Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine, Hey bestsies.
Speaker 2: Today on the bright Side, it's Wellness Wednesday, and in
Speaker 2: honor of ADHD Awareness Month, we're joined by Board certified
Speaker 2: psychiatrist and ADHD specialist, doctor Sasha Hamdabi. It's Wednesday, October
Speaker 2: twenty third. I'm Simone Boyce, I'm.
Speaker 1: Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine,
Speaker 1: a daily show where we come together to share women's stories,
Speaker 1: to laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 2: Today's Wellness Wednesday is presented by Coli Guard.
Speaker 1: So October is ADHD Awareness Month and this year's theme
Speaker 1: is awareness is key. ADHD stands for attention deficit hyperactivity
Speaker 1: disorder and according to the CDC, it's one of the
Speaker 1: most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood and often lasts into adulthood.
Speaker 2: That's true, but what's really fascinating about this is that
Speaker 2: women and girls are underdiagnosed and undertreated when it comes
Speaker 2: to ADHD, and identifying symptoms of ADHD can manifest differently
Speaker 2: depending on age and gender.
Speaker 1: I mean, Simone, I actually feel like particularly interested in
Speaker 1: hearing from doctor Hamdani because you've said before that you
Speaker 1: feel like you have some symptoms of ADHD.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've definitely had my questions and my doubts for
Speaker 2: a long time about my inability to focus. I identify
Speaker 2: as a hypergirly, so maybe there's something to that. But
Speaker 2: I think if you're chronically online, you've probably seen this
Speaker 2: conversation pop up on social media. It seems like people
Speaker 2: are talking about it more and more, and there are
Speaker 2: upsides to that, but there are also downsides. Some of
Speaker 2: the downsides include misinformation, like are we really getting the
Speaker 2: truth when we're engaging in these discussions online. So that's
Speaker 2: why it's really important to bring in the experts, someone
Speaker 2: like doctor Sasha Hamdani, who knows her stuff.
Speaker 1: Is one of the upsides Doing viral Instagram videos with
Speaker 1: your husband in a pool about being hyper.
Speaker 2: I don't know if my husband would call it an upside.
Speaker 4: I certainly enjoyed that experience.
Speaker 1: I certainly feel it's an upside as if you were
Speaker 1: I do. But okay, jokes aside, because this is a
Speaker 1: serious topic. Joining us today to answer all of our
Speaker 1: questions and clear up any misconceptions about ADHD is doctor
Speaker 1: Sasha Hamdannie. She's a psychiatrist, the author of Self Care
Speaker 1: for People with ADHD. And what feels very unique is
Speaker 1: she's someone who has ADHD herself. You might recognize her
Speaker 1: from social media where she shares insights on ADHD and
Speaker 1: mental health to her almost two million fans across platforms.
Speaker 4: So let's bring her in.
Speaker 1: Doctor Sasha Hamdannie, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 5: Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: We're so happy to have you, especially during October, which
Speaker 2: is ADHD Awareness Month. Yeah, you are a board certified psychiatry.
Speaker 2: You also have ADHD yourself, and you actually disappeared at
Speaker 2: the White House to talk about this very subject.
Speaker 4: So we are in such good hands.
Speaker 2: Why do you feel called to speak out about ADHD awareness?
Speaker 3: Well, partially because I have it, and so it comes
Speaker 3: very naturally because this is something that I'm speaking about
Speaker 3: from firsthand experience, but also because I think as.
Speaker 5: Someone who has.
Speaker 3: Lived through it, it's really frustrating trying to navigate these waters.
Speaker 3: With one, for a long time, there wasn't a lot
Speaker 3: of great information about it. Yeah, and number two, there
Speaker 3: was a lot of stigma around it.
Speaker 2: I mean, women are historically underdiagnosed and untreated when it
Speaker 2: comes to ADHD. Yes, from your research and just your
Speaker 2: experience as someone who lives with this condition and speaking
Speaker 2: to others about it.
Speaker 4: Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3: How much time do you have because I could go
Speaker 3: on before we have time. Honestly, Good Right volumes on
Speaker 3: this just because it is such a rich area of
Speaker 3: why women are under or misdiagnosed, and so some of
Speaker 3: the reasons they're just historical.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: For a long time, ADHD was considered as like something
Speaker 3: that hyper little boys have and it was outside of
Speaker 3: the scope of everything else, like if a woman was diagnosed, Nope,
Speaker 3: you don't have it, because it was only hyper little boys.
