I’m going to be very honest. This episode is a dedicated “b**** fest” on how hard it is to get the medication prescribed for ADHD. If any of you adults out there have been through this, sometimes it’s therapeutic just to let out all the frustration and feel seen and heard and commiserated with, and that’s what this episode is for.

You all should know by now that I take ADHD medication, but you may not know that I have two kiddos who take medication for ADHD as well. We each are unique and need different things to help us function at our best, and thankfully we have had access to insurance and medical professionals to diagnose us and prescribe appropriate medication. But even with all this support, I have encountered more obstacles with getting one of our prescriptions filled than anyone should ever have to endure in a lifetime!

Unfortunately, I’m not the only one. In this episode, I discuss the various obstacles keeping many of us from receiving ADHD medication and how there seems to be nothing but finger-pointing and petty excuses offered instead of real solutions to solve these issues. I encourage you to read some of the articles I mention, listed below, use tools like GoodRX to get coupons when possible, and communicate early and often with your doctor and pharmacy. At this point in time, no one else is going to advocate for your needs more than you can. It may put all of our impaired executive functions to the test, but darn it, we’ve struggled for far too long to not get the support we need and deserve.

While it in no way can take the place of medication and adequate trauma-informed therapy, I want you to know that my group coaching program FOCUSED can be another source of support for those of you looking for additional tools to address your ADHD. We see you, we hear you and we validate you. 

Resources:

1. NPR, “Adderall shortage forces some people to scramble, ration or go without”
2. NewYorkMag.com, “Where's the urgency on the Adderall shortage?” 
3. FDA.gov, “FDA approves multiple generics of ADHD and BED treatment”

Come hang out with me on Instagram HERE!

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My colleague and friend, Annahid Dashtgard, really elevates the podcast this week with a specialized look at racialization within the mental health space. I love that we’re able to broach this topic together as Annahid is so well-versed in creating safe places for people to have hard conversations.

Annahid is the CEO and Co-Founder of Anima Leadership, a consulting firm that helps organizations with everything EDI from diversity basics to advanced belonging.

Annahid has a special and unique perspective as an immigrant who’s been on the receiving end of racism throughout her life and also as someone with ADHD, having only recently been diagnosed in her 40s. 

Listeners can expect to learn a lot about the overlap of racial identity, trauma, and ADHD that many communities experience with very little understanding from medical and therapeutic professionals. The truth is, many racialized groups are largely underserved, underrepresented, and underdiagnosed. It’s not always intentional, but it is happening. 

I especially appreciate Annahid sharing her thoughts on how clinicians can do better to support these communities, understanding the stigma of mental health among racialized groups, and how the average white person can open themselves up to learning and honoring others without fear of making mistakes.

To glean more brilliant insights from Annahid, check out her two books:

1. Breaking the Ocean: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Reconciliation
2. Bones of Belonging

No matter your racial identity, I want to encourage any listeners struggling with accepting or living with their ADHD to check out my group coaching program FOCUSED. I think you’ll find that we are open, honest, and honoring as we all work hard to overcome our neurodivergent struggles and unlock our unlimited potential. 

Come hang out with me on Instagram HERE. 

Most of Ellen's life was spent feeling like a whirling dervish without direction. Everything was a struggle, from school to maintaining a job to arriving anywhere on time.

She learned how to use her big, bold personality to fake it and make it through, even though she regularly battled feelings of inadequacy, shame, and judgment.

Life, as it often does, hit Ellen hard with challenges through her young adulthood, and she found herself battling depression for decades. In hindsight, she now wonders if much of that heaviness came from being neurodivergent, misunderstood, and undiagnosed.

Ellen’s story is so inspirational to me because it’s a testament that it’s never too late to get an ADHD diagnosis and seek help understanding yourself better. Age and past failures will only limit you if you let them.

Surround yourself with a diverse community that will cheer you on, validate your feelings, and support you in the good times and the bad. If you’re looking for a group like this, I encourage you to come join FOCUSED.

Come hang out with me on Instagram HERE. 

Today's episode is all about how to be PROactive not REactive. ADHDers spend so much time putting out fires and reacting to everything happening around us. But if we're going to truly make forward progress on our own dreams and goals, we're going to need to put down the fire hose and start making some purposeful decisions. 

BUT HOW? Tune in how to find out:

1. How to create a vision even if you can't picture things in your mind's eye 
2. How to make a plan, even if it's only for the next hour
3. How to drop the drama around the timeframe (spoiler, it doesn't all have to happen today)

This is the perfect episode for you if just don't feel like you're moving forward the way you wish you could. 

And if you love this class, check out my ADHD coaching program FOCUSED for even more support.

Come hang out with me on Instagram HERE

Danica @theempoweredtherapist specializes in healing from attachment wounds, sexual assault, emotional neglect, vicarious trauma, intergenerational and identity-based trauma, and work or academic trauma. 

In this DEEP convo, Kristen and Danica discuss the following topics: 
Complex Trauma
Is it ADHD or CPTSD?
Attunement
Attachment
Somatic Experiencing
How to Identify a Trigger
The Complexity of Healing

Danica is a therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) in Dallas, TX. She co-owns Empowered Healing Dallas, a group practice where she provides trauma-informed therapy using somatic, relational, attachment, and parts work approaches to treatment.

Danica is passionate about support for therapists and provides counseling services, mentorship, supervision, and consultation to mental health providers looking for trauma-informed support. She is deeply invested in equity, social justice efforts, and destigmatizing mental health treatment, and utilizes her Instagram platform, @theempoweredtherapist to provide education and support to the broader community.

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I’m really enjoying these episodes with my FOCUSED community, and I hope you are too! Today, Sue Peters is with me, and we dive into the difficult world of chronic pain through an ADHD lens.

