Beyond ADHD: A Physician’s Perspective

”Unraveling ADHD Myths with Dr. Randie Schacter ”

Welcome to another insightful episode of the Exploring Minds Podcast! In today's conversation, we delve deep into the world of ADHD myths with the brilliant Dr. Randie Schacter. Join us as we debunk common misconceptions surrounding ADHD, anxiety, and depression, and gain a clearer understanding of these often misunderstood conditions.
Our esteemed guest, Dr. Randie Schacter, a seasoned psychiatrist and advocate for mental health awareness, shares her expertise on ADHD and sheds light on its multifaceted nature. With a focus on fostering community and creativity, Dr. Schacter discusses the challenges and strengths associated with ADHD, offering a fresh perspective that can inspire positive change.
In this thought-provoking interview, we explore the impact of COVID-19 on individuals dealing with ADHD, the importance of recognizing symptoms in both children and adults, and the power of creative outlets like pottery to enhance mental well-being. Dr. Schacter's passion for understanding the human mind shines through as she uncovers the dynamic connections between ADHD, anxiety, depression, and the role of self-care.
Join us in this captivating conversation as we challenge preconceived notions, provide actionable insights, and ignite a greater understanding of ADHD and its intricacies. If you're ready to gain a fresh perspective on mental health, ADHD, and the myths that surround them, hit that play button and let's dive in together!
 
🎙️ Guest Speaker: Dr. Randie Schacter
Dr. Randie Schacter is a board-certified psychiatrist specializing in holistic and individualized care. With expertise in General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, she treats individuals from childhood to adulthood. Dr. Schacter's approach is rooted in osteopathic philosophy, focusing on the whole person and empowering them to actively participate in their healing journey. She integrates education, therapy, and medication to create personalized treatment plans. Based in Matthews, she collaborates with patients, families, schools, and other contributors to develop comprehensive wellness strategies.
🌐 Website: silverspaces.org and silverpsychiatric.com

”Unlocking Productivity & Balance: Technology Hacks and Insights with Dr. Ann Tsung”

Welcome to another exciting episode!! In this episode, we delve into the world of productivity, technology hacks, and achieving a balanced lifestyle. Our special guest, Dr. Ann Tsung, MD MPH, is not only an emergency medicine and critical care physician, a full-time flight surgeon at NASA, a real estate investor, and a mom, but also a productivity guru who has mastered the art of optimizing time and energy.
Join us as we uncover Dr. Tsung's journey of managing her multi-faceted life and her mission to help others regain control of their time and focus. She shares her insights on the power of delegation, the magic of technology tools, and the importance of setting clear priorities. You'll learn valuable strategies to declutter your digital life, supercharge your focus, and achieve more while working less.
Dr. Tsung's unique perspective blends medical expertise, productivity wisdom, and real-life experiences, making this episode a must-watch for anyone seeking to enhance their productivity and reclaim their time. Whether you're a busy professional, an entrepreneur, a parent, or simply someone striving for a more balanced life, this episode has something special in store for you.
Tune in to discover practical tips, inspiring stories, and actionable advice that will empower you to take control of your schedule and reach new heights of productivity and fulfillment. Don't miss out – hit that play button now and embark on a journey towards unlocking your full potential!
Connect with Dr. Ann Tsung: Website: It'sNotRocketScienceShow.com Instagram: @AnnTsungMD Facebook: @AnnTsungMD
Ready to supercharge your productivity? Book a complimentary productivity call with Dr. Tsung to uncover customized strategies to save you time and boost your results: Book a Call
 
About Dr. Ann Tsung:Ann Tsung, MD, MPH is a dynamic figure blending roles as a NASA flight surgeon and part-time ER and ICU physician. She's also a real estate investor and host of the "It's Not Rocket Science Show" podcast. Driven by a transformative journey of self-discovery, she's achieved remarkable milestones like summiting Kilimanjaro, world travels, and real estate ventures. Her productivity philosophy emphasizes human optimization, mind-body connection, and skillful tools, inspiring others to take charge of their lives. Dr. Tsung's mission is to empower individuals to achieve more with less effort, enabling them to prioritize passions and meaningful connections.

”Beyond ADHD: Embracing the Unique Gift within Us | Interview with Craig Clawson”

Welcome to "Beyond ADHD, A Physician's Perspective" with Dr. Diana Mercado Marmarosh, a dedicated family medicine physician based in rural Texas. In this insightful podcast, we explore the transformative journey of understanding and embracing conditions like ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Today's guest, Craig Clawson, a seasoned journalist and podcast production expert, shares his personal experience with ADHD, revealing the challenges he faced before receiving a diagnosis at the age of 49.
Join us as we delve into the link between ADHD and its impact on daily life, family dynamics, and career trajectories. Discover how unlearning certain beliefs and habits, along with seeking professional guidance, can lead to a fulfilled life beyond these conditions. With candid conversations and actionable strategies, this podcast aims to shed light on the potential hidden within every individual living with ADHD.
If you're ready to unlock your true potential, gain insights from the perspective of a physician and a professional storyteller, then this episode is a must-watch. Don't miss this empowering conversation as we debunk myths, share personal stories, and inspire positive change in the way we view and cope with ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Join us on this incredible journey of self-discovery and growth.
