Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Finding your ADHD recharge at the end of the day Oct 08, 2019

Show notes

Living with ADHD can be exhausting. But even at the end of a long day, responsibilities pile up. How do you recharge to stay focused... when your focus has lost its focus?

This week’s show is anchored around a recent article by friend-of-the-show Casey Dixon. Her ideas were inspirational for us and spurred our conversation today. Plus, thanks to a listener question, we get to wax dreamily about our ideal ADHD home!

Links & Notes

‘How to Recharge your Tired Brain After Work’ by Casey Dixon

(00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast
(01:31) - Follow-up: Job Lock-in
(06:08) - Listener Question: The ADHD Dream Home?
(10:37) - Pete is all-in on 3m Command Strips
(13:04) - Pinterest
(16:12) - Support the Show
(17:20) - Energy After Hours with ADHD

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Is it time to find a different job? Oct 01, 2019

Show notes

The connection between work satisfaction and ADHD is pretty clear if you’re living through the frustration. There are all kinds of reasons to leave a job, but taking the actual step of resigning is one best approached with a clear head. This week on the show, Nikki and Pete share a set of questions that can help you frame your own perspective at work and help find clarity in your desire to leave, or stick it out and work for change.

Nikki’s list of probing questions:

What’s causing you to even think about this question?
How much do you complain about your job? What do you complain most about?
How would you describe your relationship with your boss?
What about co-workers?
If you were still doing this job 2 years from now, would be happy or mad?
Are you holding on to your current job because you are afraid of change?
Are there more things you like about your job than not like?
Can you live with what you don’t like?
Is it possible to change some of the things you don’t like?
Do you feel supported at your job, do you see opportunities for growth?
How does your job affect your physical and mental health?
Can you afford to quit your job before finding a new one?
Do you feel like you have a good work and life balance?

(00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast
(01:02) - Support the Show
(02:48) - Listener Question: Bringing up ADHD with people who don't know they have it
(09:00) - Is it time to look for a new job?

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Day Zero Sep 24, 2019

Show notes

There are signs in certain kinds of organizations that document the last time staff their experienced an incident. Any sort of incident that leads to work stopping counts, and as soon as it happens, the sign gets reset and everyone starts over at Day Zero. “This facility has worked [0] Days without incident,” the sign says.

If there’s anything in our lives that can cause work to stop unpredictably, uncontrollably, sometimes even unconsciously, it’s ADHD. What do we do so that we can reset our own sign to Day Zero? This week on the show, Pete and Nikki take an incident response approach to ADHD with a focus on mindfully controlling what you can control, not lying to yourself, and moving forward. Every bad day has a day zero right around the corner.

(00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast
(03:16) - Sponsor: You. The ADHD Patrons
(05:55) - Day Zero.

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The Procrastination-Anxiety Loop Sep 17, 2019

Show notes

The idea that individual ADHD symptoms exacerbate one another isn’t new to those of us living with the diagnosis. But what happens when symptoms collude to create cycles of behavior and responses? The results can be vastly more damaging than any individual symptom on its own.

That’s the question that comes from a listener today: how do you navigate the procrastination-anxiety loop that emerges when hyperfocus and disinterest collide head on? This week on the show, Nikki shares background on the conditions that allow this sort of hyperfocus and procrastination to occur, and tools to shape a response before it happens again.

Links & Notes

Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon!

(00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast!
(01:19) - Sponsor: YOU!
(03:05) - The Procrastination-Anxiety Loop

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Finding focus, listening to the right voices, and getting out of your own way with Brett Terpstra Sep 10, 2019

Show notes

Brett Terpstra is a software developer, author, and podcaster and his work has been the subject of Pete’s technology fever dreams for years now. Brett is also unusually candid about his experience living with ADHD and bipolar disorder and after years of processing in public, he’s managed to figure some things out… others, a mystery.

This week on the show, Brett joins us to talk about his experience living and working with ADHD. He shares his experience in learning how to live with his shadow, and how to forgive when the shadow takes control. This is a show about the voices that we listen to, and those that we learn to avoid as we wake up and get moving with ADHD.

Links & Notes

Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon!

(00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast
(01:10) - Listener Question Time! What did I do this weekend...?
(04:57) - What are our favorite books?
(08:25) - Sponsor: Audible
(09:13) - Introducing Brett Terpstra
(15:42) - The Diagnosis
(18:59) - The ADHD Circle of Grief
(21:00) - Listening to the Voices
(23:42) - Candor and the life of a D-List Celebrity
(26:20) - Life partner, communication, and "the blurts"
(28:06) - Physical health, drug addiction, and ADHD
(35:32) - Brett's Work
(36:54) - Brett lives Markdown **hard**
(39:23) - nvUltra — Coming Soon
(42:08) - Finding Brett Terpstra

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The Meal-Planning Episode! Sep 03, 2019

Show notes

It’s one of the most important routines you can manage. Getting it right means you’re impacting every area of your life in some way. You’ll feel better, you’ll think more clearly, you might even be better looking. OK, we can’t guarantee that last one, but you’ll feel better looking!