Speaker 3: The other reason is that women have different societal pressures,
Speaker 3: and so they are you know, trained from a very
Speaker 3: young age you have to conform, you have to do
Speaker 3: these things. You can't cause trouble, you can't act up
Speaker 3: in class, you have to So they're forced to mask
Speaker 3: all these symptoms and kind of toe the line. Whereas
Speaker 3: you know they're feeling all these things, they're feeling restless,
Speaker 3: they're feeling impulsive, but they are so afraid of getting
Speaker 3: in trouble or they're told like, you cannot be anything
Speaker 3: besides this one image, and so they just hide their
Speaker 3: symptoms because that's what they're told to do the high
Speaker 3: the mask. So that's another thing. Another humongous thing is hormones.
Speaker 3: There is a huge correlation between hormonal cycles and ADHD expression,
Speaker 3: and so like for example, with PMDD or PMS, people's
Speaker 3: symptoms just like body symptoms, everything gets worse. But then
Speaker 3: your focus also and executive function gets significantly worse. And
Speaker 3: so a lot of times when people are going to
Speaker 3: the doctor, they might be on their cyclone. People are
Speaker 3: just like, it's puberty, or it's hormones, or it's mommy brain,
Speaker 3: and so everything is getting blamed on hormones throughout it.
Speaker 5: It's perimenopause, it's menopause.
Speaker 3: So there's so many different things that people are just
Speaker 3: saying it's hormones. Everybody goes through this one. It's actually not.
Speaker 3: It's hormones on top of an existing condition.
Speaker 1: When you talk about these symptoms being different in girls
Speaker 1: and boys, I'm curious how they show up for women. Yeah, like,
Speaker 1: what do we associate as a typical ADHD case in.
Speaker 3: A woman, So you know, for males versus females, And
Speaker 3: when I'm saying females assigned female at birth, I think
Speaker 3: we have to look at the fact that females present
Speaker 3: more as this inattentive picture. For ADHD, there are three
Speaker 3: different types. There's inattentive, there's hyperactive, and there's combined type,
Speaker 3: which is a combination of the two of them. Females
Speaker 3: present more as this inattentive picture, so like the classic daydreaming.
Speaker 3: So difficulty organizing things, difficulty staying on tasks, difficulty forgetting
Speaker 3: daily routine like walking out of the house, did I
Speaker 3: brush my teeth, did I, you know, close the garage,
Speaker 3: all of these things, difficulty with you know, people are
Speaker 3: talking to them and they can't maintain the conversation or
Speaker 3: pay attention within the conversation, getting easily derailed off task,
Speaker 3: or having difficulty with prolonged focus in tasks. That's typically
Speaker 3: how women present, and even younger roles present. Males typically
Speaker 3: present as this combined type or hyperactive picture, which is
Speaker 3: more of what you think of with that physical impulsivity
Speaker 3: and hyperverbosity. So they're super talkative, they are interrupting, they're
Speaker 3: being disruptive in class, they're fidgety, they're getting up, they're
Speaker 3: running around. So those are the things that maybe a
Speaker 3: female presents like that, but it is you know, it's
Speaker 3: shut down. That behavior is shut down pretty quickly, and
Speaker 3: you know, they're not the ones typically running around there's
Speaker 3: they're not the ones getting kind of a past, so
Speaker 3: they mask those symptoms.
Speaker 1: I keep reading about studies that say that all of
Speaker 1: our attention spans are decreasing at a rapid rate. So
Speaker 1: I can imagine people listening thinking, well, my attention span
Speaker 1: is sort of low, Like, what is the marker of
Speaker 1: regular sort of twenty twenty four lack of attention Instagram
Speaker 1: era versus a woman who suffers from ADHD.
Speaker 3: So I think it's important to note that brain mot
Speaker 3: is for real, right, That's something that we are in
Speaker 3: an increasingly digital age, and we are attention is constantly
Speaker 3: being fragmented by one hundred million things, by notifications, by dings,
Speaker 3: by social media, by you know, work, all these different reasons. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's hard to distinguish that. But what we're looking
Speaker 3: for with ADHD is that this is a pervasive pattern
Speaker 3: of behavior since childhood. So this isn't just a twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four problem. This is coming from a really young age.
