Translating ADHD

This week we are delighted to present another special episode dedicated to exploring the lived experiences of people of color with ADHD by presenting an interview with ADHD Advocate Kofi Obeng. Kofi is a mechanical engineer who lives in South Carolina. He was diagnosed with ADHD in the early 2000s. He is a father of sons with ADHD and has become very involved with the ADHD community. He is a co-facilitator of the African American/Black Diaspora ADHD Group at ADDA. ADDA supports adults with ADHD. Join Cam in exploring Kofi’s own journey in discovering his own ADHD in college and how he has leveraged his knowledge to help his own children and the greater PoC ADHD community. Episode links + resources: Kofi’s Bio at ADDA ADHD Parent Advocate Rhashidah Perry Jones Interview ADHD Coach Inger Shaye Colzie Interview Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly 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

One of the biggest dilemmas we face in our professional lives as ADHD people is the when, what, and how of disclosing our ADHD. Through client examples and years of experience, Shelly and Cam discuss the opportunities and pitfalls of ADHD disclosure. The hosts focus on the rich middle ground between ‘share everything’ and ‘share nothing’ and how the Understand, Own, Translate work listeners are doing can be an effective resource. Cam and Shelly talk about the preconceived notions neurotypicals can have about the term ADHD. They also discuss how to share ADHD challenges in a way to promote connection and ‘conversation starters’ versus ‘conversation stoppers’. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly 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

Romantic relationships can present tremendous challenges with ADHD in the equation. Romantic relationships produce big, intense signals that can block out other things. This is especially true because of the emotional investment that comes with a romantic relationship and the emotional dysregulation that comes with ADHD. Shelly and Cam continue their discussion on ‘seeing oneself in the picture’ as they explore romantic relationships. We delve into how developing a healthy, meaningful, complimentary relationship with ADHD in the mix largely lives in Quadrant 2 (important, but not urgent). We also discuss how success is largely connected to the state of one's primary relationship and the impact that the state of a primary relationship has on the work we do with our clients and advocate for in the podcast.   Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly   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  

Personal relationships can often be more challenging than professional relationships with ADHD in the mix. Just remove all of the work related structures like role, goal and objective and add elements like emotional investment and historical baggage and watch out! Shelly and Cam continue their discussion on ‘seeing oneself in the picture’ as they explore personal relationships - typical personas like rescuer or bulldozer, common pitfalls like over extension or ‘making up for’ behavior and strategies to develop new understanding and exercise choice. They continue to  delve into the significance of concepts like expectations, needs and developing better personal boundaries. Finally, they look at the common challenges when neurodiverse individuals try to navigate relationships with neurotypicals. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly 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

Continuing their discussion on agency and advocacy, Shelly and Cam tackle the all important area of managing professional relationships. The workplace is where translating opportunities and challenges will be ever present. In this episode, Shelly and Cam share a number of client stories as they highlight the significance of setting clear agreements, managing expectations and addressing needs. They continue the ‘seeing self in the picture’ concept with more of a focus on the picture part - is what is being asked reasonable or even feasible?  The discuss the challenges of negotiating from a perceived ‘one-down’ mindset many of us with ADHD experience. Finally, Cam and Shelly introduce the phenomenon of a gap between one’s internal dialogue and their external behaviors - the pitfalls and opportunities presented here. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly 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

This discussion dives into defining roles and recognizing personal value, especially for those with ADHD. The hosts stress the importance of aligning strengths with career paths while emphasizing the need for self-awareness in the workplace. Listeners are encouraged to navigate agency, set healthy boundaries, and engage in meaningful relationships. Co-creating in conversations is highlighted as a vital skill for clarifying needs and expectations. Real-life client examples showcase how to implement these concepts effectively.

As ADHD people, we can be so focused on the biggest signals that we lose ourselves in our own pictures. This week on the Translating ADHD podcast, Cam and Shelly pivot to introduce a new concept of agency and advocacy that will inform the next several episodes from articulating needs in relationships to whether to disclose your ADHD at your workplace. The definition of agency we introduce is the social science definition that includes acting independently and exercising free choice. Often there are two camps when it comes to navigating conventional (and neurotypical) societal norms - to reject them wholeheartedly or to attempt to assimilate fully. We see agency as a path to navigate a rich middle ground. Cam and Shelly also discuss their upcoming group coaching class Navigating the Lunch Counter and Cam shares a story of deliberately losing his executive functioning in the middle of the produce section of Wegmans Grocery. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly 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

As ADHD people, we pay most attention to the the things that generate the biggest signals. This week on the Translating ADHD podcast, Cam and Shelly continue our conversation on the ADHD signal-based attention system. We look at several ADHD coaching client scenarios in this episode. Through these scenarios we examine how big signals can disrupt. We then look at how our work to help our clients access the more subtle signals gave nuance and clarity to the situation. This clarity ultimately leads to positive outcomes as it disrupts the binary all or nothing, black or white thinking and allows us to engage in creative problem solving and to be at choice. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly 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

As ADHD people, we pay most attention to the the things that generate the biggest signals. This week on the Translating ADHD podcast, Cam and Shelly discuss how big positive signals can be as disruptive here as big negative signals. We discuss how listeners can build awareness around big positive signals, including our tendencies as ADHD people to use positive signals to avoid negative ones and to hyperfocus on positive signals to the detriment of other important but more subtle signals. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly 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

As ADHD people, we pay most attention to the the things that generate the biggest signals. This week on the Translating ADHD podcast, Cam and Shelly continue working with the stress response metaphor we introduced last week. We discuss how listeners can use this metaphor as a way to build awareness around the stress response and to leverage that awareness to have a different experience with the types of dilemmas that cause us to end up in fight, flight, or freeze. Episode links + resources: Join the Community | Become a Patron Our Process: Understand, Own, Translate. About Cam and Shelly 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