Subscribe now to "Beyond ADHD, A Physician's Perspective" and never miss an episode that will transform your outlook on mental health and wellbeing. Let's navigate the challenges together and embrace the unique gift that lies within each of us.

Costa Rica (It’s OK)

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hello. Hello. Welcome to Beyond A D H D A Physician's Perspective. I am Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered by my A D H D, but I now see it as a gift that helps me show up as the person I was always meant to be. Both in my work and in my personal life.
In the past two years, I've come to realize, That unlearning some of my beliefs and some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of skills.
Hey, did you hear that? That was the attention? So I just got back from Costa Rica like literally yesterday and. We spend an incredible week there and my tour guide, his name is Carlos and he's from the Mela tribe, and he gifted my husband a wonderful drum that he had. For himself for over 15 years and that's the sign for attention it.
Anyways, I wanted to grab your attention as I'm starting this and, uh, let you know that I will be, uh, Putting a hold on my group coaching for a month. I've decided I won't start again until June 19th. So, um, that gives you some time to start going through some of the modules that I already have there, and then when we come together, we can reconvene.
I am in Cloud 45 right now after such an amazing transformational ex. Experience that I was able to facilitate in Costa Rica and I wanna share all about it with you. Um, so June 19th, if you are considering the coaching group, you need to sign up now because of course spots are limited. And, uh, I really, really like my.
Groups to be small, private, and intimate. And of course there's already some physicians who are going to continue the level of membership and I'm glad to have them. And some of them have been with us for, for a while. But anyways, June 19th, put that in your calendar. Uh, you can come to the 11:00 AM class that I'll be having, or you could come to the 7:00 PM class that I will be having.
And so with that in mind, let me tell you about my most amazing week that I just had last week, and some takeaway points and some things that maybe will inspire you to consider it for the next time. What do I start? Uh, I was asked why Costa Rica? So first of all, in September when I went to experience Costa Rica myself, I booked that on a whim.
I, my husband and I had gone to Costa Rica for our honeymoon, and that was almost the 11 years ago prior to, uh, September. And in September we were gonna have our 11 year anniversary. So I decided to, um, Book a hotel and the flights and everything without telling my husband. Yeah, very A D H G impulsive.
Like I found this amazing hotel and I just could not wait. I didn't want it to be sold out. So I booked everything and then I went, I told my husband, Hey, um, in a month from now, we will be going to, uh, Costa Rica. To celebrate our, our 11 year anniversary. I hope you're coming cause I am going with or without you.
Cause this place is divine. And of course he came with and the rest is history. So when we went to uh, Costa Rica, I just. I fell in love with the hotel, with the atmosphere. It just felt like paradise. I love having my own private villa bungalow. It was so cool to hear all the birds, the frogs, uh, to see this logs, uh, in the hotel grounds.
And I felt like I needed to bring people to that place to experience it for themselves. And so the purpose of the retreat ended up being. A place where people could dis live behind all their troubles. They could like disconnect and just reevaluate and having fun along the way in doing such, and in a place where it would be non-judgmental and the place.
by the R N l um, volcano and the hot springs and the hanging bridges and the Safari River float. So I decided to. Also tap into the indigenous tribe that was around the area, which is called Maku. And I wanted to really learn more about them. Um, they are located near a town called San Rafael aso, which is about.
One hour from Launa where we were staying. There's about, uh, 600 people that live on that reserve and is one of the smaller tribe in Costa Rica. And so as luck would have it, when I attended in September, I. The tour guide that I met, his name was Carlos, and he and I met him on one of the tour guides where he was showing us the Safari River float.
And I just, in talking with him, I asked him if he knew. Any indigenous people that I was interested in, in maybe having like a coco, a blessing ceremony. And he got super excited because he told me that he was of that tribe and that he could help arrange that. And that was in September. And of course, uh, he probably thought that, you know, I was just this crazy girl having crazy thoughts, but I kept, um, Emailing him and sending him Zoom messages and zoom links and Instagram messages and letting him know that I would be coming May 1st through the sixth, so that I would be able to, to have this, uh, ceremony and, and, and have him as our tour guide to do the different things.
So everything came together and he became our tour guide and. You know, through the whole week it was a learning process for all of us. Um, I did not know all the details. I did not know the how, but I knew the why, why I was doing this. I was doing this to provide physicians and healthcare professionals with the way of reevaluating I.
Their current lifestyle situation and allowing them to walk away empowered with, uh, executive function tools, emotional regulation tools with ways to integrate their desires and their goals and creating them into a reality. And I really, really set the intention to have only people who were. Soul aligned, who were really ready for a transformation, who were really ready to put in the work that it required to help themselves succeed.
And so with that intention, we embarked in this beautiful journey, 12 people, 12 beautiful physicians in a total of 20 people, uh, attended my retreat. Uh, out of those 20 people, five were my support group, meaning my husband, my, uh, sister, my brother-in-law, um, my niece. And then of course myself, so that's five of us.
And then the other 12 positions, speakers were, you know, there for the, for the event. And I had some guest coaches and luck. And as luck would have it, I, the guest coaches ended up being amazing. And I even had a therapist who came and we complimented each other so well, uh, because we were doing coaching and having real talk.
And also she was, uh, helping us to talk about. Different things and from the therapy perspective, and she even offered to help process some of the things that came up. So yeah, it was really wonderful. So I'm saying all this to let you know that again, I'm in Cloud 45 right now. I, my cup is so beyond full.
