Podcast Episode #28: Celebrities with ADHD

This episode is sponsored by CURE Hydration. All right, I’m going to be real with you. Drinking water is boring. My ADHD brain is like, wait, we have to do this again? Like every day, multiple times. What in the world? And because I’m running from meetings to coaching calls to kid chaos, staying hydrated is not something I’m naturally good at. It’s not something I naturally think about. That’s why I’ve been obsessed with Cure hydration packs lately. CURE is a plant based hydrating electrolyte mix with no added sugar, only 25 calories, and it actually tastes good. The watermelon and berry pomegranate have been on repeat for me. I’m actually like really running low on those flavors, which is so sad. They’re refreshing without being too sweet or artificial. It feels like my water finally has a little bit of personality, which I enjoy. I really do. What I love most is that CURE uses a science backed formula that hydrates as effectively as an IV drip. So when I’m scrambling through my day forgetting my water again, CURE helps me to catch up fast. I throw a few packs in my bag and it makes drinking enough water simple, which for my ADHD brain is basically a miracle. So staying hydrated isn’t just about water. You also need electrolytes. And that’s why I love Cure. It’s clean, tastes great, and it actually works. And bonus, CURE is FSA HSA approved. So you can use those funds to stay hydrated. The smart way For I have ADHD podcast listeners, you can get 20% off your first order@curehydration.com IhaveADHD with the code IHAVEADHD and if you get a post purchase survey, make sure to tell them that you heard about CURE right here on the podcast. It really does help to support the show. Don’t just drink more water, also upgrade it with cure. 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 are listening to the I have ADHD podcast. My name is Kristin Carter. I am your host. I am medicated, I am caffeinated. I am. I forgot to eat lunch. But I guess I will do that when we’re done. I just realized that I totally forgot to eat lunch. This just in. If you haven’t listened to my Habits episode from last week, now would be a great time to go do that, because. Oh, my word. Why can’t just even eating be a habit? Totally forgotten. Oh, well. All right, guys, today I am pumped to chat with you about the famous, smart, successful, inspiring people in the public eye with adhd. This came up because of a conversation that I had with one of my clients this week. Eileen. Shout out to Eileen. Hey, girl. She is amazing. And she asked me the question, how do you embrace your diagnosis without making it an excuse? How do you embrace your diagnosis without making it an excuse? And I thought this was such an amazing question because one thing that we do not get very often is empowerment. And so that’s exactly why I’m here. I’m so excited to kind of pump you up today and bring all of these people with ADHD to your attention so that you can understand, as I am beginning to understand, that ADHD is not something that needs to hold you back. Sure, it’s absolutely something that needs to be dealt with. It needs to be treated. But. But it’s not something that you can kind of lean on as a way to get out of showing up in your life. So embracing the diagnosis means acknowledging that you’ve got a disorder. Okay? Acknowledging, like, hey, this is something that needs to be taken seriously. It means acknowledging you need treatment and support. Whatever that treatment and support looks like for you, whatever, it’s all good. Just figure out something that works well for you. For me, it’s coaching and medication and really trying to eat healthy. So those are the three things that I’m doing right now that are working. And you know what? In a year, five years, 10 years, it might look different. And that’s totally, totally, totally fine. Dr. Russell Barclay calls this support scaffolding. So if you picture a really tall building with scaffolding up the side of it, that support is the scaffolding that holds the building in place. And the better scaffolding that you have, the higher your building will be able to get. Does that make sense? So you definitely want to continue to have that scaffolding in place. There should never, ever, ever be a time when you say, oh, I no longer need treatment. I no longer need support from our adhd. You might want to tweak your treatment. You might want to tweak your support, but in order to be successful, it always needs to be a thing. Okay? It always needs to be something in your life that you’re taking seriously. There are so many different treatment options that include neurofeedback and medication supplements, therapy, like brain training, all different kinds of things. So you don’t have to think that it’s just one thing. It can look different for everyone, and that’s totally fine. Isn’t it awesome how we’re humans and we get to be different and it’s all good? So that is really, really, really important. The other thing about bracing your diagnosis is that you are holding yourself to a high standard, but you’re being gentle with yourself when you struggle. So it’s not that you make an excuse for yourself and you don’t set the bar high. You do set the bar high. But then when you don’t meet the mark, it’s like, okay, that didn’t work out. Let’s try it again. When we start to use our diagnosis as an excuse, what this shows up as is being a victim. We’re in victim mentality. We’re ashamed. We. We’re using the diagnosis as a reason not to show up in our lives. I can’t do it because of my adhd. My adhd, you know, I keep getting fired because of my adhd. Well, maybe. But maybe also your scaffolding is not strong enough. Maybe we need to look at that scaffolding rather than simply blaming the adhd. Does that make sense? So I really love this question because there are so many successful, rich, smart, famous, inspiring people in the public eye that have adhd. And do you know what this tells me? It tells me that we can be successful even though we have adhd. It tells me that ADHD is not a barrier to. To living out your dreams. It tells me that ADHD does not stop anyone from doing the things that they want to do. Do you know what stops us from doing the things that we want to do? We stop us from doing the things that we want to do. Our thoughts, our mindset, our unwillingness to get treatment, our propensity to go into feeling victim or feeling entitled. I am the first to raise my hand and say that I fall into those patterns often embarrassingly so. Like, it happens often. I actually had a coaching call with my coach about two weeks ago, and she was like, it sounds to me like you’re in victim mode right now and also a little entitled. And I was like, what? It is so hard. This is why coaching is amazing, because you actually pay someone to tell you the things that you’re thinking that are stopping you from reaching your potential. So just A little aside there, I think that coaching is worth so much because a coach will tell you your thoughts, they will show you what you’re thinking, and they will help you to see how you are keeping yourself from reaching your potential. And one of the biggest things, or I would say two of the biggest things that keep us from reaching our potential are feeling like we’re victims and also feeling entitled. Like, this should just be easier. This shouldn’t be so much work. I shouldn’t have to work harder than everyone else. I shouldn’t have to take medication. I shouldn’t have to have to do these things to support my adhd. That is a very, very sneaky thought that comes into our minds. And then what happens when we think that we stop taking the action that allows us to be successful? We stop doing the things like taking our medications or taking our supplements or going to the gym or getting up early or meditating or all of these things because we feel entitled for it to just be easy. We feel like we should just be able to get it done without the scaffolding support. So today what I want to do is just offer to you that if these celebrity, millionaire, billionaire, famous, educated, inspiring people can be super, super successful with adhd, then you can, too. So let’s go through this list. I want to say a quick disclaimer. I obviously found all of this information on the Internet, and so I want you to take it with a grain of salt. I will tell you that I did not put anybody on this list who, you know, was not reported to be diagnosed with adhd. So it’s not people that, you know, present symptoms. Like, for example, Gary Vee, I think could easily be, you know, somebody with adhd, but he’s never been diagnosed, so he’s not on my list. So all of the people on my list, I found out through the Internet, which needs to be taken with a grain of salt. And then secondly, all of the people on this list, you know, have been reported to be diagnosed with adhd. It does not mean, you know, that they have been like, I didn’t get this information from CNN.com or any of, like, the news websites. These are just websites like WebMD, Healthline, an ADHD advocacy website that listed famous, successful people with adhd. The next thing I’m going to say is I’m not going to pronounce all of the names correctly and you are allowed to laugh at me that I’m totally fine with it. Okay, So I have a list of over 40 people who have been reported to be diagnosed with ADHD and we’re just going to go through them and I hope that you can find at least one or two people on this list that totally inspire you. So number one, Olympic athlete Michael Phelps. Like wow, this man is absolutely incredible. I, I think he might be the most decorated Olympian of all time and he has adhd. Next up, Solange, the singer Seth Godin is someone that my friend Mark shout out to Mark recommended and I didn’t know who he was so I looked him up. He is known as the ultimate entrepreneur for the information age. He’s an American writer and has written 17 books and he’s pretty amazing. Henry Winkler is next and he is a very well loved American actor. Probably best known for his role as Fonzie on Happy Days. Zooey Dreschanel from New Girl. My husband and I are going through New Girl for the second time. It is laugh out loud funny. We enjoy it so much. So Zoe has adhd. Kira Spray Smirnoff from Dancing with the Stars. Howie Mandel, Ty Pennington, Adam Levine, he is a singer, songwriter, was in Maroon 5. I think he’s by himself now. Justin Timberlake, I love Justin Timberlake. He has adhd. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. She is amazing. Very highly, highly, highly decorated, heavily decorated. I don’t know. She’s got a lot of medals. That’s what I mean. Will I am from the Black Eyed Peas. Political analyst James Carville, Radio talk show host Glenn Beck. Terry Bradshaw, he’s a Super bowl champ. And NFL commentator Jim Carrey and Jim Caviezel, two of my favorite gyms, both have adhd. Pulitzer prize winning journalist Katherine Ellison. Speaking of journalists, Lisa Ling also has been diagnosed with adhd. NFL quarterback Josh Freeman, actor Ryan Gosling and also actor Woody Harrelson. Businessman and TED Talk speaker Cameron Herold who by the way helped grow three companies past the 100 million mark. Inventor Dean Kamen, he’s best known for inventing the Segway and he has ADHD. Audra McDonald, she’s a mother of three, activist and six time Tony Award winning singer and actress. Politician Kendrick Meek, Mel B from the Spice Girls and most recently America’s got Talent David Neeleman. He founded JetBlue Airlines which is pretty amazing. Britain’s gymnast Lewis Smith, Baseball star Shane Victorino. Greg LeMond won the Tour de France three times with ADHD. That’s amazing. Christopher Knight who played Greg on the Brady Bunch. NFL star Virgil Green. NBA legend Michael Jordan, I repeat, NBA legend Michael Jordan has adhd. So what’s our excuse? Guys. Oh, my gosh, that’s amazing. Britney Spears. Not sure if that’s good or bad. Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, who I adore. And his daughter, the gorgeous actress Liv Tyler. Billionaire Bill Gates, whose net worth I just googled and it comes to $105 billion. Holy. Okay, wow. I almost said a word that I really shouldn’t first of all, say. And second of all, would never want to put on this podcast. Okay. Bill Gates, whose net worth is 105 billion. There is no reason why I should be in credit card debt if Bill Gates with ADHD can have a net worth of 105 billion. I’m just saying. And lastly, on my list, British celebrity chef and doll baby Jamie Oliver. Okay, so what was the point of going through all of those celebrities? It for sure was not to make you feel inadequate, inept, like you’re not doing enough. That’s not at all the intention. The intention behind reading off that list of very successful people is to inspire you to understand how capable you are of living out your dreams. You can today draw a line in the sand and say, today is the day that I am going to start taking my ADHD seriously. Today is the day that I’m going to readjust the scale scaffolding of support in my life so that I can reach my potential. It is so important that we do not feel like victims of our adhd. The problem with feeling like a victim is that you feel like you are at the mercy of something outside of yourself, right? So, like, you just don’t have control over it. There’s nothing you can do about it. You feel so powerless. That is not at all how a success driven, potential reaching person will allow themselves to feel. So if you notice that you fall into that powerless victim mentality, I want to encourage you that there is a way out. And the way out usually looks like treatment, support, therapy, counseling, coaching. It can look like a variety of things. It can also look like just making a choice today not to think those thoughts. So some people can just go ahead and make that choice. Other people need a lot of support in that and either way is totally perfect and totally fine. But I do want to like link arms with you and say, like, hey, let’s keep all of these people with ADHD in the forefront of our minds as we go about our business. Knowing that life is just as hard for them as it is for us. Knowing that they face all of the same struggles that we do and knowing that if they can do it, so can we. All right, friends, this is a really short episode this week and I think that’s super fun because short episodes are easy for us to digest, don’t you think? Listen, Come over to Instagram and hang out with me at I have ADHD podcast or and or Visit my website ihaveadhd.com on it you’ll find a psychologist approved list of adults, ADHD symptoms and lots of support and insight. You can even listen to the podcast right from the website if you ever have trouble finding it in itunes or Spotify or wherever it is that you’re listening. Also, I would love to ask you a favor. Can you share this podcast with somebody that you love? Maybe not this particular episode since it was a little wild, but you know, one of your favorite episodes. I would love to get the word out about this podcast. There are like 15, 16, maybe 17 million adults with ADHD and I want them all to feel supported and inspired and like they have a group of people who they can relate to. And so I would just absolutely love it if you would share it. Share it on your social if you take a photo of this episode and tag me in it, I will repost it and give you some love. And that’s it guys. I hope you have a great day. I made it through my Thursday and I’m really proud of myself for that. Going to go pick up my kids and do the mom thing. I hope you have a great rest of your day. I will talk to you next time. Bye.