Messy Midlife

Messy Midlife is what happens when three women, all naturopathic doctors and one a therapist, going through midlife, pull up a chair to talk honestly. It is all on the table - hormones, families, burnout, and rediscovering who we are. It’s unfiltered, funny, and healing, like eavesdropping on the table of women who just get it.

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Messy Midlife

ADHD or Perimenopause?

July 14, 2026 • Season 1 • Episode 39

0:00 | 31:40

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Today we talk through the trending question - do I have ADHD or is this perimenopause?

Two of us are officially diagnosed with ADHD, one is not. But the question comes up all the time.

As Aliza shares her questions and Jenn and & Karen share their lived experience, we touch on:

The changes in how we could cope with multiple competing tasks before and no longer can
The ways that ADHD shows up differently in girls and women, and how shame plays a role in missed diagnoses
The reality that there are things that can look like ADHD that aren't - that are hormonal or even immune/inflammation driven
Hormones being protective against neuroinflammation and the role that plays in ADHD like presentations in perimenipause
Time blindness and time optimism
The continuum of presentation of ADHD
The many other things that can present with focus. attention and memory, including trauma, chronic illness, and pain
Food sensitivities and ADHD symptoms
The difference between an inflammatory response and a wiring difference
A biochemical overlap in the pathways related to pain and attention

Chapters

00:00 Navigating Perimenopause and ADHD
02:40 Understanding the Intersection of Hormones and ADHD
05:31 Coping Mechanisms and Self-Reflection
08:23 The Role of Neuroinflammation
11:07 Time Perception and ADHD
14:05 The Dopamine Connection
16:44 Exploring ADHD Presentations in Women
19:30 The Impact of Chronic Illness on ADHD
22:04 Finding Solutions Beyond ADHD
24:57 The Importance of Professional Evaluation

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We would also love to know what is on your mind. If you were to join us, what would we be talking about? Email us at messymidlifepodcast@gmail.com or message us on Instagram or TikTok @messymidlifepodcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Real women.

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Real talk.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Real messy.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

This is Messy Midlife. Hi everybody and welcome back to Messy Midlife. Hi, ladies. Hello. So we ended our last conversation diving into something that we're going to talk about today because we realized it was going on a tangent and it was worthy of its own episode. And so we decided we were going to wrap and we're just going to have a conversation about the perimenopause or ADHD question that is on so many people's minds these days.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Well, so Jen, you texted us last night and you said, I feel like my life could be a whole TikTok video series called ADHD or menopause. I literally just made the following tasks for myself for tomorrow: wash towels, dry towels, fold towels, because laundry just doesn't cut it anymore. And my response was every day I ask myself if I have ADHD, and Karen says, I do the same thing. I mean, it really is like, I mean, I know I'm the one undiagnosed, you know, the person of the three of us, but I honestly, I think all the time, where did my brain go? Right. And I definitely was the person who always held it together, always multitasked, could pull things off at the last minute and do them really well. And like definitely have that part of me that procrastinates on things that are not going to be difficult. I just don't want to do them. And then I do them and I'm like, literally took five minutes and was so easy, right? And so I do. I wonder really quite often, is this something that I was just able to cover up so well, being so high functioning and intelligent? You know, in my younger days, was it just it was easy? I didn't think about it. And now in my late 40s, I'm like, where did my brain go? What happened to it? Can someone bring it back to me? You know, like, and so I do, I wonder like, is there, is there this component that was just never diagnosed? Is there this component that's always been there? But everything else, I I had all the tools and skills I needed to kind of cover it up and thrive with it. And I feel like this happens a lot at this age. Like, I hear this from friends, I hear this from patients. And so I do wonder, and I know we've talked about this before, you know, like a late diagnosis versus a later onset. I really do wonder what the truth is there. Not that it matters what words we say, but I mean, I have been actually thinking about I probably need to find a psychiatrist and have a conversation about this, you know? Like I just wrote on my to-do list before we jumped on the things I need to order in terms of supplements. I'm like, oh, I definitely need that focus supplement. Put that back on there. I don't know why I thought I could stop taking that, you know? So I'm curious with you two, because you know, you have had that diagnosis and are moving through all the hormone stuff as well, especially you, Jen, with having a hysterectomy and like, you know, you're you went from paramenopause to menopause like that. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

So yeah, that was another thing I realized like right after that text, because I actually had said, is it perim is it ADHD or perimenopause? You corrected it for me because I was like, I now I need to realize that I actually have to start saying menopause now, right? Like it's it and it's it's for everybody, it is a one-day shift, right? It is, you know, after you have a year without a period, you go from perimenopause to menopause, like menopause or post-menopause, actually, like it's that day. Menopause is the one day. So it's a one-day shift for all of us. But yes, mine was a all right, it's done. It is here we are, and there's no chance that I am going to get a surprise period in you know, a month. If I if I start bleeding, there's a bigger problem, right? So yeah, it's it's yeah, I mean, Karen, you and I both got a we were late diagnosis, and we were able to look back in our history, at least for me. I can't speak to how your assessment went, but we were able to look back in our in history and say, okay, yeah, this is not a new thing. This is not a perimenopause onset thing, this existed. But to your point, Aliza, there was so many ways that we coped through it and, you know, just adapted more ways to feel shame about ourselves that we were broken or something was wrong with us, that we couldn't do something. Because, much like in our last conversation, my child who does not have a diagnosis of ADHD, but if you look at her compared to other kids her age, she has a much harder time staying focused. And she is very restless and cannot stay still and interrupts her own thoughts just like I do. I mean, she is a little a mini me in so many ways. I love her so much.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

I'm just like, I am on the ride with her. Take me wherever you want to go. We are on this ride together. And it's so funny how that happens, right? When you have ADHD, you're just like, I'm with you. 100%. People will patients will say, I'm so sorry. My ADHD, I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, I am I am following everything, and it's so fun.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Anyway, that's why I don't understand how people have conversations that just stay in one direction. I I do not understand this. And anyway, I mean, we're doing it right now, right? I don't even remember what I was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

See, this is where I don't know. Is Elisa, I don't know. Look at her. She's just like, you're doing it again, and she's so calm and so like grounded, and here we are doing our thing all over the place.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah, but I'm definitely like the still waters run deep. Like my surface is very, and then inside I'm like, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Yeah. Maybe you just haven't embraced it enough yet. Karen and I are just like, yep, here it is.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

We're just I mean, I just I yeah, I I mean I feel all the things. I just don't know. Like maybe that's just what happens at this age.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

And I think that there's a degree that it is. And that's where I I mean, I I was back to the you know, the things that existed as childhood and the different ways that we just had created shame. And we had a lot more of an understanding when we were children, when we were little, that ADHD is basically boys. Boys get ADHD, girls get anxiety and depression because they have ADHD that nobody's gonna diagnose, but we're gonna call it something else, right? And so, how much of it is can you find or do you see that it has existed your whole life and that you've coped or shamed your way through? And that we just thought forever this is how everybody is, because nobody has seen this to be a problem for me. So everybody feels this way.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Or everybody has a hard time paying attention if they can't move, or everybody has a hard time starting something that they don't want to do that, but they know that needs to get done, prioritizing things or staying on topic in their brain. I mean, I apparently people don't always have a song in their head. Who knew? Like, I I'm like, I ask people what song is stuck in your head right now, like, what are you talking about? Yeah. No, there's always like I wake up and there is music in my head. You know, these things that I just I thought everybody had.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

I asked Mike, I asked Mike, what are you thinking about right now? And he'll say, Nothing. And he they mean it. What? No images, no songs, no to-dos, no, that was fun memories, nothing. Blank. And he's like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

So looking back in history is important and like being able to tease apart what was society and what was, you know, like our own stuff that was labeled incorrectly, or what our own shame, and what is actually just changes in cognitive function and hormones, because there are legitimately, I mean, I've got some of my patients who have been wondering, you know, if they have ADHD or if they if it's just perimenopause, and they've been tested and it's it's not. They've been like it's just perimenopause. So there are things that can look like ADHD in perimenopause that aren't ADHD. And you know, I see it with the the kids that I treat too, that there's it can be ADHD-like presentations that are actually inflammation. And it's a more about like an autoimmune attack on the brain. And it's not just about how the brain is wired, it's about what's happening internally that's changing the chemistry, changing the inflammatory state, changing the immune function, and that presents as ADHD because your non-divergent wiring is on fire versus this is just how you're wired and this is how you're gonna be. And so I do think, I mean, maybe that's one of the things that we need to envision for the world is the that everybody gets, you know, X, Y, and Z screenings that we've talked about in the past. I don't even remember all of them, but all the screenings that when you get to a certain age, you start looking for to see where you're at with perimenopause and things that get checked earlier and and all that for women, because you know, women being healthy is pretty important. Maybe we need to include an ADHD screen for yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

And I'm wondering as you're talking about the neuroinflammation, it's making me think about how some of these symptoms with menopause and perimenopause that overlap with ADHD, like brain fog, poor concentration, forgetfulness, fatigue, emotional dysregulation, etc., how our hormones pre-menopause are protective of neuroinflammation. And how during perimenopause and menopause, as these hormones begin decreasing in concentrations in our bodies, lead to, you know, they're like the gatekeeper, you know, that may have been preventing neuroinflammation. And now we've got the lack of hormones causing some of these symptoms, and then potentially also neuroinflammation. I hadn't really thought about that until you were just describing the population that you work with. A big, a big tell for me was the time blindness. So that is an ADHD only, supposedly as we understand it today, uh, not menopause, not neuroinflammation, and something that was always present for me. You're laughing.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Yeah, I like I now have a label for a thing that's always been an issue for me where the time blindness and the time optimism, optimism, you know, like I think something like or just like the just the inability to understand time in general. Like I think this thing is gonna take forever, so I don't do it. And it turns out, like you said, Elisa, it takes I I delay it for five months, and then I'm like, I finally do it. I was like, oh, that was five minutes. What was that all about? And then I have a list that's 25 things long, and I've got a whole bunch of appointments. I'm talking about my day today. I think I can get all these things done. And I what? No, that is not realistic. Or the trends that feels so realistic and it feels so good to think I can absolutely do all these things.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

So do you guys not like time things like I think me if you guys not time things out, which apparently you don't. So like I know if I need to, if I need to leave my house, if I need to be somewhere at 11 o'clock, okay, well, that means I need to leave my house at 10 45, which then okay, let's say 10 35. And then that means that I need to be ready to go, like dress, teeth brush, whatever. So I'm gonna give myself 30 minutes to, and I like I do a backwards timeline.

unknown 11:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

So I know when I need to leave.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

But I don't know, I don't know how long anything is gonna actually take to do. I think I can shower and be done in the shower in 10 minutes. No, I can't. Like, I actually can't, but I I think that I can, even though I have a, I'm saying it right now. I will still not remember that I can't do that tomorrow. Okay. I will, and and and the other thing is that like, so even if I do that and somehow I manage to not get distracted by something, or I've given myself the buffer. Like, I'm the friend that people used to tell me and I needed to be there an hour earlier than I actually needed to be there. And so I if I give my, if I somehow manage to give myself enough buffer or somebody has given me enough buffer, and then I've got like a little bit of time before I actually need to leave, I'm gonna think that I can do way more than I can do. And I'm not gonna be able to sit still in that time and like just wait or just leave early. I'm gonna be like, oh, but now I can do this, and then oh crap, now I'm late because I did this other thing. You're laughing.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

So you don't do this. So you don't have time blindness or time optimism, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Do you ever do you ever get lost in something? So, like for me, my time blindness pri right now mostly shows up with some sort of craft project, right? So it's paint by number or a knitting project or a crochet project or something like that. That I will sit down and I'll be like, all right, I'm gonna spend a little bit of time. I'm gonna make sure I get to bed on time tonight. And then it's 2 a.m. 20 minutes later, even though I started at 8 p.m. And I don't have any idea where six hours went. And you probably never, if you go on TikTok or Instagram, you probably never start flipping through reels that you don't care about at all, but you can't stop doing it. And suddenly four hours later, you're not sure why you're still awake.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

No, I mean, I usually catch myself with that and I'm like, wait, what am I looking at? This is so boring. I like all because sometimes I'll open up Instagram to like look at one of our messages, or you know, I love looking at all the rescue dogs, and um, but then I'll look at it and I'll like if I if I feel myself like getting sucked in where it's being mindless, I'm like, what am I doing? This is so stupid. I don't even like and I notice this as I'm doing this. I'm like, none of this is interesting to me at all. Like I actually doesn't matter if it's interesting or not, if it's so boring.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

If it has, if it has any sort of dopamine hit, what's the next thing? What's the next thing? What's the next thing?

