Beyond Brain Fog: The Hidden Signs of Insulin Resistance in Neurodivergent Women
Dear reader,
I’m sitting at my kitchen table writing. It’s only 6.30 am, and I’ve already got the fan blowing full over my whole body as March signals the beginning of ‘hot season’ here in Cambodia. Will I survive the heat, the humidity, and then afterwards, will I survive the rains? I dunno. Probably. Maybe?
Will I ever stop going on about metabolic health and tell you more about the peaceful life I’ve curated here? I dunno. Probably. Maybe? Sometimes?
But not right now.
I'd like to share a powerful flashback from a few years ago that highlights how outdated the British medical system is and why this is a huge problem for all of us.
I need to share what happened (or didn’t happen) on my mammoth healing journey for those of you who may be going to the doctors, trying to get support or answers for a myriad of health challenges, only to be told: The result of your test is satisfactory.
(If this sounds painfully familiar, you might want to start by asking yourself: Is Your Mental Health Struggle Actually a Metabolic Crisis?
The Day My Body’s Power Plug Was Pulled
Spring 2021. One of those achingly beautiful crisp yet sunny mornings which Yorkshire does so well. The kind of morning that makes you forget about the relentless grey and consider that living there might actually be okay after all…
I was heading to the doctor’s surgery on Valley Road, a familiar five-minute walk I’d done countless times. Another round of blood tests, another attempt to understand why my body and mind were failing. Fatigue so heavy it felt like there was concrete in my veins. Foggy cognition that made my brow furrow and obsess over my family history of dementia. Smoky vision that blurred at the edges. Joints and limbs that ached and groaned.
The lovely nurse had just finished her usual gentle battle trying to find a vein with my almost-uninjectable right arm, and I was walking home, feeling surprisingly good. The sun was warm on my face, the spring air crisp in my lungs. Everything felt... normal. It was a good day.
Then it happened.
Without any warning, it felt like someone had pulled my body’s power plug. The energy didn’t just fade—it vanished. One moment, I was walking, the next, my legs refused to carry me another step. There was no negotiating, no pushing through. My body had thrown down its final: NO.
I did the only thing I could: I sat down on the concrete pavement, my dignity dropping alongside me, and phoned my mum. She wasn’t nearby. Couldn’t come for a while. So there I sat, on the cold, stone pavement, watching people’s feet walk past, feeling simultaneously invisible and mortifyingly conspicuous. A man I vaguely knew—walking his border collie—stopped, concern creasing his face. I’m fine, I lied brightly, Mum’s on her way, I said with a masked smile.
This became my new normal. One minute fine, the next, stranded. My body’s battery would drain without warning, leaving me marooned in my own neighbourhood. Eventually, even with a walking stick, the fear of not knowing if I could make it home became too much. I stopped going out without a chaperone. The outside world shrank to a memory.
The Hidden Truth in My NHS Blood Work
The cruel irony is that those blood tests I was getting that morning—the ones the doctors said showed ‘nothing concerning’—**I now know told a clear story of insulin resistance** (because I’ve looked back at my NHS health records). The answers were there all along, hidden in plain sight, in numbers nobody thought to interpret properly. My body was screaming for help in a language the system wasn’t trained to understand.
Most of us have no idea whether we are metabolically healthy.
Why? Because the standard medical system rarely checks our foundational cell functions even when we’re in crisis mode.
Over the years, my blood work from doctors in West Yorkshire told a quiet, insidious truth: insulin resistance was shaping my health at the intersection of perimenopause and neurodivergence. (I sometimes refer to this chaotic biological collision as The "Second Puberty".) Yet those same doctors never named it or explained what the numbers meant—because they weren’t even looking for it.
I was in the clinic again and again, blood tests after blood tests, data staring us in the face, and still, insulin resistance never entered the conversation. Not once.
All those sad and lonely years spent so desperately trying to heal, not knowing how, not knowing what was wrong, when all along, the information was right there, in the blood work. What a waste of my life, what a tragedy, what an injustice.
Why Standard Medicine Fails Neurodivergent Women
And the thing is, I know that if I presented at that same doctors today, nothing would be different. I have friends with similar health challenges getting the same response: The result of your test is satisfactory.
This isn’t me standing on a soapbox to point fingers at my local doctor’s surgery. Hand on heart, they are good. The practice is well-resourced, and over the years, I have been deeply grateful to be met by compassionate doctors. They have patched me up with kindness more times than I can count.
But here is the quiet, slightly uncomfortable realisation we all have to face: they are trapped. Like almost every clinic holding the fort across the UK (and frankly, the whole of the western world), they are exhausted players in an achingly outdated game. The model they are forced to work within simply doesn’t hold the space, the nuance, or the capacity to actually heal you.
It’s like wandering into your local corner newsagents, leaning past the rows of penny sweets, and earnestly asking to test drive a car. It’s not that they are maliciously withholding the keys from you; they just do not—at this moment in time—stock what you actually need on their shelves, and therefore, simply cannot offer it to you.
Taking Back Our Power: Educating Ourselves on Metabolic Health
So, what are we supposed to do when the system falls short? The only way to bridge this gap is to educate ourselves about what is actually happening inside our own bodies. The science and research are already out there; we just have to be willing to take back our power.
