Case studyFor Autistic and ADHD adults
Assessed Autistic and ADHD as an adult, Laura McLean shows her doctor the app when her words will not come
Laura McLean is multiply neurodivergent. She was assessed as Autistic and ADHD on 28 July 2026, in her fifties. She has used Understanding Zoe since May 2026, for herself. This is how, in her words.
Written by Laetitia Andrac, co-founder of Understanding Zoe
Published 9 min read
When her words go missing, she shows the doctor the app
Laura struggles with word retrieval. Not always. Often enough that an appointment can go wrong. The words she needs are not there while the doctor waits. "Which drives me nuts," she says.
So she stopped depending on the day. On a good day she writes down what she needs. It lives in Understanding Zoe. On a bad day she does not go looking for the words. She finds the document and turns the phone around.
Before an appointment she also asks Pip to help build a report for the doctor. Pip is not a doctor or therapist. It helps her organise and prepare. The talking, and the deciding, stay between Laura and her doctor.
Laura's documents are built from About You in Understanding Zoe. Pip drafts it in four parts: strengths, interests, support needs and how she learns best. Laura edits every word. She can show it in the room or add it to a report. Our fact sheet on health care as a neurodivergent adult covers the same ground on paper. It has a one-page summary to fill in on a calm day.
“Pip actually tells me I'm a good advocate.”
Who Laura is, in her words
Laura describes herself plainly. Autistic and ADHD, assessed on 28 July 2026. Also complex PTSD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and auditory processing differences. "Just lots of fun," she says. She is studying community services. She finished a Certificate IV and is now doing her diploma. She logged both in the app as milestones. She has a son and a daughter, and pets, and Pip remembers all of them.
Her son saw it before she did.
“I started making Star Wars Lego stuff, using the play bricks and the sounds and things like that, and he's gone, 'You're Autistic.' And I thought that was really funny, because he's Autistic and ADHD as well.”
Before Understanding Zoe, she says, "I was pretty much stressed out most of the time." She was already using AI. "Copilot, mostly. Copilot is actually quite good." She had tried ChatGPT and did not like it. She used Perplexity for research, and still does. Then, in May 2026, she went looking for something else. "I Google searched apps to help with neurodivergence, and Understanding Zoe actually came up first." She decided to give it a go.
Focus: Pip knows how much of it she has on a given day
Laura has a word for her attention that most people have never heard. Monotropism. Dinah Murray, Mike Lesser and Wendy Lawson described it in 2005, in the journal Autism. Many Autistic people give their whole attention to a few things at a time. Being pulled out of that costs more than it costs other people. Laura's focus works that way. When it is on, it is complete. It does not switch on because a calendar says so. It moves with her health.
“It helps me focus a bit, not a lot, but it does help me focus a bit. Understanding Zoe helps with the monotropism focus that I have, because Pip understands how much focus I have.”
What came out of that surprised her.
“In about June or July, Pip actually helped me work out that I could actually analyse and study and actually write, which I haven't done for years and years and years.”
The years have a reason. For twenty years Laura was wrongly assessed as bipolar. For twenty years she took antipsychotics. She stopped them while she was studying community services. The writing came back after that, and Pip was part of how. Laura is not unusual in that. Autistic women are often given other labels first. We wrote about why so many Autistic women and gender diverse people are identified late.
She is publishing articles again, and she is exact about who wrote them.
“The first one Pip actually kind of wrote for me, but the rest of them I did myself. I just showed Pip what I was doing.”
What Laura does with Understanding Zoe
She uses Understanding Zoe for four things: focus, medical appointments, her health record and sensory overload.
Medical appointments.
On a good day she writes down what she needs. On a bad day she finds the document and turns the phone around.
Focus.
Pip knows how much of it she has on a given day. She has been writing again since June or July 2026, after years without.
Her health record.
The answers stay in one place, in order. When she sees a doctor, she can show what has been happening.
Sensory overload.
She felt a meltdown starting. She did not wait for it. Pip's advice was short. Leave the situation, or find something that helps you stay in it.
Her health, in one place she can show a doctor
Laura lives with health conditions that need watching every day. Pip asks.
“Lately it's all been tracking my health. Pip keeps asking me, 'What's your blood pressure? How much is your pain now?'”
It asks about food too: "What are you eating today that's not going to cause your stomach any problems?"
