Something Shiny: ADHD!

David and Isabelle explore the myriad injuries and ponder the links between clumsiness and ADHD--is it because we're clumsy (which there are some fascinating links) or do we try and do too much? And speaking of doing things we don't want to do, but we care about doing, how does chunking help? All this, plus how we try to win by getting all the groceries in the house in one trip. ----- Isabelle rec...

In honor of summer travel plans and it's own type of holiday magic, we revisit this classic (Episode 038): How do you survive traveling with ADHD? What about traveling with children, particularly small children? And what happens when you find yourself rushing, leaving things until the last minute, and forgetting your charger once again? David and Isabelle swap stories and share specific tips to tr...

We replay one of our favorites (Episode 022): Are folx with ADHD made to be night owls? Or early birds? Or does your early bird/night owl setting, which feels so engrained in your personality, actually have more to do with giving yourself distraction-less time? David and Isabelle explore myths, misperceptions, and truth bombs about the nature of sleep and ADHD, including tips on setting up your mo...

David and Isabelle are joined by two fellow therapists who have ADHD, Caily & Sarah. They talk about how much shame we carry around our bodies and how that impacts so much of our wellness, the way women's pain and experiences are minimized and questioned, the need to stop protecting men from discomfort, and what advice they would give their younger neurodivergent selves. (Part IV of a series)...

David and Isabelle are joined by two fellow therapists who have ADHD, Caily & Sarah. They talk about how we don’t talk about hormonal changes and their impacts on ADHD enough: in short, your hormones change your ADHD symptoms during your menstrual cycles, pregnancies, post-partum, and into menopause. They cover PMDD, postpartum depression and anxiety, and a whole host of ways neurodivergent—an...

David and Isabelle are joined by two fellow therapists who have ADHD, Caily & Sarah. They talk about how ADHD and anxiety can go hand in hand in women with ADHD, how anxiety and discouraged anger relate, how gender norms for women set up neurodivergent women to mask, and the value of just TAKING AWAY THE CHAIR. All this in twenty-some minutes? Believe it. (Part II of a series) ----- David and...

David and Isabelle are joined by two fellow therapists who have ADHD, Caily & Sarah. They talk about how they came to feel something was wrong with them, or the system around them, how girls are often socialized to mask impulsiveness or hyperactivity, and how stereotypes around ADHD impact all gender expressions. (Part I of a series) ----- After a technical difficulty, David and Isabelle reint...

David and Isabelle continue their conversation with poet, speaker, and activist for people with disabilities, LeDerick Horne—and get to hear him recite some of his incredible spoken word poems. They talk about how songs taught them to spell, the power of oral traditions, and an incredible school in Kenya that expanding education and access for those with disabilities. Seriously, his poetry will gi...

David and Isabelle continue their conversation with poet, speaker, and activist for people with disabilities, LeDerick Horne—from how the LD/ADHD community often generates it’s knowledge base from peers and social media, to losing resources by ignoring people, to recognizing that the suffering is real and the urge to help someone not suffer as you did has a big fancy psychology term for it (transm...

David and Isabelle continue their conversation with David’s dear and incredible friend, LeDerick Horne—a poet, speaker, and activist for people with disabilities. From vision boarding your IEP, to the importance of near-peer mentors and role models who have walked a little further down the LD/ADHD road, to accommodations and frustrations in LeDerick’s multiple roles (as businessperson, activist, p...

David starts by introducing his incredible friend—poet, speaker, and advocate for all people with disabilities, LeDerick Horne . He uses LeDerick’s own advice about introducing people: think of the last time you saw them and then why they’re here now. David last remembers walking with LeDerick on a cold Chicago day after eating delicious Ethiopian food and talking up a storm almost a year before t...

Here's a REPLAY of good ol' episode 11 to help ease your transition into 2023-with new episodes coming soon! -- Why do some of us minimize and reduce the number of choices while others seek excitement and novelty? Why do some of us need everything listed out while others need to just try something blindly? The secret? Different types of ADHD and different ways our ADHD shows up in different enviro...

(originally episode 08! rerun for your holiday break enjoyment!) How do we separate a task from our emotions about it? Especially when it comes to our own battles with procrastination ? Isabelle is struggling with this and Bobby, her husband, is curious to hear more. David breaks it down like this: let’s say the task is running 5 miles in 60 minutes, which sounds very hard to Bobby. Does it matter...