I took matters into my own hands—learning how to listen to my body’s signals, read my own blood work, and now retraining in metabolic health. And it worked. I reversed the downward spiral, my biomarkers shifted back into healthy ranges, (I am no longer insulin resistant 🥳), and I finally got my energy and mental clarity back.
This isn’t just a personal victory. It’s a stark reminder that the British medical landscape is painfully slow to catch up, remaining far behind modern science when it comes to understanding true metabolic health.
But even if a doctor did flag that our metabolic health was slipping, most of us wouldn’t grasp the implications anyway. There is a huge lack of public knowledge about what the latest science is currently showing us, which is exactly why we have to educate ourselves. We are quite literally talking about our brain’s ability to function and our long-term independence.
Left unresolved, poor metabolic health leaves our internal battery completely broken. It takes the already heavy weight of ADHD or autistic burnout and magnifies it to unbearable levels, all while quietly laying the groundwork for chronic, disabling conditions.
The empowering part is that once we understand what is actually happening inside our bodies with insulin, we can use precise tools to completely turn it around.
A Snapshot of Neurodivergent Insulin Resistance
Guess what? You don’t actually need bloodwork to know if you’re insulin resistant.
Insulin resistance, especially when it overlaps with perimenopause, shows up in clear, everyday signals. Understanding them is how you start taking back control. It looks like this:
The Brain Symptoms:
The 3 PM Wall: Suddenly losing the ability to speak, process information, or function.
Sensory Overload on Steroids: A raw nervous system where lights, sounds, and standard environments trigger crushing overwhelm.
The 3 AM Panic: Waking up with your heart racing and mind spiralling (this is often a blood sugar crash).
Loss of Executive Function: Everything feels like dragging yourself through wet concrete. (Before you blame yourself for this one, please read: Stop Shaming Your Executive Function: Why You Need a "Body Double"
The Physical Symptoms:
The Unbudging Belly: A waistline over 34 inches or more (for women).
Skin Tags: Little fleshy growths on your neck, armpits, or eyes—a massive, ignored red flag for insulin resistance.
Severe Fatigue: The deep exhaustion that sleep won’t fix.
Cravings: Needing sugar and processed carbs just to get enough dopamine to survive the day.
So, What Actually is Insulin Resistance?
Imagine your body is powered by millions of tiny engines—your mitochondria. To make energy, these engines need fuel. Insulin is the key that unlocks the door to let the fuel (sugar from your food) into the engine.
When you have insulin resistance, the locks on those doors are jammed shut.
Your body keeps making more and more keys, trying to unlock the doors, but it doesn’t work. Because the fuel can’t getinsidethe engine, it stays locked outside in your bloodstream. This roaming sugar causes chaos—creating the 34-inch+ waistline, the skin tags, and the inflammation. Meanwhile, your engines are starving.
Your battery isn’t just flat; it’s leaking toxic oil. It is completely broken and cannot hold a charge.
Beyond Medical Gaslighting: The Cell Danger Response
When you take these symptoms to a traditional UK doctor, assuming they don’t dismiss them outright, you’re usually handed a convenient excuse. You’re told it’s ‘just your neurodivergence,’ ‘just perimenopause,’ or simply ‘just getting older’. None of this is true.
At most, they may offer you an antidepressant, which almost certainly won’t address the root cause or actually help you heal. Forward thinking doctors might suggest strength training, HIIT, and a specific restrictive diet.
The reality is that as neurodivergent women, our bodies exist in a modern world that rarely feels safe to our nervous system. Because of this chronic underlying stress, many of us are already stuck in what is known as a Cell Danger Response. (This is a massive piece of the puzzle, and exactly Why Neurodivergent Burnout is a Metabolic Issue.
Biologically, our bodies think we are constantly being chased by a bear. So, when we try to fix our burnout by forcing restrictive diets or punishing workouts, we don’t heal—we just exacerbate the threat and add fuel to the fire. Your mitochondria—the battery packs of your cells—simply will not produce energy if they do not feel safe.
Safety has to come first. Always.
I know this from first-hand experience. By gently regulating my nervous system and fixing my metabolic health, I healed. This is an undeniable fact, and I have a new life and the blood biomarkers to prove it.
You can take back control of your body. Your life is not over. You can thrive again.
But we have to do it our way. No force. No shame. No taking away comfort foods while in active burnout. We start small, we honour sensory needs, and we calm the nervous system first.
Are You Wondering if You Are Insulin Resistant?
There’s no shame; up to 93% of us actually are. I’ve created a 47-point checklist for neurodivergent women to use to assess symptoms. Click here to check your symptoms (no sign-up required).
With warmth, and faith in your recovery,
Hannah xoxo
If you’re ready to stop fighting the science and start healing your battery, please book via the link below.
(Also available async, please mention on the intake form if this is what you’d prefer).
START YOUR METABOLIC RESTORATION HERE
(Note: This assessment is entirely neuro-affirming. It’s 30 minutes on Zoom with your camera optional, a mandatory 10-minute screen-free break, and 30 minutes of audio-only. No essays to write, no pressure. Just a safe space to figure out your next step.)
