The Liz Moody Podcast - How To Know If You Have ADHD + Exactly What To Do If You Do With Dr. Sasha Hamdani

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Psychiatrist tips for navigating life with ADHD, including the lifestyle changes that can help your ADHD symptoms and practices that will make everyday tasks feel easier.  exactly how to know if you have ADHD if social media/the modern world is increasing the prevalence of ADHD why it takes women WAY longer than men to be diagnosed with ADHD  other conditions that are commonly confused with ADHD how hormones impact ADHD & how to manage it throughout your menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and postpartum  Dr. Hamdani’s thoughts on the role medication should play in ADHD treatment lifestyle changes & daily habits that can help people with ADHD thrive hacks to increase focus in the moment how to best support a friend, partner, child, or family member with ADHD and so much more!  For more from Dr. Hamdani, check out her website www.drhamdanimd.com, follow her @thepsychdoctormd on social media, and get her book Self-Care for People with ADHD: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Prioritize You!.    To join the Healthier Together Podcast Club Facebook group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/healthiertogetherpodcast. This episode is sponsored by: ZocDoc: go to ZocDoc.com/Liz and download the Zocdoc app for FREE and book a top-rated doctor today.  Ness: head to nesswell.com/liz for an extra 5,000 points when you apply for the Ness Card today.  LMNT: go to DrinkLMNT.com/Liz a to get a free LMNT sample pack with any order.   Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Healthier Together podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I'm a best-selling author and long-time journalist. This podcast is all about helping you live your healthiest, happiest life, whether we're uncovering tips to up-level our sex lives, learning how to hack our brains to become smarter. We're getting the best healthy cooking tips for less stress in the kitchen. And yes, those are all real episodes, so if any of those topics sound good to you, scroll on back in the archives. I have gotten hundreds of DMs from you all asking for an episode on ADHD, I think because it's so prevalent on social media lately, and because it turns out that women have to wait until they're around my age to actually get a diagnosis, which we talk about in this episode.

And I have been hunting high and low for the perfect guest to speak on not only how to navigate life with ADHD, but also how to know if you might have ADHD in the first place. Well, friends, I found her and she surpassed my wildest dreams. Today, I am so excited to welcome Dr. Sasha Hamdani to the podcast. Dr. Hamdani is a board-certified psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD, mood disorders, anxiety spectrum disorders, and more. Her work is inspired by her own experience with ADHD, and the advice she shares on social media for navigating life with ADHD has resulted in a dedicated online community of over 1.2 million people.

She is the author of Self-Care for People with ADHD, 100-plus ways to recharge, de-stress, and prioritize you, and she is the creator of her own app for people with ADHD called FocusGenie. She's also just an absolute gem of a person, and I love chatting with her so much. On today's episode, we get into exactly how to know if you have ADHD, if social media in the modern world is increasing the prevalence of ADHD, why it takes women way longer than men to be diagnosed with ADHD, other conditions that are commonly confused with ADHD, how hormones impact ADHD and how to manage it throughout your menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and postpartum, Dr. Hamdani's thoughts on the role medication should play in ADHD treatment,

lifestyle changes and daily habits that can help people with ADHD thrive, hacks to increase focus in the moment, how to best support a friend, partner, child, or family member with ADHD, and so much more. We would both love to hear your thoughts and your biggest takeaways as you're listening to the episode, So definitely screenshot and tag me. I am at Liz Moody and Dr. Hamdani. She is at the psych doctor MD on Instagram. Okay, now let's get into all things ADHD with Dr. Sasha Hamdani.

You were just saying that you're still in your pajama top that the morning got away from you. Is that in your mind something that happens with ADHD or do you attribute that to something else? I mean, yeah, that does happen with ADHD. Today wasn't my fault. That was my kid's fault. It's probably a little bit of ADHD that I. I can't manage them better, but they can't be managed. Honestly, they're off the ball.

How do you find that your ADHD impacts parenting? It makes it hard, Liz. It makes it so hard. I guess that's not a totally fair answer. So I have two kids. So I was pregnant. And the first time, it was just like one of those things where, like, you're preparing for this pregnancy.

It was before COVID. The world was a different place. And I was on Pinterest. and I was like, this is what I want my parenting to be like. I'm going to be a super gentle parent. And then you go through this pregnancy. You have this kid. And you're like, oh, my God, what is this?

And you're like sleep deprived. And I mean, in the entirety of the time I've been a parent, I don't think I've ever gentle parented. I scream and I yell. And I don't know. I don't have that capacity. And so it's very different than what I thought it was going to be like. But at the same time, I also feel like my ADHD.

helps me be a little bit flexible with kids. I feel like my husband tends to be really, and I'm so grateful that I have this, but he's very rigid and like organized and he works like a grid. So like when things throw him off like schedule, that's really destabilizing for him. And if things get thrown off my schedule,

I'm like, okay, whatever. That's so interesting. Not new. It made me a little bit more flexible. And you know, it's always fun. at our house. It is always fun. We do spontaneous things and we kind of see where this journey takes us and I think that's probably a lack of consequence. But I think that also comes with ADHD and impulsivity. We're working on it. Do you think that people with ADHD tend to be attracted to people

who are a little bit more structured? That's a good question. If I'm looking anecdotally into my own history, then no, because I feel like in my 20s, I wanted to be with people who were like risk takers and they were in bands and they were the least organized people in the history of mankind. That was interesting and I was dopamine seeking. I would want to be with people that I found super, super interesting. Later in my life, I'm like, that's not a sustainable model. And what's interesting to me now is stability and security. I don't know if that's something that all ADHD people crave or if that's a position in your life that you get to.

Can you tell me a little bit about your ADHD story? Like when were you diagnosed? What has that looked like in your life? I was diagnosed in fourth grade because I started a coup in my classroom. There's a substitute teacher. And I feel like such an asshole about this because now that I have my own kids, I'm obsessed with all of my kids' teachers because I'm like, you manage my kids and you are helping them. You're spending so much time with them and I want you to live with us. That level of love and respect for them.

So I can't believe I did this. But I got all the kids to stand up on their desk and start like chanting. Everybody asked me like, what did you chant? I have no idea. I forgot. Oh, captain, my captain. Yeah, maybe. It was a long time ago.

So at that point, my teacher was like, you got to do something. It immediately brought it up with my parents. To my mom's a pediatrician. And she was like, oh, we know. So she got me in with one of her partners and then I was treated pretty quickly. I can say I'm lucky that it was picked up so quickly because I presented a lot like what a boy would present. I was really hyperactive and I was disruptive, which was different than typically how a girl presents where they're inattentive and kind of daydreaming. No, I was like in everyone's shit all the time.

So that got picked up and treated. It was like a 180. I did great. And I went from being kind of the class clown to being a higher achiever in the class. And I continued on this trajectory. And I did well enough throughout elementary and middle school and then eventually high school that I got into medical school right out of high school. And that was the first time I was away from home. I sucked. I got there. And I was quite literally the bottom of my class. And not by like a little bit, like by a significant like multiple standard deviations down. parents are like, what happened? What is happening with you? And I was like, I have no idea. Things are going really badly for me. I can't study. I can't sleep. I can't eat. I can't do anything. And they're like, well, are you taking your, for the entirety of my life? They were like, are you taking your vitamin? I was like, no, I'm not quite seriously. I don't even know where my vitamin is. Like, I don't know. And they mean by that you were taking a prescription medication?

Yes. But my whole life I'd called in my vitamin. And so then at that point, they were like, okay, it's not a vitamin per se, it's actually. Oh, so you didn't even know it was a prescription. Oh, my gosh. What? Yeah. So I was like, okay, this is snooze to me. And initially I was like, there's no way.

