Podcast Episode #15: What To Do When You’re Not OK

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About This Episode

Ever have those days (or weeks) when you’re just not OK and you’re not sure WHY? Yeah, me too. Let’s talk about some practical strategies to overcoming intermittent depression.

Kristen Carder 
Welcome to the I have ADHD podcast, where it’s all about education, encouragement and coaching for adults. With ADHD, I’m your host, Kristen Carter and I have ADHD, let’s chat about the frustrations, humor and challenges of adulting, relationships, working and achieving with this neurodevelopmental disorder, I’ll help you understand your unique brain, unlock your potential and move from point A to point B.

Hey, what’s up? You’re listening to Episode 15 of the I have ADHD podcast. My name is Kristen Carter. I am medicated and caffeinated and ready to roll happy to be here with you today. It is a gorgeous day in Pennsylvania, and yet I am still cold. Why am I still cold? Because it’s not June, okay, it has to be above 80 degrees in order for my body to be comfortable. Unfortunately, I chose Pennsylvania as the place to live. Why did I do that? I’m not sure, but I am telling you that I will be comfortable for four months, June, July, August and September, and then it’s back to being freezing for the other eight months of the year. It’s so sad, guys, it is so sad. Does anybody else struggle with that like I am constantly cold. So I’m sitting here fully dressed, you know, showered today, hair, makeup, shoes are on, and yet I’m in my bathrobe, like literally went and put my bathrobe over top of me, because it’s like wearing a blanket. It is like wearing a fuzzy, cozy blanket. Do you guys remember the Snuggies? I feel like we need to bring the Snuggie back. You know what I’m saying? Remember those? Remember those things from like the 90s, basically a bathrobe, like bathrobe slash blanket. I think I need a Snuggie. Definitely. That is what I need. Or I just need to move to Florida, one of the two, which do you guys think would be easier to acquire a Snuggie in 2019 or to move to Florida, like, convince my husband, and also, like, preferably, my whole extended family, if we could just move to Florida, guys, that would be great. Any of you living in Florida just know that I am so jealous of you. I grew up in a tropical climate. I lived on the island of Guam for eight years, which I know is like, so weird. It’s the weirdest thing about me, actually, that’s really not the weirdest thing about me, which is kind of sad. Anyhow, if you are listening to this in Guam, like you need to give me a shout out and say hi and connect with me.

Because, yeah, I spent eight of my formative years on the tropical island of Guam and I just feel like my body is made for a tropical climate. I love being hot. It is so wonderful. Unfortunately, like I said, I live in the Northeast, where that is just not possible, so I am just counting down the days for June to be here. If June could get here a little faster, that would be lovely. Okay, so I want to read for you the review of the week. This is sent in by astral witch and whoever this is, if you could let me know if you’re a real witch or a fake witch, that would be helpful. But here is what I’m assuming she I think this is a she. Here’s what she says. The episode about shame resonated with me so much. Kristen is so relatable and her story is so similar to mine, she is genuine and honest, and it makes it easier to hear of the challenges that I relate to and want to handle them better. Thank you. Kristen. Love your podcast. No thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time and the effort and the energy to write a review. It means so much to me. You guys, the better This podcast is rated and reviewed, the more people will see it, and the more people will be able to have access to, you know, all of our help and all of our interesting stories about warts and, you know, the things that really help people. I’m just joking. I’m really sorry about last week’s episode.

Sometimes when I take a moment and stop and think about what I shared to you know, whoever wants to listen, I start to feel like this overwhelming. Maybe shame is the right word for it. Like. What was I thinking? But I just really want to keep things super, super real. I guess the question is, how real Should we keep things? Oh, my microphone is falling. Okay, I’m sorry about that. But anyhow, thank you for the review. If you could take a second and just give this podcast a rating, an honest review, I would appreciate it so much. And if you hang out in places that other people with ADHD hang out as well, would you share it with them? I would absolutely love it. If we could continue to grow this community. It has been so lovely of you guys to just welcome me into your into your lives. I’ve just felt so welcomed by all of you, and that has been a huge impact in my life. So getting those messages that I’m impacting you is amazing, but I want you to know that you are also impacting me. You are helping me. You’re helping me to live out what I feel like is my calling and my destiny, and that is so rewarding, the dopamine that comes with that is something that I can’t find in any other location, not in a pill, not anywhere else. It’s just super helpful to me. And so I want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much. So today, Episode 15, we are going to be talking about what to do when you’re not okay. And the reason why we’re going to be talking about this is because this week, I had this overwhelming sense of just not being okay. I got into this funk that I could not get out of. It did not feel good. I’m not sure where it came from. It was just this like oppressive cloud that moved in and kind of took up residence inside of me, and I did not enjoy it. I did not like it. And, you know, I like to hang out on Instagram.

So I was on Instagram just kind of reaching out to people in my story, saying, like, Hey, I am struggling. And like, what do you guys do when you struggle? And so we started this conversation of what to do when you’re not okay, and so we’re going to talk about that today. Part of the human experience is negative emotion, and I just want to put out there before we even get started with the with the helpful, you know, tips and tricks, we all need to recognize that life is 50% positive and 50% negative. It just is like if you take stock of your life and you look back on maybe a week or a month or a year, you’ll notice that 50% of the times were really lovely, exciting, happy, wonderful, and about 50% of the time is just not great. It’s hard, it’s depressing, it’s sad, it’s negative emotion, whatever you would put in that negative emotion category. One thing I’m learning through the life coach that I’m doing on my own, life coaching that I’m doing on my own is part of the human experience. Is negative emotion, and that’s okay. That just is what it is. We don’t need to avoid negative emotion. It’s part of our experience as humans, and we don’t get to experience the really amazing emotion without knowing the bad emotion, because everything is relative, right? So to the degree that we’ve experienced suffering, we will also experience true fulfillment and happiness and pleasure and joy.

So part of our experience as humans is to go through these times when we’re just not okay. Now, having ADHD presents a whole set of challenges around not being okay, because remember, we are distracted, we are impulsive, we are forgetful, and we don’t have a good sense of time. We don’t have the ability to prioritize and organize and plan and think through things in a long term, step by step manner. And so oftentimes, when we get in a funk or in a mood or in a depressed state, it can be extremely difficult to navigate, because we are really not good at self reflection. Now I want to take just a moment here and add a little disclaimer I want you to know. Know that throughout this podcast that I’m talking about not being okay, I’m not talking about clinical depression. I do not have experience with clinical depression. I plan to have well, first Okay. Side note, I need to learn how to have a guest on the podcast. So that is one of my goals for this month is to figure out how to record and edit and produce a podcast where I have a guest on you guys know that I do all of this on my own. Eventually, someday, I’m just going to record and send it off to a producer, and they will give me back a lovely package of a perfectly produced podcast. But right now it’s just me, right?

