Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

Join Tracy as she breaks her women only guest rule by welcoming Dr. Edward Hallowell to Episode 106 of ADHD for Smart Ass Women. If you know anything at all about ADHD you recognize Dr. Hallowell’s name as the leading authority in the field of ADHD. Dr. Hallowell is a board-certified child and adult psychiatrist, and a New York Times bestselling author. He, along with Dr. John Ratey wrote what Tracy considers to be the bible of ADHD, Driven to Distraction. Now retired from the faculty of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Hallowell has been featured on 20/20, 60 Minutes, Oprah, PBS, CNN, Today, Good Morning America, and in The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Time. He is a regular columnist for ADDitude magazine, and is also the host of his weekly podcast called Distraction. Dr. Hallowell is the founder of The Hallowell Centers in Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Seattle. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and their three grown children.

Dr. Hallowell shares the circumstances surrounding his ADHD diagnosis, Why he and Dr. John Ratey decided to write their new book ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction. Who he wrote this book for, Why most medical professionals have ignored the strengths in ADHD for so long, His opinion on ADHD and intelligence, Exciting research around the task positive network and default mode network and how you can use them to benefit the ADHD brain, The ADHDers need to create and constantly improve their life, Why those of us with ADHD should never worry alone, Where he believes the field of ADHD research and treatment is going, Whether he believes that there’s a relationship between introversion/extroversion and ADHD types, Why ADHD women have not been part of ADHD studies.

Resources:
Website: drhallowell.com
ADHD 2.0 Book: https://drhallowell.com/read/books-by-ned
Amazon: ADHD 2.0: https://www.amazon.com/ADHD-2-0-Essen

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ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

What if the intensity you’ve chased in relationships wasn’t love, but dopamine?

Amanda McCracken is an award winning journalist, endurance athlete, and intimacy researcher who was diagnosed with ADHD at 36, long after she had built a successful career. 

From the outside, her life looked accomplished and disciplined. Inside, she struggled with distraction, emotional intensity, anxiety, and a lifelong pattern of romantic fixation. In this episode, Amanda shares how ADHD showed up quietly in her life, from trichotillomania and overthinking to using extreme exercise as a form of self regulation, long before she had language for what was actually happening.

The conversation centers on limerence, a psychological state of intense romantic longing marked by obsession, idealization, and emotional highs and lows. Amanda explains how limerence thrives on uncertainty, making it especially powerful for ADHD brains that crave novelty and fast dopamine. 

Tracy and Amanda explore how rejection sensitivity, perfectionism, and trauma can blur the line between desire and self worth, and why many women mistake intensity for connection. Amanda also shares how chasing emotionally unavailable partners became an organizing force in her life, and how that pattern kept her stuck in fantasy instead of intimacy. She also had to confront a deeper truth: real intimacy feels quieter than fantasy. 

Today, Amanda is married to a securely attached partner and is the author of When Longing Becomes Your Lover, a deeply personal exploration of limerence, ADHD, and what it takes to receive love instead of chasing it.

Resources:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-mccracken-4716373 
• Website: https://www.amandajmccracken.com 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amanda.mccracken.39 

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If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

Some ADHD stories come from authors, psychologists, and researchers. This one comes from a 23-year-old ER nurse who learned early that the brain she has is exactly the one she needs.

Nina Padilla spent ten years trying to get someone to take her ADHD symptoms seriously. From age thirteen through twenty-one, she told her pediatrician every year, “I think I have ADHD,” and every year she heard the same dismissal: good grades and good behavior meant she couldn’t possibly have it. It wasn't until her last semester of nursing school, during a three-day panic attack, that she finally found a therapist who listened. At 23, she was formally diagnosed with combined-type ADHD and started on Adderall.

Today Nina works in the pediatric emergency room at the same hospital where she fell in love with the chaos during her final clinical rotation. She calls herself an energizer bunny, moving so fast that a pediatrician once told her, "Nina, don't fix whatever's going on up there." That was the moment she realized her ADHD wasn't a disability. It was her superpower.

In this conversation, Tracy and Nina talk about growing up emotional and misunderstood, finding your people early, seeking rejection on purpose to heal rejection sensitivity, and why the ER is the perfect place for an ADHD brain that never gets bored.

For any listener in their twenties who feels unsure about the future, Nina offers the clarity so many of us need at that age: follow what interests you, work with the brain you have, and stop chasing a version of “productive” that does nothing but make you miserable.

Resources:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nina_izabella

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If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

Gratitude is talked about a lot, but for us with ADHD brains it isn’t just a feel-good idea. It is a physiological strategy that changes how the brain functions.

