Adult ADHD with Dr. Kathy Zhang

Artwork for podcast The Honestly Unfiltered Podcast

Episode 5 • 16th October 2022 • The Honestly Unfiltered Podcast • Jeni Thomas

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[Music] I'm Jeni Thomas and I'm her friend

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Ellie David we decided to create a podcast that embodies what you would talk about with your closest friends so

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sit back and relax and put your headphones in because you're listening to the honestly unfiltered podcast

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hello and welcome to another episode of the honestly unfiltered podcast

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today Ellie and I have with us Dr Louis Kathy Zhang I followed her on Instagram for quite

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some time her podcast the purpose filter is one that I try to listen to when life doesn't get in the way

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her podcast covers Health relationships mindset and the meaning of happiness

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as a life coach she teaches her clients how to apply the lessons of dying before it's too late so that they can create a

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life that they genuinely love Dr Zhang is a hospice and palliative care physician so she has a front row seat to

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the end of life and all the regrets that come with it earlier this month a specific post on her Instagram feed

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caught my attention she was recently diagnosed with ADHD as a woman in her

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30s she made it through med school and residency without knowing this about herself something I can relate to as

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well well not the med school part but as a result I reached out to her

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she mentions in her Instagram post that she must schedule work study blocks and

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put her car keys in a specific spot or they'll end up in the fridge I can't tell you how often my son who

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also has ADHD and I have had to turn our house upside down searching for his wallet or how often my husband goes to

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my son's High School to put his work bag in his car because he forgot to grab it on his way out the door little things

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like this and more have made me my son and even Dr Zhang feel like something is

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wrong with us when there is nothing wrong with us our brains are just wired differently and it's not all bad with

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these little idiosyncrasies comes greatness empathy creativity and the ability to think outside the box just to

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name a few we hope that you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoy creating it for you how was your

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day I bet the weather is beautiful up there right now um yeah it's really nice I love fall in

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New York um or at least I just I love fall I do too that's where I'm from

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originally oh yeah yeah that's awesome where are you from

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actually right outside of New York City uh Hackensack New Jersey

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oh yeah of course yeah I love it I'm from Virginia so we also have epic Falls

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and I miss it yeah I miss it that's I mean I'm not a huge fan of Florida in

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general even though I've been here for a very long time but that's when I get really homesick is

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the fall yeah I know and you guys just had hurricane Ian right I was um

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your your episode and how are you guys doing afterwards um you know I got hit harder in

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Northport than Jenny did up here but they you know they still had to ride it

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out it was we my husband grew up in Florida um for his entire life and of course he

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you know didn't take it as seriously because they just don't but he was petrified

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so that was it was the worst this part of Florida has ever seen

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yeah that's what I heard but we're all listen we're all okay you know that's all that matters we we got through it

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good I'm so glad to hear that yeah why don't you give us a like a brief

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background about what you do on I know that you're a palliative care doctor and

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I know that you are also a life coach and that you teach people how to live

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their lives before they'd be before the end of it mm-hmm yeah

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um yeah I do all of those things and basically it came from all my experiences caring for patients

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and I realized that you know they've taught me so much and I just wanted to

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be able to share that with people to kind of filter out the noise of the everyday and to be able to focus on

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what's important and so that's what I help people do in my coaching practice specifically

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females children of immigrants you know professionals to really kind of break

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old patterns of self-sacrifice and you know not having

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healthy boundaries and to really kind of step into their most confident empowered

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self I think that's so great I am a CNA I was

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a CNA for a few years and then stayed home for many years raising my family and then I've been back at it close to

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five years now and I love the work but part of the most gratifying aspect of it is end of life

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care for me and for the patient and for the families it's just a really beautiful thing to be a part of and when

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I say that to people they're a little confused you know you hear that about birth a lot but not about death

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so I was super intrigued by what you do but also how you have taken it to this

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level with trying to help people that are alive live their best life

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yeah and you're totally right people are like what do you mean you love this work isn't it so depressing and I was like I

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mean it it can be uh and at the same time you it's it's how you think about

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it that's how you you know phrase it in your mind and so being able to bring

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that to people Upstream 20 30 40 years so that they don't have to wait until they're sick or dying or someone that

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they love is sick or dying or has passed to be able to be like oh my

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it's important this is what I want to do and being able to live their lives in accordance

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I know you see it a lot with people where I have with that are diagnosed

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with cancer and they say well if I get better I'm going to do this this and

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this and I would do this differently and luckily many times they do but then sadly a lot of times they don't get the

