LATE BLOOMERS - 3: ADHD IN DISGUISE: 10 “weird” things I didn’t realise were signs of ADHD

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox go through ten weirdly specific things that turned out to be ADHD in disguise. Bendy joints, dopamine dressing, owning 12 water bottles for no reason, and not being able to sleep with a ticking clock in the room.Rox breaks down why she can't tell she's hungry until she's shaking, why a slice of cheese counts as dinner, and why she's started roughly 100 businesses and finished none of them. Rich points out the parts Rox doesn't notice herself doing, including the inner monologue that occasionally becomes an outer monologue in public.If you've spent your whole life thinking you were just "a bit weird," this one might explain a lot.20% off Loop Earplugs: https://www.loopearplugs.com/adhdlove

Today we're talking about 10 weird things that I always thought were just part of my personality, but turns out we're related to ADHD, things like being really bendy and starting businesses. I can't wait for this one. Welcome to late blooms where we are getting our lives together. Eventually brought you by our amazing sponsor, Loop Earplugs. Why can't you wait for this one? Well, because I'm leading it, I'm going to tell you the 10 weird things. And you've done this to me in an autism episode. We did autism in disguise a few weeks ago. Yeah.

This is ADHD in disguise. Very quick disclaimer. These are 10 weird things. We use weird as a word for good. Weird is good on the late film's podcast. They're a bit odd. They're a bit funky. These are not diagnostic criteria.

These are 10 things that I do and that we've also noticed kind of patterns in our gorgeous, community, but we're not saying that these are medical, so please don't go to the doctors saying... Well, yeah, and we're not doctors. And if you've got all 10 of these things, you don't definitely have ADHD, but you might want to speak to someone. But you might possibly want to speak to someone. So yeah, not speaking for the whole ADHD community, but I have a strange feeling that

I'm not going to be the only one. So I'm going to start, okay? And if you have any, if you need any clarification as to what any of those means, then please do ask me any questions. But I'm going to start right off the bat with number one. You're weirdly bendy. Yeah. So I have like double joints in my fingers and thumbs.

It's not just that. It's not just there. Your arms are all like, oh, no, don't do that. My shoulders. My knee joints move. my wrist, it's very odd. And actually, in school, it was my party trick that I could bend my thumb, although back to my wrist, backwards, not forwards.

Yeah. And that is also a sign of hypermobility. But going backwards, yeah, and I thought it was my party trick. I thought it was really cool. And then I've realized recently it's related to ADHD. How it's related to ADHD is that there is a crazy overlap between people with ADHD, and hypermobility. And that ranges from 50%,

estimate that 50% of people with ADHD are hypermobile, up to 70% for women. You're going to have to explain to me what hypermobile is. Is it just weirdly bendy? Yeah, it's like the posh word for being weirdly bendy. It goes all the way up to EDS, which is Ella's Dan Loss syndrome, that you can actually get diagnosed with.

It's a medical condition. I haven't sought that as a diagnosis. I just say hypermobile, I'm, yeah, weirdly bending. So why? So why? So hypermobility seems like a physical thing. Yeah. ADHD is not. So it's the connective tissue effectively.

I read while thinking about this episode, I read that they are currently researching it. And actually some researchers are so excited by the idea of why there is that over there is that overlap? And I just can't wait for someone to figure that out because it is, why is it that like I'm bendy and messy? How do those things go together? Bendy brains.

I would be excited about researching that. Off you go. Right. Number two, you dopamine dress. So your clothes give you dopamine. Again, going back to school, I was like renowned for wearing, really like bright, bold colours.

You've got to share more recent activities of your wardrobe. What? Because it's become a little bit of an obsession. Oh. Do you want to share with the audience what the current dof mean outfits are? Yeah. Oh no, I'm wearing one right now. So I went shopping a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago,

and I found a new shop that was called Garage. in our local shopping centre, which is blue water. And it was amazing because the shop is separated into like colour sections. Bright colours. So it's like blue, pink. They also have black. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Burgundy. And they have all the same clothes, but in different colours. It's like a neurodivergent dream. So I went in, I felt it. I was like, this is really soft. I tried on like the shorts and the top and I was like, this is so comfortable. This is now my entire personality.

So I bought six pairs of shorts, six matching tops, some matching like cardigans. And it's been, I've worn it exclusively. It's not just that. It's all the activity that goes around it. Like you've got a dedicated wardrobe just for garage now. I feel like I want to say garage because I'm English. It's a Canadian brand. So it is pronounced garage.