In this episode, Tracy breaks down why gratitude is not optional for ADHD. It starts with dopamine. ADHD brains rely on positive emotion to initiate action, sustain focus, and regulate emotion. Gratitude spikes dopamine, boosts serotonin, improves sleep, and builds the emotional foundation that makes everything else feel more doable. Tracy explains how this loop works and why even trying to think of something to be grateful for is enough to start shifting your brain chemistry.

She also shares personal stories, including the impact of a daily gratitude practice, the “positive emotion dossier” she developed for A-OK, and the profound lessons she learned from a woman with ADHD living with metastatic cancer who embodied gratitude in the hardest circumstances. Tracy walks through the five levels of gratitude, the ADHD habit of scanning for what’s wrong, and how gratitude helps interrupt the spiral.

This episode is both practical and encouraging, giving listeners a clear understanding of how gratitude improves executive function, stabilizes mood, strengthens habits, and helps ADHD brains filter out noise. Tracy also explores how gratitude intersects with trauma and how emotional healing can lead to post-traumatic growth. If you’ve ever wondered why gratitude matters or how to build a practice that actually works for your brain, this episode offers tools you can use immediately.

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

Dr. Gilly Kahn spent years studying psychology before realizing how much of her own emotional world had been shaped by ADHD.

Dr. Gilly earned a Master’s in Experimental Psychology, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and built a full clinical practice before receiving her ADHD diagnosis in her early thirties. Looking back, the signs had been there all along: migraines that never made sense, intense emotional reactions, shifting hormones, and a lifelong habit of masking so well that even she missed the patterns. Like many of us, she excelled in school and in her career, which kept her symptoms invisible until they could no longer be explained away.

Now based in Atlanta, Dr. Gilly specializes in neurodiversity and emotion regulation, helping women understand the parts of ADHD that rarely get named. 

In this conversation, she and Tracy explore why women are so often misdiagnosed, how migraines and PMDD intersect with dopamine and estrogen, and why emotional dysregulation is often the hardest part for women who appear “put together” on the outside. Dr. Gilly also breaks down the science behind sleep, memory, and hormones, and explains why trauma is often confused with ADHD in clinical settings.

Her new book, Allow Me to Interrupt, brings clarity to the experiences so many women have carried silently for years and focuses on the emotional patterns that shape women’s ADHD, from hormonal shifts to migraines to the pressure to stay composed even when everything feels overwhelming.

Resources:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilly-kahn-m-a-ph-d-1996892b4  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgillykahn 
• Website: https://www.drgillykahn.com
• Article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kAg0EnN_nwN1cVTM3P9cyD1wFspLg71m/view?usp=sharing

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

When Susanne Schotanus was fifteen, she spent two years in weekly psychiatric appointments before someone finally said she had ADHD. No one explained what it meant or how to work with it. She simply left with a label that didn’t change much of anything. Years later, as a university student struggling to finish assignments she deeply loved, she realized she was still battling the same invisible barrier. That rediscovery set her on a new path that would eventually change how thousands of people think about writing.

Susanne became the first person in the world to call herself an ADHD writing coach for adults. Since founding her practice, she’s helped hundreds of writers finally finish what they start, find joy in their process, and rebuild trust in their creative voice. Her work sits at the intersection of ADHD research and the craft of writing, a space where emotion, structure, and imagination can finally coexist without friction.

In this episode, Susanne and Tracy talk about why consistency is a myth for ADHD writers, how perfectionism and shame shape creative blocks, and what it takes to repair a “toxic relationship” with writing. Susanne also shares how acceptance and play restore joy to the process, how writing can be healing when approached with care, and why ADHD creativity isn’t broken.

She reminds us that ADHD storytelling is not messy or broken. It is multidimensional, intuitive, and deeply human.

Resources:

• Website: https://passionatewritercoaching.com 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-schotanus 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passionatewritercoaching 

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

When Devene Godau adopted a retired racing greyhound, she thought she was just rescuing a dog. Instead, she found her purpose. What started as an effort to help an anxious greyhound with separation anxiety became a lesson in communication, connection, and compassion. Those lessons didn’t just transform her career; they changed how she saw herself.

A certified professional dog trainer with ADHD, Devene spent more than 25 years working with everyone from family pets to professional scent detection dogs for the TSA. She learned that dogs, much like humans, thrive when they feel safe, understood, and motivated — not shamed into obedience. Her work with scent detection dogs taught her that behavior isn’t about control, it’s about clarity. The same applies to people. Now through her platform The Distracted Dog Lover, Devene helps neurodivergent dog owners build stronger bonds with their pets using humor, empathy, and science-based, real-world strategies that actually work.

In this conversation, Devene and Tracy talk about why traditional training methods often fail for ADHD owners, what clicker training can teach us about communication, and how dogs mirror our emotions in ways that reveal what we need to work on ourselves. Devene also shares how gamifying training makes it easier to stay consistent, why sniffing literally boosts serotonin and calms a dog’s nervous system, and how the best kind of learning happens when you stop aiming for perfection and start enjoying the process.

