Hi, I’m Hannah. I’m a British actress, writer, and musician. Alongside my creative work, I collaborate with a range of non-profit organisations, helping them to secure funding for impactful projects. I was diagnosed with ADHD (Combined) at 28. Like many adults who are diagnosed later in life (research shows women are often diagnosed later than men), it answered a lifetime of questions.

Since my diagnosis, I’ve come to understand that ADHD is far more complex than the common stereotypes of a “busy mind”, restlessness, or poor time management. It can involve emotional dysregulation (difficulty managing the intensity and duration of emotions), executive dysfunction (challenges with cognitive processes like planning, prioritising, focusing, and organising), sensory overload (when one or more of the body’s senses receive excessive input, overloading the brain’s processing capacity), black-and-white thinking (viewing situations in extremes with little grey area), burnout (a state of severe physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion), Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (experiencing overwhelming emotional or physical pain triggered by perceived or actual rejection, criticism, or failure),

hyperfocus (a state of intense, prolonged, and deep concentration on a specific task, causing a person to become oblivious to their surroundings and time), and masking (a conscious or unconscious survival strategy to suppress natural traits and mimic neurotypical behaviour to avoid stigma).

I’m particularly interested in the neuroscience of ADHD (including the lower functional levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine [linked to motivation and reward] and norepinephrine [linked to attention and alertness]), exploring practical tools for managing ADHD (I currently use Tiimo, Notion, Speechify, body doubling, and the Pomodoro Technique, and I find mindfulness, excercise and nutrition can be incredibly supportive), the links between ADHD and co‑occurring conditions (including mental health, learning differences, sleep disorders, addiction, and PMDD), changing ADHD stereotypes, and closing the gender diagnosis gap.

ADHD UK plays a vital role in providing reliable information, offering support, funding research, campaigning for better representation across healthcare, education, and workplaces, and raising awareness about what ADHD really is. I’m incredibly proud to be an ambassador, and deeply passionate about helping people with ADHD thrive, while contributing to a more informed, compassionate, and neuroinclusive world.

Photo credit: Vanessa Haines