10 ADHD and Sex: How a Life-Changing Diagnosis Launched Her Viral TikTok Career | Catie Osborn

INFLUENCE

When Catie Osborn ( @Catieosaurus ) had a medical emergency, she thought she was losing her mind — perhaps experiencing early onset dementia. But after further evaluation, she got a much different diagnosis: ADHD.

Suddenly, her entire life snapped into focus: Intense fixation and extreme boredom, difficulty maintaining friendships, the crushing burden of everyday tasks, and in her own words: "I didn't know how to People."

She deeply educated herself about the spectrums of ADHD, autism, and their corollaries like anxiety and depression. Then, when she lost her job as a Renaissance fair director during COVID, she began educating the Internet about the struggles and triumphs of the neurodivergent. Her deeply personal videos on TikTok and Instagram caught fire. 3 million followers later, she now works full time as a speaker, author, podcaster, and social media advocate for neurodivergence and mental health.

Specifically, she observed a unique connection between ADHD and intimacy. And when no one was talking about neurodivergent sex online, she became a unique advocate for that as well.

This week, Catie and Matt talk about the rapid rise in ADHD awareness, its ongoing stigma and misrepresentation, the empowering (and sometimes life-saving) impact her content has on her audience, how to make a living as a science communicator, her unique brand of adult "spicy" content, table-top RPGs, answers to your questions and voicemails, and why getting doxed by online trolls brought her closer with her mom.

Follow Catie and learn more about her work:

https://catieosaurus.com/

https://www.tiktok.com/@catieosaurus

https://www.instagram.com/catieosaurus

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