Uh, we had such an amazing, amazing, amazing experience. It. Came out 10 times beyond what I expected. I'm sure you're gonna start to see all the pictures online. I didn't really post on social media, um, but I will start to, we were able to, Yeah, to see wonderful things like slots and monkeys and, uh, frogs and we were just able to be present with each other.
I even wrote the last day, I wrote together, uh, I wrote a poem that I gave them that I wanna read to you guys that I think really, really, um, Helped or really helped us to put all, every, all the themes that we were talking about. And so let me read it to you. I wrote, it's okay. It's okay if things don't turn out how you expected them to.
It's okay to adjust course and choose another path. It's okay if you don't have all the answers right now. It's okay to be a beginner and be clumsy when trying something you've never done before. It's okay if it takes some time. It's okay to feel your feelings, whatever they might be. It's okay if you don't always feel okay.
It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to rest even when there is a lot to do. It's okay to take a break from growing and just be, it's okay to let others share your burden. It's okay to say fuck this shit and it's okay to sign up for the next experience with team Deanna. So I'm laughing because a lot of these things came up and I'm laughing because some of these were inner jokes.
Um, I gave them a. A little swag bag. And in one of the, the key chains, it said, I had one that was, you know, not cursing, but I had another one that was, and the one that was cursing said, a wise woman said, fuck this shit, and lived happily ever after. Uh, and I'm laughing because, Sometimes we all have expectations of how something needs to go, and then we get mad that it didn't go that way.
But what if it also means that that's our flexibility or ability to read the room and modify. I allowed myself to see that we were kind of tired one day after enjoying a beautiful day at the hot springs and getting a massage that I, instead of going out to eat at a restaurant, I decided to change course and just to bring the food to us and to then decide to dance and just have an impromptu, uh, get together.
And so it's okay. If you don't have all the answers and it just kind of works out, like trusting the process that, you know, some of the areas that I had gone to. Uh, like the volcano, I had gone through another site where I had climbed it and it was like an hour of rocky, uh, lava. But our tour guide suggested that we go through this other site where they had a lake and you could actually go kayaking, and that was optional.
And some of us took advantage of the kayaking and took advantage of the paddle boating, and others could just chill. And you know, it was okay for people to decide to sit out in some, in some of the activities because of whatever they decided. Maybe they didn't wanna wake up or maybe their knee was hurting, or they just decided they wanted to skip out.
And it was okay for us to realize that we're not gonna have everything in that moment in time, that we sometimes want it, that it's okay to not. Feel like it's okay and it's okay to ask for help from those around us and to let us share your burden. So it was such a beautiful, beautiful retreat. Uh, we had amazing food.
I think like I was shared with you guys before, this is one of the places where, um, I ate everything I wanted and I still lost weight. And I think it was because we were so, so active. But today, What I wanted you to think about is that what is, what is okay for you? I want you to fill in your thing. It's okay for you to, what I want you to send me, um, a message through, uh, Instagram or a d h d dash life coach.com.
Comment box or send me an email@overachievewithadhd.com and let me know. Overachieve with ADHD gmail.com and let me know what is okay for you. And another poem that I've read to them is something that I always read to my, uh, coaching clients. And I think you should also hear this one. It's called Breaking Service by Mark Nepo, breaking Surface by Mark Nepo.
Let no one keep you from your journey. No rabbi or priest. No matter no mother who wants you to dig for treasure, she misplaced. No father who won't let one life be enough. No lover who measures their worth, but what? You might give up, no voice that tells you in the night that it can't be done. Let nothing dissuade you from seeing what you see or feeling the winds that make you want to dance alone.
Or go where no one has yet to go. You are the only explorer, your heart, the unreadable compass. You're so the sure of a promise too great to be ignored. So I wanna ask you that too. What is something that you might have been ignoring, what is something that you are maybe looking forward to doing? I think it's important that you really, really tap into that because the universe is here to support you.
You just have to make sure that you tap into that, and if you feel like it can't be done, come hang out with us. We are here to support you. My community is amazing and we are definitely here to support you. All right. Well, I just wanted to share my experience about Costa Rica. It was divined. Every single person there was amazing.
They helped us all grow. They helped us all be present in the moment. We definitely had a blast, and I will definitely be repeating this again and, um, I will let you know. I am thinking I'm gonna be doing two Costa Rica retreats, probably one with similar, what we did this time around. And then the second one might be the private one just for, uh, the people who have already gone at a different place.
But anyways, I just wanted to touch base. And let you know that I didn't forget about you while I was in Costa Rica. I was just fully present in the moment, and, and I hope that, you know, this week you guys had an amazing week and I can't wait to hear what you tell me that you know that it's okay to do so.
Let me read it again one last time. It's okay. It's okay if things don't turn out the way you expected them to. It's okay to adjust course and choose another path.
It's okay if you don't have all the answers right now. It's okay to be a beginner and be clumsy when trying something you've never done before. It's okay if it takes some time. It's okay to feel your feelings, whatever they might be.
It's okay if you don't always feel okay.