So I need to figure out how to have a guest on the podcast. When I do one of the first guests that I want to have on is someone who is someone who has ADHD and experiences depression, and has a lot of experience with clinical depression, okay? Because that is not an area that I have experience in. It’s not an area that I want to really speak to, or speak as an expert on what I am talking about here in this particular podcast, is just the day to day kind of funk that we get in every now and again. Okay, so for me, this lasted about three days where I just felt this oppressive, and I would call it a depressed feeling come over me. It was like a cloud moved in, the storm kind of came into my soul, and I didn’t know where it came from. I didn’t know why it was there, and I didn’t really know how to get rid of it. And so that is the kind of thing that I want to talk about today. Okay, so just that little disclaimer, if any of you are struggling with clinical depression or depression that lasts longer or than a couple days or comes more frequently than you know, I don’t know, then it should I’m not going to say what it should be, but depression that comes frequently. I highly, highly recommend that you speak to a therapist or a doctor about that. Okay, that’s my little disclaimer. Disclaimer. Okay, disclaimer is over. So what do we do when we are not okay, when the yucky, depressive mood moves in and it takes up residence in our soul and we don’t really know what to do with it, so we need to first consider our limitations as humans. With ADHD, we’re really not great with self reflection or self observation. Observation? Yes, that’s what I mean to say, observing ourselves. How about I say it that way? We’re not great at that. We’re not great with planning, prioritizing, organizing, memory, all of those things. And so I’m not trying to make you feel bad about yourself, but it is important to know our own limitations as we experience these very normal moods. Okay, so knowing those limitations as we move into what to do is really, really key. All right. ADHD is more than just an inability to pay attention. It affects all of the executive functions, and it makes managing, prioritizing, planning, time management, all of that extremely difficult. And then when a negative or depressive mood moves in and takes up residence in our bodies, then we may struggle even more to get out of that mood. Okay, so we have to be extremely intentional about what to do next. So the first thing, and this is going to be very touchy feely, and if you’re a man listening to this podcast, I want you to bear with me.

Okay, one of the things that I am learning from my friend Mark, if you want to follow him on Instagram, his name is wellness with Mark, and one thing that he is really opening my eyes up to is that men with ADHD really do not feel connected to their feelings, or they often feel like they are Not able to express their true feelings, or they’re not able to, you know, really be themselves. And so if you’re a man with ADHD, and I’m going to be talking about feelings for a minute, and you just want to, like, either roll your eyes or turn it off, I just want to invite you to bear with me for the next five minutes, because I think that this portion of the podcast is really going to be very helpful. I know it was extremely helpful for me. So I am a woman, obviously, but I really do struggle with connecting to my feelings. So I am an Enneagram, eight. I. Know if that means anything to you, but I am kind of, oh, okay, so domineering is a word that is used to describe my personality and demonstrative leader. I’m just really like a go getter. I’m just not connected to my feelings. When I feel a feeling, it’s usually frustration or anger. I do not I can’t remember the last time that I cried. I just am not someone who’s like, super touchy feely and connected to all of the feelings. I tend to be a doer instead of a feeler. Okay, so I guess the reason why I’m saying this is because I want to make sure that I’m not coming across as someone who is, like, super emotional. I’m just not. And so that is one of the reasons why, when this, like sadness or depression moves into my body, I am like, whoa. What the heck is going on? Like? I am not used to feeling this way at all. So the first and most important thing that we want to do is begin to observe what we’re feeling. Begin to just take a moment and think through what is it that I am feeling now one of my absolute favorite psychologists that I met on Instagram. Her name is Dania shabib, and she is lovely, and she reached out to me after I posted in my stories that I was just like consumed by this yucky funk of a mood, and she walked me through this whole exercise of observing myself, scanning my body, feeling the feeling, it was absolutely amazing. And so I reached out to her yesterday and asked her for permission to read through the steps that she had me go through, because I’m telling you, it was absolutely amazing. It was so helpful to me. Because, side note, we are not really taught how to feel our feelings in our society. It’s very much like, if you’re not happy all the time, what’s wrong with you? Do you need to be medicated like are?

We just need to be happy all the time. For some reason we feel as though that that’s the right thing. And I would like to argue that that’s not the right thing. It’s not even possible. It’s not even something that we want. WE DON’T WANT TO BE ON CLOUD NINE all the time. We want to have the full human experience. And part of that full human experience is sadness. It’s feeling feelings that might be uncomfortable because we’re not used to allowing them in. And so here is what Dania walked me through, and I just want to kind of read it for you, so that you can understand, um, like, the process that I went through, and it was extremely, extremely helpful to me. So here we go. She said, scan your sensations, from head to toe in all that mood, and notice what you feel. Take your attention there and open up to it, even if it feels just awful. Imagine holding a whole lot of space around it. Tell it that it’s allowed to be there. Turn your attention toward the sensation of it. It’s like a ball of feeling in a small jar will feel more overwhelming. But if we put that ball of feeling in a larger jar, expanding our compassion and acceptance of it, then the front or the attack or the feeling of it, it doesn’t feel as big

once you have that sensation and you can imagine the space around it, take a breath with that feeling, slow down in it and really notice the sensation. Notice what it feels like to stay with it. Feelings are a biophysiological event when we can stay with them, the nervous system actually calms down because it’s like, Yay, Kristen is here with us. The part of your brain that was firing that feeling calms down. Kind care present attention to the sensations of our emotions literally rewires your brain. Okay, so that was so impactful for me, because I was so curious about what was happening like, Why in the world am I feeling this way? It was a beautiful Tuesday, like podcast episode of. Just come out. I was happy when I woke up, like it was just like something moved in, and I wasn’t sure why, and so it was really helpful to have her walk me through that exercise. And I really did sit with it several times. And you know, what’s interesting is I never was able to name what was going on exactly I don’t know. Like, I wasn’t able to be like, oh yeah. The reason why I’m upset is because blah blah, blah, like, that didn’t ever happen, and I was fine with that, but it was so good for me to observe what was going on. And so I just invite you, as you kind of go about your days and you notice when negative emotion enters your body, to observe it also speaking it out loud, like I’m having a negative emotion. I wonder what my negative emotion is. I wonder why it’s here.