There's no way. I don't have ADHD. That's something that boys have. There's no way. I've been drugged my whole life. I was so angry about the entire process. And so I was like, there's no way. I refuse to take the medication.

And I just like buckle down and try to study. And I did worse when I was trying. I was like, this is even harder because now I'm aware of this and I'm like really self-conscious about what I'm doing. And it's like even harder for me. And I feel like I was working harder than I ever had been. And I'm seeing my peers like, sail by me. And I was like, this is horrible.

And so then my parents were like, okay, you're going to for sure fail out of schools. Just come home. Like come home. I had finals coming up. And they were like, you know, instead of focusing on finals, like, we need to figure this out just longitudinally because maybe med school isn't for you. Previously, when I was in fourth grade, they didn't know how to bring up at each day and they didn't know how to talk to me about it because I already felt pretty different at that time. Like I was only brown kid in my school. I was already super

sensitive. Like I lost my grandma who was a primary caretaker. It was just a really weird time. And honestly, as a parent now, I'm like, oh, it was easier to do that. So let's just keep doing it. I came home and my dad was like, let's just get into it. And so we, research. We went to the library. We like really deep dove into it and he's like, did you look at this? And I'm like, yeah, did you see this? This is totally me. And I started to re-explore medications again and I started to be more mindful and things started to get better. That kind of led me through this journey. And that's what like honestly, I climbed out of that hole that I got into that first year or so because it was just so hard. And then as I progressed through, I wanted to do peeds like my mom.

I started going through that. And then one of the rotations in pediatrics I got into was Pete's psychiatry. And I was like, I love this. And then given the journey I'd been through with ADHD, it just seemed like a natural fit. And then I did that. Then I got into a psychiatry residency. It was a small class. It was like the first time I felt like people wanted me to be there because they picked me for their program.

That made a huge difference. It was small classes. There was a lot of attention. And like, as soon as I got there, they were like, okay. What do we do here? For this combined program where I did my undergrad and grad together in medical school, I was just like in fighter flight for six years. They were just like, you got to calm down.

Just chill out. This is how you eat. This is how you sleep. This is how you break down tasks. And so I had a safe environment to try out behavioral techniques and work with therapists, work with psychiatrists, and actually fine-tuned stuff that not only changed my life, but also helped me in how I approach patient care moving forward and how I treat my own patients now. I love that. So we're going to get into all of that, but I would love to start off by just

rewinding for a second and defining ADHD. What is ADHD? So ADHD is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It's a neurobiological condition characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. It can be one of those things. It can be a combination of those things. But basically what you're looking at is a pervasive pattern. So not just like I had this for a small period of my life. It's this chronic condition. It's affecting you over the course of your life. And it's a disorder. I think that's a really important part of the name in that it's causing dysfunction in your life. Because a lot of people are like, I can't focus and it's not a big deal. Okay, then it's not a disorder. It's not impacting you. Got it. Is the diagnosis for it based on symptoms or are there

physiological tests that determine whether or not you have it? It's based on symptoms. So it's based out of a set of criteria that's listed in the DSM, which is like the psychiatry manual for diagnosis and just statistical criteria of going through. I'm not in love with the DSM to be totally real with you because I feel like for ADHD specifically and for a lot of it, a lot of other disorders, I feel like the scope is too narrow. and they don't encapsulate racial criteria, socioeconomic criteria. There's a lot of things that can get missed and don't technically meet criteria,

but it's because of racial bias. It's because of monetary criteria. We're not all playing on the same level playing field. So I don't love it, but that's where you get your information from currently. Obviously, there's been this huge rise in people who think they have ADHD because of TikTok. Like every other video on my FYP is signs that you're going to be. signs that you likely have ADHD and I've asked my therapist, do I have ADHD? Do you think that we are over-diagnosing it? Do you think it's becoming more prevalent?

Or do you think that it's always been this prevalent? We've just missed it for years? That is a good question. It's a complicated question. Is it over-diagnosed or under-diagnosed? Again, I would say it depends on the population, right? I think it's over-diagnosed in some populations and it's severely under-diagnosed in other populations in terms of like, why are we seeing a lot more of it now. I don't necessarily think there is more of it now. I think we're just understanding our own internal environments better and we're gaining more medical literacy in where we're like, oh, okay, we could talk about these things. And now we're having routes like TikTok and Instagram where we can gain accessible information. Because for a long time, number one, that wasn't a

thing. We didn't have ways to gain information like that. And number two, even when we, you, people were using social media and stuff, it was still stigmatized. People weren't talking about mental health as openly like five years ago. It just wasn't what we talked about. And I think the pandemic kind of blew that open where now you're at home, you're spending time with yourself and you're like, what is happening? That was a big time where we could focus on internal symptomology. And we look to connect to each other via the avenues that we had, which was really our phones. I don't think there's more of it. I think we're just finding a previously very obscured population who had it. Do you agree with some of the things that they say like, oh, if you're doing this, then you probably have ADHD.

Like I remember I saw one that was like if you sleep with your hands in sort of like a little T-Rex position, then you probably have ADHD. Are there things like that that mean you do? No. I think they're dumb. My take on social media and stuff like that, is that there is a very huge need for people talking about their lived experience. Because it's a relatability component, it decreases stigma. There's a huge value in that. Where I have beef with it is where people are talking about this is diagnostic criteria. It's not diagnostic criteria.

That is not a thing. There's a huge population of current users that are very young, right? When you're presenting medical misinformation like that, a lot of times what can happen is that these people get really entrenched in the diagnosis. And that is problematic. Like understanding your diagnosis and exploring and asking questions about your diagnosis, good, fine, whatever. When it becomes problematic is when you start to take the step into treatment. And that gets really hairy because if you're using behavioral techniques, okay, cool. I don't think there's a huge problem with that. But when you're trying to treat yourself

with medications that have huge potential risk and are fraught with major medical outcomes, that is where it becomes really problematic. So now you're hearing these stories about people that are like, well, I knew it was this diagnosis. So I went and I went and I went to multiple different doctors to try and find the diagnosis. I finally got one with someone who's loosey-goosey with a prescription pad. Now they wound up with an arrhythmia. It becomes tricky to navigate those waters. That makes sense. I think another question that a lot of people have is if the world that we live in is causing more people to develop ADHD. Like everybody is more distracted than they've ever been. Nobody has an attention span. Can things like TikTok contribute to more people

having ADHD, or is it something you either are born with or not born with? So this is a big debate. What I would say is that this is something that intrinsically, a big load of it is genetic, is scrolling on TikTok for 18 hours a day helping you? No, no, that is for sure going to exacerbate symptoms and things like that, I don't think it's going to give you ADHD. Because ADHD, again, even though the DSM doesn't encapsulate all of that, it's not just focus. It's not just being unable to focus on one thing or being distractible. It's encompassing a lot of different criteria. And along with that are other phenomenons that are associated with emotional regulation issues and rejection sensitivity. So there's a lot more to it. I don't think the world we're living in,

is causing more ADHD? Is the world we're living in exacerbating some existing ADHD? Probably. What are some of the symptoms of ADHD and how do they present differently in women versus men? So ADHD is broken into three types. There's inattentive type, there's hyperactive type, and there's combined type, which is obviously a combination of the two.