It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to rest even when there's a lot to do. It's okay to take a break from growing and just be,
it's okay to let others share your burden. It's okay to say, fuck this shit. And it's okay to sign up for the next experience with team Deanna. That last one was actually hold that I should add by Carlos, my tour guide. I was riding this. It's okay poem on the last day, which was Friday morning at breakfast and he saw me writing it and he told me, don't forget that part, because I signed up and I am all in in team Deanna.
So it's okay to listen to others and to welcome. All the positive things that they say about True. It's so easy for us to always be like, oh, we're messing this up, but it's okay to welcome compliments. Maybe that'll be my 14. It's okay to welcome all the compliments. But again, I am curious to learn what your It's okay statement will be.
We'll be in touch till next week. Thank you for spending your time with me. I really believe that time is your most valuable asset. Please subscribe to the podcast, share with your colleagues, and don't forget to check out my website@hdlivecoach.com where you can find out about my upcoming coaching group classes, as well as free master classes and other exciting events that are happen.

The Benefits of Accommodations with Dr. Carolyn Lentzsch-Parcells

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Come join me May 1st through the sixth, so that you can rest rediscover your strengths, reconnect with yourself and those physicians like you who are ready to leave, work at work, and re-energize. This is the invitation for you to make 2023 your year. Join me in Costa Rica in this really amazing, non-judgmental, intimate decision community.
I am gonna show you how to rest and how to recharge. Let's transform your brain so that you can start to dream the life that you always wanted this year in 2023. I can't wait to learn all. What kind of view you're gonna have after this conference? Take care. Hello. Welcome to Beyond ADHD, a Physician's Perspective.
I am Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered by my adhd, but I now. See it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in my personal life. In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs and some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of.
Hello. Hello. I am so excited to have a dear friend of mine here and an amazing person, Dr. Carolyn Lentzsch-Parcells, and we've been knowing each other for some years now. I'm gonna say two or three years. I don't know how long, but it feels like a pandemic sometime. Yeah, it feels like a lifetime, and it's been amazing because.
She is here in Texas and she is doing the work of encouraging young adults and teenagers and all the works to have better life. And it's an amazing, right? Yes. And it's an amazing journey that she's been on. And not only that, but she's a really solid advocate for A D H D using as a superpower.
Thank you. And she, At all the platforms and not just here and there, but like at the national level. She is been an amazing speaker at the a D conference and she's been there years and years. So anyways, I just wanna bring her today for her to share her story and for her to share a little bit about herself and so that we all can see that we can do wonderful things like.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: Thank you, Diana. Like Diana said my, my full blown full doctorate name is Dr. Carolyn Lentzsch-Parcells. I'm a board certified pediatrician practicing adolescent medicine in Fort Worth, Texas. And as Diana said, I do, I take care of basically kids and teenagers and young adults, many of whom have a D H D learning disabilities.
Or other challenges. And of course myself am also A D H D, human and mom and business owner and all the things. Yeah, and I'm happy to be here. I got to meet Diana through our A D H D nurse and it's been really fun getting to know her. Awesome. So
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: I know that your story is a little bit different from some of our stories in the sense that, yeah, some of us females tend to be diagnosed a little bit later in age.
Yeah. And I remember you telling I knew a little bit earlier. So would you mind sharing a little bit about
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: that? Yeah, I would love to I consider myself very lucky especially for a woman and especially for a woman of our generation because, like you said, so many of us slipped through the cracks until really recently.
And essentially what happened for me was my, my I had a family member who was a younger male and he was getting diagnosed cuz he had more kind of classic symptoms. And my parents looked at that and went, hold on a. That looks familiar and they had already advocated for me throughout my life.
My dad would read my summer reading to me because I also have a learning disability in reading, which we didn't know, but he still did that. They got me tutoring and they really supported me all the way through. And then this occurred when I was a junior in high school, so I had a full assessment done and was diagnosed with a D H D combined type and a learning disability and reading and written expression as a junior.
At a very rigorous, private all girl school. So that was interesting. But it explained a lot for me and for my folks. And what was interesting too, though at the time is, being 17 and therefore knowing everything I refused a lot of the help that was offered to me. I refused medication.
My parents were actually very supportive of medication. One of my mom's favorite phrases has always been, You know that this is like diabetes it's another condition. And if you were diabetic, would you not take your insulin? I don't think so. So that's again, something that's pretty unique from what I came from.
But I still refused medication at the time. For the same reasons. I had a lot of the same kind of, Concerns, misconceptions, what have you that a lot of folks have. I was worried about the side effects. I'd seen some family members have some negative side effects and that concerned me. I was worried about using my diagnosis or medication as a quote unquote crutch.
I had all those same kind of concerns that a lot of people have. I did very, I'm very glad in hindsight, except accom. And that was critical. That was absolutely critical. And then of course, over the years, just understanding more about H ADHD and about my brain was in and of. Really helpful.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Would you mind sharing what kind of accommodations and was it like during college or was it already in medical school that you decided to type in Sure.
To dive into that? Sure. No, so it
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: started in high school when I was diagnosed. And actually one of the things that made me realize, oh, I guess the is a thing and I guess I really am different, was I had actually taken. The SATs and the SAT T two subject tests before my diagnosis, and then I retook them with accommodations after my diagnosis.
And on a 16 point scale, I went up over 200 points and, oh, I can do what was that? And I didn't think that I was stupid. I didn't think that I was lazy, it wasn't any of. I thought I had a very realistic view of what my capability was, and it turned out that my capability was actually quite above what I thought it was.
