ADHD and Sewing: How Creative Hobbies Support Focus, Calm and Self-Regulation with Dr Claire Ashley

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Claire Ashley to explore ADHD, how it really presents in adulthood, and why sewing can become a powerful tool for self-regulation.

We discuss the core symptoms of ADHD, why so many women are misdiagnosed or diagnosed later in life, and the link between ADHD, anxiety and chronic overwhelm.

This is an honest, practical conversation about neurodiversity, creativity and building a healthier relationship with your sewing practice.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, struggled to finish projects, or found that sewing both soothes and consumes you, this episode will resonate.

Claire Discusses:

• Executive dysfunction and task paralysis
• Hyperfocus and creative burnout
• Masking, perfectionism and shame
• Using sewing as a calming, structured outlet
• How to balance a hobby without turning it into pressure

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Instagram: @wiredtomake

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Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Dr Claire Ashley and today's topic ADHD

03:35 ADHD presents differently in women

06:19 Diagnosis later in life

07:30 Overwhelm paralysis

09:41 Hyperfocus

11:07 Using sewing as a positive outlet and avoiding overwhelm

13:53 ADHD, burnout and anxiety

16:13 Substack

Transcript

Gemma Daly (00:11)
Welcome back to the show. I'm joined by Dr. Claire Ashley and today we're talking about ADHD and sewing. Welcome back, Claire.

Claire Ashley (00:20)
Hi Gemma, lovely to see you again.

Gemma Daly (00:21)
and you. Now, ADHD has been in the news quite a lot recently, but for anyone not familiar, what is ADHD?

Claire Ashley (00:31)
Yeah, so you're absolutely right. I'd say not only has it been in the news, but certainly from myself, my perspective as a GP, there have been so many more people coming forward asking to be assessed for it. So it's definitely something that people are talking about and have a bigger awareness of now. So ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition. So by that, mean that it's...

it occurs as your brain is developing in the womb, right? So it's not something that happens outside of that. It's the way that you were born. It's the way that you are wired from the start, right? In ADHD, specifically what happens with the way that you are wired is that you have difficulty with attention regulation, impulse control and executive.

function. So executive function is things like ⁓ concentration, focus and memory. And specifically with ADHD, you get difficulties in and differences in dopamine and norepinephrine ⁓ regulation. So these

hormones in the brain are really central to motivation, attention and reward processing. So you have less of these hormones available at baseline. And then when the hormones are released,

they are not regulated in the same way that they're regulated in neurotypical brains. And so basically the ADHD brain ⁓ struggles with delayed or uncertain rewards, so it thrives with immediate novel or stimulating input and quite often needs a lot of that in order to get going.

So key symptoms around ADHD are executive dysfunction. initiating, planning, completing tasks. There's also emotional dysregulation. That's now considered to be a hallmark feature of ADHD as well. So that's not being able to have conscious control necessarily over your emotional reactions to your stress. So you might find yourself, for instance, flying off the handle over really small things that don't matter, but you can't actively control that.

very distractible. But equally, when you get locked into something, then you can really hyper focus and and get, you know, people with ADHD tend to get overwhelmed a lot and procrastinate a lot when it comes to tasks. But once they get going, then they can really focus in on that and quite often to the detriment of other tasks that need to get done. what I would say about ADHD as well is that traditionally, a lot of the diagnostic criteria in the work that was done was done in

boys and quite often little boys present with very stereotypical symptoms of ADHD so they're incredibly restless, they're running around with their hair on fire the whole time, they can't concentrate, they don't do well at school because they physically cannot sit still like they really struggle with fidgeting and concentrating on their schoolwork and so quite often that's the trigger for getting an assessment. In the sewing community which is let's face it primarily made of women

we find

that ADHD presents slightly differently. So quite often, ⁓ girls are not diagnosed with ADHD as children because they present with slightly different symptoms. So like the impulsivity is slightly less perhaps, and they're able to regulate some of these symptoms a little bit better, I guess, in some respects, but also they present in a slightly different way.

So ADHD in women is significantly under diagnosed. We now have, I would say a generation of women. And I would imagine that a large number of women in the sewing community form part of because that historical focus is, research has focused on boys, but also because the female presentation more internalized, less overtly hyperactive has been missed. And so, you know, a lot of women who are now being diagnosed with it have spent decades of their life.

developing coping strategies that concealed these difficulties and often at quite enormous personal cost as well. And they find their brains just exhausting places to be right. But if you haven't been diagnosed, then you might not have understood that. Quite often women with undiagnosed ADHD, they really struggle a lot with anxiety and other mental health. And they quite often have been misdiagnosed as that as well, know. So late diagnosis is becoming increasingly common.