SPEAKER_00 14:23

I mean, I think that was my shopping addiction for a lot of years, was the dopamine hit. I mean, you've seen my closet, Jen. Like, I mean, clothes, shoes, handbags, wallets, like you name it, like thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. I mean, at this point, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know? Like, oh, I'm about to have surgery. I should definitely buy those Manolo Blonde heels. Definitely. They're gonna be the most uncomfortable things that I'm never gonna want to wear. I should definitely buy those the week before I have surgery.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

But here's the thing you probably remember all of the things that you have. So I couldn't come into your closet and I couldn't just go shopping and you wouldn't know that you that anything was missing. You could go shopping in my closet and I would never know.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

It's weird. I think there are like, I think what we're gonna figure out, and maybe people are figuring this out. I'm just this isn't my area of expertise medically, is that there are a lot of different levels and presentations of it. Because there are certainly components of it that I do feel, and then there are components that I'm like, no, I don't do that. So I think what I think that we might see that there's just different different character traits or ways that things present, but it's still under the same umbrella.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

And there can be so many other things as well. I I agree with you. Yes, I think there's everything is a continuum. Every kind of diagnosis can fall in the continuum. And, you know, there's also trauma and there's also, you know, physiological tendencies genetically towards different things that are not ADHD, as well as stomach inflammation and pain that makes it hard to stay focused.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Yeah. You know, there's yeah, there's a lot of things. My guess, just knowing you and just with some of the stuff that we're going through, my guess is that you probably have some ADHD-like presentations sometimes, but you don't have ADHD. Yeah. That said, um, there is some really strong connections with like disordered eating and ADHD, especially binge eating disorder and ADHD. And there's just a lot of things that we missed in women, that turns out if we just understood it. And there's there's a recent, as you were saying, like there's more, we'll probably learn that there's more different more presentations. You know, there's more pure ADD without the hyperactivity. Then there's apparently a new subtype that has recently been identified. Did you guys see any of these news articles or anything about it? That is a more, they're saying quote unquote more severe form that has more emotional dysregulation associated with it.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

I have like the 80nd like or ADSD.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Like, I just want to sleep. I just want to like, I have no hyperactivity. I don't want to do, I just want to sleep. That's the only activity I want. There's definitely no like hyperactivity part of it.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

I'm curious, Elisa, about this for you because my hyperactivity and what I see mostly in women is a cognitive hyperactivity. Mine was never physical. My I could have sat and colored or, you know, done a certain activity for uh hours, but my mind was very, very active. And I used anxiety as a way to dispense the, you know, yeah to help me focus. Did you ever experience that?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

I mean, I've certainly had periods where my mind just never stopped. I feel like, and maybe it's just, you know, chronic illness and you know, the fatigue that comes with that, but I feel like that's actually been so much better for me. Even things like like in medical school. And granted, like I was, there's obviously like the really strong connection with, you know, ADHD and gluten when you have a sensitivity or an allergy to it. And I remember in medical school, it was like, if my house was not clean and everything perfectly put away in its place, like I could not study. And so I would be like racing around doing all the house stuff so I could like sit down and study. And I just my mind would not let me. And then there were certainly those times of like just the ruminating thoughts over and over where I couldn't sleep or it would, you know. But like, I mean, I'm kind of shocked in a way that I don't have more of that now. Like my mind actually feels pretty calm for the most part, which is like, I don't know. May again, maybe I just wore myself out all the years that it wasn't. There's nothing left in there. I don't know. You know, like so many years of like, you know, the worry and the obsession, right? Like, maybe that's just there's nothing left. Like I used up my allotted amount or my quota. Yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

I would love to think that that's possible. I, given my endless stream of rumination, and I mean, I have so, so many things to draw from constantly that I would love to think that maybe we can just wear it out, but I have very little hope that that will be the case for me. So Karen, I wonder how calm your mind can be today.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

I wonder. I wonder how calm your mind can be today.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

