Why Grief Feels Harder with ADHD: Finding Your Rhythm in Motherhood with Dori Zener
About this episode
Nicole Weston and Dori Zener discuss the unique challenges of experiencing grief with ADHD and provide strategies for self-compassion and managing neurodivergent experiences in motherhood.
"Grief is the ultimate rejection sensitivity experience. When unexpected loss uproots your life, it dismantles the high-functioning executive systems you spent decades masking behind." Receiving a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis at age 36 can feel like a sudden breath of fresh air, yet it often triggers a secondary, unvoiced wave of grief over missed childhood support. For high-achieving women, entrepreneurs, and mothers, a neurodivergent brain relies on rigid internal systems to stay afloat. When a profound trauma event like the death of a mother hits, those executive functioning mechanisms collapse, exposing a deep-seated core wound of internal shame and hyper-vigilance that talk therapy alone cannot regulate. In this episode, host Nicole Weston sits down with Dori Zener—registered social worker, neurodiversity educator, and director of Dori Zener & Associates —to examine how neurodivergence radically alters the biological trajectory of grief. Dori breaks down the distinct realities of internalized hyperactivity in women, the ten-year compound effect of perimenopause on executive tasks, and why an ADHD brain experiences a phenomenon known as delayed grief processing. Together…
More episodes of Can't Call Your Mom with Nicole Weston
- The Motherless Experience: Healing Grief and Discovering Your Inner Light with Laura May
- More Than Just "Motherless": Integrating Your Grief and Leading with Your Inner Life Force with Laura May
- Grief Isolation & The Good Girl Act: Finding True Belonging with Erin Kent
- Maternal Addiction & Creative Alchemy: Healing the Inner Child with Karli Corandos
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