Speaker 3: This is something that is causing significant dysfunction to your life.
Speaker 3: And this is where a lot of people have issues
Speaker 3: with the terminology of ADHD. Like the name ADHD attention
Speaker 3: deficit hyperactivity disorder not great. I don't love the name, honestly,
Speaker 3: but a lot of people have beef with the disorder part.
Speaker 3: And I think the disorder part is actually really important
Speaker 3: because ADHD causes dysfunction. It is a disorder. It's not
Speaker 3: a lot of people, you know, when they're talking about
Speaker 3: ADHD within the context of neurodivergence and feeling like, oh,
Speaker 3: everybody's brain works a little bit differently. I think that's
Speaker 3: entirely true. But I also think that the disorder part
Speaker 3: is really important because it causes that person dysfunction and
Speaker 3: it feels like a disorder and it is negatively impacting
Speaker 3: their lives.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: I rarely do this.
Speaker 2: I'm literally taking notes as you're speaking, because this all
Speaker 2: just feels so relevant, Like for me personally, I've wondered
Speaker 2: if I have it or have a later in life diagnosis.
Speaker 4: As a parent, I think this is so informative.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's talk about late diagnosis and how it impacts women.
Speaker 2: So I've heard anecdotally, you know, stories of mothers who
Speaker 2: have reportedly discovered their own ADHD after their children are
Speaker 2: diagnosed because it's the first time that it really causes
Speaker 2: them to think about how these symptoms might be impacting them.
Speaker 2: How does a late diagnosis impact us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the unfortunate thing is statistically males get diagnosed
Speaker 3: between six and eight years old.
Speaker 5: It's so early.
Speaker 3: Females their average age of diagnosis is their mid thirties.
Speaker 3: Who so it's not late like this is our average
Speaker 3: time of diagnosis, which is really unfortunate because they present
Speaker 3: at the same time. It just gets skipped and ignored,
Speaker 3: or or people just get passed from grade to grade
Speaker 3: to grade and they don't really you know, no one
Speaker 3: picks up on it or is unwilling to do things
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 1: Well. Also, then, like these women have suffered all throughout
Speaker 1: studying for tests in school and college, potentially college years
Speaker 1: and early work years.
Speaker 3: It's not even just that, Danielle. The thing that I
Speaker 3: really like think is worth talking about with ADHD is
Speaker 3: it's not just a focus issue. I think the scope
Speaker 3: of the DSM is kind of narrow, but ADHD bleeds
Speaker 3: into everything else. If you don't have enough attention to
Speaker 3: figure out what's happening actively in your life, you're also
Speaker 3: things are falling apart at home, and so your home
Speaker 3: like gets impacted, your relationships are impacted, you are, the
Speaker 3: way you integrate with the rest of the world is impacted.
Speaker 3: So these women that are getting diagnosed much later in life,
Speaker 3: they've gone through a significant portion of their formative years
Speaker 3: without a diagnosis, without understanding how their brain works, and
Speaker 3: instead getting, you know, the input that I'm lazy, I'm dumb,
Speaker 3: i can't live up to my potential, I'm not as
Speaker 3: good as anybody else. And so that's what I think.
Speaker 3: We're dealing with an entire generation of women that were
Speaker 3: skipped and that are now kind of making amends and
Speaker 3: you know, helping their children through this while also trying
Speaker 3: to heal themselves. So it's a really complicated and confusing
Speaker 3: snapshot of their lives.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of coming a long way, you've said that
Speaker 1: the diagnostic criteria basically all comes from a book called
Speaker 1: the DSM. Yeah, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Speaker 1: I learned about this manual about four years ago. It
Speaker 1: encapsulates basically every mental disorder you can think of.
Speaker 4: Yes, but in the.
Speaker 1: DSM, the criteria for ADHD is really centered around focus
Speaker 1: and I know we've been talking about other symptoms, but
Speaker 1: ones that you've mentioned that are not focused enough.
Speaker 4: On our anxiety and mood.
