Hannah is a British actress, writer, producer and singer-songwriter. Alongside her creative work, she runs two successful businesses and collaborates with a range of non-profit organisations, helping them to secure funding for impactful projects.
She was diagnosed with ADHD (Combined type) 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)
- 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; the lower functional levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine (linked to motivation & reward), and norepinephrine (linked to attention & alertness)
- Exploring practical tools for managing ADHD (I currently use Tiimo, TalkType, Speechify, body doubling, & the Pomodoro Technique. I also find mindfulness, exercise and nutrition incredibly supportive)
- Research into the links between ADHD and co‑occurring conditions (including mental health, learning differences, sleep disorders, addiction, and PMDD)
- Closing the gender diagnosis gap
- Challenging damaging stereotypes (like framing ADHD as a “superpower”, suggesting “everyone has it”, and broad behaviour clickbait content that minimises, trivialises and/or oversimplifies the reality of ADHD).
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
@hannahtraylen