And it definitely comes in waves though, because the gluten exposure definitely makes it flare. So that's a really good, I think that's worth highlighting actually. Yeah. Because there are times when I can be at ease. And then there it is again. But it's interesting. Go ahead. No. Just wondering if maybe you are not actually ADHD. What were you gonna say?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Oh, I just remember the first time I ever did um, you know, testing like that, you know, that looked at all of the different components of, you know, wheat, gluten, and non-gluten, gland, all those things, and looking at the kind of neurological associations with ADHD, with OCD, and like all, I mean, there's you know, hundreds of different components of that. It's not just gluten or not, and looking at those connections and thinking, like, this actually makes sense, right? I'm Jewish and Italian, and I, you know, grew up eating that. It was just part of our everyday. And I did honestly through medical school. And I just wonder if that's also a part of like really like having that 100% out of my diet for years, it has actually helped that brain calm down. I mean, I used to wake up in the middle of the night and be like, oh my God, did I put the order in for that MRI for that patient? You know, did I sign that chart? Did I do that dictation? You know, wake me up in the middle of the night. And now, like, oh yeah, okay, I should do that tomorrow. No, is it possible to like go to the complete opposite?

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Well, I mean, what you're describing is is like an inflammatory response, which isn't a wiring, right? And that's one of the things that we have we're differentiating between is where are people having a difficult time with how they engage with the world and their ability to focus and pay attention and select and what they're doing and prioritize and all of that when they're dealing with inflammation versus when this is just how somebody is wired and no matter how wiring no matter how well they're doing. And I think that that's one of the places that it can get a little bit dicey, right? Is is where people are are at with the easy button, you know, like ADHD is the easy button. Right now, and it's trending. And, you know, especially for women our age, because legitimately there are some of us that this has been a thing all along, and we just were not appropriately diagnosed, and like our lives probably would have been substantially different if we had been appropriately diagnosed. And for what it's worth, because there's so many things, and you know, I go into that doctor brain place sometimes where I gaslight myself and I wonder, I'm like, am I just part of this? Am I just like that basic bitch that like I'm just gonna like pumpkin spice lattes in the fall and I'm gonna have ADHD of perimenopause? Like, and so it's a little bit validating to go through some of these things today and be like, okay, no, that's legitimate. Yes, that's there. And and, you know, my my therapist and my psychiatrist or my you know, prescribing um provider are are both like, okay, this is exactly what this is why the therapies that should have been working for you weren't working, because it wasn't anxiety, it was ADHD untreated. And my the my prescriber was just like, you have had the textbook perfect response to Adderall. And that that, you know, this is this is what we want to see exactly with people that it calms you down versus ramps you up and that it stabilizes your your mood and it helps you so that you can get the things done and and have ability to prioritize too.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

I was thinking about that actually with you, Jen. It's like how when you started the medication, it was like it slowed you down. It made it helped your mind just and like make the like things were able to be more methodical and planned. You know, I was I think about that a lot with you.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

Like when like what you're saying earlier, Karen, you'll say, What is on your mind? Nothing. I had that happen for the first time in my entire life after I started Adderall. And I remember saying to my husband, Oh my God, I am not thinking about anything right now. And he's like, Yeah, that's normal. And I was like, What? This has never in my life happened. Yeah. And I don't know what to do about this. Like, it's it's both nice and disconcerting at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

And I definitely I've definitely had that happen for the first time in my life. And I had I have the added piece of being highly sensitive and very empathic. And so that's that piece I'm still working on. And I wonder, Elisa, where that might fall into your Venn diagram potentially. But the feeling, you know, picking up on just environmental cues and other people's processing of energy and and emotions and whatnot, um, always, there's always a little blip in my radar around that. Even my animals, honestly. So it can be really exhausting in that way. But I have, for the first time in my life, had moments of I'm just here, existing, which is mind-blowing. I'm curious, Elisa, about you know, from our conversation, I think it's a great idea for you to have an actual psychiatrist, not just your friends. What's that like having a doctor that's not? I mean, we are pretty great at caring. So I guess it's not the worst. I think that's a good idea. And I now I'm really curious about the role because of chronic illness of neuroinflammation and the intersection with that of perimenopause.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Yeah. It kind of makes a lot of sense. Well, again, one of the things like I think about, you know, is okay, so in ADHD, when we talk about brain chemistry, right? A lot of times we find that one of our neurotransmitters, like phenethyamine, is low, right? Well, how do we help build that naturally? We use DL-phenylalanine because it converts right to it. But DL phenol alanine is also a huge component in pain perception. Right. So it's like the thing that you take to help focus is also something that helps with pain.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

I don't it just, you know, and how it can become depleted and cause difficulty focusing and brain fog.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Yes. So like that's the well, that's what I put on my list. You know, if I might need to like do my order, is is that so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

