Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

It’s NANOWRIMO TIME! Every year, writers of all sorts come together to contribute to the writing madness that is National Novel Writing Month. The goal: write 50,000 words toward a novel in 30 days. Pete has been participating in NaNoWriMo in some fashion or another since 2003 and will once again be picking up the pen on November 1 to write another book. And... It’s hard. Really hard. Today on the show we thought we’d use this opportunity to talk about Big Audacious Goals (BAGs) … how are they different from work projects? How do you set yourself up for success? How do you prioritize something that’s important to you when you’re the only one who actually cares about it?The approach is a little different this week. Pete is going under the guidance of Coach Nikki to reframe his experience with goal setting, shame, and what it means to be successful. We hope the demonstration with a real life project that Pete cares about a lot is a good example for how you might tackle your own Big Audacious Goals! And if you’re interested in joining us for the NaNoWriMo write this year, make sure you join us in Discord and introduce yourself in the #nanowrimo-2021 channel! The channel is in the public area in the community server so you don’t have to be a supporting patron to join. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (05:35) - Nano-nano (08:19) - Let's Talk About BAGs. 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

We’re wrapping up ADHD awareness month with just one more message dedicated to everyone puzzling their way through a brand new diagnosis of ADHD. You know who you are. You now have words to describe what you’ve been living through all these years and you’re eagerly downloading every journal article and book about ADHD. You’re listening to podcasts just like ours and you’re drinking from the proverbial fire hose every chance you get. Here’s a secret: that actually gets tiring. It gets overwhelming, too. You might not think it right now, but at some point, you’re going to wear out, get distracted, and move on to something else. And the person that’s going to impact first is you. This week on the show, frequent guest James Ochoa is back with us to help us figure out how to build the team. Who do you need to look to for direct support and what do you need to beware of so that you don’t crash into intervention fatigue? James is author of Focused Forward: Navigating the Storms of Adult ADHD and knows a thing or two about all this. But what’s better than one Ochoa? TWO OCHOAS! James bring his son Jules back to the show, fresh out of grad school and diligently producing season two of their own ADHD podcast, The Complex. We’ve talked about the complex before on the show and we’re big fans of the first season. We’re thrilled to head back into the building to learn more about the ADHD residents and their confused non-ADHD landlord, just trying to do his best for the building. Patrons get access to episode one of The Complex in their member podcast feed now. Want to hear it? Join up today! (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (02:09) - Support the Show • Become a Patron! (08:07) - Intervention Fatigue (11:37) - Navigating the New Diagnosis (15:15) - Embracing Mindfulness (17:10) - The Shinies Wear Off (23:24) - Heading Back to 'The Complex' 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jude Parker Koski has dedicated his career to serving marginalized communities through work in the nonprofit sector since 1996. He has helped youth experiencing homelessness access education, advocated for LGBTQIA+ youth and families, worked to reform foster care policy, and helped preserve urban open space and community gardens. He’s also a transgender professional, and he joins us today to talk about his experience supporting his communities while living with ADHD.OK, this isn’t one of our shorter episodes. We get that. And it’s just fine if you want to skip around. But here’s why we thought it was important to have this conversation and share it in full: because Jude’s experience overcoming internal and external questions of gender identity sit right at the intersection of the same journey with his ADHD. What he has learned as he continues to live through both experiences can teach us quite a bit about our own journeys. We hope you find the same and perhaps learn a few new lessons about the fluidity of your own lived experience. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (04:28) - Support The ADHD Podcast: Be a Part of Independent Podcasting (09:28) - Introducing Jude Koski 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Like any good superhero, we all have our origin stories. Unlike those same superheroes, we sometimes struggle to save the day if we’re distracted by shiny door knobs. This week, we’re sharing the stories our listener’s submitted about their diagnoses. Where were you? How old where you? What do you remember about the time and how you were treated? Whether you were six years old and super confused, or 36 years old and … well… super confused, your story matters. And we think that these stories have something teach, too. Just hearing how others were first diagnosed offers each of us a chance to reflect on our own path. If nothing else, certainly, they’re a reminder that we are not alone. Stories of shiny door knobs this week on The ADHD Podcast. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (06:33) - Help Grow the Show • Become a Patron! (08:46) - Where were you when... 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Why are some tasks harder than others? Is that task itself suddenly that much more challenging that everything else you're doing? Likely not. What's different? The way our brains are triggering as a result of it. This week on the show we're pulling apart the things that allow us to make some tasks a bigger deal than others. What is it that makes one task evolve into a monstrous clogging task while others breeze by? We pull apart "brain distortions" that impact our thinking and assess our executive functioning challenges that impact our time and process management. From there, it's all about attitude — can we really take a step back and approach tasks from the perspective of growth and accomplishment even as we're struggling to grow and accomplish it? We'll see this week! (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (02:33) - Support the Show! Join on Patreon. (05:21) - ADHD Awareness Updates! (08:19) - Let's talk about tasks... (15:33) - Thought Distortions (21:45) - But when do you eat the frog tho? (24:39) - Emotional Self-Regulation 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Coupled with distraction, negative ADHD self-talk is scrawled on the box describing ADHD. If we were in a global competition, we'd gold medal in it. When your ADHD is on lock, that voice can be destructive. This week: how do you manage that little voice when ADHD is having a very good day?How often do you hear it in your own voice? I’m always late. I can never stop when I need to. I can never get started. This is a symptom of ADHD and we all have it in some fashion or another. And as this is a conversation that is part of our transitions series, we have to remind you that when you are struggling with making context shifts, you're likely celebrating with negative self language. You're not broken. You're not doing anything wrong. It is... exactly what it is.This week on the show, Nikki and Pete are talking about this negative self-talk and ADHD and how you can start reprogramming your brain toward self-kindness and compassion.Oh, and if you have any trouble with that, you should take some advice from Nikki and listen to a little of her favorite music. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (02:33) - Support the Show • Become a Patron! (04:46) - Negative Self-Talk 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The last year has been traumatic. For all of us. In some way or another, we've been impacted by COVID and it's upended our lives. We're talking about transitions on the show in this series and coming to terms with the change we've endured in the last 18 months will be important in defining what we want the coming years to look like. As inspiration, Nikki started with an article by Sari Solden, Imagining Life After the Pandemic: Helping Women with ADHD Move Forward with Purpose. In it, Solden outlines her ADHD-friendly blueprint for re-imagining life in a post-pandemic world. But she wrote the article just a few months ago and we're already shaken by the changes in the world since. As rapidly as events evolve around is, we're challenged to adapt more quickly than ever. Feeling guilty about the things you didn't get done? Loving that you don't have to say "no" so much these days simply because you've been invited to do so much less? Worried about your rituals and losing what you've gained in the last year? You're not alone. All that and our own reflections on our collective return to a new world, one in which we exist with a new kind of pandemic, and adapt our behaviors to whatever that may bring us and those we love. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (02:03) - Support the Show • Become a Patron! (04:30) - Transitions 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Changing gears is hard with ADHD. Moving from one thing to the next can feel like a chore and the range of emotions is wide. Distracted by too many options and moving too quickly? Stuck in hyperfocus and angry or frustrated that you're being shocked into a transition too soon? That's the point today. Moving from one state to the next, one activity to the next, is enough to throw the world into disarray. But this is the world we live in. So how can we learn to adapt?Dr. Thomas Brown has some terrific insights when it comes to this subject and we talk about his work a bit as a framing device: Activation, Focus, and Effort. These are the three executive functions that help us understand why our transition skills might be lacking, and giving ourselves a bit more care and feeding in these areas can pay big dividends. Pete does mention his love of big clocks that set themselves. He has La Crosse Technology Atomic Clocks all over his house. From planning to setting the right expectations, if you have trouble with transitions, this show is for you. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (02:58) - Support the Show • Become a Patron! (04:41) - Task Switching with ADHD (20:33) - Make Task Switching Easier 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