Inattentive is the daydreamer type. Difficulty paying close attention to details, difficulty, organizing things, difficulty, initiating a task, completing a task, difficulty with forgetfulness, and maintaining daily routine. These are all inattentive signs. Hyperactive things are the things that you think about with hyperactivity. Are they physically kind of fidgety? Are they physically impulsive where they're getting out of their seat or touching a bunch of

people or, you know, they can't keep their hands to themselves? Are they verbally impulsive? Are they blurting out an answer or interrupting their friends? Or they are hyper-talkative? Are they like at rest when, you know, everybody else is quiet? Are they doing their own thing? And then combined is both of those characteristics. Yeah.

So if I had to guess, I feel like women may be more often present with the first type and men more often present with the second. Mm-hmm. You would be correct. Something I hear all the time is that there's a lot of missed ADHD diagnoses for girls versus boys. Is that because people are more on the lookout for the second type? or it's just more easy to notice?

Both. I mean, there's tons of reasons where girls get skipped. Number one, if they're inattentive and they're not bothering anyone in the classroom, people are going to be like, eh, she's daydreaming. It's not that big of a deal. Or they're not noticing her daydreaming

because her grades are fine. Like she's just getting passed along from grade to grade. When it becomes problematic, is around puberty hormones change, and you're getting drops in estrogen or variation hormones, and now your ADHD symptoms are worse. It's harder to keep up with school and everybody's like, you're hormonal.

You have PMS. You're just being a bitch. That's another reason it gets missed. Or it presents later when you have your own kids. And then you're getting your kid assessed and you're like, have all of these things. The average diagnostic time for a female is in their mid to late 30s. Whereas the typical diagnostic time is seven to eight years old for men. So it's horrific.

That's so interesting. That could also explain why suddenly I feel like I'm so much more. aware of it in my life because I'm literally at the age where women are starting to get their diagnosis for this type of thing. And the sad thing about that is we're now hardwired as a society to feel like if women are advocating for themselves or talking about this, the default for a lot of providers is like you would have gotten a diagnosis already. If you had this, you would have had a diagnosis. You would have carried that. And it's like, well, no, not necessarily because of all of this stuff I mentioned before. Are there any symptoms that?

that for you, you're like, that's definitely ADHD that people aren't talking about when somebody comes to you that they would maybe present with something and they wouldn't attribute it to ADHD, but in your mind, you're like, oh, that's ADHD for sure. No. And I'll tell you why. I can safely say no, because I think if you are as someone who is a mental health professional who's diagnosing something, if you're good at your job, you're not linking one. symptom to one thing because everything is so multifactorial. You really have to base it on a lot of data throughout a course of their life. Now, there's stuff that is raising alarm bells where you're like, oh, okay, that might be it. But you could also get other explanations for that kind of thing with other

things. Anxiety can look like ADHD. Depression can look like ADHD. Bipolar can look like ADHD, personality disorders. And then a whole host of medical things. Thyroid stuff can look like that. heart conditions can look like that. So there's so much there that can look like ADHD. And that's why it's really helpful to have a trained eye to look at all of that data and be able to tease out that information to make a clinical diagnosis because it's hard. A lot of stuff looks like ADHD. The mattress that you sleep on is one of the highest exposures that you have. Like if it's off gassing, you're breathing that in for basically a third of your life. And most conventional mattresses are loaded with synthetic foams, flame retardants, microplastics, and more.

Plus, if it's not comfy, you're going to be tossing and turning, you're going to be really hot. And sleep is the foundation of health. It is so important. Because of all of this, if I were not going to invest in any other part of my house, no other things in my house, I would invest in my mattress. And in fact, I have four years well before I had much money to spend on any of these things because it is such a big needle mover. The birch mattress is incredible. made with organic cotton, natural latex, and ethically sourced wool. So it has literally no off-gassing.

You can not smell anything right when you unbox it. It has no microplastics, no synthetic foams or flame retardants. And the wool makes it so breathable, which if you've listened to this podcast for more than five minutes, you know that I run very, very hot. Like I am a furnace. Zach has basically accepted that sleepy next to me is like sleeping next to like a little fire. and the birch mattress has been a game changer for that. It's made me sleep so much better like I can see my sleep score going up because I'm not hot all night long. It's also hypoallergenic, which is really worth paying attention to if you find yourself waking up stuffy or congested. Dust mites in a conventional mattress can actually impact your breathing and your sleep quality without you even

realizing it. And again, we need to be able to breathe to get good sleep and getting good sleep is the foundation of our health. And then comfort wise, Zach sleeps on his back and then I sleep on my side and my stomach. So we have two completely different sleep styles and we both wake up feeling really good, no aches and pains. CNN actually named the Birch mattress, the best mattress for side sleepers, and Wired named it the best organic mattress period. So there you go. Burch has options for every kind of sleeper in your household. They have three firmness layers. I like the Lux Natural, which is the medium one. And then parents, they even have a Birch Kids natural mattress. Birch ships right to your door. It sets up in minutes and it comes with a 120 night risk-free trial. So if it is not for you,

they will pick it up for free. You have nothing to lose here. I want all of you to enjoy a deep, restful night sleep with a new mattress from Birch. Go to birchliving.com slash Liz Moody for 20% off. That is birchliving.com slash Liz Moody. And you're going to get 20% off birchliving.com slash Liz Moody. I very rarely get genuinely excited about skincare, but this is one of the most innovative products that I have come across in years, and I am so obsessed with it. I've been telling all of my friends to get it, so now I need to tell you guys. Here's some science first. Your skin isn't just getting older. It's being actively broken down by something called senescent cells. These are cells that have stopped functioning but refused

to die. They sit there releasing inflammatory signals, breaking down your collagen, degrading your skin barrier, and accelerating every visible sign of aging. Scientists call them zombie cells, and as they accumulate, they are one of the primary drivers of how old your skin looks and feels. The team at one skin, a group of female longevity researchers and PhDs, spent five years testing over 900 peptides to figure out how to help reduce the accumulation of senescent cells. And they finally landed on it. OSO1, the first peptide scientifically studied to reduce skin's biological age at the molecular level. OSO1 goes in and it clears out the senescent cells so it helps skin function like healthier,

younger looking skin. It is not masking the signs of aging. It's not targeting one thing. It is actually rolling the clock back at a cellular level. I've been using the face moisturizer for almost six months now and I love it so much. It feels amazing. It goes on really smoothly. It's not tacky at all.

And I actually see a difference, which I just feel like is never the case with skincare. You want to always like see a real difference and you're kind of. like, do I? Do I? And this, I genuinely do. Because it's clearing the senescent cells, it doesn't just target one thing. So my skin looks firmer. It looks glowier. The texture feels dramatically smoother. And I feel like you can see that too. I also love the body moisturizer. It dries down really quickly, which is always a pet peeve of mine with moisturizers. I hate that like sticky feeling when you go to put your clothes on. This does not do that. But it does moisturize really, really well. and then again, I'm reducing my skin's biological age.

I am not making it just look younger. I am making it actually younger. One Skin has four peer-reviewed clinical studies in over 10,000 five-star reviews. The data backs everything up. For a limited time, get 15% off with code Liz at oneskin.c.c.o slash Liz. Again, that's 15% off at oneskin.co with code Liz. Do you have any advice for finding a good clinician in that context?

