Translating ADHD

Navigate the challenges of ADHD as the hosts discuss frustration tolerance and emotional regulation. They share personal anecdotes highlighting how misaligned expectations can lead to emotional derailment, like getting stuck in Costco. Listeners learn strategies for coping with frustration, like breaking tasks into manageable steps and using written lists. The importance of detaching from specific outcomes to lessen emotional impacts is emphasized. The conversation encourages developing patience, realistic expectations, and resilience in daily life.

Explore how ADHD brains thrive on context, struggling with linear outlines and traditional learning methods. Discover the challenges of task execution without real-time dialogue and the strengths that contextual thinking brings, like creative problem-solving. Learn how coaching can reveal hidden values and assumptions, helping individuals align actions with what truly matters. The conversation highlights why classroom settings often work better than self-teaching, emphasizing the importance of context in understanding and productivity.

Asher and Dusty explore how ADHD-related experiences—repeated negative feedback, rejection sensitivity, and a focus on weaknesses—undermine self-esteem and self-worth. They explain how people with ADHD often dismiss abilities that come easily, assume others are more capable, and measure themselves by low moments rather than by peaks of high performance. The hosts emphasize the importance of recognizing ADHD patterns (peaks and valleys), valuing strengths that feel “too easy,” and reframing accomplishments so people see their role in their own story instead of attributing successes to luck. Those with ADHD also connect self-worth to relationships and boundaries: chronic people-pleasing and fear of rejection invite boundary-pushing others and can erode self-respect. Practical approaches offered include perspective work (imagining how you treat friends with flaws), inventorying where life already feels easy, and choosing relationships that match realistic expectations (e.g., not expecting people to be “on demand”). Together these shifts—understanding ADHD, celebrating strengths, setting limits, and changing perspectives—help rebuild healthier self-esteem and sustainable boundaries. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Asher and Dusty For more of the Translating ADHD podcast: Episode Transcripts: visit TranslatingADHD.com and click on the episode Follow us on Twitter: @TranslatingADHD Visit the Website: TranslatingADHD.com

In this episode, Asher and Dusty introduce and unpack a practical coaching tool—“yours, mine, and ours”—designed to help people with ADHD (and their partners or coworkers) distinguish which parts of a conflict or problem they truly own, which belong to someone else, and where there’s real opportunity to collaborate. Asher explains how the model prevents the common ADHD pattern of blame-sponge behavior (automatically assuming fault), restores perspective, and helps people decide whether they can co-create a solution or need to make a different choice (for example, stepping away from a job with an immovable boss). The hosts use real coaching examples—two business partners with different ADHD presentations and a client who left a job after recognizing her struggles were her boss’s responsibility—to show how the model shifts conversations from reactive guilt to clearer agency. Lastly, the hosts discuss how the framework helps in marital situations, especially when ADHD intersects with an anxious partner, by promoting healthier communication, individual pause-and-reframe strategies, and clearer requests for support. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Asher and Dusty For more of the Translating ADHD podcast: Episode Transcripts: visit TranslatingADHD.com and click on the episode Follow us on Twitter: @TranslatingADHD Visit the Website: TranslatingADHD.com

Explore the fascinating concepts of 'big brain' and 'fast brain' as alternatives to traditional ADHD labels. Discover how big brainers often get stuck in planning perfection, while fast brainers dive into action, sometimes overcommitting. Hear personal stories that illuminate these styles and their unique challenges. Learn practical coaching strategies to balance both approaches, emphasizing the importance of presence and meaningful connections. Ultimately, find the middle ground that fosters productivity while nurturing well-being!

Asher and Dusty revisit the core coaching model—understand, own, translate—and show how it helps people with ADHD move from surface symptoms to real, usable solutions. They emphasize that common tips (planners, timers) often fail because they don’t address individual causation. Through concrete client stories—one about “hard emails” that caused compulsive inbox checking and another about preparing for a job interview— they show how coaching discovers the hidden emotional or cognitive drivers, creates language that makes sense to the person, and builds actionable, personalized strategies (calendar blocks, transition rituals, playlists, prepping materials). The hosts also explore ownership and self-advocacy: accepting ADHD as an ongoing part of life without falling into “all my fault” or “not my fault” extremes; learning to separate past patterns from present progress; and translating self-knowledge into clear requests and boundaries with others (partners, coworkers). They describe how externalizing—talking aloud, journaling, or “talking at” someone—helps clients notice patterns, pause reactive cycles, and practice communicating needs so supports can be reshaped rather than expecting to simply “fix” oneself. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Asher and Dusty For more of the Translating ADHD podcast: Episode Transcripts: visit TranslatingADHD.com and click on the episode Follow us on Twitter: @TranslatingADHD Visit the Website: TranslatingADHD.com