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second chance to live life to the fullest oh yeah yeah precisely what brought us

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here in our conversation you were recently diagnosed with ADHD correct

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correct there's just about three weeks ago wow how did that come about

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it was so funny um I had a um someone I was working with

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she had helped me kind of with website design and kind of building out my brand and so we started following each other

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on social media and she shared a post I think it was something about either having a lot of tabs open on our website

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browser or something like that yeah and uh and I replied I was like oh my God this is so me and then she went do you

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have ADHD and I was like huh what no of course not I would have known right and

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then so she sent me a just a post I forget which account it was but it was

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like you know um rarely known signs of ADHD or something like that and then I I swiped

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through I was like oh my God holy crap like I have all of these and so I started that was like I would say maybe

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about maybe six eight months ago maybe even close to a year actually and so I

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was like oh and so I let it kind of marinate and marinate and then I finally decided I was like you know what maybe I

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should actually get diagnosed I um I looked at the diagnostic criteria

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because you know they teach us that in school um and I was like I fit all of these so I'm 99 sure that I have it and I've

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always had it because um I think for the diagnosis to you have to like have these symptoms in childhood

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earlier than age 12 or something like that and uh so I was like but I probably shouldn't diagnose myself with it I've

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probably asked someone so they diagnosed me and it just I made like so much sense

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um and I know is it Jenny that also got diagnosed yeah Jenny yeah

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I um mine came in a roundabout way my son has ADHD he's as I said he's 18 now

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but he was diagnosed in second grade and it was a very severe very typical very

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he couldn't sit still and we went through many years of therapy and

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medications on and off and finally in the last couple of years he decided he

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didn't want to take medicine so I never I never forced it on him but actually you know this past week he asked me can

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you take me back to the doctor I think I want to try it again so we I did take him back and he started

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taking five ants again because he didn't really give the vyvansea a shot Adderall

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made him very angry and not happy Concerta made him a zombie viviance when

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he was on it he said he didn't notice a difference but they also he was also

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always on a minimum dose and I said you have to give it a chance but I'm not

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going to force it on you I I want you to do what makes you comfortable so he said they wanted to try it and he

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told me he's been on it about five days now that he feels calmer inside so and

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he feels a little bit more focused so that made me happy and but I always wondered well where did he get this ADHD

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from it's not from me not from my side of the family not from my husband and

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as you know I've always known that I'm distracted I am I I've seen the quote

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about the computer browsers having a million open that is me I can start doing one project

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I can start editing a podcast at noon but realistically I'm gonna get sidetracked a million times a day and it

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will be nine o'clock at night before I actually edit that podcast and

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I have been seeing a weight loss specialist doctor for a little over a

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year and a half and we had

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um I was taking a weight loss medicine and we had a conversation one day and

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and the practitioners is excellent she has diagnosed so many little things and

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with me and pays attention she's like the one practitioner that listens to everything because I have an autoimmune

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disease disorder also I have lupus and we had a I said to her

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well you know I can almost relate to someone an alcoholic

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with food because I'm the type of person that if someone came in with a pizza or

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a bag of McDonald's I wouldn't eat it but it would sit there and sit there and sit there and but when they left if they

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left it behind then I would eat it and she said do you eat in secret all the

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time and I said well not all the time but then it did hit me that many friends have said

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well I never see you eat so why why do you why don't you lose weight well I

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don't eat enough because there's this guilt around eating because I've always been on a diet so she so I'm going to

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send you something and she had me sent she had me take a quiz and she said you

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have a borderline binge eating disorder which obviously I hesitate to say that and I've talked about it on the podcast

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because people when they say binge eating disorders they think of gorging and purging and stuffing themselves and

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I don't do that but I don't eat around people because there was the shame of you know eating when I was a kid because

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I was overweight and on top of that I have ADHD

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because that all tied it all ties in so she prescribed Vyvanse for me and I was

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shocked at how focused I could be ever and people in my life notice it because about two hours after I take it the

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emails start going out about the podcast and the ideas and these and that and work and everything else so yeah phone

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starts blowing up and I'm like

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whoa but it's been life-changing for me because when I was

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like for instance I I just started a new corporate job and

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in the past and basically it's a company that's rebuilding after covet and that

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and it's since it's in an entertainment business they all of their staff was pretty much laid off during covet

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because there wasn't any business and it was basically they handed me a

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laptop and said here figure it out and prior to this

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being on medication I remember if I had to start something like that I would be so overwhelmed with where to start

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because of the ADHD I would put it off and put it off and put it off and then be frazzled but I noticed now being on