That testing. Of course, for better or for worse, that testing is critical, right? So that was one of the first times where I really went, oh wow, okay, this is the thing. And then I had accommodations. It was primarily testing accommodations, but also some note taking and things like that.
And I had those accommodations all the way through college on the mcm. All the way through medical school. Medical school for my medical school exams. But unfortunately, and this has actually changed a little bit since then cuz some of us fought. But at the time especially the U S M L E, the United States Licensing Medical Licensing exam is governed by the a d A laws.
Whereas the exams I had taken previously were governed by I D E A laws, so the educational laws versus the professional laws. And I fought and fought and fought and fought and was not able to get accommodations for the US m l e in time to take it. Clearly I passed because I am a licensed physician.
But what was really interesting about that one actually was when I came to the, there was also the first test that I ever took that was on a computer. Because I'm old. So yes, children, there were tests originally on paper and Scantron sheet, which as soon as I say Scantron gives anybody 35 or older, P T S D.
But anyway what was really fascinating though is because it was on the computer, there was actually a lot of accommodations. Built in, because I only saw one question at a time. The script was very large. I didn't have to transfer from a answer booklet to a Scantron. I just clicked a dot. I had headphones on.
I had, I was in one of those cubicles with the, I call 'em human blinders, right? Yeah. So there was a lot of things that actually turned out to be very accommodating for me. And so I did okay. I did fine. It was scary and it wasn't, But I did it. So that was interesting. But those were the accommodations.
Primarily had. Yeah.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: So it's, again, it's so good to become curious with how you learn and to make sure that, like you said, you don't miss maybe a learning disability on top of that or dyslexia or a number thing or something else, right? Input or output understanding, because, Yes, it can be a d h, adhd and that can be its spectrum in itself, but it can also be end something else.
And right when you're aware of that, then you can, like you said, you can advocate to have correct accommodations for that. And some people, when they think accommodations, all they think about is oh, maybe they just get a little bit extra time. And while that might be helpful, a little bit extra time can make a world of a difference for some of us.
What if there could be something else that could be done as you're learning how you learn or how you test or how you give information back
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: to people. No, yeah, that's exactly right. And I think for me anyway, and obviously everybody's different, but for me, the accommodations were really key for me to be able to show what I could really do.
And I think one of the things that people get hung up with on accommodations is but what about real life? What will that mean for somebody in real life? These are all things, I'm not taking a multiple choice test in real life. I don't take care of my patients. My patients don't walk in and hand me a multiple choice, question, answer for me to go, oh, it's this diagnosis and you don't have one minute to figure it out.
No, exactly. Exactly. I don't. And in fact, the fact that I take my. The fact that I listen, the fact that I notice details that other people may not notice, all of which can be part and parcel with my A D H D, right? Are all the reasons why I'm good at what I do. So the key to AC accommodations is not overly accommodating people or enabling, folks to not build skills.
It's to. It's to take away unnecessary barriers. It's not to, the analogy I like to use sometimes is if you've got a fence and someone's too short to hop over the fence, accommodations are not to catapult you over the fence. Accommodations are a step stool, so then you can grab the top and pull yourself up and get you up over it.
It's that kind of thing. There's the other thing too is there's accommodations these days. Like when I was a kid, I wish, there's times I'm glad we didn't have cell phones. There's also times I wish we had, because now the accommodations we had to fight for audiobooks, for dictation.
Software for those of us who have writing difficulties. All these things are now in our hands 24 7. I use dictation software on to do my charts because I still, writing is still not the easiest thing for me. These are all things that, that we do get to have moving into real life. So there's no reason to not allow our students to learn what resources they have and what assistive technologies are out there that they can use, that they'll be able to use their whole life.
Yeah.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And it's so interesting, like you said that about the, that like in my mind, I used to have the thought, oh, I'm not a great writer because it takes me forever. But when I had, I got coached on they asked me, so which, did you get a F? And I was like no, they're like in English. I was like, no, they're like in Spanish.
I'm like, no. They're like, then where did you get this thought? You're not a good writer. And so many times because we have
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: a certain thought, it gets us stuck, right? But
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: maybe that's not. The right thought, but maybe you do realize that takes you a little bit longer than other things. Maybe speaking is easier.
So like you said, you can click on your phone. There's a tab where it lets you record a voice to text message, and you could do that, or you could click on the tab and it literally just records your voice message and you send that, right? So it takes you two or three minutes to write that whole thing where it would've taken you like 20 minutes to.
Think about what the hell you're trying to type and I'm you saying it right. Are you thinking it? And so then we never even send it because we were thinking about it too long and then we got distracted somewhere.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: And I see that happen with, a lot of my kiddos who have dysgraphia, or have dyslexia. I still use books on. Books on tape. Wow. I just aged myself again. Audible books on tape. Oh my gracious. I still use audio books. Thank you very much. And in fact, actually one of the, one of the coolest, I gotta give a shout out to my residency friends because when I was in residency, we, they decided to start a book.
And they were readers, several of them. And of course it was like every other book club, right? There was a book, but we didn't really discuss the book. It was just an excuse to get together, drink, wine, and vent. But there was a book chosen and every book they chose, they made sure was available on Audible so that I could listen to it if I wanted to.