I feel like there's the clinicians who have this very old-fashioned view of what ADHD is. And so they're going to be so dismissive. And then on the other side, like you said, maybe there's people who are a little bit too freewheeling with like, oh, you have ADHD and you have ADHD. Is there any advice you have for finding somebody like in the middle who could give you a good diagnosis or a good like, no, you don't have it? Don't worry about it. when you're trying to find a doctor, there's no good set process. You can Google, but the person coming up might not be a good personality fit or you might not like them or whatever. I feel like word of mouth is really important. Number two, I think that people who feel strongly about

treating ADHD typically talk about it. You'll have it on their website or they are, we treat ADHD, we do these kind of things. So they're talking about that. Usually providers that are like, I'm not super comfortable with ADHD. They purposely emit it from conditions that they treat because they're not super comfortable with it. And I get that and I like that. But that's one of the things that I tell people to look out for. Just like as a general rule of thumb, as a physician, I think it's really important to cultivate an environment where you are listening to the patient and inviting questions instead of just being like, yep, that's definitely what you have. You need a very comprehensive at store, you need a good exam. You need to be able to encapsulate all that information.

So if you are walking out of there in 10 minutes with a brand new diagnosis, you did it wrong. Yeah, that makes sense. You mentioned that ADHD can be mistaken for all of these different things or all these different things could be mistaken for ADHD. Is there a link or a correlation between mental health conditions like anxiety or depression and ADHD? Is there a higher prevalence of ADHD? Other way around. With ADHD, there's a higher prevalence of carrying a concurrent diagnosis. A quarter of the population with ADHD has anxiety. A pretty high correlation of the population has depression. They travel in packs. It's not to say that what we get into is we sometimes are like, oh, are your ADHD symptoms looking like anxiety, looking like

depression, but they're really ADHD. So it becomes a fine line to walk of figuring out how much of this is ADHD specific and how much of this is a secondary tertiary condition. And then you mentioned our hormones. How do hormones interact with ADHD? For people assigned female at birth, people who have a uterus, there are two things we really need to keep an eye on. And that's estrogen and dopamine. Estrogen directly impacts dopamine in that it helps make dopamine and it prevents dopamine from being broken down. Dopamine is what manages attention and enhances motivation and focus to do things. So if you get a drop in your estrogen, it directly impacts that. So the problem is that before your period and for chunks of that menstrual cycle, menstrual cycle isn't just your period.

It's like this period of proliferation and ludial phase and all these other things. For a significant amount of time before that period happens, you're in this low estrogen spot as that climbs your executive function and your focus gets worse as well. So there's a couple of things happening on the hormonal front that are directly impacting your ADHD symptoms, whereas people may be struggling with already having a hard time before your period. Now you're dealing with this enhancement of those negative symptoms that you have with ADHD. So it gets even harder. So what do you do with that information, knowing that do you act differently? Do you take things differently?

Would you recommend the birth control pill ever? How do you adjust knowing the hormonal impact on our dopamine levels? It depends. There are some people that if they're on a steady dose of hormones, so they don't feel as much of the fluctuation, that does help them. And there's some people that that actually hurts them because hormonal replacement makes them act wacky. They don't do super well with that. There are other people who are like, I know that when this period is coming up, that I might need to bump up my ADHD medications during that time to handle that. So you could handle it from that front. And that also doesn't work for some people. There's some people that need

a little tiny bit of an antidepressant, not all the time just during that like 10 day window before your period starts because they're like, I'm so horrifically anxious and I'm depressed and like I can't get anything done. I'm all over the place. So it really is so dependent on the person. Behaviorally, what I could tell you from my own experience is I could tell you like clockwork and it's only gotten worse after kids when that period of time is because I am garbage. I cannot get stuff done. It plays a role. I know that first half of the month, I'm not going to be as attentive on stuff as the latter half of the month. If I'm doing a big event or I'm talking or something, I'm typically trying to push it. And if it's in the beginning part of the month, I plan ahead for that. I'm like, I know this is going to be

harder. So I need to figure out what my caffeine intake is or I need to make sure I get really good sleep before this, whereas the latter half of the month, I can be a little bit more loosey-goosey because I know I'll kind of do okay. That makes sense. I don't know what your hormones are doing during pregnancy and postpartum, but I assume something is happening with estrogen and progesterone. How does that impact ADHD? Actually, during pregnancy, your estrogen is higher and you actually do better.

So a lot of people complain about pregnancy brain and things like that, but ADHD symptoms tend to do better. Huh. I know. It's weird, but that's short-lived. It's not a long-term solution. And then you just get like slapped in the face with symptoms. All of a sudden you were on this high.

Now you're crashing down from that. And then to make things weirder, you cannot sleep appropriately because you're taking care of a newborn. Your body is going through all these changes. You may or may not like the way you look. It's just so much to navigate through. It almost seems like not enough to have the awareness, but the fact that you can know it's coming and make a plan, I think can be really hard.

helpful. Totally helpful. And I don't mean to sound nihilistic about this where I'm like, this is the absolute worst, because it's not for a huge portion of my life. I was on medication. I haven't been on medication for about seven years. And I've just kind of relied on behavioral techniques that I've gathered throughout this entire experience and that I've built while I was on medication. So I don't want people to think, like, I'm screwed. If I'm having these hormonal changes, there's nothing you can do because there is stuff you could do. And honestly, having awareness about it is a huge thing because if you can kind of behaviorally modify and just like alter a few things or course it just a little bit, it does make your life tremendously easier. What's one thing that you would do postpartum to make it a little bit easier?

Delegate. With my first baby, I was like, there's no way. Like you cannot take this kid away from me. I don't want them to go to the nursery while I was in the hospital. I want to do all this stuff. First of all, the lactation consultant scared the living shit out of me because she was like, you have to do it this way. I was just like, I'm going to miss something. If I don't have that kid with me, I'm going to miss something. I'll do it wrong. And the second kid came around and I was like, go to dad, go to grandma.

I need time, little pockets to regenerate. And honestly, the second postpartum period was so much easier. I didn't feel like I was drowning, even though I also had a toddler because I was like, I know what is happening. I need to take that time to myself. If you're lucky enough to have a support system, then you could do that. And you can dedicate little times to quite literally rectify the overstimulation that's happening so chronically because I was so touched out. I was tired. I was inexplicably hot all the time. Like just like a weird. It was such a stimulating time in my life. But I feel like taking those little pockets of like, I need time by myself. I just need to.

sit and I need to just recalibrate, made that so much more enjoyable with that second kid. Let's talk about medication for a second. I got a zillion listener questions about it. I think a lot of people are afraid of it. A lot of people want to normalize the usage of it. In your opinion, would most people who have been diagnosed with ADHD benefit from taking medication? My answer for that, it is so personalized. It's so personalized. So asking broad-based questions, would they benefit from medication? It depends on the person.

How do you view the role of medication and the treatment of ADHD? I view it neutrally. From my own experience, I've needed it. I feel neutral about it. If I need it in the future, I will absolutely use it. I'm at a spot where I'm doing okay off of medication. and I'm behaviorally modifying, but I don't necessarily think that's better or worse than when I needed medication. I just feel like my life is a little bit easier because I have one less pill to remember.

If you need medication, take medication because this is my whole field. I don't feel like there should be a stigma or a judgment with it. If you need medication, take medication. And if you don't work on behavioral management, which is probably helpful for even if you are on medication, honestly. And if you take medication just to be clear, because you've been on and off it, it doesn't mean like you need to take it for the rest of your life. It depends, right? Just like with any medication, your body changes as you get older and your needs change. And like, it depends on how far farmed up those behavioral techniques can be. So maybe you'll need it.