I actually look that up. Yeah. So I cleared out all my black t-shirts. I moved them away. so I've got like a section in the wardrobe that is garage only and I like even hang up my own clothes and like fold the shorts and that's all I'm going to wear until that runs out. And they come up with new colours every month. Yeah, so I've got red, I've got pink, I've got blue, but there is some colours on the website that I haven't got, haven't got orange. Yeah.

I haven't got the tiger print. Yeah. So yeah, dopamine dressing. So effectively, clothes is a way of finding dopamine. and very often you will notice with ADHD is unusual dressing, bright, bold, if you went to one of our events, there's a high proportion of brightly coloured dungarees and brightly coloured hair. I was going to say a dungarees is a big one for ADHD people.

A brightly coloured dungal. I don't know what it is about dungarees. But it's, you know, the outside, inside, putting that inside weirdness on your body, also bright colours. It's like magpie syndrome. They catch your eye. So yeah, dopamine dressing. It's very, very real. Number three.

You own 12 water bottles. Yes. So I have always owned multiple water bottles, multiple lip-bombs, multiple bags. Because it's like you haven't got it for its functionality. You've got it for the happiness and dopamine. of the novelty that it provides in the short term. So I don't have a water bottle really to drink water out of. I have it to bring me joy that it's new and sparkly and the colour and the brand

that I love. And then that kind of wears out and then I need another one. I also buy the same thing a lot because I need them in different rooms. Well, you don't need them in different rooms. I was going to say, having so many water bottles sort of also. helps with the fact that there will be one in every room. Lit balm in every bag. So it's to stop me from having to find them.

No, sorry. A lip balm in every bag is fine because they're fine in every bag. You can pick a bag up, get the lip balm. A bottle of water that's been in a room the last week and a half does not serve the same purpose because you just need to wash it up. So I feel like that is just more about novel. tea. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, number four, you cannot sleep with a ticking clock. Yeah. Is it just as simple as that? Is it any noise or is it just specifically clocks? Like, what are we talking here?

So with ADHD, there's a lot of sensory processing issues and ADHD people can struggle to block out what isn't important and then like things that you shouldn't be listening to get hyper loud. So for example, a clock at night, I can just lock in on the clock. It's like, and it's like attacking my brain. It's like somebody's knocking with a wooden drumstick on my own head making that sound. And there's nowhere I'm getting to sleep. Look, I have had to get out of bed and take batteries out of clocks in order to sleep. But that's also like chewing. Like sometimes if we're eating dinner and I haven't got music on and I'm in a mood and you're chewing and I can hear you chewing, I can't hear anything else. I'm not going to do the noise for anyone with misophonia.

It's the worst noise in the world. So I get that. You are also a bit of a loud cheuer yourself, especially when eating stuff like bananas. Like, I cannot understand how your teeth can be as loud as they are. Because you go, hypermobility, my jaw like clicks out, basically. So you're hearing like It's not your teeth crashing together. That's what it sounds like. It's like my jaw makes a sound. Right. Okay.

You ready for number five? Yeah. This one's hilarious, by the way. You soundtrack your life. So talk to us about what this means. So every... I basically can't human at all without sounds. like a soundtrack to go along with it. So for example, when I'm getting ready in the morning,

I'm always listening to a podcast. Like if I'm doing my podcast, that just has to happen. If I'm having a bath, I'm listening to sometimes a book. Actually, I go for it in bath. If I am leaving the house, I have to have music. If I forget my headphones, I will come back. I will miss my train rather than be out in the world like without sounds. If I'm cleaning, I used to do podcast. Now I just join a dubby body doubling session and I'm listening to the host like encouraging me. Can I just say one thing? Yeah.

Because you've just sort of brazed past it. Go on. And it needs talking about. What? Leaving the house with music. Yeah. You do not simply just listen to the music. You walk along the street and fabricate a whole thing in your head that you're the main character of.

So it's like the soundtrack to a movie and you picture the scene in your head of you striding along to the music. It sort of depends on the song. It depends on the mood. It would have to be a hot day. I'd have to be feeling slightly nostalgic. Have you a certain song. And then, yeah, I'm like starring in a music video or a film. Like I can make entire narratives in my head, but the music like hits incredibly hard and I'll

often be listening to the same song over and over and over again. So why is that related to ADHD? So it's a few things. For me, having sound, having auditory input is like an anchor for doing life. Without the anchor, I'm like a hot air balloon that just goes off and you'll never find me again. So like the music helps me to walk where I'm going. The dubby host helps me to stay focused on cleaning. The podcast helps me to sit and stay focused on getting ready. It anchors me in the moment and it stops me from actually getting distracted almost. Yeah.