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Vyvanse I can completely focus on the task and or put things in order and I'm

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not jumping around [Music] yeah I that's so funny how you say that it's

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just like recognizing that we have the diagnosis is just like it kind of opens everything up in a sense you kind of

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just realize like oh this is just how my brain works um and you know I had posted a video

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like right after I got the diagnosis I just started thinking about and I've

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been trying to kind of record more moments um in the present in time when

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it's actually happening to me I started doing that during covid and my therapist was like you know feel your emotions and

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that sort of thing um and so I started thinking I was like oh my God I made it through med school

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yeah I made it through all of this not knowing and just thinking that something

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was wrong with me and now it's like oh okay well this is how my brain works I

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have time blindness so I need to find systems and ways to cope that maybe

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people who are more neurotypical and that sort of thing don't have to rely upon as much and so

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um yeah it was just my psychiatrist was like well you could take medication um You probably have a mild case I was

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like yeah it's mild now because I'm I've done all these things to try and mitigate it I was like as a cat as a kid

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I lost everything all the time you know super distracted

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um my son's that way yeah all the time yeah you bring up you both really so for

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myself I joke and say I have 80d at work because at home being home for so many

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years is a stay-at-home mom um I didn't notice it until I went back to work

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and then I realized the kind of jobs that I've kind of always had had to be really fast paced

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like I can't sit at a desk I can't you know I can't it's it it just doesn't work for me so I mean I I guess and I

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always say that people I feel like we're all on the Spectrum it's just where do

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you land on the Spectrum it's kind of my feeling about it but my husband my God

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and and as he gets older we're really having real conversations about okay

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it's time like we really need to figure out you know what is going on here I had him

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take a quiz one day for autism like I you know because of just the social

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aspects of some of his behavior he's the most wonderful kind funny man but he

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will say things that I'm like uh read the room sir like

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and he just you know but there's lots of it and I see it affect him I see the

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stress you know you say the open tabs I had never heard that every time I grab his cell phone I am blown away by all

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the open tabs and the text messages that he doesn't clear out and I'm like what are you doing this is hundreds of things

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and he's like leave me alone that's how I like it I'm like this is psychotic so

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but I I immediately when I heard that I'm like poor guy like but you know he

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talks about his struggle in school as a child and he's a very very intelligent

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me and he he doesn't feel that way but he builds computers for a hobby I mean

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this is a Smart Band and I keep telling him I've told him for years I'm like hon

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if you you know and back then it was not as you know talked about or you know diagnosed

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but I know for a fact had he been diagnosed at a young age it would have changed his life

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tremendously but it definitely is something that as he gets older I think it's actually getting a little worse you

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know maybe if we we're able to get the diagnosis like you were saying I think it would open him up

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to knowing okay it's actually something that I can't I had no control over but

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now I can start to understand how my mind works Yeah a hundred percent and I think one

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of the reasons why I wanted it to wanted to know um and again my psychiatrist like you

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could take meds I was like um you know I'll think about it I'm still only three weeks into my diagnosis

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and um but I it's like I always thought as a kid or as a younger person that it

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was just um a deficiency like there was something wrong with you if you had add or ADHD

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and now realizing that okay no there's actually like neurochemical foundations

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to this right like you're low in dopamine and all this stuff and then realizing like okay that's just how it

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works and that it also provides like a lot of great superpowers for us like

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I've always been a very outside the box thinker um it's always very easy for me to come

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up with ideas and people would be like how'd you come up with that I was like what do you mean you don't see it no

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I've been doing this for you know a decade I've never I was like okay well you know

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um happy to help and so realizing that there are superpowers too that's you

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Jenny right Jenny is the same way we go to Jenny for everything and she always

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comes up with the I mean and every time she'll say like an aha thing and I'm like how did God how did you think of

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that it's so perfect but I would have never thought of it that is you and my husband also thank you

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it is a superpower and I think the more that it gets talked about like here and

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you know um in in social media and blogs Etc I've been reading reading a lot of

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um attitude additude you know it's kind of um a Blog for ADHD and that sort of

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thing but the more that we talk about it the less it becomes a stigma and I think

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for some people they think like oh if you say that you have it um it's kind of like a crutch right like

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oh you know I I have ADD so it's an excuse for me to not whatever be productive or to procrastinate or

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whatever and the way that I see it it's like no it's not a crutch it's just that being aware of how this affects me and

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being able to be like okay I can do things to mitigate that whether it's medication whether it's setting up

