Left Unattended is for compassionate care leaders who hold everyone else together and have nowhere to set their own weight down.
I'm Ron Sosa. I spent twenty years in veterinary medicine, from the front desk to operations across three hospitals. Now I coach leaders, many of them neurodivergent, through the part of the job nobody sees: the internal load. That means masking, the inner critic that grades everything you do, and the overfunctioning that gets praised until it costs you.
My guests are neurodivergent leaders who are ADHD, autism, dyslexia, bipolar, and more. They talk plainly about what it took to lead in systems that were never built for their minds. Between those conversations I share my own stories and answer listener questions from the mailbag. You don't need a diagnosis to belong here. If you've been carrying it alone, this is your show.
Your capacity is information. Nothing is wrong with you. You were left unattended, and I saved you a seat.
Send a question for the mailbag: syn-apt.me/mailbag
Join me live at the free monthly webinar: syn-apt.me/webinar
S1 - E23 - PRESSURE WAS FUEL UNTIL IT WASN'T w/ Kelly Cooper, DVM
In this episode of Left Unattended, Ron talks with Dr. Kelly Cooper, a veterinarian and consultant, about receiving an ADHD diagnosis at 55 and why she called it a “liberation day.” Kelly shares how the diagnosis helped her understand chronic self-criticism, anxiety, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, and the perfectionism she realized was protecting her from rejection. They explore pressure-driven productivity, procrastination that was reinforced by academic success, and how time, energy, and resource management becomes harder with age and changing capacity. Kelly describes how perimenopause intensified ADHD-related challenges, what prompted her to seek help, and how coaching, mindfulness, and tools like externalizing the inner critic support regulation and follow-through. She also discusses vulnerability in leadership, content creation fears, and her work through Reality Vet Coaching, including launching a women’s group coaching program.
22 Sept 2026
S1 - E22 - THE COST OF HIGH-FUNCTIONING WITHOUT FUNCTION with Dr.Norrine Russell
Overachieving in School, Underachieving in Life: Raising Neurodivergent Kids Toward Independence
On Left Unattended, host Ron Sosa speaks with Dr. Norrine Russell—founder of Russell Coaching for Students, and author of ‘Asking the Right Questions about ADHD’—about what happens when bright, capable neurodivergent students are so supported that they perform well but don’t build independence. They discuss how parents and schools often overtake kids’ executive functioning through constant oversight and accommodations, how fear and risk-avoidance can grow internally, and how to distinguish “laziness” from age-appropriate timing or true executive-function challenges based on outcomes and consequences. Russell links “failure to launch” to broader cultural and economic realities and to over-scaffolding that reduces problem-solving and self-esteem, and she emphasizes balancing high expectations with the right support at home, school, and work while teaching explicit life and workplace skills without promoting unhealthy masking.
8 Sept 2026
S1 - E21 - AFTER PSYCHOSIS: REBUILDING IDENTITY, WORK, AND WORTH with Kristin Lake
Many people carry invisible load at work: masking, shame, fear of being misunderstood, pressure to prove competence, and the exhaustion of trying to seem acceptable. Kristin’s story asks what becomes possible when we stop defining people only by their hardest chapters and start asking where their brain, skill, and lived experience still belong.
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