And the thought of doing any of those things without sounds, I'd be all over, like I'd be all over the place. It's like my brain spills out of my ears. unless I've got earphones in playing music in. So it keeps my brain in my head is my theory. That is a, that's a very creative theory, I think. Okay, before number six, let's hear from our sponsors quickly. The Late Bloomers podcast is sponsored by the amazing loop ear plugs,

something that me and Rich use all the time and absolutely love. We have our own website with Loop. that has all of our favorite products and all of our listeners can get 20% off. You can find the link in our show notes or even in our social media bios. We've recently added this amazing loop link because, you know, we often put it on the wrong way around. We often forget or we lose them. So the loop link is there to make sure that you never lose your loop earplugs. Again, look at that.

Lovely. Right, let's get back to the episode, should we? Yeah, hold on. I'm ready. Are you ready for number six? I was born ready, baby. You can never tell when you are hungry. And I want to add to this as well,

you can't even fathom that you might be hungry later. Yeah. But this blows my mind because I'd be like, oh, do you want this for later? No, I'm not hungry. No, I know, but like for later. That's what I'm saying. No, I'm not.

I don't want any. It's impossible for me to project into the future into a couple of hours and realize that my current state will change. Like 100% it will change as well. Like you are always hungry later. But I never learn. Like never learning. It's just part of it.

But I think the not knowing when you're hungry, there is a word for it. You don't know what that word is, Intra max, can you look up what the word is for ADHD people not knowing when they're hungry or thirsty? It's like a word that basically means you are a bit disconnected from your body's own signals that would normally be there. So for me, I won't realize I'm hungry until I'm at like the extreme end as in I'm starving. I'm shaking. I'm having a blood sugar crash.

Interoception dysfunction. Wow, that's. No wonder you couldn't remember that. I can't remember why I walked in the room, let alone interoception dysfunction. But it's really common in people with ADHD. And that can apply to hungry, thirsty, temperature, looking into the future about being hungry.

It's sort of like a lack of awareness about one's own feelings. physical body and its needs, which is really odd, isn't it? Well, we did say weird things. Yeah, it is. That's pretty weird in the most amazing way. But it doesn't help you because we know that ADHD is struggle with like blood sugar more than people without ADHD. So if you're not eating, you're like starving yourself, going hungry and then eating snacks.

you're like on this roller coaster of blood sugar. We actually need to eat kind of small meals consistently, but good luck trying that. Nutrition is important for ADHD, which brings me perfectly to number seven, which is a slice of cheese can be dinner. Often is... A slice of cheese can 100% be dinner.

So let me set the scene. I'm starving. I haven't realised I've left it too late. I'm like, I need to eat dinner. I go to the fridge, I open the fridge, and there's things in there that need cooking, vegetables that need chopping, meat that needs preparing. And it's to do with executive function. Like I haven't got the capacity to figure out what I can do with those ingredients.

And even if I could, I'd feel overwhelmed by the process of doing it. So I opt out. It's like I opt out of the 12 steps needed to make a sandwich. and I will open a slice of cheese. It could be a handful of nuts. It could be one solitary slice of bread. I call them like one-step dinners. Well, there is a thing, actually.

I remember us talking about it once before. There was a big thing online about it. It was really good for ADHD people to have no-cooked meals. And you tried to claim that eating a lump of cheese out of the fridge qualifies as a no-cooked meal. Why wouldn't it qualify as a no-cooked meal? Well, I think the idea of a no-cooked meal. meal is trying to bring together ingredients that are nutritionally good for you and healthy

and require no cooking. So I think if you just eat cheese, for example, for the rest of your life, I think you'd be deficient in some things. So for example, chicken sees a salad if like the chicken's already cooked and you put the anchovies and you put the sauce and you put the lettuce. Or your Mexican bowl that you do. Oh, okay, yeah, sure. But that even microwaving the rice for two minutes to me is cooking.

that's a job, I'm going to have to open the thing, put it in the bar, do the timer, wait for the time, like. These chefs better watch out if you're cooking by microwaveing rice, get you a master chef next. That is cooking. Wait, are you legit telling me that when I make the Mexican bell, you don't think I've cooked you dinner? 100% you have not cooked me dinner.

So what would you? You've opened packets. It's a no-cooked meal. You've prepared the meal, but you haven't cooked dinner. I think there is a difference in the two. Because that's a no-cooked meal in my mind, you're putting together a bunch of stuff and then smashing it. When I microwave a ready meal, is that cooking you dinner?