Speaker 1: How does that sort of like come up in people
Speaker 1: with ADHD.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I think with I see it a lot in
Speaker 3: patience of mind. I've also experienced this myself. I think
Speaker 3: they travel hand in hand. And so if your ADHD
Speaker 3: is unregulated and not properly controlled, you get overwhelmed, you
Speaker 3: get exhausted, you get it looks depression, it looks like
Speaker 3: anxiety because you're trying to make up for these deficits
Speaker 3: and can't. A lot of times, like without proper instruction
Speaker 3: or methods to cope, it's really difficult to stay on
Speaker 3: top of these things. And so I think that you know,
Speaker 3: a lot of women get diagnosed with depression and get
Speaker 3: diagnosed with anxiety, but really you need to look at
Speaker 3: that underlying cause. So I think that like in a
Speaker 3: dream world situation, the DSM would have like a line
Speaker 3: in there, or like a credentialing kind of thing where
Speaker 3: it's like, Okay, well we will look at the criteria
Speaker 3: for depression and anxiety, but it's ADHD the cause of it.
Speaker 5: If that's the case, then ADHD is.
Speaker 3: A diagnosis rather than ADHD plus these other things.
Speaker 2: We need to take a quick break, but we'll be
Speaker 2: right back with doctor Sasha Hamdanni. And we're back with
Speaker 2: doctor Sasha Hamdannie.
Speaker 1: You mentioned earlier that one of or some of the
Speaker 1: symptoms that women deal with, particularly when they're younger, get internalized. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are the symptoms that we don't talk about as much?
Speaker 3: You know? I think like if you're strictly going along
Speaker 3: with the DSM, I think one of the biggest things
Speaker 3: is that, partially because of the name attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
Speaker 3: people get really hung up on like, oh, if I
Speaker 3: have ADG, I have to be hyperactive. You don't have
Speaker 3: to be what you think of typically as hyperactive. It
Speaker 3: could be like a mental hyperactivity that your brain is
Speaker 3: moving along and clipping along so quickly that it's hard
Speaker 3: to organize thoughts or categorize thoughts or figure out what
Speaker 3: your next steps are. I think a very commonly overlooked
Speaker 3: one that people usually call stress or mommy brain is
Speaker 3: this feeling of being catastrophically overwhelmed, just like all of
Speaker 3: these things piling up on your plate and not knowing
Speaker 3: where to start. Or how to attack the problem. And
Speaker 3: with this like that problem gets compounded, like every single
Speaker 3: day you're not addressing the underlying issue, your problems are
Speaker 3: getting bigger and more complicated and increasingly more difficult to solve.
Speaker 3: So I think that's one really important thing that we
Speaker 3: don't talk about enough.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned hyperactivity. I've heard you talk about two
Speaker 1: other subtypes of ADHD, which are inattentive and combined. How
Speaker 1: do each of these three how are they distinguished from
Speaker 1: each other?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, I mean the way that we make our
Speaker 3: diagnosis is based on this set of criteria in the DSM,
Speaker 3: which is the guidebook for symptomology and medical criteria. So
Speaker 3: the hyperactive is more of what you think about with
Speaker 3: impulsivity and hyperactivity, like difficulty staying in your seat and
Speaker 3: you're constantly fidgeting and you are talking a lot, interrupting
Speaker 3: a lot, blurting on or not letting other people participate
Speaker 3: in conversation. And then combined type is a combination of
Speaker 3: both of those. You need to hit a certain number
Speaker 3: and have a combination of both criteria.
Speaker 1: When you mentioned hormones, my first thought was I recently
Speaker 1: interviewed a woman who is making a running shoe, a
Speaker 1: performance shoe for women. I was unaware, but most of
Speaker 1: the running shoes that we're all wearing are actually basically
Speaker 1: made from male molds, and we're just wearing smaller sizes.
Speaker 1: And when I was asking her what the impacts are,
Speaker 1: one of the things she brought up was that our
Speaker 1: hormones actually really affect our physiology and how we're running,
Speaker 1: and that we need certain things at different times of
Speaker 1: the months. But the issue is that it's completely understudied
Speaker 1: and it's expensive to study hormones. I was really interested
Speaker 1: to see you talk about how much hormones can impact
Speaker 1: ADHD and our experience with it as women.
Speaker 4: Can you elaborate on that a bit?