Resources:

• Website: https://distracteddoglover.com 
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devene-godau-cpdt-ka-b696a71a0 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disney_devene 
• Gerty: https://thegerty.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqWlLvwRhiG3tP96j9mICCIcZSa98gj5w1YRsy4jUJxWbZZtk4W 

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

A 10-year-old boy sat across from Dr. Kalaki Clarke, MD during her psychiatry rotation, and she saw herself. Smart, charming, good grades but couldn't get it together. That's when she knew she had ADHD too.

Dr. Clarke was in her first year of residency at UC Irvine, working 80-hour weeks in a system designed to test you constantly. She'd been the good kid, the high achiever, the one who always kept it together. But in residency, surrounded by neurotypical colleagues, sleep-deprived, and constantly performing, the mask finally came off. Her 2015 diagnosis became a turning point, launching her into advocacy for physicians with ADHD. She helped craft equity guidelines for neurodivergent resident physicians, spoke at the International Conference on ADHD, and delivered a TEDx talk called "Seeing is Freeing: How Observation Releases ADHD Potential."

Now, as a board-certified family physician and Associate Professor of Medical Education at USC's Keck School of Medicine, Dr. Clarke spends her time providing care for underserved communities in Los Angeles while shaping the next generation of doctors.

In this conversation, Dr. Clarke and Tracy talk about what it's like to have ADHD in a profession that demands perfection and how "seeing is freeing" applies to both patients and physicians. Dr. Clarke introduces her CAT method (Capture, Analyze, Transform), a framework for turning struggles into strategies. She also talks about leading by example, why she came out publicly about her ADHD at work, and what it means to create space for others to be seen when you've spent so long feeling invisible yourself.

Resources:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmclarkemd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/this_md_kalaki/
TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKmRyxlas3I

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

You walk into a room and forget why you're there. You miss deadlines even though you care deeply about the work. You can remember a random conversation from 15 years ago but not what someone just told you five minutes ago. Welcome to life with an ADHD brain and a memory system that works differently.

Dr. Daniella Karidi knows this firsthand. Diagnosed with ADHD in college, Dr. Daniella finally understood why she'd always felt "off" despite being highly successful. A researcher who earned her doctorate from Northwestern University studying memory and ADHD, Daniella is now the founder of ADHDtime, where she works as a professional ADHD and executive coach. She's spent years translating complex memory research into practical strategies that actually work for ADHD brains and in this conversation, she breaks down exactly why our memory fails us and what we can do about it.

Daniella and Tracy dive deep into prospective memory (remembering to remember in the future), why time-based cues are terrible for ADHD brains, and the five steps where memory can break down. Daniella explains why we forget we took our medication, why she needed multiple cues instead of just one, and why she believes people who master their own memory patterns can finally stop feeling like they're failing at life. She also shares the grief and relief of late diagnosis, and why she'll never stop advocating for better understanding of how ADHD women's brains actually work.

Resources:

Website: https://www.adhdtime.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ADHDtime
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ADHDtime

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

Kiersten Lyons spent most of her life being told she was too much. Too loud, too dramatic, too many feelings all at once. She was also told she wasn't enough. Not pretty enough, not the right fit, not what Hollywood was looking for. The dichotomy nearly broke her. But it also became the foundation of her story.

As a working actress in LA for over a decade, with recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy and Mad Men, Kiersten kept hearing the same feedback: "You're great, we just don't know what to do with you." So she created her own work, writing and starring in her award-winning one-woman show Crushed. It was supposed to become a TV series. Then the producer ghosted her. 

At 42, while advocating for her son's ADHD evaluation, she finally got her own diagnosis and suddenly all those years of rejection, of being "too much" and "not enough," made sense. She understood why she could memorize all 50 states in under 20 seconds to impress boys (it didn't work), why she felt everything so intensely, and why masking had left her exhausted for decades.

Her debut memoir Crushed: The Boys That Never Liked Me Back opens with her fiancé confessing he didn't love her and had cheated at The Magic Castle while she was addressing their wedding invitations. Six months later, he won $100,000 on reality TV. Her life unraveled publicly, but the book isn't about revenge. It's about reclaiming yourself when everything falls apart. 

In this conversation, Kiersten and Tracy explore pattern recognition, rejection sensitivity, and why so many creative women with ADHD end up in industries that require constant validation. They talk about the loneliness of being the eldest daughter who takes care of everyone, the grief of late diagnosis, and why acceptance, not positivity, is what allows us to heal.

Resources:

Website: https://www.kierstenlyons.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kierstenlyonsroar
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kier

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com