Yeah. That was huge. Yeah.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And that's huge. That's so important, right? Because that just doesn't talk about. Hey, let's get together. But that talks about inclusion. Yes. It talks about equality and having that possibility to actually accomplish whatever you say you're doing well and
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: this is where, so that's in Exactly.
That's where I wanted. So when we talk about, cuz there's so much conversation now, not just in the A D H D and LD world, but the all over on inclusion and accommodations and what does that mean and what should it mean? And that instance right there, I think is the, at least for me, illustrates the ideal.
It wasn't a big deal. It wasn't made a big deal. It's not like there was some big fanfare, Hey, look at us, we're doing this for you. And it also wasn't something that was a huge effort for them. It wasn't, it didn't take anything away from them. It was just, and again, nobody made a big deal out of it. It wasn't, it was a nonis.
Yeah. And I don't know that they even realized until I told them what that meant to me. Again, it just, it would just was, it just was, and that little thing to them was a huge thing to me. And that's, we, again, we get caught up in, the extremes of these things. And really it can be just the small day-to-day things.
And it doesn't have to be a big deal. It doesn't have to be a big fanfare. Yeah. My dad reading my summer reading books to me he didn't make a big deal of that one way or the other.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And he used it as a way to bond with you. He used it as a way to spend time with you. So instead of, sometimes we all have 10,000 things as parents that we're doing, and then he could have chosen to think, oh my God, one more thing I have to do.
Or he could have chosen to think this is something we do together.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: And actually the funny thing about that one is apparently I might have gotten diagnosed even younger. Because of what teachers had said, except my parents, my dad in particular, cuz he. Similar challenges was like, what?
It's just, I don't see just life. It's isn't this just what our family does? Our joke is that if you open up the DSM five criteria under A D H D, you're pretty much just gonna see my family tree. Yeah. It's just how we roll.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: We don't make a mean a thing.
Yeah. So tell me what are some of the things that you're up to nowadays? And I know we were talking about social media right before we started recording. Oh my goodness. But you're
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: welcome to share anything that you're up to. Oh, I appreciate that. I think, dude, it's hard these days.
Because the good news is we have all these opportunities. The bad news is we have all these opportunities. Oh my Lord. And I don't know how much of it is I was born with a horrible case of FOMO and or is it the A D H D or what? I don't know. I don't know. But I feel like I'm constantly, I know you and I have talked about this constantly trying to find the balance, whatever the heck that means between all the things I wanna do and all the things I need to do, right?
Yeah. And all the things other people. And want me to do. Yes. And and I do think some of that is the A D H D, because we are constantly chasing the dopamine man. Yeah. And I tell people all the time, I overcommit and say yes to too many things. Not because I'm a people pleaser, not because I feel like I have to say yes.
It's because I want to say yes to everything, because it all sounds. Yeah. And I think that's an issue whether you have ADHD or not, whether you're a mom, not a man mom, a woman, a man, whatever, whoever. I think we're all facing that these days. And again, it's it's cool because we've got opportunities to do other things, but then trying to not compare ourselves and trying to.
Weighed through what the options are. So Diana and I were talking before I popped on, I was asking her about how she started her podcast because I'm like, should I do a podcast? Should I just be a guest on podcasts? What do I wanna do with that? And right now I'm not doing that, but I am. I do have a practice, girls, women in Young Men's Health and Wellness, Fort Worth in Fort Worth, Texas, which like I said, we take care of.
Young adults and teenagers and kiddos in general. We do primary care, but we also do some mental behavioral health, obviously, things like a D H D. So I'm running that practice and we are building and growing, which is exciting, but whew. Stressful. Stressful at times. And then I kindly sorta finally, Spit the bullet at the behest of many and our of several of our friends and colleagues in the A D H D community and started doing the social media thing.
I I refer to myself as a reluctant social media poster. So you can follow me if you want. God, I still feel weird doing that though, and saying that the self-promotion thing just does. Come naturally. But anyway, Instagram, I'm the hd.md. Same on TikTok, Carolyn Lynch, Parcells on Facebook.
I think technically I'm the underscore h d underscore MD on Twitter, but I don't tweet a whole lot.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: I just, yeah,
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: I don't, I tell you what, I am such a visual person. I cannot stand the visual format of Twitter. Yeah, it confuses me and drives me crazy because I'm an old person. Just don't get it. Yeah. I'm mostly active on Instagram, but I am on the others too.
Yeah. So
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: that's right. Doing, and we were just talking about like the overthinking and the good enough thinking whenever we're doing some of the social media. Yes.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: And. Yeah, it's actually been, what is that about? Yeah, so it's been actually an interesting little growth experience for me because I love speaking, I love teaching.
I was a theater major. I was a pre-med theater major, also known as a sparkly unicorn, and so I thought it might be a nice little outlet for me to. Use some of my creative juices, but also to get some good information out there and some good education out there. And hopefully, brighten some people's days.
And what's interesting though is the whole short form thing. So first of all, I'm a theater kid, so for those of you who aren't theater kids, it is very different from film because theater, you go out there, you cannot see yourself. It is you and the audience. You get to feed off your audience and get that immediate feedback.
And oh, by the way, the show must go. So there is, it is once and you are done, right? You might have another show, but that one is done. It's in the can. You can't change anything. And this video thing, man, you can see yourself. You can do it multiple times. You can oh, not good for a perfectionist with adhd not good at all.
