Left Unattended

The Cost of High Functioning: ADHD, Masking, and Systemic Burnout with Ashley Gibson
 
Ron Sosa hosts Ashley Gibson, a psychotherapist and founder of Meaning in Practice, to discuss the hidden cost of “high functioning” neurodivergence at work. Ashley shares being late-diagnosed with ADHD after building a successful marketing career through willpower and masking, including work on Broadway’s Hamilton, while simultaneously training as a clinician, parenting, and navigating major life stress. They explore how office culture and mission-driven environments intensify performance, overstimulation, and internal load, and how the pandemic revealed what was actually masking versus true preference and rhythm. Ashley describes using clinical frameworks, including Structural Analysis of Social Behavior, to map how systems teach people to internalize blame, contributing to burnout that is systemic rather than individual. The episode reframes common questions from “what’s wrong with me?” to what the system taught and what functioning has been costing.
 

ADHD, Brainwaves, and Neurofeedback: Training Attention with Ofer Lizski
Ron Sosa speaks with Ofer Lizski, founder and CEO of Excellent Brain, about ADHD, brainwaves, neurofeedback, leadership, and why the ADHD brain shouldn’t be treated as a problem but something that can be trained and supported. Ofer shares his background as a lifelong entrepreneur and technologist, how his son’s experience in special education led him to EEG sensors and neurofeedback, and why he believes neurofeedback is an effective and underknown approach for improving ADHD symptoms. He explains neurofeedback as real-time brainwave-based training using a headband sensor and game-like tasks, typically delivered in 30 sessions over about 15 weeks, with many people noticing changes within 10 sessions. They discuss age ranges (7+), late diagnosis, labeling, changing attention in a technology-driven world, education system limitations, AI concerns, and Ofer’s emphasis on discipline over motivation.

In this episode of Left Unattended, Ron talks with Dr. Kelly Cooper, a veterinarian and consultant, about receiving an ADHD diagnosis at 55 and why she called it a “liberation day.” Kelly shares how the diagnosis helped her understand chronic self-criticism, anxiety, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, and the perfectionism she realized was protecting her from rejection. They explore pressure-driven productivity, procrastination that was reinforced by academic success, and how time, energy, and resource management becomes harder with age and changing capacity. Kelly describes how perimenopause intensified ADHD-related challenges, what prompted her to seek help, and how coaching, mindfulness, and tools like externalizing the inner critic support regulation and follow-through. She also discusses vulnerability in leadership, content creation fears, and her work through Reality Vet Coaching, including launching a women’s group coaching program.

 Overachieving in School, Underachieving in Life: Raising Neurodivergent Kids Toward Independence
 
On Left Unattended, host Ron Sosa speaks with Dr. Norrine Russell—founder of Russell Coaching for Students, and author of ‘Asking the Right Questions about ADHD’—about what happens when bright, capable neurodivergent students are so supported that they perform well but don’t build independence. They discuss how parents and schools often overtake kids’ executive functioning through constant oversight and accommodations, how fear and risk-avoidance can grow internally, and how to distinguish “laziness” from age-appropriate timing or true executive-function challenges based on outcomes and consequences. Russell links “failure to launch” to broader cultural and economic realities and to over-scaffolding that reduces problem-solving and self-esteem, and she emphasizes balancing high expectations with the right support at home, school, and work while teaching explicit life and workplace skills without promoting unhealthy masking.
 

Many people carry invisible load at work: masking, shame, fear of being misunderstood, pressure to prove competence, and the exhaustion of trying to seem acceptable. Kristin’s story asks what becomes possible when we stop defining people only by their hardest chapters and start asking where their brain, skill, and lived experience still belong.

On this episode Left Unattended, Ron Sosa hosts James Lang, a med tech COO turned AI growth architect and managing partner of Overlang Venture Partners, about normalizing neurodivergence in the workplace. James shares his unconventional path from college dropout and freelance writer to helping scale a med tech company past $20M in revenue with a global team of 60+, and how being diagnosed with ADHD and autism in his 30s reframed his “brain OS,” masking, and leadership. They discuss coping strategies like offloading thoughts onto paper, why remote work reduced social strain, and how James’ “camp counselor” approach helped him read team dynamics. James also reflects on physical health limitations, palliative counseling, legacy, chosen family, building teams around limitations, and how resilience and empathy can shift under pressure, before inviting listeners to connect via LinkedIn and learn.overlaying.com.