Cloud

Most late aged diagnosed ADHD folks have a bit of a moment where all of a sudden the final puzzle piece is put in place and there’s the ‘lightbulb’ revelation of what has been going on all along. It might be from seeing a video on instagram or tiktok of a list of ADHD symptoms and realising that it was a list of your ‘personality traits’.
People have asked me when I first had a bit of insight into potentially having ADHD, and the truth is that I can’t really remember. I don’t know whether this was because I kind of always had the feeling that it was there and maybe just pushed it down, or if the burnout from ADHD had become so bad that I actually have memory impairments.
Today’s guest is a bit similar to me in this way. Bridget Hustwaite is an author, presenter and broadcaster. You’d likely know her from her days gracing the airways at triple J, or from either of her fantastic books ‘how to endo’ and ‘figuring out 30’.
We spoke about:
The symptoms of ADHD Bridget had prior to diagnosis and what she struggled with
The ‘internalising’ aspects of ADHD
Do we have memory issues or were we just not really present to begin with?
Our fears of ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ and the trend of having ADHD
The emotional labour of speaking about ADHD with loved ones
Comparing the diagnosis of ADHD to endometriosis & why one was more validating than the other
Emotional regulation and mood & how it’s shifted with medication
Masking, fitting in and friendships
You can find more from Bridget Hustwaite on instagram
You can get a copy of Bridget’s new book “Figuring Out 30” here!!

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Attention seems to be something that not only us neurodiverse folk struggle with these days. I’ve personally struggled a bit with the whole ‘deficit’ part of the label of ADHD because it doesn’t really seem to be the most appropriate description. For me, ‘unable to control where my attention is focussed’ seems to be more in line but it doesn’t have a ring to it.
Today’s guest is the wonderful best selling author of ‘Stolen Focus. Why You Can’t Pay Attention’ Johann Hari. Johann went on a long journey to figure out why all of us seem to be struggling with attention. Parts of his book specifically questioned some of the more controversial sides of ADHD in regards to the biopsychosocial model and medication of kids.
In today’s episode we spoke about:
Why none of us can pay attention anymore
Why ADHD brains need to be more attuned to the things that can impact focus and attention
Diagnosis can often be ‘brain or blame’ - either it’s completely biological and there’s nothing you can do about it, or it’s not completely your biology and therefore you are to blame for not being able to pay attention
How food can impact attention
How technology is designed to steal our attention
Whether we can do anything about it
Why sleep really impacts our attention
Some of the reasons behind the controversy of questioning ADHD medication
You can find all of Johann’s books and further information at his website.
You can follow Johann on Instagram
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How do you go with small talk, keeping the conversation going and not feeling overwhelmed by matches and messages? Do you ever wonder how the people you’re matching with perceive you? I felt all of the above. I hated small talk and found it incredibly boring, I was constantly overwhelmed by the expectation to reply if I hadn’t checked my messages in a little while and I was always worried that I would appear ‘too intense’ to the people I had matched with and I tried to tone myself down so that they wouldn’t be scared off.
Hinge recently conducted some research into dating and ADHD! They examined over 9000 daters on Hinge across the world with a clinical ADHD diagnosis to get a bit of a read of the room on how dating can affect us. Joining the podcast is Logan Ury; Hinge’s Director of Relationship Science. She’s a behavioural scientist turned dating coach and the author of the best-selling dating book, How to Not Die Alone.
In today’s episode we talk:
What people with ADHD tend to struggle with on the apps
Why small talk is a huge hurdle for people with ADHD
How to avoid small talk
Masking and being scared of being viewed as ‘weird’ or unusual
Shift vs support responses. What they are and how it will REALLY help people with ADHD
Analysis paralysis and the paradox of choice
You can find more from Logan Ury at her website
and instagram
You can read Hinge’s ADHD dating report
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ADHD and feeling overwhelmed, over stimulated and burnout seem to go hand in hand. A lot of us operate under the ‘go, go, go’ type of cadence with our two modes being full throttle or absolutely nothing. This inevitably leaves a lot of us feeling as though we can never get it together, we’re mentally exhausted all of the time and as though everyone around us is sick of our franticness. Joining the podcast today is certified ADHD therapist, who also has ADHD Jenna Free. Jenna refers to the frantic behaviours mentioned above as dysregulation.

Jenna taught me a whole new way to think about managing my ADHD. Her work focuses on regulation and learning to bring ourselves back to a regulated state.
This episode is for anyone who feels like:
They are frantically trying to keep up with a to-do list that never ends
Your life feels overwhelming while you also feel as though you’re barely getting anything done
There is never enough time in the day and you’re always racing against the clock
You ricochet between frantically running around panicking and crashing, zoned out and in a paralysis

We speak about:
Jenna’s experience of being diagnosed later in life and the cross over with postnatal depression
A lot of ‘lifestyle’ treatments for ADHD are bandaids and don’t address the underlying cause of burnout
Consistently being distracted by tasks while you are meant to be doing a task
Identifying dysregulation and being in reaction mode
Seeing time as a ‘vertical’ all stacked right in front of us rather than ‘horizontal’ in a linear way
How the internal work softens us so we aren’t in survival mode so that we can implement some strategies
You can find Jenna’s website and work
And her Instagram
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We know that the ADHD brain operates in some different ways to a neurotypical one, but what’s actually going on inside our brains?
We’re joined today by neuroscientist, international speaker, and author of The DOSE Effect, TJ Power. TJ’s work focuses on small, practical habits that can help us regulate our brain chemistry.
Today we dive into:
How our dopamine levels differ from a neurotypical brain and what this means for our motivation, concentration and attention span
How dopamine is connected to hyperfocus
Changing the narrative of ‘disorder’ and ‘deficit’ to ‘difference’
TJ’s experience with OCD
How to find your ADHD ‘superpower’ and flow state
Task initiation challenges and transition stages
How dopamine is linked to novelty and impulsivity
How changing the first 5-10 mins of your morning can affect the whole rest of your day
The science behind therapies like ice baths and saunas & how they compare to drugs in the brain
We are then joined by clinical nutritionist Georgia Farrar to chat through which foods are best for maintaining focus and attention, which types of foods can exacerbate ADHD symptoms and whether caffeine is good or bad for our brains!
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
2:50 - Differences in ADHD brains
4:30 - The problem with the labels 'disorder' and 'deficit'
6:15 - TJ's experiences with OCD
11:45 - Finding your flow state
14:20 - How social media impacts dopamine
17:00 - Task initiation
19:40 - Dopamine & novelty
21:50 - Waking up and jumping on your phone
30:00 - Procrastination
31:30 - Deliberately reducing our stimulation
39:30 - Ice baths and dopamine
43:50 - Sleep and neurochemicals
46:00 - Nutrition for focus and attention
48:50 - Ultra processed foods
53:20 - Supplements that aid attention and focus
59:55 - Is caffeine good or bad?
You can find more from TJ including his new book from his website
TJ's Instagram
You can find more about ultra processed foods and nutrition advice from Georgia

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.