I think it's just an important thing that we you know end on. Um, unless you guys have any other examples you want to give of when you say, is this ADHD or perimenopause in your life? Uh, because I definitely have lots of times I'm just like, huh, is this is this an ADHD thing or a perimenopause thing? And I just I I'm gonna lean on probably mostly ADHD stuff for me at this point. Um, because I feel like I haven't had most of the perimenopause stuff, or mine's been mild compared to the what some people will share. So I but I think it's just important that we we end on a reminder that there are a lot of things that can impact your mood, your focus, your memory, your pain energy, like your your willingness to do things, like your attention, all of those things can be affected by lots of things by depression. That's actually depression, not depression because you're sad because your ADHD is not being treated appropriately and you're beating yourself up about all the things that your brain just can't do. So depression, anxiety, pain, hormone changes. We also need to give a maybe a little bit of hope that like hormone shifts, they we our body eventually adapts to them. So sometimes it's just like the crazy hormone shift that when things are chaos and then it settles back down, that you know, there's people who were fine before they got their periods uh or went through puberty, male, males too, you know, like go through puberty and then you and then puberty creates chaos and then you settle down and you have some consistency and regularity. And then you go through cougar puberty and things go crazy again, and then they settle down again. And it's just in the transition places that are really, really rough. And like we get settled into our new normal and our new chemical normal and hormone normal, and and things also adjust. So for anybody who is feeling frustrated, because maybe you have been part of the trend and wondered if you had ADHD, and like Elisa, wonder if is this ADHD? Maybe it's not really. And I honestly, I knowing you even before this, I would be surprised if you got diagnosed with ADHD, honestly. But I could be completely wrong. But if anybody else is like, but there's gotta be, why isn't this? This just needs to be the answer. This was so helpful for my friend, or it was so helpful for this person, or all these other people are getting this help. I want this too. If that ends up not being the solution for you, one, know that if it's not the right thing for you, it's not gonna feel good. You know, the people who don't have ADHD, you get ADHD meds, it doesn't feel that good, you know? And that there is some other answer. It's just keep looking because there's there's a reason that your brain is changing. And go back and listen to our episodes on hormone replacement and testing and things like that, and other options if hormone replacement isn't really an option for you, because there are things that can help that your brain might not be working appropriately or working the way that it used to, and it doesn't necessarily mean that it's ADHD, and it doesn't mean that you're just stuck that way forever either.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

There are definitely things you can do.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Yeah. Yes.

unknown 29:24

All right.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Well, Elisa, we're gonna have to get updates from you if you actually go and get evaluated.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

And I kind of want to just to see.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

It could be like the on my on my list of all the things I have to do right now medically. It's maybe in the middle. So it might be a little while before we have an update.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Oh, it's in the middle. I would I would think that it would be even lower than that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

It's lower than my, it's above my hearing test. Above the hearing test. Oh my god, all the things, all the things that we have to do. I told you guys I went into the ENT and I was like, I think I just maybe I just have all this impacted earwax because I'm just like not hearing as well, and it's been like getting progressively worse. And I just, you might have to like just do that. And he was like, Your ears are perfectly clean, they look beautiful. There's not a smidgen of earwax in there. And I was like, okay, so I just can't hear and can't see now. You're just in midlife. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

I had a friend say to me just last night about are we on the other side of the hill now? And I was like, I hate to tell you. We've been on statistically speaking, we've been on the other side of the hill for a couple of years now, at least. So yes, we are on the other side of the hill. It's just happening now. What is it? We're the I think Cindy might have said this that we're the young old people. Like we're not there yet, but we're getting close to be the young old people. So we're not crossed over into 50. I feel like once you get into 50, yeah, that was my saying.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

He's now the youngest of the olds, and he was not okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

All right. Well, Elisa, yeah, let's let us know if you actually get through all the things and make it down to that place. You know what's gonna happen? You're gonna get down to that place and it's gonna finally be like at the top of your priority, and you're like, but I'm fine now. I'm good because all this other stuff has been taken care of, and I realize it's a good one. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. Let us know. I will. Take care. Love you, guys. If our messy is your kind of messy, we'd love for you to rate, review, and follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

We'd also love to know what's on your mind. If you were to join us, what would we be talking about? Email us at messy midlifepodcast at gmail.com or message us on Instagram or TikTok.