Maybe you won't. It depends. If somebody came to your practice and you diagnose them with ADHD and they're like, I want to avoid the medication, you would say, okay, there's lots of tools we can use here. Cool, man. Yeah. First of all, health care is such a nightmare currently. Like, it's just not accessible. It's not a place that normal humans can go seek care. Like, the people who need it most are the people who have the hardest time jumping through the hoops. It's hard to get care in the first place. And to get good care is another layer of garbage on top of that. So I feel like behavioral techniques are accessible for so many. And like, we need. to be talking about those because it makes such a difference. That's how this journey on social media kind of started because I was like, I want to give people accessible tools if they can't get access to care. It makes sense then that we're seeing this rise in people self-diagnosing from TikTok because it's obviously much easier to scroll your for you page, say, oh my gosh,

there's a reason I feel the way I do than it is to find a psychiatrist, make an appointment, take the tests, all of these things. There is a huge barrier to entry there. Yeah, it's true. So let's talk about some of those behavioral changes. What lifestyle changes or habits, in your opinion, benefit someone with ADHD the most? In order to make good foundational changes so that your brain and your body work better, you need to know what your patterns are in the beginning. Because maybe you have some awesome patterns and those are good and sustainable.

And maybe you have some garbage patterns. And so it really depends. The first part of that journey should be looking at what you're doing. It doesn't have to be like this super in-depth thing. I mean, I kept track of it when I was in residency. My attending made me keep a log of like, when did you wake up? How much did you sleep? All of these other things that you think are part of basic human functioning.

And I liked that process so much because I felt like it opened on my eyes to like what I was doing so that you could see over time like what are your behaviors and what are your patterns. Once you figure those out, if you're like, God, my. focus was nonsense today. And I didn't have a single sip of water today. Okay, there's a hole there. Let's work on correcting that. And so number one, figure out what your patterns are. Number two, then, and that's not just like the basics in terms of like sleep and eating and things. It's also what is your mood? What's your hormone? So getting intimately aware with what your patterns are. Then it's a question of what do I need to fix and how? How do I need to fix it?

So once you isolate, these are my patterns. These are my problems because like if I was sleeping better, I would focus better. If I was eating better, if I was eating more regularly, I would focus better. If you're looking at all of those, then how do you correct it? And that's when I really utilize things like habit stacking. If you have something that you do every single day all the time, try to find a way to attach it to a habit. So just keep building on things. Like, for example, when I was taking medication, I had a really hard time remembering the

medication, which is like laughable because my life would fall apart without it at that point in my life. But I could never remember to take the medication. And so I wore contacts throughout medical school. I realized that I needed to put my medication by my contact lens thing. Because if I couldn't see, I need to put on my contacts because I will not be able to operate a moving vehicle without it, that would be the first thing I would see it. I'm like, oh yeah. And eventually, that became a habit and it became like a morning thing. But it started with like, here's a habit I

have established. What can I build on to it? So that's a really easy way of filling in gaps. Are there any other habits or practices that you personally do as you're managing ADHD with your behavioral modifications on like a daily or a weekly basis? I find hydration is really hard for me throughout the day. My brain doesn't work without water. I don't think anybody's brain this works without water. My body doesn't work. I get foggy. I get irritable.

I drink a full glass of water in the morning. And that's just like what I do first thing in the morning. It has made a huge difference. And if everything else goes offline and I can't keep it together for the rest of it. At least I've gotten in that one glass of water and it's kind of carried me through for some other things that help me are spacing. in between events because people with ADHD, it's a fine line. Number one, they want to get stuff done. They have a hard time getting stuff done. You're running up against deadlines and things like that. And so you see every open slot or spot of time. I could stick in something. But the problem with that,

at least for me, is that if I have no time to transition between events, I just get overstimulated, I get irritable. I do everything at like 30% when I could be doing one or two things at 100%. So setting aside time to kind of recalibrate in between. For me, that's a 20-minute chunk of time where I can transition to another thing. And I'm not preparing for the other thing or I'm not doing something because I would build that into some other time.

This is time simply that I block off to not do anything where I'm just sitting here. I'm drinking water. I'm eating since I've been working telehealth. If I have like a patient encounter and then I have a meeting, I'll use that time.

I'll make myself like a drink or an iced coffee or something and then I'll walk around outside. I'll take two laps around the house and then I'll go back inside. Just let your brain decompress so you can start the next event fresh. That's not something that came naturally to me because I was like, if I have time, I'm going to fill it up with something else that I need to do. But I would just end up with a whole like list of stuff that was half done. I love that.

I do something similar. I've started blocking a half an hour around any podcasts I have or anything that I really need to be focused for. I do a half an hour before and half an hour after that automatically is blocked off on my calendar because I felt like I couldn't handle that otherwise. Do you have any tips for moments that we need to focus? When you really have to dial in and focus, it's managing some of those external elements to make sure you're operating on the best possible footing. Like, make sure you've slept well, make sure you've eaten well, make sure you are hydrating well.

One of the things that I hate, and I know I probably shouldn't say this, but I hate exercise. I hate it. I absolutely hate it. It brings me no joy. I've never gotten endorphins from it. But I exercise sometimes because it makes my brain work better. Like I don't do it because I'm getting a summer bud, but I will do it because almost immediately my brain will work better. So if I know that I have something really big, like I gave a talk at a Fortune conference a couple weeks ago and I had an exercise for a while. And the three days leading up to it, I exercise just like 30 minutes in the morning every day. and I felt like my brain was permeating a little bit easier.

It was easier for me to think and be clear and regulate my energy and my sleep and all those other things. So using exercise, obviously you should try to do that regularly. But even if you use it tactically, that's good. Like a cute tool to use in the moment. What role does nutrition play in managing ADHD symptoms? Is there specific dietary recommendations that you make for clients or that you follow yourself?

It depends on the person again. The basics are like don't eat like garbage. You're eating a bunch of fast food. If you're eating a bunch of processed sugar, it's going to be harder for your body to break it down. And it's going to be harder to yield a nutritional value for that, which is really the fuel that goes to your brain. If you're already having a hard time with your brain not working in the way that you wanted to in a reliable manner, then giving it adequate fuel is what's going to help you. That being said, I don't adhere to a strict diet. If I'm craving Taco Bell, I will 100% eat Taco Bell. But it's not like, I'm going to have Taco Bell three times a day. Or I'm going to have Taco Bell every day. It'll be like, oh, I had Taco Bell craving accomplished. Maybe at some point I put a vegetable in my body today. Not that you necessarily have to counteract it, but I want to put enough fuel in there. You put Taco Bell in there too, but like put enough good stuff in there that your brain is going to work.

Yeah, that makes sense. there's like stuff I've seen online about like gluten or sugar or things like that impacting ADHD. Is there any research that strongly suggests we should be avoiding anything? No, other than refined sugars, there's a classification of foods that are inflammatory to the brain. Your brain doesn't like them. So processed sugar for some people, excessive dairy, for some people, it can even be things like caffeine. depends on how your body is wired, but there's some stuff that your body doesn't like. You will know this. You will know when you eat them because your body, no, thank you. So if you are

chronically ingesting that stuff, you're not going to think as well. Are there any alternative therapies that have shown promise in managing ADHD symptoms like microdosing or sort of the new modalities people are exploring these days? The problem is that everything is kind of poorly studied right now, right? So microdosing, there's no strong clinical data because for a long time it was federally illegal, right? We can't get studies on it. We can't look into this stuff with the kind of clinical dexterity that we have with other agents because we have limitations based on that. So we don't have a lot of good data on like new upcoming things.

