ADHD Experts Podcast 597- Medical Gaslighting: When Willful Ignorance Causes Doctors to Dismiss Your ADHD Concerns
Mar 10, 2026
Jennifer Fraser, Ph.D., psychologist and author who studies the neuroscience of gaslighting. She explains medical gaslighting, why ADHD brains are vulnerable, and how to tell gaslighting from honest error. Short, practical strategies for protecting your perception, documenting symptoms, and finding clinicians who will listen.
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Fraser's Personal Drive Comes From Her Son's Care
- Personal experience with a chronically ill son motivated Fraser's focus on medical gaslighting.
- She describes years of navigating many specialists and witnessing dismissal that felt like moral blame toward patients.
Tune Your Threat Radar And Co-Regulate
- Tune your threat detector and pay attention if you feel unsafe with a clinician.
- Use co-regulation: bring a supportive person to calm you and help evaluate whether dismissal is bias or a simple knowledge gap.
See Doctors Through Progressive Lenses
- See encounters through progressive lenses: acknowledge provider authority but also consider bias or dark-triad behavior.
- Fraser urges documenting symptoms, bringing research, and having a mentor/support at appointments.