Women are not the only ones that experience negative emotion. I just want to throw that out there. Every human experiences negative emotion, and humans with ADHD do not have the inner self talk. We don’t have the ability to process things on our own in our mind. Most, most of us do not. So I would really encourage you to speak things out loud. I am experiencing negative emotion. I see that feeling there. I’m going to create space around that feeling. I’m going to open it up the jar and put it in a bigger jar. There’s going to be more space so I can fit in some kindness and compassion into that space with my negative feeling. We’re not trying to get rid of it. That’s it’s not really the point. It’s to observe it and allow it to happen so that we can move through it. Now, a book that Dania recommended, and it’s on its way to me. I’m so excited about it. It’s called, it’s not always depression, by Hilary Jacobs Hendel. I’m really excited to read it, because I often do have those periods in my life where, you know, that mood moves in and I’m like, yeah, what the heck is going on? What is happening. You know, usually I’m a cheery person, but it’s not always the case. I have the same roller coaster of human experience that you do as well. Okay, so we can move on now from touchy feely things. If that made you uncomfortable, I’m okay with that, but I want to let you know that we’re moving on, okay, the next thing that’s going to be extremely important is to ask yourself, when’s the last time I had a proper meal? When’s the last time I drank a huge glass of water? When’s the last time I took a shower? Okay, those are three things that we ADHD ers are really not good at, you know, like hygiene and making sure that we’ve eaten healthy foods and that we are hydrated. So make sure that that is a priority, especially when you are feeling down. Okay, so make sure that you are eating. I think it’s helpful to actually plan your meals in advance. The last couple days that I was feeling yucky, I did not eat a whole lot, which is not really like me. I’m not the kind of person that, like, gets anxious and doesn’t eat, um, but for some reason, like, I just was not interested in the food that we had in the house. And I don’t know. I just, like, really didn’t want to eat. And so what I would encourage you to do, and if I could coach myself, which I do often, but I would say, plan out the meals in advance so you don’t have to think about it. So like, today, I’m going to have an egg for breakfast, and I’m going to have, you know, a snack of nuts at 10 and then a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at 12. Now you guys know what I eat, and then, you know, a granola bar at four, you know, whatever. So plan out those meals, because what I was noticing with myself is that it would be like three o’clock and I would think, did I eat lunch? I’m not sure if I eat lunch. And then I would just be like, whatever, and just not take care of myself. So make sure that you’re hydrated, that you’re eating and that you’ve showered.

A shower fixes so many problems, don’t you think a shower fixes so many problems, even like getting good ideas working through issues like I can talk to myself in the shower out loud, and nobody can hear the craziness. You know, it’s muted by the shower, the noise of the shower. I think it’s one of the best places to do our very best thinking, Okay, next we need to move our bodies. This is something that I am really trying to incorporate into my life. And. And it was really helpful during this period of intermittent depression. So I really, really encourage you to move your body when you are feeling down, especially when you are feeling down, and even last night, like yesterday, I was feeling much, much better, but not perfect, and was getting really overwhelmed with my kiddos. So last night, my husband worked late, I had my three kids at home, which is great. I love them so much, but I was just getting overwhelmed by the fighting and the questions and all of the noise and the clutter, and so they were just kind of doing their thing, and I just started doing yoga in the middle of the living room while they were just, you know, around me and it, I am telling you, it was probably like seven minutes that I moved my body and I did yoga poses, and it was extremely helpful. It totally gave me a reset. It really helped me so much. So I would highly recommend that, All right, next step, communicate with the people that you love. Okay, so this, for me is really important, because my family, if they if I’m in a bad mood, it affects everybody, right? If Mom’s not happy, ain’t nobody happy, like, let’s be honest, right? So I really tried to communicate to my family, hey, I’m struggling. It’s not about you, it’s all about me. And when I talk to my kids, I say things like, it’s okay to not be okay. So sometimes mommy is just, you know, struggling, and that’s okay. You shouldn’t be scared, you shouldn’t be sad. For me, it’s totally fine. It’s totally fine. And so because the emotion that normally comes out of me is frustration and anger, I do not want them to think it’s about them okay. And so I will really try to communicate to my people that I am struggling, but it’s not about them and with my husband too, because he is much more sensitive than I am. He is much kinder than I am. He’s much more in tune with like everything, let’s be honest. So it’s really helpful for our relationship, if I tell him like I’m really struggling, I’m not really okay right now, but there’s not a reason that I can put my finger on, and it’s definitely not about you. If he knows that it’s not about him, then he can support me. If he feels like maybe I’m mad at him, maybe he did something wrong that you know, like something secret that I’m like, holding in my head that he did wrong, then he has a really hard time being there for me, because he struggles with, like, his feelings of, like, what did I do? I want to fix this. Do you know what I’m saying? So make sure that you communicate with your loved ones.

Next up, make sure to ask for help. Call your therapist, message your coach, if your mood lasts longer than a day or two. You might need to talk to somebody about that, a professional if it’s if it goes on for a while. We really often need someone to work through our mess with us, because we’re not good at processing internally. Okay? So do not be afraid to reach out for help to your coach or your therapist or someone. Remember, because you have ADHD, you have to spend more money on yourself in order to be healthy. It’s just the way it is. So you may need more therapy appointments than the average person, okay? So, like, that’s fine. You may need to have some sort of coach working with you, you know, either intermittently or all the time. That’s totally fine. If it allows you to be the very best version of yourself, then you should embrace it. Okay? A good coach or therapist will be able to help you uncover what’s at the root of your mood, and then you can decide what to do with it, okay? And there may be something deeper going on, which is why talking to a therapist is so key, because they will be able to notice patterns that you probably would not observe on your own, okay? They would also be able to diagnose clinical depression or help you to understand that maybe your mood is related to some sort of trauma or whatever in your past. So I would definitely say that if you do not have a relationship with a therapist, you should absolutely establish one. Okay, so the next thing is practice gratitude, do something for someone else. Get that dopamine that your brain is craving by helping someone else. Okay, remember, everything is relative your situation, while it feels completely unique and personal and like no one else has ever experienced what you’re.