There are things that potentially show promise. Like with TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation, there's some anecdotal evidence. show that it helps with mental clarity. But again, that's FDA indicated for treatment-resistant depression. Are you getting mental clarity because you're clearing the depression or that it's enhancing your ability to cognitively process better? So it's just we don't have solid evidence-based studies pushing me one way or the other. For any alternative therapies, like acupuncture or I don't know if talk therapy is considered an alternative therapy, but is there anything kind of out there that has been studied. Therapy has always been one of the things that people have said when you're

looking at treating ADHD, a combination of medication and therapy is what's going to get you to where you need to go, depending on the person. Depending on the ADHD, there's some people that don't need both. The recommended treatment modality moving forward is a combination of medication and therapy, if that's appropriate for the person. But therapy is always in there. I think that that is wildly effective. And I could say that both from a clinical perspective and a personal perspective. I think that working on those behavioral management strategies under the eye of a clinician or at least going through like a, it doesn't even have to be CBT, a processing tool, organized fashion of getting information about your brain, that is going to serve you beautifully. There's a lot of

data showing that that is effective. When you think about strength and resilience, like your ability to feel energized, to recover well, to stay strong as you get older. What do you think that actually comes from? Most people say working out or good nutrition, and yes, of course that matters. But there is a biological foundation underneath all of that that most people are completely overlooking. I have been diving deep into this lately with the team at timeline and what I've learned has genuinely shifted how I think about my own health. Every single movement that your body makes every step, every workout, every muscle contraction, depends on energy produced at the cellular level. And at the center of that is your mitochondria.

Here's the thing that nobody tells you, certainly nobody told me, starting around age 30, our mitochondria naturally become less efficient. More get damaged, more become sluggish, and over time that impacts your energy, your strength, your recovery, and your resilience. Most of us respond by pushing more. We're like noticing these things and we're adding in more protein. We're trying to fix it with more supplements. We're trying to do harder workouts.

And those things do help. But timelines research suggests that we also need to be supporting the cellular machinery underneath. And that is exactly what their supplement, Mitopure, does. It contains urolithin A, which helps your body clear out damage mitochondria and support healthier ones so that your cells can produce energy more efficiently. Because this is happening to your cells, it's going to impact your entire body, your immune system, your muscles. One study found that taking mitopure increased muscle strength by 12% in four months with no

change in exercise routine, it's going to impact your energy, your sleep, your skin, your cell health impacts all of this, and urolithineA keeps your cells healthy. Timeline has done over 15 years of research and testing on this one product, urolithin A, which, by the way, most of us lack the gut bacteria to synthesize naturally. That's why many of us need to supplement it to get the benefits. this has become a staple supplement for me. It is my top way to support how I want to look and feel as I age. Support yourselves and how you age with mitopure gummies from Timeline.

Visit Timeline.com slash Liz and save up to 39% on your mitopure gummies. That is timeline.com slash Liz. I'm genuinely confused how Masterclass gets literally the absolute top people in every single field to teach every single one of their classes. I use it when I want to learn things directly like the cooking class. from Thomas Keller has all of the wisdom that you would normally have to go to culinary school for. But also, I'm being honest, this is like a use case I don't hear a lot of people talking about. I'll just watch it for entertainment when I want to do something that's far more interesting than scrolling.

Christina Aguilera taught me to sing. Shan Boudrum's Art of Mastering Confidence and Sex Appeal class is 10 out of 10. There's menopause classes with leading doctors. There's script writing with Mindy Kaling. Literally, you name it. They're on masterclass and it is such a good way to get off your phone, but have some something that's like not quite as long or hard to get into as a TV show or a movie and that it just keeps you entertained and interested. And you are learning. There are over 200 classes from the

world's best all for just $10 a month when billed annually. And you get unlimited access to every class on the platform so you can learn at your own pace whenever you want on your phone, your computer, or even in audio mode like a podcast. If you're looking to stop scrolling and start consuming entertaining content that makes you feel excited and helps you learn, Masterclass is it. And the best part, every membership comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can start learning risk-free. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership at Masterclass.com

slash Liz Moody. That's 15% off at Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody, Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody. Is there anything you look for specifically? therapist. I know you said for a psychiatrist, look for somebody who specializes in ADHD. Would you do the same on like psychology today to find a therapist? Yes. One distinction I would make is that I am biased. So there's a lot of people who diagnose and treat ADHD. I am biased in that I feel like I want someone who has a high level of training in it. I want someone who is well versed in it, who's edict.

educated in the nuances of it. Whereas when you start moving down all the different clinical options for diagnosis and management, sometimes you'll start moving into a spot where they're like ADHD coaches and things like that. Be conscious of who you're picking, why you're picking, because there's some classifications of people who would consider themselves ADHD coaches who have zero training and not even adequate life experience to kind of propel and teach another person. Now, not to say, there's some ADHD coaches that I'm sure are fantastic and that are really, really well versed and able to navigate someone through those waters.

But do your research ahead of time. Don't go through this whole process, get led the wrong way and be like, what happened? You should know when you're going into it. You might not have an answer for this, but is there like a test question that we could ask coaches or clinicians or anybody that we're thinking about working with where if they answer in a certain, way, then we're like, oh, okay, they pass. Like, they're probably a good person to work with. I would ask them what their experience with ADHD is. And if they're like, I went through school for this and I went through this many clinical hours and I went through this and I've had experience, then cool. If it's, I have ADHD, then it's like, get out of here.

That's not helping me. That makes sense. Do you have any tips specifically for navigating the parts of society that really aren't constructed for people with ADHD, which is literally everywhere? but like school or work are the places where it's a little tricky to make those accommodations. So I released a book in January called Self Careful People with ADHD. I broke it up into like personal, emotional, all these other things. But there's a section for professional.

And it talks all about how to ask, not just what accommodations you can ask for, but like, how do you ask for accommodations? How do you break through stigma? How do you tread through the waters? And it's a bigger conversation, but it kind of. boils down to gauging what your number one level of comfort with asking for accommodations or what is the climate that you're asking for these accommodations. And then secondarily, what are you hoping to achieve?

So if you're like, I'm asking for them in a work environment that has historically been kind of caustic towards mental health in general and they're not super forgiving of it, maybe you don't disclose it. Maybe the way you ask for accommodations is not necessarily in the scope of like, because I have ADHD, I have to do this. Maybe it's like, I want to do my best possible work. So I found that if I come into work an hour early before it gets super busy, I can get a lot of work done. The reframing and rephrasing of that can sometimes be so effective and you're not even having to formally disclose.

So it just kind of depends on what is your climate? What do you want? And I think a lot of people don't know. They're like, I know this environment isn't working for me. but I don't know what to ask for that will make it work, you know? Is there anything that you find maybe not universally, but tends to be more helpful or that you've seen be more helpful for people to ask for? It depends on what is your job.

What are you doing? I mean, there's some things intrinsically that are never really going to be a good fit. You could ask for all the accommodations in the world, but like intrinsically, it's not it, right? You're not going to make this into a different environment. But if you're like, I really like this, but I feel like at times I'm overstimulated, or I really like my job. I'm gaining benefit from it, but I don't know how to manage timelines very well. Or, you know, things like that.

Once you isolate what the problems are, if there are feasible solutions within the scope of where you're working, then I think make those accommodations figure out where to go from here. If you're like, this is what would need to change in order to make this a usable and workable environment for me, but there's no way that's going to happen, then you've got to figure out something else. You might just get stuck.

Your book is called self-care for people with ADHD. I'm curious how in your mind self-care looks different for someone diagnosed with ADHD and then maybe if you could share some of your favorite self-care tips. Honestly, I feel like part of the reason I wrote the book is because when I heard that term self-care, my whole life I've been like, that's not something for me. I don't need to do self-care. I haven't done enough to deserve self-care. I don't want a bubble bath.