Speaker 3: I think you're absolutely right. I think this is a
Speaker 3: hugely understudied area because hormones are fluctuant with ADHD. How
Speaker 3: this presents it is actually really distinct and really important
Speaker 3: to notice because with those hormonal cycles, and you know,
Speaker 3: if we're talking about the menstrual cycle, there is a
Speaker 3: period of time premenstrually, so before your period actually starts,
Speaker 3: where your estrogen drops. Okay, fine, whatever you might be,
Speaker 3: you know, PMS having all of those symptoms, But what
Speaker 3: people don't also kind of notice is that estrogen and
Speaker 3: dopamine kind of go hand in hand. So when your
Speaker 3: estrogen levels drop, your dopamine levels drop, and that just
Speaker 3: leads to this chaos. In all of a sudden, you're
Speaker 3: unable to do simple tests that you were able to
Speaker 3: do before. So you're having a much harder time with
Speaker 3: like planning how to do things, executing tasks, making sure
Speaker 3: things get done. You're dropping the balls on things, and
Speaker 3: so it gets even more confusing because then you're just like, well,
Speaker 3: I know I feel bad that it's because I'm not
Speaker 3: getting as much done or I'm not but people don't
Speaker 3: actually put those two things together, that your hormones are
Speaker 3: making your ADHD symptoms worse, and so that's you know,
Speaker 3: these are some of the things that you look at
Speaker 3: when you're doing an assessment for someone like do you
Speaker 3: have a cyclical variation? Do you notice your symptoms get worse?
Speaker 3: Which is why I think it is so so, so
Speaker 3: so so vital to track your patterns.
Speaker 4: I'm so mad right now. I gotta be honest, I'm
Speaker 4: so upset.
Speaker 2: I'm so upset that I am just now finding out
Speaker 2: about all of this at thirty six years old, Like.
Speaker 4: That is so messed up.
Speaker 2: I know, I've learned so much about my body in
Speaker 2: the past few years, particularly since I became a mom,
Speaker 2: and I know where I am in my cycle at
Speaker 2: all times. I know that my lutel phase is going
Speaker 2: to be chaos every month. But you just helped me
Speaker 2: make the connection between my desire to seek out dopamine
Speaker 2: inducing experiences and also my lack of focus during that
Speaker 2: week before my period.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and spoone don't even feel bad about that because
Speaker 3: I literally I'd gone to school essentially the entirety of
Speaker 3: my whole life to do psychiatry to learn about the brain.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't until you know, it was during COVID
Speaker 3: that I was like, oh god, you know it is
Speaker 3: so it was so hard to stay on top of
Speaker 3: my ADHD symptoms, and so I started thinking about, like,
Speaker 3: what are ways that I could make this better and
Speaker 3: reach more people with this, And so my sister and
Speaker 3: I created an app. And one of the things on
Speaker 3: the app is like a focus tracking thing where you
Speaker 3: get to see your patterns and you see it very visually.
Speaker 3: I did that so when I was beta testing this app,
Speaker 3: I did eight months of that it was a four
Speaker 3: day period every single month where I was like, I
Speaker 3: was tracking my impulsivity and I was like, oh, my
Speaker 3: impulsivity time and impulsivities high.
Speaker 5: It would be four days.
Speaker 3: And then I went back and I looked at my
Speaker 3: credit card statement and there was a six hundred dollars
Speaker 3: bump like on average those four days. And it's because
Speaker 3: I was just sitting, not like spacing out and like
Speaker 3: going on Amazon or going on Revolve or going on
Speaker 3: I just was doing this so mindlessly. And then I
Speaker 3: was like, that's so weird. Why does this happen every
Speaker 3: day and every time at the end of the month.
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, okay, that's why it's so hormonal.
Speaker 1: As you're sharing more about your own symptoms, I'm really
Speaker 1: curious about your own diagnosis and how old were you
Speaker 1: when you were diagnosed.
Speaker 3: The first or the second time. I was diagnosed kind
Speaker 3: of twice both.
Speaker 1: I didn't know you could be diagnosed twice.
Speaker 3: Okay, So the first time, I was in fourth grade,
Speaker 3: and it was like I was just I presented kind
Speaker 3: of like a boywood. I was super disruptive. I was
Speaker 3: starting riots in my classroom. I was like getting up
Speaker 3: on the desk. I was just out of control.
Speaker 4: Also legend though, legend, So you know.
Speaker 5: The teachers in the school talked to my parents.