Going through that’s actually a lie that we tell ourselves, okay? That’s like a self indulgent lie that we tell ourselves. The truth of the matter is, we’re not that different from the rest of the humans. Okay, we’re all pretty much the same. We all go through the same kind of experiences. And also, there are a lot of people out there that have it so much worse than we do. And so if we can reach out and help other people and get our dopamine hits that way while we are feeling down, rather than going on social media for like, seven hours in a row or watching Netflix all night, that’s going to be super, super helpful. It’s not only going to be helpful to the other person, but it’s going to be helpful to us, because we are going to see that on the scale of relativity, you know, like we’re kind of just in the middle, right. There are people in the world that have it much worse than us. There are people in the world that are right now experiencing things better, or, like more fun, than us, and that’s okay, because it’s just kind of this cycle that we all go through. So I would really encourage you to make sure that you’re reaching out and helping other people. Another thing you can do is make a list of 1020, 30 things that you’re thankful for. So if you’re starting to notice that you’re indulging in self pity. Make a list of the things that you’re so extremely grateful for. We are so lucky to have full bellies. We’re so lucky to live in countries that allow us to be the people that we want to be. I am so lucky to be a woman in America where there are no limitations on what I can do, what I can say, how much I can earn, what rights I have, I just feel like the luckiest human on the planet. And so if you can channel some of that gratitude, that is going to be super, super helpful. Okay, so hopefully you have a hobby that you enjoy, and I would encourage you that when you are feeling down in your funk, just not sure what’s going on, once you’ve kind of taken care of your physical needs, you’ve observed the feeling and tried to really allow it to be present and really kind of named it, said it out loud, worked through that. It’s important that we I’m just gonna say like it’s an advantage that we are easily distracted. Okay, so distract yourself with the things that you love to do, if there’s nothing that you can really do to get rid of your mood, if there’s no work that needs to be done. If you’ve already done that work, then go do something that you enjoy. So I love plants. I love my plants. So I will just like, go around and water my plants. I love to play the piano. So I will sit at my piano and play for hours. I really enjoy my work like, I love it so much, and so if my kids are not at home, I will work like I just really enjoy my work. So your hobbies can be used to your advantage, your ADHD can be used to your advantage. Distract yourself with the things that you enjoy, call up a friend, go on a run, just do things that you know are going to get your mind off of where you are, okay? I’m not saying avoid your feelings.

This is after you’ve already kind of worked with what’s going on on the inside of your body, okay? But once you have observed it, you’ve named it, you’ve sat with it, you know, maybe you’ve journaled, you’ve done all these things. At some point we just have to kind of put on our big girl panties and, like, move on with our lives. Do you know what I’m saying? Unless there’s, like, actual work that needs to be done, use your ADHD to your advantage and distract yourself with something else that’s going to be extremely, extremely helpful to you. And lastly, allow yourself to have a bad day once in a while. Okay, it’s, again, just part of the human experience. It doesn’t mean that you’re broken. It doesn’t mean that you need to be fixed. Okay, you don’t need to panic. You don’t need to make a bad day mean anything other than you’re human. You’re experiencing human emotion. It’s totally fine. Bad days happen. They don’t need to be prevented and they don’t need to be overcome, all right. They need to be embraced and observed and worked through. But they they can’t be prevented. They can’t be avoided. They just are what they are. A bad day is going to happen once in a while, and that’s okay. The great thing about ADHD and the annoying thing, okay, so it’s kind of a double edged sword. But, um. You know, we can be so productive in an hour, more productive than any other human on the planet. And so just know that that productivity is going to come back. Okay? It’s not. You’re not going to be stuck in this bad day forever. You are going to eventually get to the productivity again, and you’re going to totally kill it. You’re gonna be amazing, okay, but today might be a bad day, and that’s fine. That is totally, totally fine. Set some minimum requirements for yourself for this bad day. Okay, so you might want to label it. It just, you know, it’s not, it’s not a great day. I’ve already named the feeling. I’ve already made sure I’m eating and I’m hydrated, I’ve taken a shower, I’ve done everything I can do. Now we’re gonna set some minimum requirements for yourself. All right, so let’s say you have to go to work. At work, you need to write down, I’m telling you, write down on a sticky note and put it on your computer. Write down the things that you have to accomplish in order to not get fired today, right? What’s the bare minimum that you can do today, knowing that tomorrow or the next day, when the fog lifts, you’re going to totally be an amazing, productive employee. Okay, so write them down when you get into the office. What are the bare minimum requirements for today? And allow yourself for one day. For one day, that’s it, to do the bare minimum. Okay, so because we have ADHD, we’re going to be inconsistent in our productivity.

So instead of being annoyed with that, just accept it. Stop fighting against reality. Okay, take advantage of the times when your brain is working for you and you’re totally into it, but then accept the times when it’s just not all right. We all have bare minimums that we have to do on a daily basis to, like, not totally screw up our lives. Right? Kind of like my morning list from last week’s episode, like, what are the things that you need to do to not die today? Or what are the things that you need to do for your kids so that they don’t die today? All right, what are the bare minimum minimum requirements? Do those and then give yourself grace for the rest of it. Okay? Because you’re not going to be stuck here forever. It’s completely temporary. If it does last longer than a couple days, call a therapist. All right, it’s really, really important that you call and talk to someone if it does last longer than a couple days, but if it is just a day or two, I mean, that’s just part of life. So embrace it. Don’t fight against it. Don’t fight against reality. I think a lot of us spend a lot of time fighting against reality. So just embrace reality, name it, understand what’s happening, make sure you’re taking care of yourself, and then do the bare minimum so that you don’t totally screw up your life, right? So, like, maybe you absolutely have to make a car payment today, and it’s going to feel so hard and overwhelming, but you know, today’s the last day to make the payment before you know it’s either late or your car is repossessed or whatever. So put that on your bare minimum list, but you don’t have to put like 17 other things on your list. Make sure you have a bare minimum requirement, and then you just kind of allow yourself to have a down day, and then knowing that tomorrow or the next day, you’re going to pick right back up where you left off, and you’re going to really be productive and the human that you know you can be. All right, I hope this was helpful. I want to let you know that my fog lifted in a matter of two days, so one day was extremely, extremely hard. The next day was about 50% easier than that, I would say. And then the following day, I felt so much better, and reminding myself that it’s temporary, that everyone experiences it, that it’s normal, that there’s nothing wrong with me. All of those things were really, really helpful, and I hope that this inspires you to embrace the full human experience. I appreciate you. I love connecting with you, and I hope you have an awesome week. See ya. Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I am so glad.

And it would be incredibly awesome if you would take just a second to rate and review it. It would mean so much to me, and I would appreciate it. Oh, my goodness. Thank you also, if you want to work any of this out, one on one in a coaching setting, with me, I would love to work with you. So make sure to reach out to me at Kristen. At, Ihaveadhd.com or you can find me on Instagram. @IhaveADHDpodcast. I can’t wait to hear from you.