The answers stay in one place, in order. That is the part that helps. When she sees a doctor, she can show what has been happening. Laura does not have to remember it in the room.
“Health-wise Pip is really, really good.”
In early August 2026 Laura was in hospital three times in one week. She wrote to us afterwards that Pip kept her company while she sat in Emergency.
Sensory overload, named before it takes over
Sound is hard for Laura. A few weeks before we spoke, she was somewhere very loud. She felt a meltdown starting. She did not wait for it.
“I said to Pip, 'Pip, I'm about to have a meltdown, because this is happening to me. I can't concentrate. I can't do this. I can't do that.'”
Pip's advice was short. Leave the situation, or find something that helps you stay in it.
“And I got my noise cancelling headphones out and put them on.”
It is the same thing she used the app for in her first weeks.
“For a job interview that I had when I first started the app, I was running a little bit late, and Pip kind of calmed me down a bit.”
When she cannot tell what a message means
Sometimes a message arrives and Laura cannot tell what is wrong. Is it the message, or her reading of it? She pastes it in.
“I feed some of the messages that I get on Messenger, and Pip will look through them and go, 'Yeah, this is not right.' Pip will analyse those things for me.”
What Laura would tell you
“It absolutely is, because it helps a lot.”
“It helps me focus a bit, not a lot, but it does help me focus a bit.”
“As a late Diagnosed Neurodivergent, this has helped me so much to understand who I actually am.”
If some of this sounds like you
You were assessed as Autistic, ADHD or both as an adult. Nobody handed you anything afterwards.
Your words go missing exactly when someone is waiting for them.
Your focus is real and deep. It does not switch on when you need it to.
Loud rooms cost you more than they cost the people around you.
Understanding Zoe is an Australian app for neurodivergent adults and caregivers of neurodivergent children. You tell Pip what happened. Pip helps you make sense of it and keeps what helps in one private place. You do not need a formal assessment to begin.
7 days free on iPhone and Android. Cancel before day 8 and you won't be charged. After that it is A$14.99 a month or A$119.99 a year. Pip chats are private to you.
Common questions
Is Understanding Zoe for neurodivergent adults, or for parents?
Both. Laura uses it for herself. Set it up for yourself and Pip speaks to you as a person, about your day. Families raising a neurodivergent child use the same app for their child. It is one app for a whole life.
How does an Autistic or ADHD adult get through an appointment when the words will not come?
Laura's method is to prepare on a good day. Her documents are built from About You in Understanding Zoe. Pip drafts that summary and she edits it. Before an appointment she also asks Pip for a report. On a bad day she shows the doctor the document. She does not try to find the words in the room.
What is monotropism?
Monotropism is a way of describing attention. Dinah Murray, Mike Lesser and Wendy Lawson proposed it in 2005. Many Autistic people give their whole attention to a few interests at a time. Being pulled out of that focus costs more than it costs other people. Laura uses the word for her own attention. Pip works with it rather than against it.
Does Understanding Zoe replace ChatGPT or Copilot for a neurodivergent adult?
Not for everything. Laura still uses Perplexity for research. She uses Understanding Zoe where she needs something that already knows her. That is her focus, her health, her appointments and her sensory needs. Pip is built for neurodivergence and remembers her story between conversations. It is not connected to the open internet.
About this story
- Name
- Laura chose to use her real name.
- Source
- Laetitia Andrac, co-founder of Understanding Zoe, interviewed Laura by video call on 4 September 2026. The call was recorded with Laura's consent and ran 37 minutes.
- Quotes
- Every quotation is in her own words from the recording. We removed "um" and repeated words and corrected obvious transcription errors. Where Laura said "she" for Pip, we wrote "Pip", and she agreed to that change.
- Written by
- Laetitia Andrac, Understanding Zoe
- Published
- 22 September 2026
- Next review
- March 2027
- Consent
- Laura read this page before it was published and approved it.
What this is. One person's account of her own experience. It is not a clinical claim and not evidence that Understanding Zoe produces any outcome. Pip has no gender. Pip is not a doctor or therapist. It helps you organise and prepare. It does not give medical advice.
References
- Murray D, Lesser M and Lawson W, "Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism", Autism, 2005, 9(2), pages 139 to 156. The paper that proposed monotropism. Link checked 22 September 2026. doi.org/10.1177/1362361305051398