Speaker 3: My mom was a pediatrician, and she's like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: there could be something. She got me in to see,
Speaker 3: like somebody. I was diagnosed with ADHD and I actually
Speaker 3: started medication. Now this was many years ago, and it
Speaker 3: was still super super stigmatized. I was a really sensitive
Speaker 3: little kid. My parents didn't tell me I had ADHD.
Speaker 3: They just gave me my vitamins. So every day I
Speaker 3: took my vitamins, and I felt better, and I started
Speaker 3: doing really well in school and enjoying school. And I did.
Speaker 3: I continued to do well. I didn't change my dose.
Speaker 3: I didn't do anything, continue to do well all throughout
Speaker 3: high school. Got into medical school out of high school,
Speaker 3: and that was the first time I was away from home.
Speaker 1: I obviously, you skipped college, You're a genius.
Speaker 3: So I did college and mid school at the same time.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, So I applied. I got into this program.
Speaker 3: So I started my med school classes when I was seventeen.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness. Wow.
Speaker 3: So I got into my classes and I was used
Speaker 3: to being awesome, like in high school, I was awesome.
Speaker 3: I was on top of it. I didn't have to
Speaker 3: try really hard. I was just like great at school
Speaker 3: and I really loved it. I got into med school.
Speaker 3: I had a neurology test and they would like post
Speaker 3: the scores on the board and you'd go and find
Speaker 3: your number and figure out which your thing was. And
Speaker 3: I remember going to that thing and I was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, somebody got a thirty two. What is
Speaker 3: wrong with this person? And then I was like, oh wait,
Speaker 3: that was me. I got a thirty two.
Speaker 4: What did the thirty two mean?
Speaker 3: It was a test in like a neurobiology lab, so
Speaker 3: you were like writing down like okay, these are the
Speaker 3: structures of brain. And I was like, I studied, I
Speaker 3: don't understand. I went I went to teacher. I was like,
Speaker 3: this is impossible. How did this happen? I didn't turn
Speaker 3: over the test, so I turned in the exam, didn't
Speaker 3: turn it over. I've done that and I was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, I've made this mistake like four times
Speaker 3: this month, Like I did this with a homework assignment,
Speaker 3: I did this with a lab and I was like,
Speaker 3: there is something wrong with me. This happened again and
Speaker 3: again and again, and I was like, I like, it
Speaker 3: got so bad to the point where they were like
Speaker 3: you need to, Like, I don't think you're gonna make
Speaker 3: it through. So my dad at this point was just like,
Speaker 3: you know what, come home, let's figure out what's going on.
Speaker 5: So I go home. He was like, are you taking vitamins?
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't know where they are, so no,
Speaker 3: obviously no, I'm not. Oh wow, And he's like, okay,
Speaker 3: so you have ADHD. I was like, there's no way,
Speaker 3: there's no way. I'm super angry. I felt really betrayed.
Speaker 3: I felt like, you know, I was given medication without
Speaker 3: my knowledge. You know, I just didn't believe it. I
Speaker 3: go back to school. I'm like, I'm going to try now.
Speaker 3: I know I don't have a medication. I'll prove to
Speaker 3: you I don't have ADG, for sure have ADG. It
Speaker 3: didn't get easier. I was just falling more and more behind.
Speaker 3: My dad pulls me out again. We sit and he's like,
Speaker 3: I don't want you to worry about school. He's like,
Speaker 3: for the next week or however long I have, we
Speaker 3: will just go and study the brain. So we were
Speaker 3: going to the library and we were like reading about ADHD,
Speaker 3: We're reading about the brain. We're reading about these like
Speaker 3: different like brain structures and how people grew and developed
Speaker 3: and like from evolution and genetics, and I mean, it
Speaker 3: was just incredible the amount of information I got.
Speaker 5: And then after that I was assessed again.
Speaker 3: They were like, yeah, you have ADHD, and so then
Speaker 3: I got more ownership of like, Okay, now I understand
Speaker 3: how my brain works a little bit more.
Speaker 5: What do I want to do? What are the medications
Speaker 5: going to do?
Speaker 3: And then I was just trial and error with medications
Speaker 3: and then that's my story.
Speaker 4: Your dad sounds awesome.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was the most.
