Louise Belshaw

So in 2022, you said you were either derailed or on the right track.

Can you-- So it was then, that's when you had your realization about possibly having ADHD?

Something was going on.

[chuckles] Something was going on, and I think like a lot of women, perimenopause picked me up by the bootstraps and threw me right off course.

Um, and I think it was happening way before I even cottoned on to it.

I think, um, prior to twenty s- I would say like 2017, 2018, that's when things were really starting to simmer.

But having read, um, a few things, seen a few things now, aren't they saying that women who are neurodivergent are more likely to start with perimenopause symptoms early and struggle, um, more with those symptoms because of the impact that it has on everything, including the, the ADHD.

So I think I was really struggling.

I think there was, um, high emotions, low emotions.

I did not know what each day would bring.

It made me become, um, uh, much more of a perfectionist, um, just at the same time when I'd taken on a promotion and I was starting to lead a rather large faculty.

Um, so it wasn't just English, it was, um, two or three other subjects, uh, departments as well.

And then I was putting myself forward for all kinds [chuckles] of things.

I was, I was overachieving with very little in the tank.

But because I thrived on stress, um, I did a great job.

Like, I really did do a good job.

Like, I think in the second year of me being in the department, the pass rate went up by 10%, which was, like, pretty unheard of.

In education, it usually takes three to five years for that kind of an increase.

So I, I, I really believed in the school and the children and the, and the staff, and I could see the way forward and just put my head down to the detriment of everything else really, like, you know, personal, um, relationships and children and everything else.

It all just became very tunnel vision.

And then in 2020, in 2020 when COVID happened, that was just like the boom, the kind of dramatic stop that impacted everything.

It didn't make me dissolve or anything, but it was when I went back, um, that I just got-- And this is sound-- might sound really simplistic.

It wasn't a breakdown of any kind.

I got bored.

[laughs] Which for me, in teaching, had never been a thing, ever.

So in 2022, you said you were either derailed or on the right track.

Can you-- So it was then, that's when you had your realization about possibly having ADHD?

Something was going on.

[chuckles] Something was going on, and I think like a lot of women, perimenopause picked me up by the bootstraps and threw me right off course.

Um, and I think it was happening way before I even cottoned on to it.

I think, um, prior to twenty s- I would say like 2017, 2018, that's when things were really starting to simmer.

But having read, um, a few things, seen a few things now, aren't they saying that women who are neurodivergent are more likely to start with perimenopause symptoms early and struggle, um, more with those symptoms because of the impact that it has on everything, including the, the ADHD.

So I think I was really struggling.

I think there was, um, high emotions, low emotions.

I did not know what each day would bring.

It made me become, um, uh, much more of a perfectionist, um, just at the same time when I'd taken on a promotion and I was starting to lead a rather large faculty.

Um, so it wasn't just English, it was, um, two or three other subjects, uh, departments as well.

And then I was putting myself forward for all kinds [chuckles] of things.

I was, I was overachieving with very little in the tank.

But because I thrived on stress, um, I did a great job.

Like, I really did do a good job.

Like, I think in the second year of me being in the department, the pass rate went up by 10%, which was, like, pretty unheard of.

In education, it usually takes three to five years for that kind of an increase.

So I, I, I really believed in the school and the children and the, and the staff, and I could see the way forward and just put my head down to the detriment of everything else really, like, you know, personal, um, relationships and children and everything else.

It all just became very tunnel vision.

And then in 2020, in 2020 when COVID happened, that was just like the boom, the kind of dramatic stop that impacted everything.

It didn't make me dissolve or anything, but it was when I went back, um, that I just got-- And this is sound-- might sound really simplistic.

It wasn't a breakdown of any kind.

I got bored.

[laughs] Which for me, in teaching, had never been a thing, ever.