And the whole like 90 seconds or less. I can't have a conversation. I can't, oh, that's, no. Anybody who knows me knows. But that's like impossible. But I've had to figure it out. So like the first few videos I did. I almost completely gave up cuz it took me like, what, 24 something, whatever bazillion takes.
And I still wasn't totally happy with it and I don't know how to edit. So that was a whole thing. And then as I've gotten doing it more and more, I've gotten so much more comfortable with the fact that and I think it's really cool that what people want is not this highly curated, highly edited thing, even from a professional like myself.
Cause I do think sometimes as physicians we feel like we have. We almost have to mask a little bit more. And so it's cool that I've figured out, okay, what's the information that people really need? And take out all the extra junk, right? Or what's the point I really wanna make?
And let's just get to that. And then being a lot less perfectionistic about it, which is actually really cool. And just you know what? Yeah, that's good enough. We're posting it, eh, we'll see what happens. Yeah. So that part's been really cool. The not cool part. About the whole social media thing is like my whole life, Diana and I were talking about this, like when you're a physician, your entire life has been largely prescribed, and yes, pun intended, right?
It's four years of college, maybe three, maybe five, but it is college done. If you do that and you do it well enough and you get these scores, then you get to this next level, then you go to medical school. Four years, and as long as you don't screw up and you do well enough and you pass your exams, then you're a doctor, and then you do residency and then this and then that.
So the whole thing is very prescribed and the outcome is known as long as you do X, Y, and z for the most part. Obviously there's some variations, right? And this social media thing is you never know. You never know what videos are gonna hit. You don't know what's not gonna hit. You don't know when it does.
You don't necessarily know why. When it doesn't, you don't necessarily. And the other thing that I think is a little hard for me, again, when I'm doing something in front of a live audience, first of all, I often get immediate feedback by people talking to me or giving me either positive or negative feedback.
Usually positive. But even if they don't come up to me, I can see their face. So I have some idea as to the impact that I may or may not have made if people leave comments. Sure. And likes maybe, but I don't really know. Yeah. I don't get to really know how or if stuff is impacting people. Which, I keep to, I tell myself if it helps one person and it didn't take, and it was just a little bit of my time. Yeah. Then why not? Then it's worth it. Yeah. But it is time and it is. And you wanna make sure when your time is limited and your effort is limited, you wanna know that what you're doing and what you're putting out there is having the positive impact Yeah.
That you want it to have. Cause that's really the only reason for me to be doing it.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. I know what you mean because when I am supposed to give lectures or do something, I'd rather do it to a live audience, like you said, because then I can see how it's landing or I can see how I'm pivoting.
And while I might not have everything, of course, on the slides, because then that's like word vomit, like it's all in my brain. And I'm like feeding off of what. Seen in the audience or where they need to go based on the audience. And so yeah, when I'm supposed to, Hit record to
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: A
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: blind thing and just use my slides.
Oh my gosh.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: I try it, but
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: oh my God, I feel like I'm not in my zone because again, I'm like you just said, I'm not getting that feedback. So it's, yeah. So talking to you like this is amazing because like I can understand what we're doing. We're just having a conversation. It's not scripted or anything, so it totally goes
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: where it goes, that's why I love, honestly, like that's why I. Favorite absolute favorite things to do other than live talks is podcasts, right? Because it really is just I love to talk and I love to talk with my friends, and I love to have that like connection. And so whenever I do 'em in this format, which is part of why I've thought about doing my own, but I just, I love, like you said, I love the format.
I love that it's just a conversation and even if I don't get to see the reaction of the audience, I get to at least interact with one other human. Yeah. There's at least that may, maybe nobody else likes it or listens to it, but we're gonna have a good time doing it, and at least that was worth, the hour, whatever that we put into doing the recording.
Of course you're doing all kinds of work on the back end. My brother-in-law, I'm sorry, your brother-in-law, bless him. See, that's what I would need if I did something like this. I would need, I'd need another. Yeah, I would need a human who knows techie things cuz I do not know techie things. Yeah,
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And like sometimes, it is, like you just said, realizing that in life there's certain things, obviously
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: we've been taught.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And drilled. Really, if you're talking medicine, we need to make sure we have some type of precision, but at the same time, it is called the practice of medicine. You need to have some wiggle room to be creative, wiggle room to explore wiggle room, to not just stay within the box that they're wanting us to stay in.
But at the same time, like you said, there's certain guidelines. There's certain guidelines, yeah. Where you know that if you went way south, okay. Everybody in recently would know you're really way south. But with social media, with an entrepreneurship, with anything that like. You don't have the prescription, like you said, and so you can easily go down some rabbit hole and be like, what?
What happened? And again, but at the same time, it lets you. Be creative enough and be willing, I wanna say the word fail faster, because again, you didn't know, but then that also makes you grow faster because now you have new data to change and modify and whatnot. But yeah, I still wanna rule book.
Yeah. But yes, we should. Honey, guys, we should have some guidelines though. I think that's why it's so good to surround yourself. Network of somebody who's a little bit ahead of you and maybe a little bit behind you. So that's, we can, we all can help each other. Keep going. That's exactly
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: right. To that point so some of the folks listening may have seen, and if you haven't, you really need to go take a look at Jessica Mc McCabes, how to A D H D YouTube videos.
