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"MY MIGHTY QUINN" PODCAST
- A Mother's Conversations with World-Leading
Doctors and Paediatric Experts
S3 Episode 13: It’s Time to Talk About Parents with ADHD: Overwhelm, Dysregulation and Shame (and what actually helps) with Sean McNicholas
Welcome to My Mighty Quinn
In this deeply honest, compassionate, and empowering episode, I’m joined by Sean McNicholas, founder of New Me Therapy, also known as The ADHD Expert, to shine a long overdue light on a missing part of the ADHD conversation: The Parent.
This episode is for the adults — especially parents parenting with ADHD (diagnosed or undiagnosed) — who are holding families together while feeling overwhelmed, distracted, reactive, exhausted, and often quietly ashamed.
Together, we unpack why parenting with ADHD feels so relentlessly hard — and why it’s not a personal failing, but biology under pressure.
We explore the invisible load ADHD parents carry: the mental juggling, time blindness, sensory overwhelm, emotional reactivity, masking, guilt, burnout, and the collapse that so often happens behind closed doors.
And crucially, we talk about what actually helps— in the moment and long-term.
Key takeaways include:
Why adult ADHD is still misunderstood and under-supported
How shame, masking, and survival-mode coping develop over a lifetime
What’s really happening in the ADHD brain during overwhelm, reactivity, and burnout
Why symptoms like chaos, forgetfulness, snapping, shutdown, and exhaustion are nervous-system signals — not character flaws
The role of stress, sleep, stimulants, inflammation, and lifestyle in ADHD regulation
Practical tools for reducing overwhelm in daily family life (planning, structure, routines, sensory boundaries)
How to expand capacity rather than simply “try harder”
Why co-regulation applies to adults too — and how to find it safely
How compassion, curiosity, and nervous-system awareness change the parenting experience
Simple, realistic steps parents can take immediately to feel calmer, clearer, and more connected
This is an episode about relief, understanding, and permission.
Because when parents feel safer and more supported, families do too.
Resources
Free Guide
Sean's Website
Resource Links:
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Need More Support?
If you're feeling overwhelmed and just need to be heard and supported to work out the best next step, then book a 1:1 Parent Support session with Lucia.