http://www.sarahwest-adhd.com/, https://calendly.com/sarahwest-adhd-coaching/speaker-enquiry, https://sarah-west-adhd-co

Sarah West I Certified ADHD Coach, Exeter (2026)

12/06/2026

You've opened another article about perimenopause and it doesn't mention ADHD. Again.

Or you've found something about ADHD and there's no mention of hormones, no acknowledgment that the perimenopause exists, let alone that it changes everything for a brain like yours.

That gap is exactly what my monthly newsletter is written for.

Each month I share honest reflections from my own experience of living with ADHD through the perimenopause, alongside clear information about what's happening in your brain and body when the two intersect. New blog posts, practical insights from my coaching work, upcoming events and webinars, and resources you can use straight away.

It's a space built for women who need real information and honest company. Not another list of generic tips.

If that sounds like what you've been looking for, the link to sign up is in the comments.

What made you start looking for information about ADHD and the perimenopause?

Sign up here: https://sarah-west-adhd-coach.kit.com/newsletter

11/06/2026

The timings of multiple train connections. The worry of working out where I'd find a toilet if I needed one.

Navigating the tube system. Unfamiliar noises and smells. People on the train watching videos at full volume or having a call with their mate on speakerphone. (Loop earplugs can only do so much!)

This was what took up most of my headspace last week.

I'd been invited to the actual Houses of Parliament. That’s pretty cool in my book.

And yet being in Parliament wasn’t what I was dreading.

Not the work. Not the people. Not being inside one of the most significant buildings in the country doing something that will make a positive difference to hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people.

The thing I was dreading most was getting there and back.

I'm part of the Accessibility and Inclusion team for the UK Parliament.

A team chosen to advise on how to make visiting Parliament a more accessible and inclusive experience for neurodivergent people, reviewing how Parliament communicates with neurodivergent visitors, from the website to the signage to what you're told to expect before you arrive.

Predictability matters enormously to my neurodivergent brain, and the UK public transport system is about as unpredictable as it gets.

Delays, changes, missed connections. On a day that was already long and tiring, that unpredictability added a layer of stress that sat on top of everything else from the moment I left the house.

The actual day was incredible. The people I met were lovely, genuinely supportive, people who are actively working to make things better. I loved every bit of it.

But the weeks of worrying beforehand, the logistics, the planning, the running through every possible thing that could go wrong.

Sometimes it makes you wonder whether it's even worth it. And that's exactly how opportunities stop happening. Not because you can't do the thing. Because the energy and executive function used to get there and back becomes the thing.

When something matters enough you push through. But there's always a cost, and for days afterwards my energy was completely shot.

Do the logistics of getting somewhere, the planning, the travelling, stress you out way more than the thing you're actually going to?

09/06/2026

Some days having ADHD can feel great. The dopamine is going, everything clicks into place, the ideas are coming, you're getting loads done in a really constructive way and it just flows. Those are the good days.

But other days it's just exhausting.

Sometimes I'm sick of waking up with about 100 radio stations on in my head. I just want to wake up and think of one thing. Or nothing.

It starts before I've even opened my eyes. It's just there. It never stops.

This constant noise. This constant talk. On about 100 million different things at once, and it never, ever goes away.

And it's not just the noise. It's the constant overthinking about everything. The rumination. The feeling overwhelmed by stuff more easily than other people. The emotional dysregulation. I wish sometimes I was just one of those people who was naturally laid back and didn't worry about stuff.

I genuinely wonder what it would be like to have one day, even one week, where you just lived like that. Where you didn't feel so overwhelmed all the time. Where you didn't have to second guess everything all the time. Where you just weren't exhausted by it all the flipping time.

I wish there was a switch you could flick. Not forever. Just to give yourself some respite. Even just for 24 hours. Wouldn't that be lovely.

You can never get away from it. And sometimes I am just so sick of it.

Yeah, when you're firing on all cylinders maybe that's when people want to call it a superpower. And I get it, I do.

But this is also exactly why so many of us push back on that and say no, it isn't.

Because for many of us it's exhausting. It can be miserable. It can be isolating. And it just never, ever, bloody stops.

08/06/2026

A woman messaged me last week to ask if it was normal that her last ADHD coach spent most of each session telling her what to do.