Discover the transformative power of journey thinking to tackle overwhelming moments. The hosts emphasize staying present and curious, encouraging listeners to focus on small wins rather than ideal outcomes. Learn practical strategies to minimize workplace stress through manageable changes. They discuss reframing past experiences into successes and nurturing resilience by connecting with personal motivations. With helpful mantras like "I'm here now" and insights into decision-making, listeners gain tools to navigate their ADHD journey.

Ash and Dusty discuss how ADHD traits (hyperfocus, justice sensitivity, rejection sensitivity, and perfectionism) shape the way people approach allyship. Ash opens with a vivid story about feeling unintentionally objectified at a conference after coming out as transgender, illustrating how well-meaning curiosity and requests for education can put emotional labor on the person with a marginalized identity. Dusty describes common ADHD patterns—the over-eager ally who wants to demonstrate knowledge, the panic after a misstep, and the tendency to seek drama online—and explains how those patterns can derail genuine support. Both emphasize that intention alone isn’t enough: allies must match intent with respectful action. They offer practical guidance for managing capacity and making meaningful choices: focus on a few causes you can sustain, donate or volunteer locally, and pick moments where conversation can lead to real change instead of getting into futile online fights. Learn independently rather than relying on marginalized people to educate you; when interacting, meet people as people first and let them set the boundaries for how much their identity becomes the topic. Small, thoughtful actions (checking safety, providing accessible spaces, following diverse voices) often create outsized positive effects and are more valuable than performative gestures. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Asher and Dusty For more of the Translating ADHD podcast: Episode Transcripts: visit TranslatingADHD.com and click on the episode Follow us on Twitter: @TranslatingADHD Visit the Website: TranslatingADHD.com

In this episode, Ash and Dusty explore the intense overlap between ADHD and early gender transition, focusing on how sudden, widespread change taxes executive function and identity. Ash describes the real-world disruptions—wardrobe overhaul, haircuts, public outings, bathroom access, and safety concerns—that made routine tasks overwhelming. He discusses how ADHD can make introspection and identity work harder, and why finding queer and trans communities provides essential context, normalization, and compassion during that liminal period. He also addresses medical and emotional factors: the practicalities of hormone therapy (scheduling, dosing forms like gels that require stillness), how hormones can alter attention and emotional experience, and the increased need for logistical planning and accessible care. Both hosts emphasize the importance of supportive networks, adaptive strategies (including coaching and somatic outlets like kickboxing), and small, present-focused steps to move forward while navigating the fog of transition. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Asher and Dusty For more of the Translating ADHD podcast: Episode Transcripts: visit TranslatingADHD.com and click on the episode Follow us on Twitter: @TranslatingADHD Visit the Website: TranslatingADHD.com

In this episode, Ash and Dusty open the season by revisiting Ash’s transition and how it has intersected with his work helping people with ADHD. Ash describes transition as a liminal, between-states process that forced reexamination of identity, relationships, and public context. They discuss how coming out shifted social dynamics, revealed hidden “masks” shaped by social expectations, and resurfaced—rather than erased—questions about self that ADHD can complicate: weak identity formation, dissociation, sensory issues, and social coping strategies. The hosts connect these experiences to coaching practice, explaining how Ash’s personal work sharpened a professional specialty: helping neurodivergent clients clarify who they are so ADHD becomes more manageable in practical ways. Ash shares concrete moments that mark growth (feeling more able to choose how to present and when to be visible) and a culminating story from a concert that illustrated a change in belonging. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Asher and Dusty For more of the Translating ADHD podcast: Episode Transcripts: visit TranslatingADHD.com and click on the episode Follow us on Twitter: @TranslatingADHD Visit the Website: TranslatingADHD.com