AuDHD Sparks:
the podcast

We found out we’re AuDHD. Finally, decades of our lives make sense.

But we’re still burning out on repeat. Still masking without meaning to. Still watching "simple" tasks defeat us while everyone else seems fine.

The key we found? It didn't unlock a fix.

It unlocked a remembering.

We carry an ancient brain…

…the kind that belonged to the herbalists at the village edge, the pattern-seers, the ones who never quite fit the mold but held medicine the community needed.

This brain doesn't need fixing. It needs a different world to live in.

Welcome to raw wisdom for path-finding our way there.

I'm Adria—AuDHD coach, podcaster, great-granddaughter of women who walked this edge before me. I've spent over a decade guiding hundreds who don't fit the mold to find their own ways forward.

This podcast weaves together lived experience, coaching insights, and ancestral knowing to help you navigate what no one taught us: how to actually build a life that works for this brain.

Not theory. Not shoulds. Just honest talk about what it looks like to unmask, to rest, to honor both sides of this paradox we hold.

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latest episodes

Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

17. Designing Life Outside the Lines

What does it look like to stop fighting your AuDHD brain and redesign your whole life? Concrete examples of ecosystem design when no model exists.

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Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

16. Rest Looks Lazy (It’s Not)

Real AuDHD burnout recovery looks lazy to others. Video games, binge-watching, doing "nothing"—that's not laziness. That's your nervous system healing.

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Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

14. The Burnout Tipping Point

Learn to recognize when you’ve reached a AuDHD burnout tipping point so you can course correct before it's too late.

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Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

9. When Your Pain Has No Name

Profound AuDHD experiences don’t always translate into language others understand, and we aren’t always good at looking like we’re in pain. Redefining support.

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Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

8. Processing... Please Wait

Stuck when people want immediate responses? Your AuDHD brain needs processing time - here's how to honor that without shame or apology.

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Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

7. Simple Isn't Simple

Stuck on "simple" tasks? Instead of trying harder, make it easier. Systems that honor both our Autistic & our ADHD sides.

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Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

5. Shy Was Code All Along

What if you weren't actually "shy” but an AuDHD kid who desperately wanted friends but found social situations draining? Reframing with compassion.

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Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

4. The Unmasking Menu

What does unmasking actually look like? Seven practical ways to stop exhausting yourself pretending you don't have AuDHD needs.

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Adria Melichar Adria Melichar

1. AuDHD: When Neither Box Fits

Done with advice that makes you mask better instead of live better? Honest talk about redesigning life for your AuDHD brain, not against it.

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We're building lives we can't yet imagine. Designing ecosystems no one modeled for us. Creating permission for what we actually need, not what we've been told we should need.

Sparks are how we navigate.

Those little moments of resonance—of "yes, that"—that show us where to go next. Those moments when something clicks in your body, not just your head. 

The setup that finally doesn't drain you. The boundary that feels like coming home. The choice that seems "wrong" to everyone else but lights you up inside.

These aren't random. They're your nervous system showing you the way forward.

The sparks show you the next right step. Then the next. Then the next.

This is how we find our way when there's no map.

Because when you follow what resonates instead of what's "supposed to" work, your life starts fitting you instead of fighting you.


We're pioneers in the Wild West of neurodivergence, navigating the complicated riddle—too Autistic for ADHD advice, too ADHD for Autism advice.

I’m Adria Sophia

(she/her), quiet TEDx speaker, neurodivergent podcaster, great-granddaughter of Sophie & Antonia and guide for Autistic AuDHDers.


For over twelve years, I've mentored sensitive, introverted and neurodivergent women building businesses and lives outside the mold. Turns out, I was unconsciously serving the AuDHD community all along—I just didn't have language for it yet.

After my own identification just shy of 40, everything shifted. Not because I suddenly had answers, but because I finally understood the question: What if we stopped contorting ourselves to fit the world and started reshaping our world to fit us?


This podcast is where I share what I'm learning—from my own messy path, from guiding others through theirs, from the ancestral wisdom that whispers through when we finally slow down enough to listen.

Village wise woman energy meets practical ecosystem design. The hearth and the blueprint. Magic and data.

Learn about my approach
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Looking for the
Quiet Messenger Podcast?


Two hundred+ episodes for sensitive, introverted or neurodivergent leaders. Soulful guidance for using your voice to change the world without changing who you are.

That show became a quiet gathering place for AuDHDers before I even knew that's what we were. If you're navigating leadership, message clarity or speaking up in ways that honor your true nature, there's a decade of embodied wisdom waiting there.

Explore Quiet Messenger →

Follow the
AuDHD Sparks Podcast


Raw wisdom for getting out of burnout, living unmasked and making life work FOR your brain instead of against it.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
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Ready to rebuild your world?
1-1 Coaching


If you're feeling that zing of resonance listening to the podcast and ready for support rebuilding your actual life—your home, your rhythms, your work, your relationships—to fit this AuDHD brain, I offer 1-1 coaching

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