Episode Transcript

Kristen Carder 
Welcome to the I have ADHD podcast, where it’s all about education, encouragement and coaching for adults. With ADHD, I’m your host, Kristen Carter and I have ADHD, let’s chat about the frustrations, humor and challenges of adulting, relationships, working and achieving with this neurodevelopmental disorder, I’ll help you understand your unique brain, unlock your potential and move from point A to point B.
Hey, what’s up? You’re listening to Episode 15 of the I have ADHD podcast. My name is Kristen Carter. I am medicated and caffeinated and ready to roll happy to be here with you today. It is a gorgeous day in Pennsylvania, and yet I am still cold. Why am I still cold? Because it’s not June, okay, it has to be above 80 degrees in order for my body to be comfortable. Unfortunately, I chose Pennsylvania as the place to live. Why did I do that? I’m not sure, but I am telling you that I will be comfortable for four months, June, July, August and September, and then it’s back to being freezing for the other eight months of the year. It’s so sad, guys, it is so sad. Does anybody else struggle with that like I am constantly cold. So I’m sitting here fully dressed, you know, showered today, hair, makeup, shoes are on, and yet I’m in my bathrobe, like literally went and put my bathrobe over top of me, because it’s like wearing a blanket. It is like wearing a fuzzy, cozy blanket. Do you guys remember the Snuggies? I feel like we need to bring the Snuggie back. You know what I’m saying? Remember those? Remember those things from like the 90s, basically a bathrobe, like bathrobe slash blanket. I think I need a Snuggie. Definitely. That is what I need. Or I just need to move to Florida, one of the two, which do you guys think would be easier to acquire a Snuggie in 2019 or to move to Florida, like, convince my husband, and also, like, preferably, my whole extended family, if we could just move to Florida, guys, that would be great. Any of you living in Florida just know that I am so jealous of you. I grew up in a tropical climate. I lived on the island of Guam for eight years, which I know is like, so weird. It’s the weirdest thing about me, actually, that’s really not the weirdest thing about me, which is kind of sad. Anyhow, if you are listening to this in Guam, like you need to give me a shout out and say hi and connect with me.
Because, yeah, I spent eight of my formative years on the tropical island of Guam and I just feel like my body is made for a tropical climate. I love being hot. It is so wonderful. Unfortunately, like I said, I live in the Northeast, where that is just not possible, so I am just counting down the days for June to be here. If June could get here a little faster, that would be lovely. Okay, so I want to read for you the review of the week. This is sent in by astral witch and whoever this is, if you could let me know if you’re a real witch or a fake witch, that would be helpful. But here is what I’m assuming she I think this is a she. Here’s what she says. The episode about shame resonated with me so much. Kristen is so relatable and her story is so similar to mine, she is genuine and honest, and it makes it easier to hear of the challenges that I relate to and want to handle them better. Thank you. Kristen. Love your podcast. No thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time and the effort and the energy to write a review. It means so much to me. You guys, the better This podcast is rated and reviewed, the more people will see it, and the more people will be able to have access to, you know, all of our help and all of our interesting stories about warts and, you know, the things that really help people. I’m just joking. I’m really sorry about last week’s episode.
Sometimes when I take a moment and stop and think about what I shared to you know, whoever wants to listen, I start to feel like this overwhelming. Maybe shame is the right word for it. Like. What was I thinking? But I just really want to keep things super, super real. I guess the question is, how real Should we keep things? Oh, my microphone is falling. Okay, I’m sorry about that. But anyhow, thank you for the review. If you could take a second and just give this podcast a rating, an honest review, I would appreciate it so much. And if you hang out in places that other people with ADHD hang out as well, would you share it with them? I would absolutely love it. If we could continue to grow this community. It has been so lovely of you guys to just welcome me into your into your lives. I’ve just felt so welcomed by all of you, and that has been a huge impact in my life. So getting those messages that I’m impacting you is amazing, but I want you to know that you are also impacting me. You are helping me. You’re helping me to live out what I feel like is my calling and my destiny, and that is so rewarding, the dopamine that comes with that is something that I can’t find in any other location, not in a pill, not anywhere else. It’s just super helpful to me. And so I want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much. So today, Episode 15, we are going to be talking about what to do when you’re not okay. And the reason why we’re going to be talking about this is because this week, I had this overwhelming sense of just not being okay. I got into this funk that I could not get out of. It did not feel good. I’m not sure where it came from. It was just this like oppressive cloud that moved in and kind of took up residence inside of me, and I did not enjoy it. I did not like it. And, you know, I like to hang out on Instagram.
So I was on Instagram just kind of reaching out to people in my story, saying, like, Hey, I am struggling. And like, what do you guys do when you struggle? And so we started this conversation of what to do when you’re not okay, and so we’re going to talk about that today. Part of the human experience is negative emotion, and I just want to put out there before we even get started with the with the helpful, you know, tips and tricks, we all need to recognize that life is 50% positive and 50% negative. It just is like if you take stock of your life and you look back on maybe a week or a month or a year, you’ll notice that 50% of the times were really lovely, exciting, happy, wonderful, and about 50% of the time is just not great. It’s hard, it’s depressing, it’s sad, it’s negative emotion, whatever you would put in that negative emotion category. One thing I’m learning through the life coach that I’m doing on my own, life coaching that I’m doing on my own is part of the human experience. Is negative emotion, and that’s okay. That just is what it is. We don’t need to avoid negative emotion. It’s part of our experience as humans, and we don’t get to experience the really amazing emotion without knowing the bad emotion, because everything is relative, right? So to the degree that we’ve experienced suffering, we will also experience true fulfillment and happiness and pleasure and joy.
So part of our experience as humans is to go through these times when we’re just not okay. Now, having ADHD presents a whole set of challenges around not being okay, because remember, we are distracted, we are impulsive, we are forgetful, and we don’t have a good sense of time. We don’t have the ability to prioritize and organize and plan and think through things in a long term, step by step manner. And so oftentimes, when we get in a funk or in a mood or in a depressed state, it can be extremely difficult to navigate, because we are really not good at self reflection. Now I want to take just a moment here and add a little disclaimer I want you to know. Know that throughout this podcast that I’m talking about not being okay, I’m not talking about clinical depression. I do not have experience with clinical depression. I plan to have well, first Okay. Side note, I need to learn how to have a guest on the podcast. So that is one of my goals for this month is to figure out how to record and edit and produce a podcast where I have a guest on you guys know that I do all of this on my own. Eventually, someday, I’m just going to record and send it off to a producer, and they will give me back a lovely package of a perfectly produced podcast. But right now it’s just me, right?