How do you survive traveling with ADHD? What about traveling with children, particularly small children? And what happens when you find yourself rushing, leaving things until the last minute, and forgetting your charger once again? David and Isabelle swap stories and share specific tips to traveling and also discuss WHY ARE THERE SOCK NUBBINS AND TAGS. Seriously. ----- There can be so much pressur...

How do you survive family dinners? Sitting at a table until everyone is done? Overstimulation? Sticky conversations and setting boundaries?  David and Isabelle talk concrete tips for getting through the holidays, and even enjoying them—and the truth behind ear worm songs’ lyrics that may pop your Thanksgiving Day Parade Spiderman balloons.  ---- David and Isabelle name that any time you’re meeting...

Why are some of us anxious and some of us excited (or a combo platter of both)? And is it possible to turn anxiety, or anger, or shame spirals, into something else?  David and Isabelle swap stories, talk transgenerational trauma, and get curious about how we are socialized to mask and behave...and that perhaps the solution for being overly apologetic lies in the midwestern gem: "ope.” -----  Isabe...

The first thing David wants to talk about how amazing Dolly Parton is , how he’s heard more amazing things that she’s done in the last six months and it blows his mind.. Isabelle references the podcast Dolly Parton’s America, about how Jad Abumrad’s (of Radiolab’s) dad befriended Dolly Parton, and just how beloved she is and why that might be. David names Imagination Library, which gives free book...

David describes how when we hyper focus and launch ourselves into something, it can be hard to finish, because the hardest part is behind us. He heard then governor Gavin Newsom speak and he describe how there comes a point in running where you just have to keep kicking, you keep kicking your feet forward. For neurodivergent folx to recognize that we have to sit through the hard thing and just do...

Isabelle and David check in and Isabelle describes trying Pickleball, and the way that physical activity is wonderful but you don’t know you’re tired until it’s too late. David and Isabelle then try something new, in that they are revisiting their previous episode and what it brought up in each of them. David listened to the preview of the previous episode ( Ep032: When is hyperfocus your friend?...

What about a task that doesn’t have a sense of doing it well? You do it or you don’t do it, like earning money, or getting that job, or buying a house? The only thing that’s reinforced are tasks toward goal completion. What could I do today that would move me toward that goal? The  only question: is it moving toward my goal? If so, it’s effective (or if not, not effective), rather than good or bad...

David takes us back to second grade and playing following the leader, where you do the same maneuver on the jungle gym that the ‘leader’ did. He always felt his leadership was undervalued. It was finally his shot to be the leader and he wasn’t going to waste it—he is up way high in the air and looks down and says “Follow the leader!” And he lands with both feet about 15 ft down onto the wooden bea...

Isabelle & David welcome Isabelle’s husband, Bobby, and their friends, Christina, AJ, and Gabe, to continue to listen and learn from David’s tried and tested presentation on ADHD, which he normally gives to fellow clinicians (for the 1st-9th parts of this talk, please see episode 4, All About ADHD Part I; episode 6, All About ADHD Part II; episode 9, All About ADHD Part III; episode 12, All Ab...

David asks: what about brushing your teeth and things that don’t have immediate gratification, necessarily, but you have to do them over and over again? How do you motivate yourself to do them? It’s preventative-you don’t see what you save, you don’t know what Past You did for Future You when you’ve brushed your teeth. David’s answer is to outsource a lot of decisions that he doesn’t want to make...

David begins by naming that dealing with a lot of a frustration is part and parcel of ADHD—and yet, we don’t want to make everything easy, some things are supposed to be hard. Essentially, there is a certain amount of frustration and discomfort that someone with ADHD has to be ready to experience. Isabelle is hit with that and explains that frustration tolerance is how much discomfort we can handl...

Isabelle & David welcome Isabelle’s husband, Bobby, and their friends, Christina, AJ, and Gabe, to continue to listen and learn from David’s tried and tested presentation on ADHD, which he normally gives to fellow clinicians (for the 1st-8th parts of this talk, please see episode 4, All About ADHD Part I; episode 6, All About ADHD Part II; episode 9, All About ADHD Part III; episode 12, All Ab...