Jul 8
Dr. Grace Esan, now a pediatrician in Indiana, grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where it was the cultural norm to show up to parties and events fashionably late. It wasn’t until she moved to the United States, where time is taken much more seriously, that she realized she had difficulty with time management and procrastination that extended beyond cultural differences. Once Dr. Grace connected these traits to ADHD she also realized that ADHD was also responsible for her unique way of seeing the world.
Since her diagnosis, Dr. Grace has been on a mission to create awareness around ADHD and destigmatize the diagnosis within the medical community, particularly for girls and women, who are often overlooked. Join me for a conversation with this wonderful doctor as she shares her diagnosis story, the workarounds she used to get through school, how she challenges the status quo in medicine, and so much more.
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"In all the research that I’ve been doing now, I’ve found that it’s not just those three things that we’ve always thought in medicine are hallmarks of ADHD: the impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity. There are other things, things like empathy and intuition."
- Dr. Grace Esan
"If I’m reading something I’m interested in, I’ll lose time. I’ll be there for hours and hours looking for stuff, so it’s crazy because it’s either feast or famine, I’m either not doing it or I’m totally doing it."
- Dr. Grace Esan
"Here’s the crazy thing, I was taking care of kids and diagnosing kids in my office with ADHD–the inattention, the impulsivity, the hyperactivity–but I never, ever turned that mirror on myself."
- Dr. Grace Esan
- Dr. Grace shares her personal experience with ADHD, revealing that she was diagnosed after recognizing similar symptoms in a friend.
- Dr. Grace experiences time blindness, forgetting to arrive on time to events and hyper-focusing on tasks once she starts them.
- Dr. Grace discusses her struggles with inattention and memory lapses throughout her academic career, including medical school.
[13:42 - 30:54] ADHD and Learning Challenges
- Dr. Grace struggled in medical school due to her learning style, but she found ways to adapt and succeed through hyper-focusing and studying in a group setting.
- Dr. Grace discusses her experience as a pediatrics resident at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, where she made chief resident despite having ADHD.
- Dr. Grace shares her experience with ADHD girls, finding that they are often difficult to diagnose due to the mismatch between their intellectual abilities and academic performance.
- Dr. Grace discusses challenges in diagnosing ADHD in women, including limited time for patient evaluations and the importance of considering family history.
- Dr. Grace shares her ADHD workarounds, including using a keyless car, counting fives, and keeping a simple calendar on her phone.
- Dr. Grace believes that studies on women's health are often overlooked or undervalued, leading to a lack of understanding of how hormones affect women's brains and bodies.
