Danielle RalstonFounder, How Capacity Works · Founder of ND Hive | Building the productivity hub where work actually gets done | Execution spaces, body doubling & community accountability

Self-Care Struggle: Why It's Hard to Prioritize Yourself

8 Aug 2025 · 1 min

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0:38

A woman with ADHD reflects on why she struggles to prioritize herself, tracing it to being the oldest sibling, societal expectations, and a pattern of helping others before her own needs. She describes feeling depleted, like trying to pour from an empty cup.

Chapters

It's really hard to show up for yourself, especially when— because, and I don't know if it's an ADHD woman thing specifically, or there's lots of other nuances that I think of, like maybe it's an oldest sibling thing, but I feel like I always want to help other people before I help myself. And that's maybe probably a procrastination thing too. But sometimes I get so wrapped up in, you know, I'll get everything done for everyone else. before what I need to do for myself. But, you know, how can you— how can you give yourself to other people when your cup's not full?