This wasn't coaching. It was instruction dressed up as support, and she had paid for six weeks of it before she realised something was wrong.

ADHD coaching should be neuro-affirming. This means working alongside you as a thinking partner, helping you notice things for yourself and find what fits your own brain, rather than someone sitting across from you telling you what you should be doing.

ADHD coaching is currently unregulated. Anyone can call themselves a coach, set a price, and start taking clients tomorrow.

That means the responsibility for checking who you are working with sits, unfairly, with the person who is already exhausted and looking for help.

When coaching is done well, it can genuinely change someone's life for the better. When it is not, it can add to years of feeling criticised and misunderstood, which is the very thing most clients are trying to get away from.

Before you commit to working with anyone, it's worth asking:

-Where did they train, and how long was the course

-What does their ongoing professional development look like, and do they have continued professional development such as further courses, so they are practising at a high standard

A coach with nothing to hide will usually be glad to share this on their website.

Most decent ADHD coaches also offer a free discovery call, where you can talk about what you are struggling with and what kind of support you need.

Use it to notice how the conversation feels. Getting the right fit matters, and if you feel pressured to decide quickly, that is usually a sign to walk away.

I trained as a nurse long before I trained as a coach, and that background shaped how seriously I take questions of safety and standards.

Asking these questions is not awkward. It is exactly what a responsible coach expects and welcomes.

If you were choosing a coach today, what would matter most to you in that first conversation?

02/06/2026

When perimenopause hit my ADHD brain, everything in my life that I'd previously managed to keep together fell apart. I no longer recognised myself.

Every month I talk to women who've had the same experience.

Perimenopause has a profound effect on ADHD and we had no idea that the two were intrinsically connected.

Our hormones are essential for how the brain makes and regulates dopamine.

When they fluctuate and drop during perimenopause, they affect far more than night sweats and brain fog.

For women with ADHD, it pulls apart everything the brain has been relying on to function.

Focus goes, emotional regulation disappears, anxiety that was manageable becomes anything but, sleep becomes non-existent, strategies and routines that worked for years stop working.

Women spend months, sometimes years, being told they're depressed or anxious. The clinicians looking after them often don't know the connection exists, and we don't get the correct support.

This Wednesday 3rd June I'm presenting my monthly ADHD UK webinar on exactly this from 12 to 1pm.

I'll be covering:

-What your hormones are doing and why supporting them is particularly important if you have ADHD
-Why so many women are recognising their ADHD for the first time in perimenopause
-Which areas of life are most affected when the two collide
-What you can do about it

Understanding what is going on is the first thing that helps.

If you have ADHD and perimenopause is making everything harder to manage, I'd love you to join me.

Registration is through the ADHD UK website. Link is in the comments.

01/06/2026

A few weeks ago I wrote a Facebook post about perimenopause hitting my undiagnosed ADHD brain. About making plans to end my life.

Over 700,000 women saw it. Nearly 700 commented. 5,800 liked it.

And over 200 of you sent me direct messages telling me things you've never told anyone.

I've been reading them ever since. And I keep thinking: none of this should have happened to any of you.

Some of you wrote about reaching a point where you didn't want to be here anymore. Some wrote about the people you love who reached that same point.

Many wrote about the shame, the guilt, reaching out for help time and time again only to be dismissed and gaslit, given incorrect information or none at all.

Told they were the problem. Feeling they had nowhere left to turn.

Lifetimes of knowing that something about you was different but never having the right explanation for it.

I shared my story because I knew I wasn't the only one. Your messages have shown me just how true that is.

Thank you for sharing your stories with me. I'm sorry I can't reply to every one of you.

We have spent our lives feeling ashamed of things that were never our fault. Dismissed and misdiagnosed, told we were too much or that we were imagining it.

And we learned to say nothing and not trust that we could be vulnerable with others.

We are done with that. And this is exactly why I'm writing this book.

If you're in crisis or struggling with your mental health, trained support is available right now. Call Samaritans free on 116 123, day or night. Call 111 and select the mental health option. Or if calling feels tough, text SHOUT to 85258, any time.

Every message, every comment, every story shared.

Your voices deserve to be heard.

31/05/2026

I walked out of my GP appointment feeling like the problem was me.

I knew what I wanted to say. I said it. But my GP didn't have the knowledge to do anything useful with it. They told me I couldn't have ADHD because I had a job and didn't look hyperactive. That I was too young for perimenopause and I'd need a blood test to confirm it.