And frequently the trigger is perimenopause and that's because estrogen, which is one of your reproductive hormones, supports dopamine function. So in women, as estrogen starts to decline during that perimenopausal period, all of a sudden the symptoms to do with ADHD that have been successfully masked or managed suddenly become really, really significant and it feels

The experience of ADHD for this particular type of, for this group as well, ⁓ can feel really, really overwhelming. ⁓ And I think that there are within the sewing community, I think there are probably quite high numbers of people who are diagnosed with ADHD or otherwise neurodivergent because sewing can be a form of self-regulation, right? ⁓ And quite often people with ADHD collect.

hobbies because their brains are seeking novelty, right? Like that also makes sense, you know? So I've been talking a little bit about this on my Instagram and talking around some of the behaviors that people who sew and have ADHD typically fall into. And yeah, there's a lot of self-recognition and understanding and validation that is happening within the sewing community. People with ADHD who also sew, which has been quite cool actually to see people engaging with that.

Gemma Daly (05:49)
Yeah.

Claire Ashley (06:17)
and getting something out of that content.

Gemma Daly (06:19)
it's fascinating actually, because you know, I'm in that category of 40 year old women, you know, and I personally don't think I have ADHD, but I have friends who are going along that path now. And it's fascinating because like you say, women have managed to mask these symptoms for so long. And there's such a big gap between being diagnosed in your 40s onwards.

Claire Ashley (06:26)
you

Gemma Daly (06:44)
than being diagnosed as a child in, you know, like you say, little boys. So such a difference there.

Claire Ashley (06:51)
Yeah, and I think quite often that diagnosis can bring a lot of relief because suddenly it all falls into place. ⁓ that's why I'm like this, you know, and also ADHD can be medicated. You know, it's not for everyone, but particularly if you are going through that perimenopausal period and things are becoming really significant, then actually that might be a helpful thing to do to go through that diagnostic process so that

Gemma Daly (06:59)
Hmm.

Claire Ashley (07:19)
you could consider taking medication if you're feeling like it's really significantly impacting on your work or on your emotional well-being as well, which is great.

Gemma Daly (07:30)
Yeah, absolutely. So talk to us about the term overwhelmed paralysis and how does this affect people getting started with their sewing projects?

Claire Ashley (07:40)
Yeah, so the thing, like I said before with ADHD, quite often, the ADHD brain is constantly seeking novelty and is trying to get release of dopamine right. However, sometimes instead of, you know, locking in and getting started, it can manifest itself as overwhelm.

Gemma Daly (07:50)
you

Claire Ashley (08:01)
and difficulty in getting started in tasks. And so you end up kind of frozen. And so overwhelmed paralysis is when, know, and this typically happens to people with ADHD is when you really want to get started on a task, but your brain doesn't quite have enough dopamine yet to get going. And so you end up, your brain ends up trying to seek dopamine in other ways before you actually get started on that task. So, you know, if you're thinking about it in a sewing context, it might be that there's a project that you want to get on with.

And it's normally in ADHD, you've got 20 million other projects happening at the same time as well, right? So there's loads of stuff unfinished and that's quite stressful in and of itself, but you can't seem to get started because you feel so overwhelmed. And, but what your brain will do is it will try to find the dopamine from other sources. So it might start, so you might start tidying up your sewing room instead of actually starting on your, on your sewing project, or you might start doing other tasks in order to try to find that dopamine so that you can get going. Something that,

You know, I did a post on this actually, and lots of people share different ways that they find helpful to get over this overwhelmed paralysis. And some people mentioned setting like a specific time and date to get on with a task can be really helpful for overcoming overwhelmed paralysis, rather than just going, oh, I'm going to start this project at some point today. You say, okay, no, one o'clock today, I'm going to make myself a cup of tea and I'm going to sit down and I'm going to do 10 minutes of sewing. And often that's enough to get

people started. Also having a buddy, so sewing with someone else can also help you to get started with that. But yeah, really a common experience for people here with ADHD and so.

Gemma Daly (09:41)
That's really interesting. You spoke earlier about that sort of hyper focus. So, you know, there might be loads of things going on, but then when, when people with ADHD get started, they can be hyper focused on something. What does that like look like neurologically? Does, is there a way that you can describe it?

Claire Ashley (10:02)
similar to flow state, but it is slightly different. ⁓ So the thing about hyperfocus is that whilst the mechanisms are similar to flow state, it is slightly different in that, again, it's the brain ⁓ actively seeking the dopamine, right? And so it gets really locked in to the hyperfocus state with extraordinary intensity. So flow state, it's very calming and meditative.