I do want those, but like I don't deserve a bubble bath. I don't deserve a massage. I haven't done enough. I don't need this. I need to work harder and that'll get me there. The book was about reframing for people, whether they have ADHD or not, it's for people that have a very busy brain. What does it mean to take care of your brain? What is self-care? It's not necessarily like doing those things that you've heard of like going get a manicure, get your hair blown out. It's more stuff like, hey, if you have five minutes, try to do a headstand. Like, that'll be. get blood permeating to your brain and that inversion is kind of calming and like stuff that has taken me my entire life to kind of figure out these are ways that you might not think are self-care but are actually taking care of you. Self-care is how do you cultivate the circle around you?

How do you explain things to them? How do you do things like that? So those are kind of the things that are in the book. I love the headstand hack or I guess just inversions because I can't personally do a headstand, but I can definitely like put my legs up the wall, you know? which is getting blood flow to my head. I know that social media has a ton of hacks that you would probably say are complete bullshit for people with ADHD. Are there any other kind of like weird hacks that in your opinion are actually helpful? I feel like tea is helpful.

That's kind of a hack. Some tea doesn't have caffeine. Some tea has a very low caffeine content, but it's also got L-thian, which is relaxing. So it has this unusual property of promoting a lurid. alertness and relaxation, but not a lot of things have. That's kind of a weird one. Let's talk about relating to people with ADHD and how ADHD impacts relationships. I got so many questions from people who either their partner was diagnosed with ADHD and they wanted to know how to best

support them or they felt their partner had ADHD and their partner wasn't diagnosed yet. How can you be a good partner to somebody with ADHD? And is there anything that we could do to encourage somebody to maybe take care of themselves in that way who isn't yet? That boils down to communication, understanding and communication. So number one, it's having the person understand their own internal environment, because you might see it. You might be like they have ADHD. They're like the most ADHD person I'm seen, but they might not.

They might not have an understanding that. If you see it and they don't, you're fighting a battle that isn't even on a battlefield yet, then it becomes like communication. So how do you bring this up to someone who isn't diagnosed or might not believe in diagnosis or something like that? And what I tell people is like low hanging fruit, man. Find something, find a piece of relatable content or something like that. Go on TikTok, go on Instagram. Find a reel that is like you show it to this person. And they're like, oh my God, that is me. I do that. And then you can open up that dialogue and be like, I know, I thought that was you. And that person is talking about ADHD and then I went down this whole rabbit hole.

Look at this video. And so it's putting it in a non-confrontational manner where you're placing information in front of them, but you're not saying you have this. You just have to crack the door open to start that dialogue. And that's the most enjoyable part of creating content on social media because I'm hopefully starting and giving those prompts for people. Yeah, people can just send one of your videos, one of your many videos. Is there anything that your partner does?

Like you are obviously diagnosed. You know that you have ADHD. Is there anything that your partner does that's helpful in you managing it? He does everything. Of every human soul that I have known on this plenty, he's probably the most patient person I know. I mean, I can see that and also how he parents are kids. That's who he is. He's really, really patient.

So that I think is very helpful for me because there are times where I will react kind of impulsively or emotionally. And he will give me that safe space to process it out and figure out what I did rather than responding emotionally or getting upset about something. And I feel like that is so rare. I've never had that with anybody that I've ever been in any sort of entanglement with before. Like even in platonic friendships, I feel like that's hard to find. So that's one really amazing thing. The other really amazing thing that he does well is that there is an allocation. of duties in the house. Because a lot of people with 80s-D, the partner kind of overcompensates and kind of like

fills in the gaps for them so completely that they fall into this like parent-child relationship, which is gross. I mean, not gross. I mean, it happens, but like, you're not going to want to have sex with that, right? So in that kind of situation, what we've done and what he's kind of instituted and has been helpful is that we've broken up tasks with like where our natural skills. are. So in terms of like day-to-day grind and waking up the kids at the right time and making sure they do all of their morning stuff and like putting them to bed and doing all that stuff,

he'll take care of. I can interject if I want to and if I'm in the fold. But like in terms of like setting up play dates for them and excursions and what to do on the day to day and encouraging them and we have teacher schedules where, like, I'm working on materials for them to kind of learn and explore and play and all that stuff. And summer things, that kind of stuff I'll be in charge of. It's just where our skill sets are. And I think we had to, like, actually critically look at that before we could do that so that one of us didn't feel a lot of resentment. So if somebody listening wanted to be the best partner they could be to their partner with ADHD, maybe being patient and giving the space for your partner to be who they are completely as much

as possible per point one. And then per point two, really being smart and thoughtful about dividing up the labor. So everybody has their task and everybody can kind of do their tasks within the areas that they thrive. Yeah, and just talk to each other. Like communication is probably the most important thing you can do because when you get silent and you don't have those conversations and you don't explore that kind of stuff, you can fall into routines that nobody's happy with. And then you start to resent the relationship based on that. And it could have been resolved if I just talked about it. I got a question from a listener whose partner had ADHD. And I thought this was an interesting situation that I wanted your take on, which is my fiance

has ADHD and something we actively work on is him maintaining focus when we're talking. Sometimes it makes me feel like what I'm saying is it interesting enough or important enough for him to stay locked in. but for him, he explains that it's not that. It's just that his attention gets pulled. So it's not my fault. She's like, I'm trying to be more empathetic to the way his brain is wired and not taking it so personally. Like he's intentionally not interested in what I'm saying while also communicating to him that I want him to be present with me. How should the partner kind of take care of themselves and not feel bad when their partners having these relationship impacts because of their ADHD?

Can I tell you I've had that fight before? I was the one spacing out. And David came up with something that I felt was so wonderful at that time. If there's something really important and I'm having a hard time, or if we're on take three of this conversation and he's like, you are not listening. What he's done is he's held my hand during it. And if I'm starting to pull away, he'll squeeze my hand.

And sometimes that physical pulse of him pushing on my hand will be enough to drag me back in. It's like in a very sweet and empathetic way. you're having a hard time listening. Let me pull you back in gently. It's very sweet, very tender, very loving, but it keeps me dialed in a little bit better. So that's just a nice little hack. I love that. That's a great tip. How can parents support their children with ADHD? Again, talking about it, being neutral about it, kids don't know, right? They don't know if something is bad or good until a parent assigns judgment to it. So being able to be neutral and be like, hey, some brains are wired this way and some brains aren't and we just deal with the hand we're dealt,

that is something that when you are able to talk about it and when you are able to move from a non-judgmental place, your kid can actually thrive and feel like they're in a safe environment to grow. First is if you have ADHD and it's a huge problem and you're being super disruptive in school and if you don't figure this out, our whole family's going to fall apart, like that's a lot for a kid, right? So it's more like, okay, well, you are wired differently. Let's figure out some different solutions, neutral.

If a parent is struggling with the decision about whether or not to have their child take medication, is there anything that you would say to them? Start with therapy then. Start with therapy. See how far you can go and then reestablish. And then if you could leave listeners with ADHD with just one homework assignment, something that they could do as soon as they turned off this podcast to start feeling as good as possible, what would it be?

My best thing that they could do is remind themselves of one thing they're super good at. Because with ADHD, a lot of times we get so bogged down with what our deficits are. What am I failing at? What did I mess up? Where is the problem? What's wrong with me? Right? That's the discourse I'm having constantly all day, every day.

It's literally in the name, attention deficit. Like, it calls attention to the deficits from the name. Yeah. It's a problem. So it's all day, every day. And I feel like I have to be really, really mindful to replace some of that negative self-talk with positive self-talk. It's easier with kids because you're doing it for them. And so you remind yourself to do it for yourself. But that's one of the things that I wish that in my 20s I would have done a better job at of just reminding myself of like, what are my positives? What am I good at? What are things that I love moving forward because it's so easy to get trapped in that negative.