Both of those things were wrong. And I had no way to show them that at the time.

That's the problem. We can walk into that appointment knowing exactly what's going on and still leave with nothing, because the person across from us doesn't recognise or understand what we're describing.

What we need is something tangible to take in with us.

Something that shows them clearly:

-Here are the signs and symptoms of ADHD in women.
-Here's how perimenopause presents.
-Here's how the two overlap. Look how many of these apply to me.

I hear this from women all the time. The same appointment. The same dismissal. The same walking out with nothing.

So I've got two free downloads for you, for exactly this reason:

-A symptoms checklist and diagnosis guide for ADHD, perimenopause and menopause

-A guide to understanding how your hormones are affecting your ADHD

Something you can print out, read through on your own, tick off what applies to you, and take in with you.

So the next time someone tells you that you don't look like you have ADHD, or that you're too young, you've got something in your hand that says otherwise.

Download both at the link in the comments.

Being dismissed by your GP isn't a sign you got it wrong. It's a sign they didn't know enough. Some doctors do get it. But far too many women are still leaving those appointments feeling like the problem is them.

What's the one symptom of your ADHD or perimenopause that you've found hardest to explain to your GP?

26/05/2026

Some mornings I was too anxious to leave my house.

I was 48. A senior nurse in the NHS. Supporting and advocating for my neurodivergent children. Running a home. Caring for elderly relatives.

And I had no idea what was happening to me.

It was down to three hormones. And nobody had connected them to my ADHD.

ADHD already challenges how the brain regulates dopamine and serotonin. Perimenopause targets those same systems directly.

When both hit at the same time, the systems that allowed you to cope start to disappear.

Here's what each one does:

Oestrogen supports dopamine production. When it fluctuates and drops, focus and memory follow. What had felt manageable, suddenly doesn't.

Progesterone works on the receptors that calm the nervous system. When it falls, anxiety increases and sleep becomes more challenging than ever.

Testosterone drives motivation and makes executive function feel manageable. When it decreases, starting and finishing tasks gets harder.

But you tell yourself you're the problem.

You're not.

When all three decline together, the strategies you'd relied on for years stop working. Often ones you'd built without even realising that's what they were.

You weren't going crazy. You never were. Your neurochemistry was changing in ways nobody had explained to you.

Understanding this changes how you see yourself. Because from the moment you know, you can start accessing the right support.

Did you know these three hormones were connected to your ADHD?

18/05/2026

A room full of women got answers they'd been waiting years for.

In an hour.

I recently spoke at a local women's support group on ADHD and the perimenopause. Most of them had already seen their GP. Most had been given antidepressants.

And how many had been told how significantly hormones affect ADHD?

None.

The women told me afterwards it was the first time they had truly felt seen and understood.

Educating others on how hormones and ADHD overlap is exactly what I do.

And right now, the women in your community, your waiting room, your retreat, or your team are looking to finally get the right answers.

-Registered nurse, 20 years in the NHS
-Trained ADHD coach and assessor
-One of ten UK Parliament ADHD advocates
-Presenting on ADHD and the perimenopause for ADHD UK every month
-Training GPs and clinical teams on how ADHD presents in women
-Every session grounded in current peer-reviewed research

I speak specifically on what happens when ADHD and perimenopause collide.

These two conditions interact in ways most healthcare professionals haven't been trained to recognise. And most of the women they're seeing have never been told the connection exists.

Women leave my sessions understanding:

-Why symptoms that felt manageable suddenly became impossible
-Why strategies that worked for years stopped
-Why and how hormones affect neurodivergent brains so significantly
-Why so many women are only now recognising they have ADHD
-Why they were told they were depressed or anxious when something else entirely was going on

For the first time, they know it was never personal failing.

For years these women have been misdiagnosed and dismissed.

They walk away with something they may never have been given before: an explanation for their own lives.

I have four speaking slots left for 2026. If your audience includes women navigating ADHD, perimenopause, or both, DM me with your event date and I'll tell you if it's a fit.

Sarah West I Certified ADHD Coach

12/06/2026

11/06/2026

09/06/2026

08/06/2026

02/06/2026

01/06/2026

31/05/2026

26/05/2026

18/05/2026

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