80. How ADHD Can Impact Your Body Image with Dani Bryant
Release Date: 11/04/2025
100. Why Weight Loss Won't Solve All Your Problems
The Body Grievers® Club
Welcome to the 100th episode of the Body Image with Bri podcast! In this special episode, Bri talks about why weight loss can’t solve all of your problems. She shares how a sad moment the day before her birthday revealed the magical thinking she still falls into, and how it connects to the belief that a smaller body would fix everything. Bri gets into body image whack-a-mole, why what she wanted was never really thinness but privilege, the three things that improved her health without weight loss, and where to start when you don’t know how to grieve. Timestamps: 0:30 Sitting in the suck...
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99. Size Inclusive Fashion with Kate Zigrang of Viva Voce
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body GrieversⓇ Club, Bri interviews Kate Zigrang, founder of Viva Voce, a size-inclusive marketplace curating ethical, sustainable, quality brands to make inclusive shopping easier and more joyful. Kate and Bri discuss how anti-fat bias drives the fashion industry’s lack of extended sizing despite most U.S. women wearing above size 14/16 and the purchasing power of plus-size consumers, plus myths about cost, style, and demand. They explore problems like inconsistent sizing, limited in-store access, and the stress of trying clothes on, and how pop-ups create community...
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98. I Regret My Bariatric Surgery
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body GrieversⓇ Club, Bri shares why she regrets having bariatric surgery, reflecting on undergoing lap band surgery at 19 in 2010 after years of failed weight-loss attempts and undiagnosed Hashimoto’s, PCOS, and thyroid issues. She describes how the promised relief and confidence never arrived, how complications mimicked eating-disorder behaviors, and how shame and fear of regain intensified alongside body dysmorphia. Bri discusses how long-term outcomes and the later obsolescence of lap band surgery shape her skepticism about newer weight-loss “solutions,” and...
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97. Beyond the Food with Stephanie Dodier
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body GrieversⓇ Club, Bri talks with non-diet nutritionist and cognitive behavioral coach Stephanie Dodier about how many people move from rejecting diet culture into a new “health” identity that still moralizes food as healthy/unhealthy, keeping them stuck in food noise, shame, restriction, and weight cycling. Stephanie explains her “Beyond the Food” methodology, using coaching questions to unpack thoughts, beliefs, and identity, and emphasizes autonomy, self-trust, and “having your own back” through self-compassion and self-care. They discuss grief as a...
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96. Bri's 7 Steps to Move Through Body Grief
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body GrieversⓇ Club, Bri reframes body trust as secure attachment to the body and explains that body grief is unavoidable because bodies change, get sick, and experience discomfort and loss. She shares a seven-step, trauma-informed acronym—GRIEVER—as a tangible roadmap for shifting body image work from cognitive fixes to somatic practice, emphasizing that there’s no final “arrival,” only learning to tolerate and manage distress safely. Using the example of trying on clothes that don’t fit, she distinguishes physical discomfort from the emotional story,...
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95. You Can Do Everything Right and Still Get Breast Cancer with Jenna Werner
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body GrieversⓇ Club, Bri talks with registered dietician and private practice founder Jenna Werner about body grief, body image, and self-trust after Jenna’s recent breast cancer diagnosis. Jenna shares how a baseline mammogram required before a planned breast augmentation revealed stage zero DCIS that couldn’t be felt, leading to a double mastectomy, reconstruction with expanders, lymph node testing, and ongoing discussions about estrogen-suppressing medication due to recurrence risk. She describes moving through the stages of grief, the loss of feeling...
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94. Fat People Can Do Pilates, Too with Dr. Danica Harris
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body Grievers® Club, Bri is joined by Dr. Danica Harris, a counseling psychologist turned somatic experiencing practitioner and co-owner of a trauma-informed group therapy practice, to explore how Pilates can support body-based healing, strength, and mobility. They discuss rebuilding a relationship with movement after burnout, chronic pain, hypermobility, and the pandemic, including grief around changing body size, lost privilege, and internalized ableism. Bri and Danica encourage listeners to get curious about what their body needs today—even if it’s rest. ...
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93. Body Neutral with Jessi Kneeland
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body GrieversⓇ Club, Bri interviews body image coach and "Body Neutral" author Jessi Kneeland about why body positivity and self-love often feel inaccessible and ignore social context, and how body neutrality focuses on moral neutrality by stripping false, inflated meaning from appearance. Using examples like having a zit, they discuss how body shame spirals come from learned beliefs about worth and failure, and how “health” is frequently used as a socially acceptable cover for body hatred, disordered eating, and orthorexic behaviors. They explore the head-to-heart...