So I need to figure out how to have a guest on the podcast. When I do one of the first guests that I want to have on is someone who is someone who has ADHD and experiences depression, and has a lot of experience with clinical depression, okay? Because that is not an area that I have experience in. It’s not an area that I want to really speak to, or speak as an expert on what I am talking about here in this particular podcast, is just the day to day kind of funk that we get in every now and again. Okay, so for me, this lasted about three days where I just felt this oppressive, and I would call it a depressed feeling come over me. It was like a cloud moved in, the storm kind of came into my soul, and I didn’t know where it came from. I didn’t know why it was there, and I didn’t really know how to get rid of it. And so that is the kind of thing that I want to talk about today. Okay, so just that little disclaimer, if any of you are struggling with clinical depression or depression that lasts longer or than a couple days or comes more frequently than you know, I don’t know, then it should I’m not going to say what it should be, but depression that comes frequently. I highly, highly recommend that you speak to a therapist or a doctor about that. Okay, that’s my little disclaimer. Disclaimer. Okay, disclaimer is over. So what do we do when we are not okay, when the yucky, depressive mood moves in and it takes up residence in our soul and we don’t really know what to do with it, so we need to first consider our limitations as humans. With ADHD, we’re really not great with self reflection or self observation. Observation? Yes, that’s what I mean to say, observing ourselves. How about I say it that way? We’re not great at that. We’re not great with planning, prioritizing, organizing, memory, all of those things. And so I’m not trying to make you feel bad about yourself, but it is important to know our own limitations as we experience these very normal moods. Okay, so knowing those limitations as we move into what to do is really, really key. All right. ADHD is more than just an inability to pay attention. It affects all of the executive functions, and it makes managing, prioritizing, planning, time management, all of that extremely difficult. And then when a negative or depressive mood moves in and takes up residence in our bodies, then we may struggle even more to get out of that mood. Okay, so we have to be extremely intentional about what to do next. So the first thing, and this is going to be very touchy feely, and if you’re a man listening to this podcast, I want you to bear with me.
Okay, one of the things that I am learning from my friend Mark, if you want to follow him on Instagram, his name is wellness with Mark, and one thing that he is really opening my eyes up to is that men with ADHD really do not feel connected to their feelings, or they often feel like they are Not able to express their true feelings, or they’re not able to, you know, really be themselves. And so if you’re a man with ADHD, and I’m going to be talking about feelings for a minute, and you just want to, like, either roll your eyes or turn it off, I just want to invite you to bear with me for the next five minutes, because I think that this portion of the podcast is really going to be very helpful. I know it was extremely helpful for me. So I am a woman, obviously, but I really do struggle with connecting to my feelings. So I am an Enneagram, eight. I. Know if that means anything to you, but I am kind of, oh, okay, so domineering is a word that is used to describe my personality and demonstrative leader. I’m just really like a go getter. I’m just not connected to my feelings. When I feel a feeling, it’s usually frustration or anger. I do not I can’t remember the last time that I cried. I just am not someone who’s like, super touchy feely and connected to all of the feelings. I tend to be a doer instead of a feeler. Okay, so I guess the reason why I’m saying this is because I want to make sure that I’m not coming across as someone who is, like, super emotional. I’m just not. And so that is one of the reasons why, when this, like sadness or depression moves into my body, I am like, whoa. What the heck is going on? Like? I am not used to feeling this way at all. So the first and most important thing that we want to do is begin to observe what we’re feeling. Begin to just take a moment and think through what is it that I am feeling now one of my absolute favorite psychologists that I met on Instagram. Her name is Dania shabib, and she is lovely, and she reached out to me after I posted in my stories that I was just like consumed by this yucky funk of a mood, and she walked me through this whole exercise of observing myself, scanning my body, feeling the feeling, it was absolutely amazing. And so I reached out to her yesterday and asked her for permission to read through the steps that she had me go through, because I’m telling you, it was absolutely amazing. It was so helpful to me. Because, side note, we are not really taught how to feel our feelings in our society. It’s very much like, if you’re not happy all the time, what’s wrong with you? Do you need to be medicated like are?
We just need to be happy all the time. For some reason we feel as though that that’s the right thing. And I would like to argue that that’s not the right thing. It’s not even possible. It’s not even something that we want. WE DON’T WANT TO BE ON CLOUD NINE all the time. We want to have the full human experience. And part of that full human experience is sadness. It’s feeling feelings that might be uncomfortable because we’re not used to allowing them in. And so here is what Dania walked me through, and I just want to kind of read it for you, so that you can understand, um, like, the process that I went through, and it was extremely, extremely helpful to me. So here we go. She said, scan your sensations, from head to toe in all that mood, and notice what you feel. Take your attention there and open up to it, even if it feels just awful. Imagine holding a whole lot of space around it. Tell it that it’s allowed to be there. Turn your attention toward the sensation of it. It’s like a ball of feeling in a small jar will feel more overwhelming. But if we put that ball of feeling in a larger jar, expanding our compassion and acceptance of it, then the front or the attack or the feeling of it, it doesn’t feel as big
once you have that sensation and you can imagine the space around it, take a breath with that feeling, slow down in it and really notice the sensation. Notice what it feels like to stay with it. Feelings are a biophysiological event when we can stay with them, the nervous system actually calms down because it’s like, Yay, Kristen is here with us. The part of your brain that was firing that feeling calms down. Kind care present attention to the sensations of our emotions literally rewires your brain. Okay, so that was so impactful for me, because I was so curious about what was happening like, Why in the world am I feeling this way? It was a beautiful Tuesday, like podcast episode of. Just come out. I was happy when I woke up, like it was just like something moved in, and I wasn’t sure why, and so it was really helpful to have her walk me through that exercise. And I really did sit with it several times. And you know, what’s interesting is I never was able to name what was going on exactly I don’t know. Like, I wasn’t able to be like, oh yeah. The reason why I’m upset is because blah blah, blah, like, that didn’t ever happen, and I was fine with that, but it was so good for me to observe what was going on. And so I just invite you, as you kind of go about your days and you notice when negative emotion enters your body, to observe it also speaking it out loud, like I’m having a negative emotion. I wonder what my negative emotion is. I wonder why it’s here.
