Climbing The Walls Podcast: The Surge Of ADHD Diagnoses In Women

Understood.org, a leading resource for people with learning and thinking differences, announced the launch of Climbing the Walls, a new limited-series investigative podcast. Hosted by health and science journalist and documentarian Danielle Elliot, the podcast explores why women weren’t diagnosed with ADHD for so long. And what led to new ADHD diagnoses among women ages 20–49 nearly doubling between 2020 and 2022 (CDC). The first episode, “I Didn’t Want to Have ADHD,” became available on April 9, 2025, wherever podcasts are found.

Across six episodes, Elliot weaves together scientific explanations with personal stories, including her own, from the many women who know ADHD all too well. Through their lived experiences and candid conversations with experts, she starts getting answers to some of her big questions around the surge in ADHD diagnoses. Among those she speaks with are Sari Solden, MS, a psychotherapist and pioneer in the field of ADHD counseling, and Terry Matlen, MSW, a psychotherapist and ADHD coach specializing in women’s experiences. As the season goes on, Elliot gets answers about the surge in ADHD diagnoses, like: Why women? And why now?

“When I was diagnosed with ADHD at 36, I didn’t understand how we’d missed this — not just in me, but in, apparently, an entire generation of women and all…