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92. Body Confidence Has Nothing To Do With Your Body
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body Grievers® Club, Bri challenges the idea that confidence comes simply from “doing the thing,” arguing that without thought awareness and body connection, change won’t stick. She reframes confidence as self-assurance: not the absence of discomfort. Brie shares her history with dieting, bariatric surgery at 19, and the ongoing body image pain that persisted even at a smaller size, leading to a 2015 breaking point to start living her life. She discusses dating fears, fetishization, and values alignment. 03:59 Health And Weight Loss Trap 05:18 Bariatric...
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91. Body Trust, Weight-Inclusive Fitness, and Intersectionality with Ashantis Jones
The Body Grievers® Club
In this episode of The Body GrieversⓇ Club, Bri interviews Ashantis Jones, a counselor and ASM-certified personal trainer, about healing body image and movement through an intersectional, weight-inclusive lens. Ashantis shares how her eating disorder recovery, later neurodivergence diagnoses (ADHD/autism traits and ARFID), and experience with fibromyalgia shaped her approach to care, emphasizing that diagnoses can be useful but aren’t always required to provide support. They discuss body positivity as a social justice movement, how privilege and systemic oppression—including racism,...
info_outlineIn this episode of The Body Grievers Club, Bri sits down with therapist, drama therapist, and creative arts therapist Dani Bryant—a fat, neurospicy clinician from upstate New York and one of Bri’s dear friends. Together they unpack the messy, beautiful intersection of neurodivergence, ADHD, body image, and body liberation.
Bri and Dani talk about what it means to work with your brain instead of against it—how perfectionism, masking, and executive dysfunction show up in everything from laundry to therapy notes. They explore the grief that comes with realizing your brain (and body) may never operate like everyone else’s, and how to build systems, compassion, and community around that truth.
They also dig into the overlap between body liberation and neurodivergence, from shame and self-blame to the ways capitalism, ableism, and diet culture all demand conformity. Expect laughter, tangents, and a lot of “same, same” moments as they name what’s hard, hilarious, and healing about existing in a brain and body that don’t fit the mold.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re “just lazy” or living in a world not built for you, this conversation will remind you: you’re not broken. You’re living in a system that wasn’t designed with you in mind. And you deserve care that honors both your body and your brain.
TIMESTAMPS:
05:00 Interrupting, hyperfocus, and why voice memos help our brains
13:10 Pandemic clarity, fidgets, and “something’s off” → assessment
16:00 Bri’s “wait, do I have ADHD?” moment in real life
18:30 Executive dysfunction: notes, laundry, and tasks-within-tasks
22:10 Systems that fit you: redefining “done,” micro-steps, and dopamine
25:10 Burnout cycles, urgency mode, and freeze vs. rest
27:50 Missed diagnoses in women/AFAB folks + masking as survival
30:40 ADLs with compassion: showers, brushing teeth, and ritual > routine
33:10 Habit stacking, duplicates (chargers everywhere), and shame as the enemy
36:00 All-or-nothing thinking, internalized ableism, and seeing ADHD as disability
39:00 Curiosity > criticism: Finch, allowances, novelty, and changing what no longer works
41:50 Interoception, meds, intuitive eating adaptations, and sleep/circadian quirks
45:00 Energy rhythms, gray-scale phone, capacity planning, and Mondays vs. Fridays
47:30 Boundaries, FOMO parts, and letting people be disappointed (community = annoyance sometimes)
50:10 Assessing “stay home or go?”—facts, context, and momentum vs. depletion
52:00 Culture check: conformity pressures (thinness, ableism) and finding your people
54:00 GLP-1s vs. stimulants: safety, autonomy, and why changing size ≠ changing beliefs
56:00 Spectrum ≠ line: the “pie chart” view + how presentation varies widely
RESOURCES:
Mentioned in this episode:
Love Dani Donovan's art and writing on ADHD:
Comics: https://www.adhddd.com/comics/
The Anti-Planner: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/122842465-the-anti-planner
KC Davis's Strugglecare: https://www.strugglecare.com/resources
A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD: Embrace Neurodiversity, Live Boldly, and Break Through Barriers by Sari Solden and Michelle Frank:
Gifted kid with ADHD essay:
https://blackgirllostkeys.com/adhd/double-trouble-navigating-life-as-a-gifted-kid-with-adhd/
This person is writing about Neurocomplexity in a interesting way:
https://lindseymackereth.substack.com/
ADHD & Nutrition
WANT MORE OF DANI BRYANT?
* Instagram: @danibtherapy
* Website: www.danibryant.com
WANT MORE OF BRI?
*Instagram: @bodyimagewithbri
*Website: https://bodyimagewithbri.com/
*Bri’s Free Resource: 7-Step Guide to Shift Body Grief to Radical Body Acceptance