Yeah. No, it's not, babe. Sorry, that's not cooking dinner. So what is this imaginary, where does it become cooking? Can you be a good cook based on your ability to microwave? Like is there different varying degrees of how well somebody can microwave a dinner? I'm not talking about how good you are as a cook. I'm talking about cooking.

But you understand there's a concept of being a good cook and a bad cook. But if I put rice in a microwave, I'm cooking it. Isn't cooking just me... You're heating it. But isn't that cooking? No. Cooking is like bringing together ingredients. I feel like we've been sidechats and I think we're going to need to have this discussion

later tonight. when I was going to cook you a Mexican bowl. Oh, were you? But maybe you can take me out for dinner and have someone else cook for me. I don't want you to go through all of that trouble of cooking tonight, babe. Why don't you put your feet up?

What was this point? A slice of cheese is dinner. Well, I'm going to move on to number eight. Can I just say, executive function makes cooking hard. Mm-hmm. And that's why we'll sometimes be stood at the fridge. eating a slice of cheese, there is no shame. Okay.

Okay, number eight, to lighten the mood. You get emotionally attached to objects. Like, I remember when we were sorting out the house after we moved in and we were throwing stuff out, the stuff that you wanted to keep because you felt sorry for it. Like you assign personalities. Teddy bears are actually the worst, but I sort of get that because they're in the form,

even though they're just fabric. It has a face, like that little squishy that I got on tour. And I couldn't look. I actually had to not look. Yeah, this also really, really, really, really gets me if I'm on tour. When I'm on tour, I don't have loads of room. I'm living out of a suitcase. And sometimes fans will, like, bring, like, lovely gifts.

And I have to try and take them home. And sometimes I can't. it might be too big or I might be traveling to Germany and I can't take it across the border if they've baked a cake. And I can't watch you will like have to throw it away and I have to leave the room. Because if I see you throwing away something that someone's made for me, it will, it like ends me. Yeah. And there's so many ways I think this could be in an ADHD lens, but the two that stand.

out to me, his number one, the kind of empathy problem or empathy pride, it depends on which right you look at it. We have very high empathy. We're very sensitive creatures. So we're able to empathize with a bucket or a flower pot and feel sorry for something that's thrown out. I feel we're almost like projecting. We're so sensitive to rejection. We can't even reject an inanimate object. But you understand that logically, it makes no set, like, they don't have emotions. Even if the teddy's got a face, it's just stitched together with plastic eyes. I just couldn't bear to look at it, like laying in the skip looking at, I'd go and rescue it. I have done that before. So I think there's like an empathy, an empathy issue, but, okay,

and I'd love to say I read this in a thesis, but I think I saw it on TikTok. somebody said because of ADHD memory problems, we use physical objects to like anchor memories and feelings. So if you throw away everything, you're wiping your memory. And that really resonated with me because I do like to keep anything that's got sentimental value as a memory anchor. That makes more sense. The whole empathy argument was getting a little bit,

getting a little bit questionable because a whole idea of empathy is you being able to relate to somebody else's emotions. And of course, these things do not feel emotions. So it's not, it's not empathy. It can't be empathy. Otherwise, you are just a little bit crazy. I mean, a lot of bit crazy, babes, let's be real. I would love to know, I can't wait for the comments

because I'm sure, at least I hope, I'm not the only one. Well, what if you are? No. What if you're the only one attached to objects? I'm not. Number nine, talking to yourself. This is so funny to witness, right?

So you have a form that you take where you can physically see the conversations that you're having in your head because it's not just a conversation you're having you're acting it out, you're making the right facial expressions as if you were there, you're like pointing, and it will be out of nowhere, we'll be driving, and all of a sudden you'll be like pointing and stuff like that. And I'm like, what are you, what's happening?

Are you okay? Are you, is this a crisis? Do we need to drive somewhere, get you some medical attention? It's like I'm constantly having combos and making plans and doing meetings and having arguments where I'm winning. own head. That's constantly going on. And sometimes I betray myself and the inner monologue slips out and I'll, yeah, I'll point or I'll make a face or I'll mouth the words. And then other people around you are like, what are you doing? Sometimes don't mouth. Sometimes it's little noises that

come out of you. Well, yeah, like that. Oh, like, hmm. And you'll be like, what? I was sorry, I was just having a conversation with an ex-friend. And I made a good point and she didn't listen. I mean, it's, you know, it doesn't sound that sane. One thing, though, that I have to say, which you said to me recently, is obviously that is well to do with ADHD, just having probably more so inattentive ADHD because it's all on the inside of you. Yeah. But golf has really helped you stop that, hasn't it?