We're continuing our family series on the podcast with our dear friends Elaine Taylor-Klaus and Diane Dempster of Impact Parents. Together, they have taken their ADHD coaching and evolved their work into an incredible resource for parents raising complex kids. Independence starts todayThe rock-climbing metaphor is striking. Every move toward independence and confidence happens in the smallest of movements, not giant stretches. It is only with the gift of hindsight that we're able to see the great strides we've made. But if that's the case, how do we know what to do here and now? Through an assessment of two parenting experiences this week from your fair hosts, Diane and Elaine walk us through the things we can celebrate, and the steps we might take to redirect in an effort to implement the tools we can learn to help our complex kids to be independent and successful. Take a minute to browse Impact Parents and learn more about the work Diane and Elaine are doing for parents. (01:07) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

We're continuing our conversations on ADHD and family relationships on The ADHD Podcast with a discussion on teens. "But wait," you might be thinking, "I'm no teen... what do I need with this episode?" Just hang with us a bit.We're talking to the authors of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Teen ADHD, Drs. Karen Bluth and Mark Bertin, a book not written about teens and ADHD, but too them. It's one of the rare experiences that asks teens directly and personally to think about their ADHD, their relationship with others and their experience at school and work.A Teen ADHD Book for AllWe've read the book and agree: it's an approachable read, not lingering in the complexities of neuro-diversity, but not shying away from the way the brain works. The main focus, however, is around building a healthy social life, independence, good grades, all in a voice that lets the reader know they're not alone when they get frustrated or feel isolated along the way.The authors join us on the show to talk about the tools that help on the way, mindfulness and self-compassion. And this is where we come back around to you all, likely adults, likely not expecting to be introduced so favorably to a book on ADHD and teens. Well, as we hope you'll hear today, our guests are presenting a mindfulness and self-compassion practice as a tool for all of us, as "the engine for change" in our lives. We live with ADHD, we're parents of ADHD kids, our ADHD lives contain multitudes. Giving ourselves a compassionate pat on the back can go far in helping us approach the world with confidence and kindness to others.About Karen Bluth, Ph.D.Karen Bluth is on faculty in the department of psychiatry and a research fellow at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is founder of the Frank Porter Graham Program on Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Families (https://selfcompassion.web.unc.edu). She is a certified instructor of Mindful Self-Compassion, an internationally acclaimed eight-week course created by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer; and is a codeveloper of Self-Compassion for Educators, a self-compassion program offered through Mindful Schools.Bluth is also cocreator of the curriculum Making Friends with Yourself: A Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Teens, the teen adaptation of Mindful Self-Compassion; and Embracing Your Life, the young adult adaptation. She is also author of The Self-Compassion Workbook for Teens and The Self-Compassionate Teen. As a mindfulness practitioner for more than forty years, a mindfulness teacher, and an educator with eighteen years of classroom teaching experience, Bluth frequently gives talks, conducts workshops, and teaches classes in self-compassion and mindfulness in educational and community settings. In addition, she trains teachers in Making Friends with Yourself internationally.About Mark Bertin, MDMark Bertin is a developmental pediatrician in private practice in Pleasantville, NY. He is author of How Children Thriveand Mindful Parenting for ADHD, which integrate mindfulness into the rest of evidence-based pediatric care; and a contributing author for Teaching Mindfulness Skills to Kids and Teens. He is on faculty at New York Medical College and The Windward Institute, on advisory boards for Common Sense Media and Reach Out and Read, and on the board of directors for APSARD (the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders). His blog covering topics in child development, mindfulness, and family is available through PsychologyToday.com, Mindful.org, and elsewhere. For information about his online mindfulness classes and other resources, visit https://developmentaldoctor.com. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (05:15) - Support The ADHD Podcast • Become A Patron at patreon.com/theadhdpodcast (08:58) - Introducing Mark Bertin and Karen Bluth (16:52) - Starting a conversation about self-compassion (21:27) - Parental modeling of negative behavior (22:29) - Meditation and Mindfulness (26:44) - You are not your ADHD (28:58) - How do you expect teens to engage in the material? (32:21) - Teen emotions and ADHD 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★