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systems and that sort of thing so the more that we talk about it I think the better for everyone involved 100 oh yeah

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I mean the stigma from when we were children um

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I don't know how old you are but Jenny and I at least but um you know I remember that greatly my

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young sister so I'm the oldest of three girls my youngest sister who is now let

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me think I'm okay so she's 36 I believe she was diagnosed at a very young age

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and that we tried my my mom did have her on medication for just a minute but not

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long um and what they did back then in school and she was in elementary school so I

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wouldn't say she was like fourth or fifth grade when the the diagnosis was made and she was put into a special

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class and the classroom that she was in were with

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um you know kids that had severe um mental

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um you know issues of every kind I mean that you could imagine from severe

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autism um I'm like having a brain fart right now but you know what I mean learning

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disabilities severe but they were Beyond even learning disabilities these were kids that were severely handicapped and

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you know they were all just lumped together you know and she was not severely handicapped and unfortunately a

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lot of the teachers that were teaching these classes were very unequipped very

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uneducated they were a teacher that maybe went to school to teach you know elementary school children but did not

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specialize in disabilities and were thrown into these classrooms and unfortunately for her the teacher that

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she encountered at that time was abusive as well I mean it changed the traject

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trajectory of her life with education for for the rest of

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her life and it really I think it really you know she's someone that suffers with um you know addiction issues and other

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mental health issues and I really believe that it it kind of started there

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um you know so yeah I just think that it's so important that the stigma is

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being lifted so that we can just continue it and it's of course it's greatly improved now but there's still

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room for improvement yeah exactly and you know you were saying Ellie about your husband how he's

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so intelligent and the more that I read about it's like people who are very very intelligent who have ADHD they kind of

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get by because um people don't recognize that that's what they have they are able to kind of

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compensate in ways or they learn very quickly that like this works and that doesn't work and especially in women

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like I I know so many women who are now in their 30s 40s 50s who are like oh I

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just got diagnosed and it just totally blew open their mind where they're like oh my God this is how I've

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been my entire life and you know like you said with um like uh with your niece right my sister

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my sister your sister I'm sorry that's okay you know ADHD is definitely related

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to having higher incidences of addiction too just because of again how our brain

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works and you know I wish that she hadn't had that experience but you're totally right it's just you know the

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more that we talk about it the more that we know about it the more that research is being done about it absolutely with my son I wanted to we we

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always did therapy along with his medication when he was young because my

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my whole worry was okay they're gonna stick you on medication because it was

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so severe that he was a distraction in class and not in a rambunctious way just

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he would not focus he didn't his mind was always going I but you have to have

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the tools to be able to live your life go to school go to

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college and be a success and not have the crutch of medication because at some

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point I feel like medication stops working when your body gets used to a

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certain dosage they can only go so high they can only switch you so many times you have to have those those foundations

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to get you through life and he even I want to say it's probably

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been two three years since he's been on any kind of medication and he's he told

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me well my fear is that because he sees so many kids his age abuse Adderall and

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ADHD medicine he's like I don't want to be on medic I don't want to be on drugs I don't want to be on addicted to

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something and I said well I explained the differences and what he he would take and how I said those

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people are taking that medication to speed up to go fast stay awake for days your body

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it's different for you it's it like for him he can drink a Monster energy and it calms him down because his brain is

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wired differently and I don't know if you're the same way but he is the

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classic absent-minded Professor I can send him to the in the Next Room for a hanger he comes back with a pen he's

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completely disorganized he is he's at parent-teacher conferences since middle

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school and I just had one the teacher said he's a great kid I love him he's so funny he's the best but if I could just

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get him to hand in an assignment and I said yeah they're in his bag we've been

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dealing with this since sixth grade he does all of the work and then he forgets to hand it in and forgets where he puts

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it and at the end of the quarter he's handing in all these assignments but he's you know he's also extremely

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intelligent with the things he's interested in he's like a walking movie encyclopedia and music encyclopedia and

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he's a talented musician it's just you know I think it he has his

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focus and and I explained to him I said look this is not this medicine that you're taking is not

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going to help you it's not going to help you enjoy science or enjoy math or enjoy something make

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you want to read it's it's going to help you focus on it but you're still gonna

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like the things love the things you want to love and you're still going to be bored with the things you're bored with

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well and it's important too I think that you can point out to him that what leads

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to a lot of addiction with people is these diagnosis these you know

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especially mental illness going undiagnosed um or a disability going undiagnosed and

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because of the symptoms of that and people start to medicate they start to

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use drugs and alcohol because they feel so out of control that that's because