This is a little nuance, but do you try to view it as positive things that your ADHD has brought to you or positive qualities about yourself despite your ADHD? Neither. Just positive qualities about you, period. I don't think ADHD needs to be involved because ADHD bleeds into a lot of facets of your life, arguably all of the facets of your life. But that is intrinsically just one factor and component of it's not you. That's not everything about you. That's one thing that you're managing and dealing with. It doesn't have to be in the context of ADHD.

It's just one thing that you like about yourself. Because even then, I have found there are times where I get so wrapped up in the negative that ADHD bring. I cannot find one single thing about me that I'm like, this is worthwhile. This is a good idea. And other people can say and kind of reaffirm that for me. I felt like in my 20s, a lot of people would try to replace that with, don't feel bad. You're smart. You're pretty.

And it's like those words mean nothing to me. And I don't believe you. And number two, I feel like you're pitying me. So it has to come from you. I also love the idea of almost like separating out your ADHD and be like, there's my ADHD and how it impacts me and how it impacts this and how it impacts this. It's like it's one part of the whole self. I think that's really powerful.

Can you just tell us a little bit in your own words, a little bit more about your book, anything else you're working on that you want people to know about and then where to find you online? My book is called self-care for people with ADHD. It was released by Simon & Schuster this January. It's available everywhere. I just sat out at a Target, and that was amazing. Oh, Target's a big one.

Target is a big one. I know. I'm almost positive. My mom called it in. However it gets there. It's available Barnes Noble. It's available in indie bookstores. It's available in Amazon, obviously.

And through the Simon & Schuster site, you can go and click, and it will show you all the different places. with prices. So that's great. And it's on Audible. I narrate the audio book. If you're not totally sick of this voice, that's an option. And then there's an ebook. And then we're in our final steps of development. We're actually just like putting finishing touches on an app called FocusGenie, which is a comprehensive ADHD management platform. So it is everything you need to do in order to manage your ADHD from a behavioral standpoint. It's incentivized. So it's kind of like playing a game and people tell me like you shouldn't need that to keep you moving forward but I do

I need it to be a game in order for me to kind of go about my life I love that super proud of it it's literally a genius idea thank you so much I'm obsessed with it and then on the internet you are the psych doctor MD I'm on YouTube and Instagram and TikTok well thank you so much for joining us today this is awesome you're just like full of information but you're also just like so much fun. So it's appreciated on both counts. Well, I really appreciate it. It was so fun. I've been looking forward to this for so long. So I'm excited. I hoped I lived up to your expectations, did I? A million, a million, a million percent. I felt like I was talking to one of my friends. So it was so easy. Okay. Excellent. Good to hear. How wonderful is she? I tried to pack this

episode full of every question that I could think of for how to know if you have ADHD, how to get diagnosed and lots of little tips and tricks to navigate the world. And I love Dr. Humdani's perspective on all of this, and I hope that you did too. If you like this episode, please share it with someone that you think would benefit. DM them a link, throw it in your family group chat, or mention it the next time that you see them. I know we all know people who are wondering if they have ADHD, who have a really hard time focusing and want to know what to do about it, who we think might benefit from talking to a psychiatrist about a diagnosis.

please shoot them a link. Sending a link to someone you love is a win-win. You get someone to talk about everything with. And it is the single best way to support the podcast. And it is so, so appreciated. If you're new here, if you're the recipient of one of those links, hello, welcome. I am so glad that you're here. Make sure that you're following the podcast on whatever platform you like to listen on. Just go to the main podcast page. That's the one that lists all of the healthier together episodes. and you'll see the word follow under the logo on Spotify, and then there's a little follow with a plus sign button on the top right of that same page on Apple Podcasts.

That way, all of the new episodes will show up right in your feed so you will never miss out on one. And you are definitely going to want to be following along because we have some amazing episodes coming up, including an episode all about actually healing your anxiety at its root, and one all about treating bloating, constipation, and other common digestive issues. So make sure that you're following so you do not,

miss out. Okay, I love you and I will see you next Monday actually because we have our once a month special advice episode and this one is so good. So I'll see you then on the next episode of the healthier together podcast. If you have headaches, allergies, brain fog, skin irritation or you've been dealing with hormone issues, you are especially going to want to listen to this ad. Every single thing that I just listed has been linked to chemicals and household cleaners. One study found that regular use of cleaning sprays was associated with a lung function decline comparable to smoking 10 to 20 cigarettes per day. Synthetic fragrances are a well-documented migraine trigger

and a number of studies have linked ingredients in common household cleaners to fertility issues, thyroid dysfunction, mood changes, and more because of their impact on our endocrine systems. Luckily, you can just make one simple swap and you can eliminate all of those risk factors that you get from common household cleaners. Branch Basics makes cleaning products that are plant and mineral-based, completely fragrance-free and made safe certified,

meaning they are screened against thousands of known and suspected harmful chemicals. And best of all, you literally use one product, but you mix it with different amounts of water to make your kitchen spray, your bathroom cleaner, your laundry detergent, your produce wash, your glass cleaner, literally everything. It does not smell. It does not give me headaches. It does not give me rashes or itchiness from clothes because you are.

Remember, we're using this for laundry. We're using this for literally everything. and it works so well. Everything gets so clean. And I know that I'm protecting myself from all of those long-term issues too. And I'm protecting my kittens who are much tinier than me. So anything they're exposed to has a much greater impact on their little tiny systems. And they're running around on their little paws and then they're licking them. So I'm protecting them too. Branch Basics is now available at Target.com, Amazon and branchbasics.com. So it's easier than ever to make the switch. And if you want to grab their premium starter kit, you can use code Liz Moody for 15%

off at branchbasics.com. That's code Liz Moody for 15% off the premium starter kit at branchbasics.com. And when they ask you where you heard about us, please make sure to mention the show. That is branch basics.com and use code Liz Moody. The number one rule of habits is to make the things that you want easier and the things that you don't want harder. Yet so many of us want to eat healthier, but so few of us actually take the steps to make eating healthier easier. That's where Marley Spoon comes in. What I love about this company and what's different than all of the other companies out there that are doing stuff in the same arena is that you can customize your choices based on the

effort that you want to put in. So if you want them to send you ingredients, so you can make your own 20-minute meal and like get into your chef energy, they'll send it to you to all be in perfect portions so you'll eliminate waste. Great. That's sorted. But they also have meals that you. You can just heat up.

They have ready-made breakfast, which is always such a tough time of day to get a healthy meal in. They have grab-and-go snacks. Everything is made from farm-fresh produce with high-quality proteins, and you can select by dietary preferences, including Mediterranean diet, which is the top diet that doctors on this podcast recommend. Also, things like gluten-free, dairy-free, low sodium, anything that you need. The food is so good and it's so gourmet feeling like you feel like you're at a nice restaurant. We're talking like chicken Milanese with a crunchy cucumber arugula salad or everything bagel salmon with truffle chive potatoes. My favorite recent meal was the creamy lemon chicken tray bake. I had one of those moments where I looked at my plate and I was like, wait, I made this.

And so quickly, like so easily, it's just so little effort for so much reward. Marley Spoon just makes eating well feel easy instead of stressful. And honestly, that is everything. This new year, fast track your way to eating well with Marley Spoon. Head to marley spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody for up to 25 free meals. That is right, up to 25 free meals with Marley Spoon. That is Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody. So remember to get the offer in there.

Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody for up to 25 free meals.