Speaker 3: I mean, and my mom super My mom is a pedaedrician,
Speaker 3: really really educated about this stuff, but my dad was
Speaker 3: the most.
Speaker 5: He was my biggest cheerleader always.
Speaker 3: I've thought about this and I was like, you know,
Speaker 3: I wish they had like it had been handled differently
Speaker 3: or I had been explained. Yeah, but I don't think
Speaker 3: they had been given that knowledge either. It was just
Speaker 3: this highly stigmatized thing. They were like, honestly, we got
Speaker 3: that information. We were scared. Like the information we were
Speaker 3: given is like, this is psychiatric disorder. People typically don't
Speaker 3: live alone you know, if they have ADHD, and so
Speaker 3: they were like, it sounded horrible. We didn't know how
Speaker 3: to frame that to you. We just wanted to try
Speaker 3: something to see if it helped. It did it never
Speaker 3: came up again, so we've come a long way since.
Speaker 1: Then it's time for another short break, but don't go
Speaker 1: anywhere because we'll be right back to wellness Wednesday with
Speaker 1: doctor Sasha Hamdani.
Speaker 4: And we're back with doctor Sasha Hamdani.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to talk about how you manage your ADHD. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you mentioned going through the pandemic and how that really
Speaker 2: revealed to you a lot of the patterns that ADHD
Speaker 2: has brought into your life. And I'm curious, what did
Speaker 2: the pandemic teach you about how environment and circumstance play
Speaker 2: a role in the management of this condition.
Speaker 3: So I think it has a lot to do with it, right,
Speaker 3: So I struggled for a long time throughout medical school
Speaker 3: trying to figure out like what the right combination of
Speaker 3: medication and altered my environment could be.
Speaker 5: I got through.
Speaker 3: Medical school, but I don't feel like I gained mastery
Speaker 3: or ownership of it until I got into like psychiatry residency.
Speaker 3: Because as soon as I landed there, I was surrounded
Speaker 3: by psychiatrists and therapists and they were just.
Speaker 5: Like, oh, let me help you, let me, let me
Speaker 5: make your life easier.
Speaker 3: And it was like a crack, like three years of
Speaker 3: intensive like restructuring and building up my self esteem again,
Speaker 3: which had been basically zero after medical school. And so
Speaker 3: I think that they in that program, I think they
Speaker 3: kind of also taught me how to manipulate the environments
Speaker 3: that I'm in for the greatest success. And so I
Speaker 3: think that's what's been the greatest thing that I've learned
Speaker 3: from that, Like what do I need to do to
Speaker 3: adjust the environment that I'm in to make it more
Speaker 3: conducive for my brain. They'll give you some examples, like
Speaker 3: for me, I don't learn if I'm typing on a computer,
Speaker 3: and so like even with my patients, I take notes
Speaker 3: on the computer. I put their information on a on
Speaker 3: a medical chart in the in the computer. But while
Speaker 3: they're talking, I'm writing because it's going into my brain
Speaker 3: and that's that's how I learn, and that's how I'm
Speaker 3: absorbing what you're telling me. Things like with sleep and
Speaker 3: with waking up. I tried as much as I can
Speaker 3: to keep to the same routine. I need to kind
Speaker 3: of manipulate my schedule or plan things so it's not
Speaker 3: running past that ten PM because if I get if
Speaker 3: I'm not in bed by like eleven, things get real
Speaker 3: weird the next day. So like trying to figure out
Speaker 3: things like that. Eating was a huge, huge thing for
Speaker 3: me because it's taken me a long time to figure out,
Speaker 3: like how to eat to sustain and nourish my body
Speaker 3: in a way that's gonna not make me feel number
Speaker 3: one disgusting, where I'm like, I'm forcing myself to eat
Speaker 3: and I hate every second of it. But something that's
Speaker 3: going to help my brain. What can I What can
Speaker 3: I eat that's not going to make me sleepy? What
Speaker 3: can I eat to give me long lasting energy? What
Speaker 3: can I eat at night to keep me full through
Speaker 3: the night so I'm not waking up at two am
Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh, I'm hungry and fully awake.
Speaker 1: If people listening feel like any of these symptoms ring true,
Speaker 1: or they have a suspicion that maybe they have gone undiagnosed,
Speaker 1: what do you think the first step is?
Speaker 4: What do you suggest that they do?