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that's I believe what happened with my sister um to a big degree is there other

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factors of course but because you don't have the coping skills whatsoever then everything everything

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that Norm you know we all go through things in life that are traumatic that are you know stressful but certain

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people depending on what the diagnosis is are even more traumatized even more you

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know it's even more stressful you know so yeah it definitely leads to that I think yeah

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yeah and it's you know you're talking about your son Jenny it's just

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I think a lot of people think that if I just have this then my life will be

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better you know if I just have the medication or if I just you know get that thing whether it's you know

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material possessions or any of that stuff it's just we think that there's a cure-all for some things and uh again

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it's really about our perception of what's Happening like the stories that

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we tell ourselves about our current situations the challenges that we go through and I see this a lot with my

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patients and you know my clients too it's really about the emotional awareness the kind of mental health that

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we really focus on to be like okay what's the story that I'm telling myself

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about this even though it could be one thing or another and that's how you know

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we relate and perceive the world as a result of that yeah absolutely

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it's the always I feel like we're working towards the next goal goal the

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next car the next house the next vacation the next big ticket item

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yeah definitely not putting enough stock and it's it's quantity over quality most

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of the time and we're all guilty of it I mean it's not like you know I'm saying I'm not

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um but I will say that I have you know I have to remind my husband who is not so good at that

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you know all the time and I think that's part of it too it's like he you know can lose sight of what's

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important very easily and get overwhelmed with you know what all the stuff that he's interested in and that

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is important to him you know and lose sight of the blessings and the you know to have gratitude and be be in the

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moment that is a big one we anyone can struggle with that absolutely but I

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think if you have this diagnosis this disability it is a million times harder

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I think for for I know for him at least to be in the moment well you have the

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why if you have the diagnosis you have the like you said there's nothing wrong

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with me it's I'm wired differently mm-hmm and yeah that was the biggest

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thing to and that's why I started just getting very emotional because my entire life I thought that there was something

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wrong with me and then I found out again very recently that I'm also a highly sensitive person like as a kid I cried

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all the time all the time I grew up in a yeah right and I grew up um my parents

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were Chinese immigrants and they like what did they know about ADHD or a highly sensitive personality traits my

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dad was always just like why are you such a wuss you know um my dad's a wonderful wonderful person

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don't get me wrong it's a generation yeah I can hear that yeah totally yeah

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and so it's just like why do you cry at everything and I was just like this is just you know anger sadness happiness

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like I would cry and I I still do that but not to the same extent

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um but it was very much like oh my God here we go again and so I grew up for 30

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some odd years being like oh okay well I'm just like a sensitive wuss I guess not realizing that you know being highly

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sensitive and attuned to other people's emotions is precisely what helps me be a

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hospice and palliative care physician right like I can pick up things that patients or families are saying and not

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saying verbal non-verbal communication and be like let's let's dig in and explore that a little bit and they're

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like how did you know and I was like it's just how I am I guess I love that

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you just made that connection too totally we're very empathic people and that's what I hear when I hear High

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highly sensitive I I was always the same way and I do believe that empaths choose

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lines of work career paths like those like being a CNA I mean I you know

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yes I totally get that I mean I just can feel things and and I'm in tune with

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things and you know it was always weaponized against me when I was younger that was used as an insult you're being

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sensitive when in actuality nine times out of ten no you're being a jerk and I

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have every right to feel the way that I feel like you know but it was definitely a negative and I have you beat I was

32:36

raised by a Navy SEAL [Laughter]

32:43

oh my God no but I can only imagine you know bless his heart at an older age now and he's been retired for a long time he

32:50

retired as a Senior Chief but he has a lot of anxiety issues we were just talking about this and how there's a lot

32:57

of people that are the opposite of empathic and highly sensitive that unless it's happened to them it doesn't

33:03

exist and my poor father now is having issues I think I think he has undiagnosed PTSD

33:10

as well but um you know he gets it now you know and it's it's like well Dad I'm you know I'm

33:16

42 years old I'm glad you you can finally have a little compassion for me but I'm sorry thanks for figuring this

33:23

out now you know sorry sorry you have to deal with it now

33:28

but it's kind of kind of nice I I you know also I

33:35

go ahead I was gonna say I I think this the you know I I my grandparents who

33:41

pretty much raised me were Italian and they were Second Generation and you know their parents were immigrants and it was

33:47

the same way it was buck up stop being sensitive and you don't talk about it you don't talk about your feelings you

33:53

don't talk about I remember when my son was diagnosed and he also had sensory

33:59

processing when he was young and my mom said to me because it was you know inherited well you're not going to