When Sue was finally diagnosed with ADHD in her mid-twenties, she had already identified that there was something different about her and had even tried reaching out for help. But ignorant and insensitive “experts” failed to give her the guidance and support she needed, which left her with a lot of rejection, shame, and emotional pain from childhood through young adulthood. Everything compounded when her family went through a scary surgery situation with her child, and one day she woke up with immobility and excruciating pain that changed the course of her life.

Sue and I discuss how things like trauma and emotional wounds can eventually weaken the immune system to the point of breaking down physical health, and how important it is to receive therapy and coaching in a way that’s sensitive to ADHD. Listen in to hear her incredible story of resilience with ADHD and chronic pain, and how she’s working through it all at her own pace, finding her path, surrounded by community.


Are you being treated for ADHD but still aren’t quite achieving your potential? Try my group coaching program FOCUSED and experience the difference.

Be sure to hang out with me on Instagram HERE.

Shout-outs:

@kamden_adhd 

Christine Hargrove is a a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Georgia whose primary focus is on exploring financial therapy and ADHD relationships - an important and rare combination! We very quickly realized one episode was not enough, so stay tuned for part two with practical tips.

Before we dive into money talk, Christine shares her own story about how she came to receive her own ADHD diagnosis. It was missed for years because people told her she was “too smart” to have ADHD. I especially love this part of the episode because I think it will click with a lot of people regarding the fear and feelings of defeat that can come with receiving or not receiving a diagnosis due to ignorant stigmas and misconceptions that have followed ADHD for years.

When it comes to finances, mental health experts often avoid the topic, deeming it too controversial or because they’re simply not money experts. And money managers are nowhere near equipped to support clients through the emotions, trauma and complicated feelings surrounding finances that many people have. 

As we’ve discussed throughout this podcast, so much of the work with ADHDers is in encouraging them to trust their own authority and ability to make decisions. This is one of Christine’s main focus areas in financial therapy - equipping adults to get comfortable with calculated risk and understanding that you don’t have to wait to make a decision until it’s perfect.

To follow Christine’s incredible research and work, visit her website at ChristineHargrove.com. And if you’d like to gain some confidence in decision-making with other ADHD adults, come join my group coaching program FOCUSED.

Come hang out with me on Instagram HERE. 

In this episode, I’m joined by my FOCUSED client Michael Johnson, who shares his ADHD journey that led him to being coached and now becoming a coach himself.

I love our conversation because Michael is so open and honest about his weaknesses and the self-discovery that led to him evolving into a much more self-aware and balanced person today. 

If you've struggled with horrible self-talk, disordered eating, and difficult relationships, this episode is going to be right up your alley. 

In case you haven’t had enough of ME talking about emotional regulation, Michael discusses from a client perspective why he truly believes it is the number one skill for adults with ADHD to learn. 

Do you ever feel that your ADHD symptoms aren’t actually the biggest problem, but instead it’s the layers of self-judgment and blame that you pile on top of yourself after noticing the symptom holding you back?

Have your lack of emotional regulation skills led to you self-soothing in unhealthy ways that keep you in a bad cycle?

Listen, share with friends and look into being coached by Michael at onethoughtcoach.com. You can find Michael on Instagram @michaelgarrettjohnson

Come hang out with me on Instagram HERE.

Maggie Patterson is a vocal advocate for humane business practices rooted in respect, empathy and trust. She’s the host of the BS-Free Service Business podcast, and the co-host of Duped: The Dark Side of Online Business.

In this episode we are SPILLING ALL THE TEA. Maggie and I talk about: 

1. Self help, cults, and MLMS
2. Scammy online business practices
3. Mystery offers
4. "If I can do it you can do it"
5. Steven Hassan's BITE model of culty practices
6. How to avoid getting scammed
7. How to be ethical (what does it even mean)

Maggie is the editorial director at Scoop Studios and the creator of BS-Free Business. With two decades of experience, Maggie has spent her entire career in client services and has been a successful entrepreneur for over 15 years. 

Maggie works with service business and agency owners to build bs-free businesses that put trust first in everything they do. 

To get in touch with Maggie, you can check out the following links: 

• BS-Free Business
• BS-Free Service Business Show
• Duped: the Dark Side of Online Business Podcast

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I’m very pleased to be joined by Kimberley Quinlan in this episode. Kimberley is a licensed marriage and family therapist, specializing in anxiety, OCD and related disorders. Some of you with ADHD can identify with having additional neurodivergent diagnoses, such as OCD, and you may have experienced some confusion in differentiating between the two.

As children, it was hard enough being diagnosed with ADHD and having a full understanding of what it meant for ourselves and for our parents. Now add in other disorders, and you can imagine how difficult and frustrating it can be for those who have been misdiagnosed, misunderstood and overlooked.

I myself have a child who’s been diagnosed with OCD and ADHD, with the former likely causing the latter. I’m grateful to Kimberley for allowing me to share a bit of my own regrets as a parent coming to a good place of understanding my child in order to get him the support he needed.

There are so many great takeaways from this episode. But the biggest ones I’m walking away with are that validation and reassurance are everything. If you’ve been considering an evaluation for yourself or a loved one, please look into it. It’s a vulnerable process, but intaking the right information can be so powerful.

You can find Kimberley at kimberleyquinlan-lmft.com. If you are looking for some support as an adult with ADHD, come join my group coaching program FOCUSED, where we lift each other up and learn from our collective neurodivergent journeys. 

Resources:

1. International OCD Foundation
2. CBT School
3. Podcast: Your Anxiety Toolkit - Anxiety & OCD Strategies for Everyday 
4. The Self-Compassion Workbook for OCD: Lean into Your Fear, Manage Difficult Emotions, and Focus On Recovery