Speaker 3: My first step is learn about it as much as
Speaker 3: you can, I mean even before you go to a doctor,
Speaker 3: if you just immerse yourself in it, because I think
Speaker 3: that you are the only person who understands your own
Speaker 3: internal environment. And it's important to have a vocabulary and
Speaker 3: learn about things because you might get into and be like, oh,
Speaker 3: that actually doesn't sound like me, or you might get
Speaker 3: into it and be like, oh, this really does sound
Speaker 3: like me, Like and I didn't even realize that this
Speaker 3: was related to it. So having understanding that is going
Speaker 3: to be huge. Number two, Track your patterns, Track your patterns,
Speaker 3: And this is like why I keep screaming about it,
Speaker 3: because then you're gonna know, like, is there a hormonal
Speaker 3: swing with it? Is there times where like is this
Speaker 3: all caused because I did not drink a single glass
Speaker 3: of water for the entire month of October?
Speaker 5: Yes? Probably?
Speaker 3: And then if you still feel strongly about it, it's
Speaker 3: seeking out the right type of help. So you can
Speaker 3: get assessments through a therapist. You can get assessments through
Speaker 3: a primary care doctor, get assessment through a psychiatrist. Psychiatrist
Speaker 3: not only can they diagnose you, but they can treat you.
Speaker 3: If medication is the option you want to go through.
Speaker 3: And I think getting specific therapy. Like I will tell
Speaker 3: you that I would not be in the position that
Speaker 3: I am right now if I hadn't had those instructors
Speaker 3: giving me that specific therapy and helping me kind of
Speaker 3: restructure my life because it you know, with medication, it's great,
Speaker 3: but when the medication wears off, I'm still still have
Speaker 3: stuff to do. So it's important to have those good
Speaker 3: basics to build on.
Speaker 1: Okay, you developed an app that you mentioned earlier that's
Speaker 1: geared to be an ADHD companion. I need to better
Speaker 1: understand this. From what I read, it's really about tracking patterns.
Speaker 1: Is that correct?
Speaker 3: So Focus Genie is the name of the app, and
Speaker 3: it's kind of just like this comprehensive platform. So it's
Speaker 3: got educational modules, which I mean they're just like really
Speaker 3: it feels like an Instagram swipe through going, but like
Speaker 3: by the end of that two minutes you have learned
Speaker 3: something new about your brain. So there's educational modules. There's
Speaker 3: a focus tracker where you could track like how much
Speaker 3: water I drank, this is what I ate, this is
Speaker 3: how much I slept, this is how impulsive I was,
Speaker 3: and so you can see your patterns over the month.
Speaker 5: There's a journal.
Speaker 3: There's also this is coming out later this month, and
Speaker 3: I'm actually so excited about this. I felt like where
Speaker 3: I was getting stuck is sometimes I was like, I
Speaker 3: can't even make my to do list, Like I can't
Speaker 3: even break down this task because it is so complicated
Speaker 3: and hard and overwhelming for me right now. But we
Speaker 3: just integrated AI into the app. We're rolling out hopefully
Speaker 3: by mid November, maybe maybe a week earlier. So now
Speaker 3: you type in what you want to do, it'll break
Speaker 3: it down for you in eight steps. If you're still
Speaker 3: having difficulty with it, it'll break it down further. You
Speaker 3: can import that into your to do list and you
Speaker 3: can go through and continue along your day.
Speaker 2: I love that. That's so good. I can't wait to
Speaker 2: download this app. I feel like, even if you don't
Speaker 2: have ADHD, your app sounds so helpful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just to all of us living in the digital age.
Speaker 3: It kind of helps break things down because I feel like,
Speaker 3: especially with housework, especially with stuff that is so boring
Speaker 3: to me, so boring that I don't want to do it.
Speaker 3: I really like being able to break things into those
Speaker 3: tiny little chunks.
Speaker 1: Doctor Hamdannie, thank you so much. This sum was really enlightening.
Speaker 5: But thank you for having me. That's so much fun.
Speaker 4: You're the coolest psychiatrist ever.
Speaker 5: Oh, come on, come on, be real. Doctor.
Speaker 1: Sasha Hamdanni is a Bored certified psychiatrist and the author
Speaker 1: of Self Care for People with ADHD. You can find
Speaker 1: her on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube as the psych Doctor MD.
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