34:05

tell anybody right you're not going to tell anybody what do you mean he's yeah well you don't want to tell

34:11

anybody about that and that's why if it can help people and I can learn things why wouldn't I tell anybody it's not

34:18

anything bad he's he's getting therapy and he's gonna be okay yeah

34:24

yeah exactly and you know you're saying about your dad um Ellie like just literally two days

34:30

ago um I I saw my dad and he was just kind

34:35

of like propped up on the side of the couch and he's like I don't have an appetite I was like what happened and he

34:41

was kind of feeling some um you know depressive symptoms even though it only been a couple days you

34:48

know I couldn't really call it that but he had just been consuming so much negativity in terms of like the war in

34:56

Ukraine and you know the threat of nuclear bombings and what's going on with covid and you know all the stuff

35:03

and he just didn't recognize that that's what was happening because and that was

35:09

what was causing him to have these psychosomatic symptoms he's like I I don't have an appetite I'm forcing

35:14

myself to eat and all this stuff and he's like this is not me you know he's

35:20

like I'm 70 and this is the first time my entire life that I've had to deal with this I was like yeah Dad these

35:26

emotions these things are real and again in their older feelings

35:33

exactly um and now in his older age he's like oh okay I get it I get it you know so I was

35:40

like Dad you gotta you know even though it hurts and you don't want to like walk exercise just get up and move and that

35:47

for me even with um the ADHD I've noticed that like the more that I exercise especially in the morning and

35:54

I'm not a morning person at all I'm a total Night Owl but I'm learning and using science tricks to be like oh this

36:01

actually helps me Focus this actually helps me calm down and so even though I hate waking up in the morning to go for

36:07

a run I'm not a runner I'm always like if if I'm running it's because someone's chasing me

36:12

that is my favorite I have a sticker that our other best friend that we talk

36:18

about a lot Maria bought for my car that said 0.0 I don't run

36:29

all of that stuff yeah exactly but I realized that the pain of not doing it

36:35

is worse than the pain of getting up and doing it and so it kind of all comes

36:41

full circle so as a doctor I would love to pick your brain for a second about your thoughts

36:48

on food now our very good friend Maria

36:54

um who also well she wouldn't claim that She's suffering from lupus but let's just say autoimmune illness and she's

37:01

she's had some severe symptoms over the years one of the worst was um her hives she would get horrible

37:09

hives and I I mean like you know looking like Quasimodo like someone just beat

37:14

her up I mean it was it's horrific anyway that's just one of them but she's really gone down this really awesome

37:21

path with food and trying to heal her body with what she's consuming you know

37:28

in a supplements and things as well she she's read a lot um of things and

37:34

follows some of the practices of the medical medium I don't know if you're familiar but I would love to know what

37:40

your thoughts are as far as you know we're learning more and more all the time what food does like let's say for

37:46

inflammation you know these certain foods that you consume that can just amplify that's

37:52

something I always am thinking about because of I also have well I have fibromyalgia I'm convinced I do have

38:00

some kind of autoimmune happening um but you know it's been hard to get

38:05

diagnosed so what are your thoughts as far as something like ADHD

38:10

with food in related to food yeah I mean so I will put a caveat that

38:16

you know like this I'm not a um I'm just speaking from anecdotal experience uh

38:22

and like you know my research and that sort of thing isn't in food or

38:28

inflammation but I do have kind of an immune mediated condition um in addition to ADHD and I've noticed

38:35

that for myself and what you said about your friends so true like I always thought I could eat dairy I

38:42

thought you know that's not an issue and I remember I just feel so down

38:47

um just mood wise and I always had a lot of acne when I would be on it and then

38:54

I've developed a soy intolerance which as an Asian is really upsetting yeah

39:00

um I love tofu and I love soy milk but you know it just doesn't do my body any good and I've also realized that like

39:07

there are so there's so much research into like pro-inflammatory foods with

39:16

really related to certain immune conditions like there are people who've done elimination diets with immune

39:22

conditions and their symptoms drastically improve and everyone is different right some people have major

39:30

allergies to Foods or different compounds and then some have minor ones and we don't even realize that it's

39:36

affecting us because we're just like oh I I should eat you know I should have dairy or I should have gluten or I

39:44

should have all these things and so I'm learning more and more about that too with respect to ADHD like I started

39:51

taking a magnesium supplement not for ADHD but um because I was having a lot of migraines probably earlier this year

39:57

I was having a lot of vestibular migraines and I went to see a neurologist because I would just stand