⁓ but you might not necessarily get that with hyper-focus and you also really neglect ⁓ essential things like going to the toilet for instance or eating or hydrating because you're so incredibly focused. I think from a neurological perspective, it is understudied. So I have tried to do some research into exactly what the mechanisms are and it's just not there. So it might be that I haven't found the data yet, but I think it is poorly researched and poorly understood to be honest with you. ⁓

But from what I can tell, it's similar to flow state, but you might not necessarily be getting the same benefits as flow state in doing it.

Gemma Daly (11:07)
Yeah, fantastic. Thank you. And how do you think people with ADHD can balance using sewing as a positive outlet without tipping into that sort of exhaustion?

Claire Ashley (11:20)
Yeah, so I think there are lots of behaviors around sewing that people with ADHD will resonate with. So we talked about overwhelmed paralysis. People with ADHD also struggle with task initiation, also tend to collect projects and hobbies and struggle with not finishing things as well. And it all comes back to that dysregulation and that lack of dopamine. So I think obviously, however, on the flip side,

having a hobby and engaging with that hobby still brings with it a lot of benefits and can be a really useful outlet for people with ADHD. So you can help to manage some of those symptoms, but on the flip side, it's, you know, it can be tricky to make sure that you're getting the right balance. So I think, first of all, just being kind to yourself really matters. And again, taking away, you know, any of that self judgment and self blame, you know, if you've got a huge pile of unfinished projects, if you are not finishing

your makes, you know, you get to the hemming part and then you just get bored and then you can't finish it. You know, not to feel, not to berate yourself too much and to be kind to yourself. I think that's really important. You know, you are working with a neurodivergent brain, not a neurotypical one. And so you need to find ways to work with it rather than against it. And so, yeah, it's just about making those small changes to ensure that you are actually enjoying it. So getting rid of the self-judgment, the self-blame, ⁓

When it comes to task initiation, for instance, like just understanding that your brain really requires a bit of novelty to get started, but also like maybe having some real life support, like going to a group or, ⁓ you know, having someone that you sew with can be helpful to get you started and to enjoy the process. Having an online community can sometimes be helpful to setting a specific time when you are going to sew and

that can help you to get started too. ⁓ And also like, you people with ADHD, quite often they will accumulate a lot in the stash, right? And a lot of unfinished projects, you know, that's your brain just doing what it's wired to do, which is to seek out that novelty. Actually dopamine is released at its highest levels when you are planning something, not at the end of a project. that's quite often why people who have ADHD struggle to finish things.

⁓ So again, I think it's just about understanding that that is what your brain is wired to do and then allowing yourself a little bit of self compassion and not being judgmental of yourself when you are finding those things hard.

Gemma Daly (13:53)
Absolutely great advice. And just sort of lastly on this topic, we've already talked earlier this week about burnout and anxiety. Do you think people with ADHD can struggle with both of these things? And are they more likely to struggle with them over someone who isn't neurodivergent?

Claire Ashley (14:13)
Anxiety is incredibly common. I can't remember off the top of my head, the percentage of the general population that has anxiety, but it is very common. ADHD, I think it's around 5 % of the general population are diagnosed with it. But I suspect that that is under diagnosed ⁓ because, you know, we know that there are huge groups of people that have been missed ⁓ with diagnosis and particularly women. So what I would say about ADHD and anxiety is quite often, especially with women who are late diagnosed or

Gemma Daly (14:23)
you

Claire Ashley (14:43)
undiagnosed is that quite often they have been diagnosed with anxiety in the past because the symptoms are very similar. know, procrastination, getting overwhelmed, feeling incredibly worried, difficulty sleeping, which quite often is attributed to anxiety, actually for the ADHD brain, struggles to switch off. so sleep disturbance is part of that. again, you're not, if you're diagnosing anxiety, but

it's ADHD, then you're not tackling the right thing. And a lot of the symptoms do overlap. So I would say anxiety is more common. A lot of people with ADHD, the symptoms are similar, and they're more likely to have been misdiagnosed.

Traditional treatments for anxiety don't work in ADHD, unfortunately. So quite often it's intractable anxiety. it's an anxiety that you've tried to manage, but medication doesn't work because you're not treating the right thing, obviously. And some of the therapeutic techniques for anxiety do work for the ADHD brain, but actually really, if you're experiencing those sorts of anxiety and you have ADHD, I would primarily think about managing the ADHD itself.

Gemma Daly (15:27)
Thank

Claire Ashley (15:54)
rather than trying to manage any thoughts of worry or panic. If that makes sense, yeah.

Gemma Daly (15:58)
absolutely. Yeah,

it does make sense. Thank you so much for joining me again today, Claire. Tune in tomorrow where we'll be discussing the psychology of sewing and why we create certain habits around it. We'll see you then.