Women are not the only ones that experience negative emotion. I just want to throw that out there. Every human experiences negative emotion, and humans with ADHD do not have the inner self talk. We don’t have the ability to process things on our own in our mind. Most, most of us do not. So I would really encourage you to speak things out loud. I am experiencing negative emotion. I see that feeling there. I’m going to create space around that feeling. I’m going to open it up the jar and put it in a bigger jar. There’s going to be more space so I can fit in some kindness and compassion into that space with my negative feeling. We’re not trying to get rid of it. That’s it’s not really the point. It’s to observe it and allow it to happen so that we can move through it. Now, a book that Dania recommended, and it’s on its way to me. I’m so excited about it. It’s called, it’s not always depression, by Hilary Jacobs Hendel. I’m really excited to read it, because I often do have those periods in my life where, you know, that mood moves in and I’m like, yeah, what the heck is going on? What is happening. You know, usually I’m a cheery person, but it’s not always the case. I have the same roller coaster of human experience that you do as well. Okay, so we can move on now from touchy feely things. If that made you uncomfortable, I’m okay with that, but I want to let you know that we’re moving on, okay, the next thing that’s going to be extremely important is to ask yourself, when’s the last time I had a proper meal? When’s the last time I drank a huge glass of water? When’s the last time I took a shower? Okay, those are three things that we ADHD ers are really not good at, you know, like hygiene and making sure that we’ve eaten healthy foods and that we are hydrated. So make sure that that is a priority, especially when you are feeling down. Okay, so make sure that you are eating. I think it’s helpful to actually plan your meals in advance. The last couple days that I was feeling yucky, I did not eat a whole lot, which is not really like me. I’m not the kind of person that, like, gets anxious and doesn’t eat, um, but for some reason, like, I just was not interested in the food that we had in the house. And I don’t know. I just, like, really didn’t want to eat. And so what I would encourage you to do, and if I could coach myself, which I do often, but I would say, plan out the meals in advance so you don’t have to think about it. So like, today, I’m going to have an egg for breakfast, and I’m going to have, you know, a snack of nuts at 10 and then a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at 12. Now you guys know what I eat, and then, you know, a granola bar at four, you know, whatever. So plan out those meals, because what I was noticing with myself is that it would be like three o’clock and I would think, did I eat lunch? I’m not sure if I eat lunch. And then I would just be like, whatever, and just not take care of myself. So make sure that you’re hydrated, that you’re eating and that you’ve showered.
A shower fixes so many problems, don’t you think a shower fixes so many problems, even like getting good ideas working through issues like I can talk to myself in the shower out loud, and nobody can hear the craziness. You know, it’s muted by the shower, the noise of the shower. I think it’s one of the best places to do our very best thinking, Okay, next we need to move our bodies. This is something that I am really trying to incorporate into my life. And. And it was really helpful during this period of intermittent depression. So I really, really encourage you to move your body when you are feeling down, especially when you are feeling down, and even last night, like yesterday, I was feeling much, much better, but not perfect, and was getting really overwhelmed with my kiddos. So last night, my husband worked late, I had my three kids at home, which is great. I love them so much, but I was just getting overwhelmed by the fighting and the questions and all of the noise and the clutter, and so they were just kind of doing their thing, and I just started doing yoga in the middle of the living room while they were just, you know, around me and it, I am telling you, it was probably like seven minutes that I moved my body and I did yoga poses, and it was extremely helpful. It totally gave me a reset. It really helped me so much. So I would highly recommend that, All right, next step, communicate with the people that you love. Okay, so this, for me is really important, because my family, if they if I’m in a bad mood, it affects everybody, right? If Mom’s not happy, ain’t nobody happy, like, let’s be honest, right? So I really tried to communicate to my family, hey, I’m struggling. It’s not about you, it’s all about me. And when I talk to my kids, I say things like, it’s okay to not be okay. So sometimes mommy is just, you know, struggling, and that’s okay. You shouldn’t be scared, you shouldn’t be sad. For me, it’s totally fine. It’s totally fine. And so because the emotion that normally comes out of me is frustration and anger, I do not want them to think it’s about them okay. And so I will really try to communicate to my people that I am struggling, but it’s not about them and with my husband too, because he is much more sensitive than I am. He is much kinder than I am. He’s much more in tune with like everything, let’s be honest. So it’s really helpful for our relationship, if I tell him like I’m really struggling, I’m not really okay right now, but there’s not a reason that I can put my finger on, and it’s definitely not about you. If he knows that it’s not about him, then he can support me. If he feels like maybe I’m mad at him, maybe he did something wrong that you know, like something secret that I’m like, holding in my head that he did wrong, then he has a really hard time being there for me, because he struggles with, like, his feelings of, like, what did I do? I want to fix this. Do you know what I’m saying? So make sure that you communicate with your loved ones.
Next up, make sure to ask for help. Call your therapist, message your coach, if your mood lasts longer than a day or two. You might need to talk to somebody about that, a professional if it’s if it goes on for a while. We really often need someone to work through our mess with us, because we’re not good at processing internally. Okay? So do not be afraid to reach out for help to your coach or your therapist or someone. Remember, because you have ADHD, you have to spend more money on yourself in order to be healthy. It’s just the way it is. So you may need more therapy appointments than the average person, okay? So, like, that’s fine. You may need to have some sort of coach working with you, you know, either intermittently or all the time. That’s totally fine. If it allows you to be the very best version of yourself, then you should embrace it. Okay? A good coach or therapist will be able to help you uncover what’s at the root of your mood, and then you can decide what to do with it, okay? And there may be something deeper going on, which is why talking to a therapist is so key, because they will be able to notice patterns that you probably would not observe on your own, okay? They would also be able to diagnose clinical depression or help you to understand that maybe your mood is related to some sort of trauma or whatever in your past. So I would definitely say that if you do not have a relationship with a therapist, you should absolutely establish one. Okay, so the next thing is practice gratitude, do something for someone else. Get that dopamine that your brain is craving by helping someone else. Okay, remember, everything is relative your situation, while it feels completely unique and personal and like no one else has ever experienced what you’re.