40:03

there and I would just feel like really light-headed and go on for like two

40:08

weeks at a time of just like would just stand and just be like what is going on like it wasn't vertigo it wasn't like

40:15

the room was spinning I just felt so tired um and he even did an MRI he's like just

40:21

to make sure that there's nothing else and uh he prescribed me magnesium supplements and it went away and so even

40:29

for me I was like wow this is evidence-based you know he was like these are he sent me all the research

40:34

papers because he's like I know you're a physician I know you want to see the data and all that stuff so he said sent me all of that and my I haven't had

40:43

migraines since then vestibular migraines yeah and so there's a lot of

40:48

research that is going into like omega-3 fatty acids for ADHD

40:53

um I was just listening to the huberman Lab podcast I don't know if you're

40:59

familiar with him he's a his name is Andrew huberman he's a professor of neurobiology and Ophthalmology at

41:05

Stanford and he talks a lot about the brain neuroplasticity all this stuff and he has

41:10

um he published an episode about ADHD and he's like I realize the irony of

41:16

this because I published a two hour and 15 minute episode on ADHD and I was like

41:23

yeah I was like uh yeah I get it it's not a I had to consume it in like chunks

41:29

over four days but he really goes into like the neurobiology of what is

41:36

actually happening in the brain of people with ADHD he talks the medications he talks about the

41:41

supplements that are science-based and research driven and so that's been given a huge help for

41:48

me myself I'm like okay well maybe I can find ways to incorporate more Omega-3s

41:54

in my diet and or find supplements um so yeah there's a ton out there for

42:01

people especially related to food and supplements and disease I have to check that out it sounds really intriguing

42:07

yeah and there are Maria has given me a list of my son's always been a very

42:12

picky eater because of texture and things like that and and now

42:18

that he's getting older he's overcoming a lot of it but she had given me a list of fruits and vegetables and things that

42:25

he should be eating to help his brain think and process and

42:31

work the way it's supposed to also yeah I just thought she might get a kick out

42:36

of a doctor actually backing up some of her her little witchy ways no no

42:41

seriously though she I'm so proud of her I mean I she's doing what I'm not brave

42:46

enough to do she was very sick at one point yeah yes and she keeps telling me that she's like when you get sick enough

42:52

you will get sick of it and you'll you'll come but you know and and she's

42:57

right you know it's like obviously I haven't hit my bottom yet but um so but

43:03

um she's done incredible work to really she has reversed things that were just

43:10

it's on it's unbelievable so you know and I do try to practice some of it I'm just not going full force you know yet

43:17

but um it's interesting just to get you know your perspective it's a process

43:23

um you know my my husband just read this book called The Mind gut connection and it's on my shelf I'm going to read it

43:30

soon but there's so much out there about like the gut microbiome and just

43:36

absolutely you know the the connection there um he was even telling me how there was one thing where

43:43

um depending on whether a birth was vaginal versus cesarean there's a

43:49

difference in I think he said the incidence of autism because as you go

43:55

through the birth canal you um you know get exposed to the mother's own microbiome in the vaginal Canal uh and

44:03

so I was like okay so it sounds like if we were to ever have a kid and I have a cesarean I just need to like you know

44:08

find a way to make that happen like afterwards let's extract and just like

44:15

smother your face and there's gonna be something no that's not recommended I'm just I'm

44:21

purely making a joke well you know and I'm glad you mentioned

44:27

that I think that's one Maria's read too and I haven't read yet but I want to but you know my oldest daughter who just

44:33

recently had a baby sit six months ago so my grandma and I'm so happy um

44:39

she has suffered with depression and anxiety off and on her entire life and of course you know having a baby and

44:44

stuff you know whatever but she eats like a dumpster fire because she unlike

44:50

me has always been tall thin blonde gorgeous never really thought much about it and you know I keep pushing that with

44:59

her I'm like listen you are feeding this thing that's happening to you you

45:05

know it's it's affecting your gut health is poor so and not that I'm like you

45:11

know fantastic but I do notice it and I keep telling her and the days that

45:16

she'll actually eat decent she feels better you know and it's it's

45:21

just it's incredible what the connections are that they're they're making with that yeah and I think a lot

45:28

of us don't even realize how poorly we feel until we feel good

45:34

yeah yeah yeah thousand percent oh my gosh when I have a good day and I've I've gotten