Like when you play golf on the course, you just think about golf. Yeah. It really, really has. I only think about golf. I think about my swing. I think it's amazing. It feels like, you know what people talk about meditation is like?

I can't meditate because I still think, am I meditating? Am I silent? Am I having thoughts? Is this a thought? This isn't meditating. I'm bored. How long has it been one minute?

Can't do it. Golf to me feels like what meditation feels like to normal people. Like my brain is just like empty and like fully present and I'm obsessed. But yeah, inattentive ADHD is essentially, the hyperactivity is internalized. So I'm not like running around, turning at the tables. It's inside my own head. So you're effectively having constant monologues

from the minute you wake up to when you go to bed. But your brain is never quiet. And because of the imagination, the creativity, you can imagine whole world's films, old arguments. Like it's, yeah. But you shove it. even when I'm got a lot on my mind and I'm thinking through a lot or overthinking, which I can do, you won't see it in my face.

You see it in your entire existence when you're doing it. Yeah, like the line between my inner monologue and like the outside world, sometimes blurs. It's really embarrassing when it happens. I think it's hilarious. I've slipped out. You're not embarrassed when you do it in front of me though, right? Like a tiny bit, not like mega, but a tiny bit.

I'm like, damn, bro. Because you just feel a little crazy, but that's fine. Right, you're ready for number 10 Oh my God, last one, I'm so ready How many businesses have you started in your life? In my life? Yeah. Just rough, we're to the nearest 100.

A hundred? Like, it would probably be a nice. And when you say started, do you mean like actively sold something or like imagined? Because most of them never get that far. Because imagined would be like thousands.

I think it's, more than imagined because, you know, your, the amount of domains that you own. 23. So you go further than just imagining it, but you don't quite get to the actual distribution stage because that requires a lot of stuff that you would mean. So like 23 active domain names. So that's a good, like that's business ideas that have taken the next step. But obviously that was when I had access to my one, two, three reg account.

there were childhood. Like I started helping hands when I was nine or ten which was a business you're going to No, I know about this. I do you nearly kill a rabbit. That's how I remember it. You advertised to go and help look after people's pets.

You got your first customer and then forgot about the rabbits that they own. And your dad made you go and... Okay, first of all, I was nine or ten. Okay. helping hands was a business where I offered gardening, pet care, cleaning. Cleaning. Car washing.

Shoot for the Moon Bay. What made you think you had the skills required to offer gardening services? Yeah, but I'm nine. They're going to know it was picking up leaves or whatever. So I made my little fly at Microsoft Word. I see it now, Helping Hands. that like clip art clip up with a little pair of prayer hands gardening this and that five pounds an hour please contact me put my address cut them all out and i went and delivered a flyer to every house on

my estate by the way so can we just say oh yeah start business entrepreneurial kid yeah yeah and then what happened when you got your first customer what was the job it was looking after rabbit right how did that how did that play out i forgot but then my dad reminded me that's fine so so what you should have done is is what so it's impressive right i'm not disputing that it was you were nine years old you made these flyers you um went and delivered it you got a customer what would have been genius one step more is you could have hired all your nine year old mates to go and actually do the jobs for three pound an hour nine year old capital pocket pocket the two quid

Do you know what I mean? I bet you're kicking yourself for not doing that now. There'd be no dead rabbits. No rabbits did actually die by the way. He died of old age later. Can I just like clear that up? Yeah, okay. That's fine.

Look, why do ADHD people start businesses? I feel like there is negative and there's positive. Yes, we know the negatives. Guess what? We're impulsive. We love novelty. Whatever. Guess what else?

ADHD people, there is a high overlap between entrepreneurship, people that run businesses and ADHD. because you can see the bigger picture. You can spot gaps in the market. You've got amazing pattern recognition. You've got outside the box thinking. So it isn't all bad. I agree.

I agree. I let me put on the record. We wouldn't have any of our businesses without box. So I completely agree high percentage of ADHD people are entrepreneurs. I also, both can be true. A high percentage of people are ADHD of the people that own, main names that sit dormant. I feel like ADHD is a keeping go daddy in business. And on that note, this has been the late bloomer's podcast. I've had fun. You've had fun. Let us know,

is it just me or do you do some of these weird and odd things too? We'd love to hear from you in the comments. As always, give us a like, a follow, and subscribe. It really does help us on the pod. And see you next week. See you next week.