Too Hot To Mask

The girls are not okay. The girls have been fine-ing their way through undiagnosed ADHD and autism for decades and they are exhausted. For the first episode of Clinically Awkward, I sat down with Bailey Pilant, an AuDHD licensed mental health counselor, to talk about what the neurodivergent female experience actually looks like when nobody caught it the first time, or the second, or the third. We cover the masking that starts in childhood before anyone has words for it, the misdiagnoses that pile up in its place, and what it means to finally stop performing okayness. Bailey brings her own story, including a stint in pageantry that turned out to be an accidental masterclass in sensory management and people-pleasing, and her clinical specialty connecting ADHD, autism, and hormonal conditions like PMDD and PCOS. Bailey is licensed in New York and Florida and can be found at thewavecounseling.com.