What is this magic routine? It’s meal planning. Figuring out how to best strategize the food you bring into your home and creating smart habits around eating it is both challenging, and deceptively simple at once. But it turns out that if you’re working to build good living systems for your ADHD, you likely already have the skills you need to make meal-planning successful for yourself and your family!

Links & Notes

(00:00) - The ADHD Podcast — Meal-Planning
(01:30) - Sponsored by YOU at Patreon.com/TheADHDPodcast
(02:57) - Meal-planning and ADHD
(04:54) - Soylent... when you've given up on food all together
(06:46) - The Routine of Meal-Planning
(09:14) - Pete's Family Whiteboard
(11:43) - Nom Nom Paleo
(13:52) - Nikki's Routine
(14:39) - Paprika the App
(19:44) - Family Planning and Simplicity
(26:12) - Delivery Services
(32:42) - Pre-prep
(33:46) - Instant Pot

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Setting Up New Routines Aug 27, 2019

Show notes

Sure, we’re in the middle of our back-to-school series. But whether you’re heading back to school or just getting ready for the seasons to change, there’s never a better time to review your routines. From daily hygiene to writing that next report, this week on the show Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright take on the components of a great routine, and the mindset you’ll need to cultivate to make it stick.

Links & Notes

Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon!

Sponsor: Audible — sign up for a new account and get a free book on us! This month’s recommendation: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande.

(00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast
(01:26) - Sponsor: Audible
(03:28) - Setting Up New Routines
(07:36) - Begin with the end in mind
(19:36) - Consistency
(24:02) - Support The ADHD Podcast on Patreon

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Working with Instructors Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

If you’ve ever tried to engage in a discussion of your ADHD with a busy professor and run into frustration, you’re not alone. This week, we asked a group of instructors what they would like to hear when working with ADHD students and the results were puzzling, frustrating, dare we say disappointing? But there’s room for hope thanks to some enterprising student services folks and a general spirit of educators that really do want the best for their students. This is an episode about confronting lack of experience in a slow-moving educational system and an effort to get what you need out of your educational career.

Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon!

(00:00) - Welcome to the ADHD Podcast
(01:43) - Find the Show
(02:02) - Opening Question: How do you handle online courses with ADHD
(08:20) - Sponsor: You! At Patreon.com/theadhdpodcast
(09:47) - The Faculty Perspective
(14:42) - Three Lessons
(18:54) - A dose of optimism
(21:33) - The Research
(25:06) - Recommendations from Student Services: How you can help yourself
(30:41) - Painful reality: the social and communication skills paradox
(34:13) - On notes
(36:20) - Universal Course Design

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ADHD and Student Accommodations in College Aug 13, 2019

Show notes

Asking for help is hard, sure. But have you ever stopped to ask why it’s hard for you? See, asking others for support is hard for each of us in a different way. Maybe we live with the anxiety that others will judge us for not being competent in some are or another. Maybe we believe they’ll think we’re not as smart as they are, or as they thought we were. Maybe we struggle with the logistics of asking for — and taking advantage of — help from another.

Until you figure that out, you’re going to have a tough time marching into your office of disability services to ask for the support you deserve as you make your way through school with ADHD. This week on the show, Nikki and Pete take on the myths and misunderstandings about ADHD accommodations in college, starting with the old saw, “accommodations make for an unfair advantage.” But that’s not all! You’ll end with a guide to the sort of language you can use to reach out to your instructors and professors to explain your needs, advocate for yourself, and set yourself up for success.

(00:00) - The ADHD Podcast for 2019-08-13
(04:42) - The Stigma Around Asking for Help
(22:50) - Your First Day of School
(26:43) - Expect the 5-Year Plan

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Winning with ADHD with authors Grace Friedman and Dr. Sarah Cheyette Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

Grace Friedman was diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at twelve years old, wrote her first book about it at 15, and now she’s an advocate for young people with ADHD and founder of the ADDYTeen.com community. Dr. Sarah Cheyette is a pediatric neurologist and expert in working with kids with ADHD. Together, they have written Winning with ADHD: A Playbook for Teens and Young Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and they’re here to talk with us about their journey on the show this week.

Links & Notes

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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