Going through that’s actually a lie that we tell ourselves, okay? That’s like a self indulgent lie that we tell ourselves. The truth of the matter is, we’re not that different from the rest of the humans. Okay, we’re all pretty much the same. We all go through the same kind of experiences. And also, there are a lot of people out there that have it so much worse than we do. And so if we can reach out and help other people and get our dopamine hits that way while we are feeling down, rather than going on social media for like, seven hours in a row or watching Netflix all night, that’s going to be super, super helpful. It’s not only going to be helpful to the other person, but it’s going to be helpful to us, because we are going to see that on the scale of relativity, you know, like we’re kind of just in the middle, right. There are people in the world that have it much worse than us. There are people in the world that are right now experiencing things better, or, like more fun, than us, and that’s okay, because it’s just kind of this cycle that we all go through. So I would really encourage you to make sure that you’re reaching out and helping other people. Another thing you can do is make a list of 1020, 30 things that you’re thankful for. So if you’re starting to notice that you’re indulging in self pity. Make a list of the things that you’re so extremely grateful for. We are so lucky to have full bellies. We’re so lucky to live in countries that allow us to be the people that we want to be. I am so lucky to be a woman in America where there are no limitations on what I can do, what I can say, how much I can earn, what rights I have, I just feel like the luckiest human on the planet. And so if you can channel some of that gratitude, that is going to be super, super helpful. Okay, so hopefully you have a hobby that you enjoy, and I would encourage you that when you are feeling down in your funk, just not sure what’s going on, once you’ve kind of taken care of your physical needs, you’ve observed the feeling and tried to really allow it to be present and really kind of named it, said it out loud, worked through that. It’s important that we I’m just gonna say like it’s an advantage that we are easily distracted. Okay, so distract yourself with the things that you love to do, if there’s nothing that you can really do to get rid of your mood, if there’s no work that needs to be done. If you’ve already done that work, then go do something that you enjoy. So I love plants. I love my plants. So I will just like, go around and water my plants. I love to play the piano. So I will sit at my piano and play for hours. I really enjoy my work like, I love it so much, and so if my kids are not at home, I will work like I just really enjoy my work. So your hobbies can be used to your advantage, your ADHD can be used to your advantage. Distract yourself with the things that you enjoy, call up a friend, go on a run, just do things that you know are going to get your mind off of where you are, okay? I’m not saying avoid your feelings.
This is after you’ve already kind of worked with what’s going on on the inside of your body, okay? But once you have observed it, you’ve named it, you’ve sat with it, you know, maybe you’ve journaled, you’ve done all these things. At some point we just have to kind of put on our big girl panties and, like, move on with our lives. Do you know what I’m saying? Unless there’s, like, actual work that needs to be done, use your ADHD to your advantage and distract yourself with something else that’s going to be extremely, extremely helpful to you. And lastly, allow yourself to have a bad day once in a while. Okay, it’s, again, just part of the human experience. It doesn’t mean that you’re broken. It doesn’t mean that you need to be fixed. Okay, you don’t need to panic. You don’t need to make a bad day mean anything other than you’re human. You’re experiencing human emotion. It’s totally fine. Bad days happen. They don’t need to be prevented and they don’t need to be overcome, all right. They need to be embraced and observed and worked through. But they they can’t be prevented. They can’t be avoided. They just are what they are. A bad day is going to happen once in a while, and that’s okay. The great thing about ADHD and the annoying thing, okay, so it’s kind of a double edged sword. But, um. You know, we can be so productive in an hour, more productive than any other human on the planet. And so just know that that productivity is going to come back. Okay? It’s not. You’re not going to be stuck in this bad day forever. You are going to eventually get to the productivity again, and you’re going to totally kill it. You’re gonna be amazing, okay, but today might be a bad day, and that’s fine. That is totally, totally fine. Set some minimum requirements for yourself for this bad day. Okay, so you might want to label it. It just, you know, it’s not, it’s not a great day. I’ve already named the feeling. I’ve already made sure I’m eating and I’m hydrated, I’ve taken a shower, I’ve done everything I can do. Now we’re gonna set some minimum requirements for yourself. All right, so let’s say you have to go to work. At work, you need to write down, I’m telling you, write down on a sticky note and put it on your computer. Write down the things that you have to accomplish in order to not get fired today, right? What’s the bare minimum that you can do today, knowing that tomorrow or the next day, when the fog lifts, you’re going to totally be an amazing, productive employee. Okay, so write them down when you get into the office. What are the bare minimum requirements for today? And allow yourself for one day. For one day, that’s it, to do the bare minimum. Okay, so because we have ADHD, we’re going to be inconsistent in our productivity.
So instead of being annoyed with that, just accept it. Stop fighting against reality. Okay, take advantage of the times when your brain is working for you and you’re totally into it, but then accept the times when it’s just not all right. We all have bare minimums that we have to do on a daily basis to, like, not totally screw up our lives. Right? Kind of like my morning list from last week’s episode, like, what are the things that you need to do to not die today? Or what are the things that you need to do for your kids so that they don’t die today? All right, what are the bare minimum minimum requirements? Do those and then give yourself grace for the rest of it. Okay? Because you’re not going to be stuck here forever. It’s completely temporary. If it does last longer than a couple days, call a therapist. All right, it’s really, really important that you call and talk to someone if it does last longer than a couple days, but if it is just a day or two, I mean, that’s just part of life. So embrace it. Don’t fight against it. Don’t fight against reality. I think a lot of us spend a lot of time fighting against reality. So just embrace reality, name it, understand what’s happening, make sure you’re taking care of yourself, and then do the bare minimum so that you don’t totally screw up your life, right? So, like, maybe you absolutely have to make a car payment today, and it’s going to feel so hard and overwhelming, but you know, today’s the last day to make the payment before you know it’s either late or your car is repossessed or whatever. So put that on your bare minimum list, but you don’t have to put like 17 other things on your list. Make sure you have a bare minimum requirement, and then you just kind of allow yourself to have a down day, and then knowing that tomorrow or the next day, you’re going to pick right back up where you left off, and you’re going to really be productive and the human that you know you can be. All right, I hope this was helpful. I want to let you know that my fog lifted in a matter of two days, so one day was extremely, extremely hard. The next day was about 50% easier than that, I would say. And then the following day, I felt so much better, and reminding myself that it’s temporary, that everyone experiences it, that it’s normal, that there’s nothing wrong with me. All of those things were really, really helpful, and I hope that this inspires you to embrace the full human experience. I appreciate you. I love connecting with you, and I hope you have an awesome week. See ya. Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I am so glad.
And it would be incredibly awesome if you would take just a second to rate and review it. It would mean so much to me, and I would appreciate it. Oh, my goodness. Thank you also, if you want to work any of this out, one on one in a coaching setting, with me, I would love to work with you. So make sure to reach out to me at Kristen. At, Ihaveadhd.com or you can find me on Instagram. @IhaveADHDpodcast. I can’t wait to hear from you.

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Learning About My Brain...

Changed Everything

Hi, I’m Kristen Carder—ADHD expert, podcast host, and certified coach who’s been exactly where you are. Diagnosed at 21, I spent years cycling through planners, courses, and systems that never quite worked. Everything changed when I discovered the power of understanding my ADHD brain and the transformative impact of community support.

Now, after 15+ years of research and experience, I’ve helped thousands of adults with ADHD thrive. I’m here to show you how understanding your brain can transform your life, just like it did for mine.

ADHD Tips That Actually Make Sense

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