Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

Tommy Metz III is a filmmaker and storyteller in Los Angeles, CA. He directed the feature film ‘30 Nights’, and his latest short ‘Static’ is going to be playing in festivals starting next month. He’s also an anxiety-riddled mess and co-host of What’s That Smell? A Sometimes-Funny Podcast about Humans and Their Anxieties. He’s here because he was dragged to be here in an effort to follow up on the last time he was here in May 2019.

Our purpose today? We’ve talked about emotional storms in the past, credited to James Ochoa. To start us off this week: what do you do when the anxiety storm hits, the cannonball of fear in your stomach? What causes it, connects those experiences, and how do you get to the other side of it?

Along the way, we talk about our “favorite” anxieties that have come up on the WTS podcast. We talk about the contagion that is anxiety and how easy it is to personalize others' anxieties and make them our own. Finally, we share a segment from episode one of the seventh season of What’s That Smell at the very end of this week’s show!

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast!

How's your relationship with food? Do any emotional eating lately? Feeling that magnetic pull to McDonalds? You think there might be any ADHD hidden in there knocking away at you? Nicole DeMasi Malcher is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and founder of eatingwithADHD.com, where she helps people with ADHD stop binge-eating and learn to have a healthier relationship with food and body image and she's going to help us all out this week.

Along the way, we learn about the role of a dietitian in your life and how they can help you build a better relationship with food. She helps us understand our relationship with diet, intermittent fasting and food rules, and how we can move toward healthier relationships with food by embracing gentle nutrition and intuitive eating.

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast

You know how it happens. You get your diagnosis and you start the research. Before you know it, you’re in such a search for tools and strategies to help you with your ADHD that you forget to live your life. 

This show is our reminder to you of a few things. First, you don't have to do everything at once. In fact, you might find you adapt more quickly when you research less, try fewer new tools, and slow down your ADHD adaptation. 

Second, it's OK to say no to things. In fact, you might just find a sense of excitement that comes from letting go of obligations. 

Third, well, Pete has a thing about time blocking. 

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast!

We did an episode on ADHD and over-talking a few weeks back and boy-howdee did you have thoughts! This week, we’re doing a listener feedback review covering how you prefer to manage — and help to manage — over-talking and ADHD in yourself and others. 

The feedback came in two broad categories. First, you shared your personal preferences in how you want others to treat you when you’re over-talking. That is to say, when people you’re close to notice that your stories are veering into ADHD tangent-territory, how do you want that communicated to you? How will you be best equipped to hear this sort of guidance without feeling shamed or judged?

The second big group came in the form of guidance for kids and families. How do you work with your kids or partner when over-talking overtakes family time? How do you instill a culture in your family where you’re teaching and building muscle around sharing conversation space? 

We got some terrific suggestions on the best way you manage ADHD over-talking and we’re thrilled to share!

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast!

Memory is not one thing, says our guest, Dr. Ari Tuckman, and ADHD might be at the center of your struggles with each component of memory at any given time. More important than understanding that ADHD and memory are sometimes troubled partners is understanding just what you can do to improve your odds when trying to remember the important stuff.

We talk about being kind to yourself and understanding that your memory challenges do not represent a moral failure! And Ari challenges head-on the notion that relying on reminders is a sign of weakness, that there is a difference between an alarm or notification and the motivation to do the thing the alarm is reminding you to do — one does not make the other a failure.

Links & Notes
Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon!

• Success Strategies for Adults with ADHD — Ari Tuckman
• Ari Tuckman, PsyD, MBA
• ADHD After Dark: Better Sex Life, Better Relationship by Ari Tuckman

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast

People with ADHD talk. And sometimes we talk a lot. We might be nervous or excited, insecure or scared; for whatever reason, these triggers cause our mouths to go right into overdrive.

This week on the show, Nikki and Pete talk about over-talking. What happens in social situations when you find yourself over-sharing? How about parties in which you reveal sensitive information? And have you ever been in a group conversation and didn't realize you were monopolizing the show? We've all been there, and this week we want to try to dissect why.

Links & Notes

• ADHD Communication Hacks
• Am I Talking Too Much? How I'm Teaching my Brain to Listen
• Don't Just Talk, Communicate
• Being Social and Making Friends as an Adult with ADHD

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast!

Today, we’re talking about the truth in all it’s shapes and colors. If you’re living with ADHD, you might find you have a sometimes-questionable relationship with the truth, whether you’re struggling to be one hundred percent honest about a project at work, or dinner plans at home, and whether you’re lying to others or to yourself in the process.

Dr. Norrine Russell is back with us today to share her experince working with ADHD kids, parents, and coaches in navigating the not-always-black-and-white rules of honesty we create for ourselves, and what we need to do to corrall our baser instincts as a result of fear and uncertainty in our lives.

Links & Notes

• Russell Coaching
• Asking the Right Questions about ADHD Before, During, and After Your Child's Diagnosis by Dr. Norrine Russell

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast

As our guest says it, a lot happens when you have a new creature to care for. The lessons that come when you’re facing the stressors of new parenthood might unlock some things you don’t know about yourself: ADHD.

Dr. Marcy Caldwell (ADDept.org) is director and supervising psychologist at Rittenhouse Psychological Assessments and is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been specializing in the treatment and assessment of ADHD and learning disabilities for over 15 years. She joins us today to answer some of our frequent questions about parenting and ADHD, from hormonal changes to how moms and dads each understand how ADHD symptoms emerge under the changes of parenthood.

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast

If you’re parenting a teen, you know the challenges we’re talking about today. And whether you live with ADHD yourself or not, those challenges are made even more real if your kiddo is living with ADHD. Today on the show, we’re sharing our own lessons learned when it comes to navigating the universe of parenting teens with ADHD.

The biggest lessons revolve around communication, awareness, and balance. But what are the major milestones that stand before you as a parent of a teen when it comes to getting the ADHD assessment? Preparing for college? Confronting life skills and deadlines? And, perhaps most important as a parent, how do you avoid letting your experience with school, ADHD, anxiety and more to color their experience and expectations with ADHD?

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast

This episode was a delightful accident.

It started with a conversation with one of our fantastic community members, Shoshanah Blaiss, how casually mentioned that she was running late for her session with her art therapist, and ended with a connection to that very artist, learning about her work, her process, and the incredible value that comes with embracing art as a channel to connect with ourselves across the neurodiversity spectrum.

Andrea Krakovsky is a teaching artist in Georgia whose work helps her clients to heal through the creative process. This week, Andrea leads us through that journey of healing through creativity — whether you believe you're creative or not — and how the physical connection with the media can help you learn about yourself while finding grounding in your ADHD, anxiety, and more.

Find Andrea at andreakrakovsky.com, and don't forget to check out the Feelings Wheel!

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast