#001: Unraveling ADHD: Insights and Strategies

Unlock the secrets of living with ADHD as Zac Erickson, a registered psychologist and host of ADHD Real Talk, opens up about his personal journey and professional insights. Ever wondered how ADHD manifests differently in adults versus children or how to tackle procrastination head-on? Zac’s candid reflections and stories promise to shed light on these questions, offering a fresh perspective on navigating life with ADHD.

This episode takes you through the nuances of ADHD subtypes, from hyperactive/impulsive to inattentive, and how they uniquely impact individuals. With relatable anecdotes and expert knowledge, Zac paints a vivid picture of the daily challenges and triumphs faced by those with ADHD. Whether you're struggling with organization or impulsive decisions, you'll find valuable takeaways to help manage these symptoms more effectively.

Join Zac as he delves into the intricate world of ADHD as a neurodevelopmental disorder, exploring its overlap with anxiety and depression. Learn why understanding your brain's wiring is crucial to managing ADHD and how early diagnosis can make a world of difference. Grab this opportunity to engage, ask questions, and be part of an interactive podcast experience designed to empower and inform. Tune in and transform your understanding of ADHD today.

Chapters

• 0:00 ADHD Real Talk
• 8:00 Understanding Different Types of ADHD
• 15:17 Understanding ADHD Symptoms and Challenges
• 27:58 Launching ADHD Podcast Series

Transcript

Zac: 0:42

Hello and welcome to the first episode of ADHD Real Talk. This is Zac Erickson. I'm actually really excited. This is the start of a new endeavor, a new project. I am, of course, like I said Zac Erickson.

Zac: 0:56

I'm a registered psychologist in Edmonton, alberta, and exclusively now, like some psychologists will do, like assessments and things I will get more into, I guess, a little bit about myself in this episode. I think it's important for you to kind of get to know me, but my goal for this podcast really is I exclusively do um counseling psychology, right, in other words, I'm a therapist and what that means for me is that I actually already do a lot of talking with people on a daily basis. I see probably 20 to 25 clients a week, uh, and I have been a psychologist for like seven years since I graduated Um and it's been a a fantastic adventure so far. Um, but what's interesting and why I'm really excited about this is that I have specifically fallen into this love for people with ADHD, primarily because I have ADHD myself, which maybe, now that I say that out loud, it is a little narcissistic. I don't know, that's not the intention, right, but I think that a lot of therapists actually fall into this thing of what we almost call like me-search, or in other words, like you deal with the things in your own life and then the lessons that you learn, you know, go into future things. So, for today, we're going to talk a little bit about like, what is ADHD? Why ADHD, real talk, what does that even mean to me? In fact, maybe I'll even start with that right, like when I was thinking about starting a podcast, which is what I've been wanting to do I actually announced I was going to do a podcast over a year ago, recorded like two episodes. It was awesome, had a couple of really great interviews, one of which, um, was with a good colleague of mine. That I will release the episode on here. We release it, but, um, but the the idea of like adhd real talk, I think, is the vibe that I want to set for this show. In other words, like.

Zac: 2:55

I think that sometimes we can you know, we get lost in all the terminology and all of the clinical stuff, and I don't necessarily. I think that sometimes there are some people who are like, get really overwhelmed by stuff. I don't want to water down the content that we're going to talk about and to like I don't want to like condescend, um, or like patronize you guys at home who maybe you know maybe there are some listeners out there who are newly diagnosed with adhd or have had adhd for a long time or are suspecting, and they're sort sort of like well, like there's a lot of stuff here, and even amongst psychologists or therapists who do not specialize in ADHD, it's one of those topics that's really challenging to fully wrap your brain around because there's so many different pieces. Just as an example, you know the term procrastination gets thrown around a lot with ADHD. When people come to therapy, they're like I need to learn how to stop procrastinating. And immediately in my head I'm like, okay, well, there are at least half a dozen reasons just off the top of my head why you are not getting the thing that you want to get done done, and part of what I do with people is to kind of tease those things apart. Each one of those things has like different strategies or things that you want kind of want to keep in mind when you're dealing with those things Right. And so I have found for myself over, you know, the last seven years that I am having similar conversations with people which I don't mind doing Right, and especially if the you know you have like questions and things like that.

Zac: 4:30

Um, by the way, if you are in Edmonton, um, or I guess just Alberta in general, if you want to go to recharge psychologycom, recharge psychology is the uh is the sort of public facing brand of me when that I founded just a little, I guess about a year and a half ago, and, uh, that's what I do. I've got like everything that I do is under this umbrella of recharge psychology. But going back to you, you'll notice, by the way and how I'm talking, it is very much like an ADHD meandering mindset or topics. Right, we're going to refine it, we're going to. I do have notes here, but, um, but I'm having these conversations really like very often, uh, with like repeated. You know the same things and I I really see a lot of value in being able to distill these things and record them in a way, uh, and in the future, you know, even offering like workshops and um, and you know even like online courses and things like that, for people to really distill this down in a way, because therapy, as much as I love doing it, uh, there's a couple of issues.

Zac: 5:40

One, it doesn't scale very well. A lot of it's one-on-one stuff, right, it's prohibitively expensive for, I think, a lot of people which I I I try to do, like sliding scale as much as I can, but I have a family to feed, to be to be frank, right, and so I want to make these things available for you people at home as well. Uh, and even if you know again that I think that there's a a lot of potential here, you know again, I think that there's a lot of potential here, which, you know, potential is sort of a four-letter word in my books for ADHD, but at least for a lot of us ADHDers with, you know, childhood stuff, which we will definitely unpack the childhood experience of ADHD in future episodes. Um, but yeah, that's my, that is my goal for this is that I want it to be practical and useful and so, by the way, feel free, you know, reach out to me on social media, on like Instagram or Tik TOK, I think those are the two main ones I'm going to use. Facebook, I guess, is the other one that auto posts over there. Feel free to reach out, uh, at recharge psych, that's recharge P S Y C H. Reach out to me on there, follow me on those and, if you want, to even DM me over there and have discussions about things, or just in the comments of posts that I do over there, I would love to craft this so that it's as useful as possible for the people at home.

Zac: 7:00

On to today's topic, which is actually a little bit about like what is ADHD, okay, like, which is actually a little bit about like what is ADHD, okay, like what is it actually, and I think a lot of people at home we have this idea of what ADHD is, um, adhd, and so I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it, but I do want to get to some of the main issues that come up, um, beyond. Just like diagnostic criteria, right, diagnostic criteria, in other words, being the checklist that exists in the DSM-5 here in North America, right, which is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It has very specific criteria that you have to check off in order to qualify for an ADHD diagnosis. Oh, I'm supposed to be muting my phone, by the way. By the way, I'm going to be recording these live to hard drive, simply because otherwise I'm going to totally obsess over things. We're going to get through this together, part of so ADHD diagnostic criteria.

Zac: 8:01

There are three different segments or, sorry, three different kinds of ADHD. There is the hyperactive, slash impulsive subtype. We're going to talk about that Inattentive subtype. That's the other one. And then the third one is what we call the combined subtype. Right, in other words, you're lucky enough, you pulled both straws and you get both, both kinds the hyperactive and impulsive subtype.

Zac: 8:28

I am going to be talking about adults. In kids, this is the traditional, like the kid jumping all over the walls, right, like can't sit, still, um, in girls sometimes, uh, it presents more as, uh, maybe like bigger, uh, you know, like very, very chatty or things like that. That's more of what the hyperactive subtype is Basically. It's like there's not a whole lot of brakes. The impulsivity is that there's a whole lot of acting without thinking, a whole lot of a bunch of other stuff, right, uh, but those are the basics. Is uh, having a race car brain with bicycle brakes? And the hyperactive impulsive subtype is um, externalizing. In other words, all of that internal energy and the, the, the, the franticness of the ADHD mind, co goes outward, um and and shows up in like motor activity in adults.

Zac: 9:28

We used to think that that isn't very common in adults, but we know now that actually is not necessarily the case. It's just that it looks different it In adults. It looks like restlessness. It looks like we still see some of the same issues with, you know, in terms of impulsivity, in terms of like, maybe like impulse buying or, you know, difficulty with eating or substance use or anger issues, or like emotion regulation issues, right, getting overwhelmed easily. All of those things very much exist. Not that we necessarily need to get super in the weeds on this, but I'll quickly read through the words, through the diagnostic criteria from the DSM here. Okay, I'll do this relatively, we're going to glaze over some of these.

Zac: 10:23

But squirms when seated or fidgets with hands or feet, that's number one marked restlessness that is difficult to control. Appears to be driven by a motor or, as often, on the go. Lacks ability to play and engage in leisure activities in a quiet manner, incapable of seeing seated in class. Again, some of these are like kids, right, or like incapable of staying seated in a meeting or something like that right, overly talkative, and then the impulsive symptoms for this is difficulty waiting your turn right, standing in line at the grocery store, hanging out in traffic, interrupts or intrudes into conversations and activities of others and impulsively blurts out answers before questions are completed. So those are. Those are all like really important to sort of keep in mind. They're all trying to paint a picture of somebody who just is like the.

Zac: 11:18

The way that I described the hyperactive, impulsive feeling is like if you have been driving a car's like you, the next time you're sitting at a red light and there's no like nobody else around, go at night or something I don't know, go and sit at an intersection and I want you to hold them down the brake all the way, but I also want you to push the gas down and then like kind of just like lightly feather off the the brake pedal and feel your car sort of like surging forward just a little bit, this sort of uh, uh, uh, oh, wait, right, and you can't see me, but I'm kind of like lurching forward but holding myself back. That is, I think, what it feels like to have the hyperactive and impulsive subtype of ADHD. We're going to put a pin in that. That is. That's that one. The other one is inattentive, adhd or another one.

Zac: 12:12

So difficulty with two things. Actually, I like the hyperactive and impulsive, right that's. They've got two. I recently saw somebody. I wish I could remember who it was, but my memory is terrible and usually I'm just listening to something and I'm writing it down. Anyway, all of that to say hyperactive, impulsive is one, inattentive is two different type, that's what we call it, but there's two different things here.

Zac: 12:37

There is difficulty maintaining attention, in other words, getting distracted by things. Right, I'm trying to pay attention, I'm trying to focus on things, but my mind's wandering, and then I should be doing this homework and then it wanders over to something else and then I get distracted by this thing. Having a hard time directing your attention. Uh, and the other one is actually disorganized, right, so inattentive. Often it also involves disorganization chaotic, messy, difficulty with remembering, you know, appointments, let's. Let's read the list on this one, right. So the first one displays poor listening skills.

Zac: 13:21

Second, loses and or misplaces items needed to complete a task, tasks or activities, right, so like, oh, I lost my glasses. Actually, it's funny. Before my dear sweet wife bought me a tile for my wallet and an apple air tag for my keys. I kid you not, I lost my keys and wallet, like for months at a time, sometimes only to find it, like under the seat of my car or something like that. Um, tile, air tag, those kinds of things amazing time savers, at the very least, right. Anyway. Loses or misplaces items, uh, sidetracked by external or unimportant stimuli. You may have noticed so far that my way of talking sometimes is I kind of meander right, get sidetracked by ideas. I promise you my intentions they're all going to be related and I think in the long run this is going to make sense. But I also trust you fellow people out there to keep up. If I'm having issues, you know, let me know, but we're doing it. Live in the meantime.

Zac: 14:28

Next one Forgets daily activities. Diminished attention span, lacks ability to complete schoolwork and other assignments or to follow instructions. That's really interesting, right? Think about this for a second Lacks the ability to complete schoolwork and other assignments or to follow instructions. So this is not a, this is not a. Well, you just need to apply yourself, right? This is something that, like people with ADHD, hear all the time. You just need to try harder. You need to apply yourself. It's like no, no, damn it, like that's not what this is. Are we swearing on this podcast? It are we swearing on this podcast? It needs to be authentic, real talk, right, I'm going to. But for real, like this is not something that is like, eh, what am I doing? Like that's not, it's an actual difficulty and this is something that we're going to come back to.

Zac: 15:18

But ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder. In other words, this has to do with how somebody's brain is wired and if the areas of your brain that are responsible for following instructions, turning those instructions into motor or cognitive tasks, if those areas of your brain also known as executive functioning, by the way if those areas of our brain are not known as executive functioning, by the way, if, if those areas of our brain are not wired in the same way and we have a harder time with that, this is not a matter of just try harder, right? This is a part of ADHD and part of learning how to thrive with. Adhd is learning how to shed the negative and, uh like, destructive narratives that maybe have been given in the past and we're going to actually, like, adopt some new ones, right? So, again, inattentive ADHD lacks the ability to complete schoolwork and other assignments or to follow instructions.

Zac: 16:17

Two more here avoids or is disinclined to begin homework or activities requiring concentration. So, again, this is using wording for like school but the same principle applies Avoids or is disinclined to begin homework or activities requiring concentration. If something is going to require a lot of concentration, my gut starts to churn because I'm like, oh, that's going to be hard, like it's not even something that I necessarily vocalize. It, right, but the term that often gets used in those situations is actually dread. That's what it feels like. The avoiding is the behavior that we see, but internally we're avoiding because the idea of doing this actually brings up a lot of dread or inadequacy, um, and even just overwhelm. Right, some of those things are ADHD related, some of them have more to do with anxiety and depression and self-esteem and trauma and all those sorts of things. But, uh, very relevant.

Zac: 17:18

Final, one fails to focus on details and or makes thoughtless mistakes in schoolwork or assignments. So, and then, if you're lucky, you get the combined subtype, which is both Um. So a couple of other additional requirements symptoms currently, that the current diagnostic criteria say the symptoms present prior to age 12. Um, this is important, that we need this to not be the result of like trauma, or like immediate trauma at least, and that we need it to be something that didn't just like show up one day Now. What's difficult about that is that for a lot of people this is actually I would put myself in this category I was not diagnosed until I was in my mid twenties, and part of the reason for that is because, especially when I was really young, I loved to learn and I was like I don class and just sort of like listen and frantically do my homework the morning it was due as I walked into the school and I would, and I got like good enough marks that I passed all of my classes. I think there was one class I think it was physics 30, where that really straight, I think I just passed that class by the skin of my teeth, but I was on the honor roll for like grade 10 and 11 and certainly through the rest of school, and so that doesn't mean that my symptoms weren't there before age 12.

Zac: 19:00

And one of the big issues that I think a lot of people with ADHD have is that they uh a lot of like uh the support systems that exist out there. I think part of it's a capacity issue that we don't have enough people who are there to help and support people with ADHD, especially kids, but it's like we often wait to listen. We don't listen to people with ADHD because, well, your life's not on fire yet, you're doing fine. But in the therapy room, what I often hear from people is, yeah, but I am white knuckling my way through life, I am holding on by my fingernails and yeah, sure, I'm getting by, but I'm probably going to have a heart attack at like 40 years old because I'm so stressed out and so this is a big issue, right?

Zac: 19:48

And so when we say symptoms present before the age 12, that doesn't mean that the kid had to have been struggling. It just means that we can trace these things. If we're talking to an adult, we trace these things to earlier in it, it actually can be very eyeopening, right. I mean, like, for me, very common red flag is that if the person says you know, like I don't know, I was always kind of told that I had a lot of potential and that I just needed to apply myself and I wanted to do well, but I just, I don't know, I was just distracted and like, did other things, like, that is the quintessential, like functioning ADHD child in my mind.

Zac: 20:31

Um, symptoms also are not better accounted for by other, uh, psychiatric disorders like a mood disorder, anxiety disorder or you know, if it shows up later, you know, hyperactivity and mania, for some people's can. Sometimes there's overlapping symptoms. Right, we have to make sure that we're actually talking about ADHD and not anxiety or depression or something alone. Um, although people with ADHD, especially untreated ADHD about half of people with ADHD, um, have anxiety, depression or both. So you start to have to think about what is the actual core issue here, and the way that I like to ask it is if I could get my shit together, if I could figure my stuff out and get organized, would I? Would my depression go away? Would I feel less anxious if I could just get myself to do the thing that I need to do? If the answer is yes, it might actually be ADHD that we need to deal with first. Right, sometimes anxiety and depression is what we're dealing with instead. But there you go. So that's ADHD.

Zac: 21:41

Now let's quickly talk about, or we can slow down, by the way, Zac, right. I want to keep these within like half an hour. So you know we're getting pretty close, but I want to briefly talk about two other things that are very common and some of the most common things that come up with ADHD. One of them is a broad term. We're actually going to spend all next episode talking about executive functioning. The other one is rejection sensitivity.

Zac: 22:14

So briefly, executive functioning is our brain's ability. It all there. It's a set of different cognitive processes that our brain has to go through in order to turn cool ideas into plans. How to execute on to on things, how to keep us on track right. If, uh, it's basically the part of our brain. The way that I describe it to my clients sometimes is that in neurotypical people it's like if you have, if you go into a room like, let's say, the kitchen is messy and you know, you know like a neurotypical person walks into the room and it's almost like their brain just prints off a list right through, gives you a little list of things to do, and then they just start doing it and then they stay on task and all of a sudden, the kitchen's clean. It's amazing. Meanwhile somebody with ADHD walks into that same room and looks around for a minute. The app crashes in their brain. This is what happens to me. The app crashes in my brain brain. This is what happens to me. The app crashes in my brain. I see something else. I walk away. I forget that that thing even exists and I the room has not been done right. That is what executive functioning does. Is that executive functioning is?

Zac: 23:39

Help, is involved in all sorts of things, and it's one of the big areas where we know people with ADHD struggle and it impacts both the hyperactive, impulsive subtype, which has a lot to do with, like, pumping the brakes and staying on task and, you know, calming down all those sorts of pieces, but it also has to do with the inattentive and disorganized subtype, which has all to do with planning and staying on task Again, a very similar thing, right? So it impacts both. We're going to talk a lot more about that next time, but that's definitely something to be aware of. Finally, the other big area that comes up is rejection sensitivity, and we will be having another full episode about this in the future. But rejection sensitivity, or what some people refer to as rejection sensitive dysphoria or RSD, that is something that essentially is that people with ADHD are highly sensitive and experience very big feelings when they feel any sense of rejection or judgment or shame, and my personal take on this is that this is the result of two different factors. Number one most kids with ADHD take a lot of flack from people, from their peers, from their parents, from their uh, from other authority figures in their life teachers, and so, in fact, some research shows that, uh, that kids with ADHD can have up to 10 times as much negative feedback from authority figures in their life. So that is something huge. That already happens. That's traumatic for kids, right and not. And adults are just big kids that have stuff right. So then not only that, but then we have big feelings as well, right? In other words, the like, emotion regulation is even more difficult for adults with ADHD, or kids, frankly. And so those two things combined, like rejection, sensitivity, yeah, like, of course that happens, right, so we're going to talk more about that. So that is the first episode of ADHD real talk. Let's real quick.

Zac: 26:03

Before we finish up, I want to finish with a little note about self-compassion, and so, as we go through this journey together, I want to invite you to be kind to yourself. This is the kind of thing that for a lot of people with ADHD, when we were growing up, right, people get frustrated with us. I personally can be quite obnoxious at times, I don't know. So I've been told. I was told by somebody recently that I was kind of a hard kid to have around, which you know to take that for what it's worth, um, but.

Zac: 26:43

But I think that the important thing throughout all of that is that if that brings up like difficult feelings for you as we kind of go through this, when you're reflecting on how you learned to see yourself, the messaging that you got back in the day, the messaging maybe that you still get today, I am going to invite you to practice self-compassion, be kind to yourself. This is the kind of thing that having ADHD in and of itself is. It's hard enough, right? And as long as you can look in the mirror and say you know what, like, I am a hot mess and I'm, but I'm doing the best that I can. I am a hot mess and I'm, but I'm doing the best that I can, that's, that's enough. You know we, there are things that we want to learn, and you know skills to develop and you know strategies to implement or whatever, right? But like, it's so valuable to be able to start from a place of curiosity and openness and to be able to just be kind to yourself. So that is my invitation as we wrap up this first episode Go over to rechargepsychology. com and you can check out the website there.

Zac: 27:59

This is where I'm going to be posting all of my episodes and if you have any questions or requests, let me know and I will and we'll work through some of those things in future sessions of the future episodes of the podcast. So thank you so so much for listening. I'm really looking forward to this journey together and I will see you on the next one. Buh-bye, see you on the next one, bye, bye.