy, right, I wasn't the kid in class. I
Speaker 2: wasn't the boy that was playing out, which was the
Speaker 2: typical ADHD.
Speaker 1: Person. I guess.
Speaker 2: So I think that's why I got overlooked along with
Speaker 2: many other women. And it's only now that we're starting
Speaker 2: to get diagnosed more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, more awareness around it, and you know, people like
Speaker 1: you coming out, so thank you. Now you did a
Speaker 1: recent shoot with Body and Soul. How was that, By
Speaker 1: the way, it was so good. It was really I mean,
Speaker 1: you're going to see the photos everyone to make sure
Speaker 1: you get a copy. But it's very different for me.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to give away too much, but I've
Speaker 2: never done anything like it, and I was really excited
Speaker 2: to do that. Yeah, well you also there was a
Speaker 2: line in the story that kind of jumped out at me,
Speaker 2: and you told body and soul, no one deserves to
Speaker 2: go through life feeling like a broken human. I mean
Speaker 2: my heart just went, oh oh, that's hard to read.
Speaker 2: How did you feel broken before this diagnosis? I've always
Speaker 2: felt different, like I don't fit in with anyone, and
Speaker 2: a sense of not belonging. That's something I've struggled with,
Speaker 2: and it sort of sits with self worth as well
Speaker 2: as obviously many different things that contribute to how someone
Speaker 2: feels right. It's not just ADHD, but I think not
Speaker 2: knowing I always had an inkling I was, but I
Speaker 2: wasn't sure. And yeah, I just didn't feel like I
Speaker 2: fit in anywhere, and I felt very odd and I
Speaker 2: felt like people didn't understand me. I almost feel like
Speaker 2: even now taking someone and going, don't you understand this
Speaker 2: is how I feel. It's difficult for me, and I
Speaker 2: felt I did feel ashamed to feel that way because
Speaker 2: I am very blessed. I have a great life, I
Speaker 2: have a great career, I have a beautiful family, have
Speaker 2: my health, and I felt like it was I wasn't
Speaker 2: being grateful, And it's not that. It's that I struggled
Speaker 2: to do normal things. Even just waking up in the
Speaker 2: morning and doing a normal day would stress me out
Speaker 2: and I have terribly anxiety over it.
Speaker 1: What advice would you give to women who are feeling
Speaker 1: similar things that you are? I mean, I yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting conundrum, isn't it. Because you were saying
Speaker 1: that you feel, you know, you have to be grateful
Speaker 1: and you should be happy, and people are saying, but
Speaker 1: you've you know, you've got this great life, You've got
Speaker 1: a beautiful family, you had a great career, you're fit,
Speaker 1: and you're healthy. But it's on my don't You're not
Speaker 1: You're not allowed to give your self permission to feel well.
Speaker 2: Brod entitled exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I kept and
Speaker 2: I still do it now, but I'm learning to go
Speaker 2: easier with myself. But that was the voice in my
Speaker 2: head that i'd hear and from other people. Stop being ungrateful,
Speaker 2: that you know you're blessed, and it's not that, because
Speaker 2: it's actually a structural issue with your brain. It's I
Speaker 2: don't know what else. I'm not a neuroscientist, but you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things that are actually there that
Speaker 2: are different to your normal, normal person. It's what's normal.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but we'll just call it normal in
Speaker 2: the situation. Yeah, and I've gotten lost now, Adhd, thank you.
Speaker 1: No, No, let me ask you another question. What advice
Speaker 1: would you give to other women who are perhaps identifying
Speaker 1: with you, who feel like they're not so called normal.
Speaker 1: I'm saying that in their quotes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well number one, seek help, So don't just
Speaker 2: stay the way you are. There's always something you can do.
Speaker 2: So for me, I decided to seek out a psychiatrist.
Speaker 2: I've got a referral from my doctor. I got on
Speaker 2: many different lists because it's a long wait list, up
Speaker 2: to eighteen months or even longer.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, and I was very lucky.
Speaker 2: I got a cancelation pretty much the next day. It
Speaker 2: was like the most amazing thing happened. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I took the appointment, obviously, and sat with
Speaker 2: a psychiatrist for the ninety minutes and did an evaluation,
Speaker 2: went back to my history. I had my partner declan,
Speaker 2: who's my fance? Now I've got to get used to say,
Speaker 2: sitting with me, which is also another important thing that
Speaker 2: the people around you actually understand and then speak to someone,
Speaker 2: speak to a psychiatrist preferably or a psychologist, and do
Speaker 2: that regularly. So you've got to find out what things
Speaker 2: that you can do to help yourself and make sure
Speaker 2: you stay on top of it. So I like to
Speaker 2: use analogy. It's like fitness. If you want to be fit,
Speaker 2: you've got to be consistent with your training. If you
Speaker 2: want healthy mental health, then you've got to be consistent
Speaker 2: with whatever it is that helps you.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like now that you've had these diagnosis
Speaker 1: that you kind of belong do you feel like that's
Speaker 1: given you a sense that I do have more Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yes, more of a sense of belonging and understanding myself
Speaker 2: cutting myself from slack. I've been doing a lot of research.
Speaker 2: It's my hyper fixation I've been using and the obsessiveness.
Speaker 2: But as soon as I got the diagnosis, I was
Speaker 2: just on YouTube, like binge, watching different things about ADHD
Speaker 2: and other people's experience with it as well, and I
Speaker 2: was like, Yes, this person understands me even though I've
Speaker 2: never met them. Yeah, it's a good I think it's
Speaker 2: really important for anyone to have that sense of belonging
Speaker 2: and finding your people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, finding you people. Were well done, And thank you
Speaker 1: for being so bold and courageous and coming out well
Speaker 1: across you know, in the fabulous shoot and on the podcast.
Speaker 1: And yeah, thanks for joing so much.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me Felicity and I look forward to
Speaker 2: seeing the magazine come out. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 2: this interview as part of our twenty twenty four summer series.
Speaker 2: Are plenty more awesome epps for your ears, both from
Speaker 2: Healthy Ish and our big sister podcast, Extra healthy Ish.
Speaker 2: If you did like this interview, please take a quick
Speaker 2: minute to share it with a friend. If you do
Speaker 2: want any other info, head to bodyansoul dot com, dot you.
Speaker 1: Follows on socials. Any feedback please dm me at Felicity
Speaker 1: Harley and until tomorrow, enjoy the sun and stay healthy
Speaker 1: is