45:42

some exercise in and you know I've eaten I've made good choices and I'm feeling

45:47

pretty good and I'm like dang those bad days are really bad yeah I noticed that

45:53

if I'm eating very healthy for a long stretch and then I have something bad

45:59

it's and 20 minutes later your body feels a certain way it's like oh yeah that's why I don't eat that anymore it's

46:06

really you know all those lmsg and all all sorts of chemicals that are in processed

46:13

foods now yeah and it's all these fundamental things where it's like we've been talking about this for years like

46:19

okay drink enough water and get enough sleep I just came across a statistic I was like um you know how in daylight

46:26

savings in the spring where you spring forward and you lose an hour apparently

46:31

there's like a 24 higher rate of heart attacks and traffic

46:38

incidents the next day when we lose an hour of sleep and versus the same

46:43

reduction in heart attacks and cardiovascular events in the fall when we gain an hour of sleep

46:50

right and that's just an hour and so now I'm like okay well I'm Really Gonna focus on my sleep and I've noticed that

46:57

again with my focus with ADHD if I get enough sleep I am just I can focus I can

47:03

do things whereas if I don't even if it's an hour which doesn't seem like a lot I always thought I'm like oh I can

47:10

live on six hours it's not a big deal I like I can definitely tell that I'm I'm

47:15

different I'm not as sharp I'm not as focused and my brain just goes Haywire I'll be working on something I'm like oh

47:21

you know what I should take ballroom dancing lessons and I'm like this is is nothing to do with my podcast right now

47:29

like it was literally having me squirrel squirrel that's our favorite thing we'll go down

47:35

the rabbit hole and it's like squirrel wait let's get back which literally happened to me this morning and you know I was texting you guys yesterday and I

47:43

was like if I don't send this message I'm gonna forget and I'm gonna Panic tomorrow so it's no pressure I just you

47:49

know this is how my brain works now mm-hmm me too me too it's um

47:56

if I'm not in bed by 10 11 o'clock forget it I I catch a second wind I can be up till 2 A.M and then the next day

48:02

I'm a Zombie I notice if I am rigid about my sleep hygiene and I go

48:07

to bed make myself go to bed and not pick up my phone once I get there because if I pick up my phone once I get

48:13

there it's another two hours down a rabbit hole a million browsers open that are saved three tomorrow and it's just

48:21

it's exactly the same it's amazing the patterns that we have that are so similar yeah totally and there's so many

48:27

of us out there we just don't even realize it honestly after listening to everything I

48:33

think I need to take the quiz wherever the quiz is just in case I'll find it for you relating to a little more than

48:38

that not for my child my childhood though like you know I can't I don't I'm

48:44

thinking back you know I'm not I did have OCD and I was diagnosed with OCD

48:50

and they were classic OCD behaviors and I still have them um but yeah I don't really relate as a

48:57

but as an adult there's things that I'm like hmm I know we only have a few minutes and you have to go Kathy but

49:04

real quick I want to ask you do you my son I notice with him a very strong OCD

49:11

things that he has to he works on breaking do you not have that as well um I

49:16

you know I have like little Tendencies here and there but I wouldn't classify myself as having those

49:23

um overarching like it's a compulsion right when you look at the actual criteria for OCD it's not just like I

49:29

like having things a certain way it's like it has to be otherwise you know um

49:35

there's consequences and you just feel something and so I personally don't have that I have little things that I like

49:40

here and there um and then Ellie I wanted to say that in the human Lab podcast he was also

49:46

talking about this really interesting thing where now um there's a lot there's probably some

49:51

talk too where the increase in smartphone usage distractions and all

49:57

this stuff over the last you know 10 12 years when smartphones first came about may or may not be leading to things like

50:05

adult onset ADHD and so that's something I'm like oh okay it makes sense crap that that makes a lot of sense um I

50:12

don't know a ton about it but he mentioned that I was like oh wow that is that doesn't make a lot of sense why

50:18

people feel more and more that like oh this is me

50:23

yeah totally do it you've convinced me

50:30

well I know you have to go it's 12 28 and but I'm going to add an intro and

50:37

exit and all that later on but thank you so much for coming on and talking to us come back anytime we are going to put

50:45

all of your information in the show notes her podcast is the purpose filter and

50:50

you can find her on Instagram at purposefilter yeah and just again thank you so much it was a pleasure having you

50:56

on absolutely so great speaking with you both and yeah let's do this again and let's keep talking like yeah for sure

51:03

definitely we just need to talk more about mental health I think um Monday was World mental health day and stuff

51:09

like that and I know that's super important to both of you and your podcast so thank you so much for having

51:15

me such a blast thank you thank you for being here bye

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