She's one of the, one of the first of us, if you will, to really To really push out excellent content on A D H D. And I got to meet her through the conferences and we're now friends and she was one of the ones that kind of really encouraged me to do this. She's also one of the ones that helped me, that really taught me, because I did a video with her for her YouTube channel on medications.
What was that? October, 2020, I think. And, This was the first time I had ever recorded something on video and I had to do it, on my own, in my office. Next time I was like, I gotta have somebody else helping me with this because I just would get lost in the weeds. And I sent that poor woman, I think, and her team like, what, 34 clips.
I think that they miraculously managed to condense into five minutes of excellent material. That sounds like it was one take. I don't know how the hell they do it. They're good. But I told her afterwards, I was like, look, I already respected. Big time what you do, but holy crap, like I had no idea just how much time and effort and energy and editing and da.
Now it helps if you have somebody who isn't completely paranoid and takes 34 takes and sends you every single clip cuz they don't know what's good and what's not. I'm, it helps me get over that a little bit.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: But hey, that was the first time you did it right? And like you said, exactly. You wanted to make sure, and I think that's where it's exciting, but it can also be paralyzing because what you're trying to give out into the world is bigger than yourself.
Like it's bigger than your ego. It's you wanna make an impact because this is education that can really be like a trailblazer for people who. Otherwise might not have considered the possibility of medicine. And you and I know that like medicine is one of the tools when it works amazing.
When it doesn't, then it can be a little bit harder, but it doesn't mean impossible. And it should be medicine and plus everything else.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: And I feel I. You and I both, we have unique perspectives, right? Because we have a D H D, but we're also physicians ourselves. So even though like our stories are unique from each other's, we also have this unique perspective of seeing both sides of it.
And for me, I also, again, I feel very lucky that I. Had the situation that I had. Not to say that it wasn't with, its without its challenges. It absolutely was. I still had to, deal with teachers and professors and other people who, and still do, who don't understand or don't, didn't understand the accommodations and all of that.
But I had so much support and so much. We're talking, I don't even wanna say how long ago it was, cuz, this was a long time ago that I had all, like 20 plus years ago. Long time. I, even my learning special, the learning specialist at my college who I had to meet with cause I was getting accommodations.
I will never forget this. This comes back to, it goes back to something you said earlier. She said I had to meet with her and she said, Carrie, tell me how you study and how you do your work. And I said I do it all wrong. And she goes, okay, tell me. And I told her, for example, I said, I highlight everything except for and the, and, but, and she goes, okay, why is that wrong?
And I go cuz I was told it was wrong because you're only supposed to highlight like the main points. And she goes, Carrie, you graduated from Haka Day, you are at Davidson College. Tell me again how that is wrong. And I was like, oh. And she goes, let me tell you what you're doing and why it's right for.
And she went on to explain to me how I was using the highlighter to track and to process and all of this. And she's like, when you do it that way, do you remember everything? I'm like yeah, sorta. And she's okay then if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And that was such, and this was over 20 years ago.
Okay. That was just such a game changer for me and in my own thought process, and I was so lucky to have all of, to have that and to have that support growing up, especially back then that I feel like, our family has always our leading ethos, if you will, what we've always been Taught and what's always led us is to who much is given, much is expected.
So for me, I feel like that's taking the experience I've had taking, but also combining that with the knowledge that I have, being able to put that into the world in a way that hopefully makes a difference, right? And hopefully pays forward some of what I was given and part of what I, some of what I had the privilege to.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Thank you for sharing that. And I think it's also so important to realize, like you said, that you had opportunities. But you were brave enough to take those opportunities. Like some people, and Yes. You said as a teenager, maybe not all of them, but it is human. It is human nature, but at the same time, like that's okay,
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: we all wanna go have a conversation with our 17 year old self.
Exactly. Exactly.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: We shoulda could or would've done, but the point is that you were okay. You were comfortable enough and being curious to let me figure this out. Let me ask somebody else advice, but also let me. Resonates for me so that at the end of the day, you're not just. Okay, this is it.
But also curious enough to be like what if there could be more or not? But at least you go into that right sphere and like you were telling me like, you've been able to talk to your uncle who's like amazing at, that's his jam, right? Like in social media stuff and have friends who open up doors for you or explain different things and.
Most of us feel like they're gonna know I suck in this area. I don't wanna show them that I suck at this area. But it's in, again, it's not like it's, we all expect to start walking all of a sudden when we were just born. No. Like you have to learn different things. Exactly.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: Yeah.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And so it was such a blessing to have you when you were in my group, and then to turn around to come and give us the talk, to be the guest coach about medicine like that was. Again, like you don't realize how we all have our own gifts and our own Yeah. Way to enhance the group or the environment or the community
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: that we're in.
To that point, I'll be honest, when I did, your coaching group, I wasn't totally sure what all I would get out of it, right? Because I know so much about ADHD already, right? And. I've done coaching in the past for myself and I've done kind of all the things, but I'd never done the group coaching, the thing.
And I'd also never done coaching with other physicians. I knew other physicians, but there wasn't a ton of us. There are a ton of us, but there weren't a ton of us that knew each other. And that was one the things that I think was really cool. Yeah, I had the opportunity even as a member of the group to answer questions or to share my knowledge, but there were definitely.
Several times where other members of the group would just say something or something about something they experienced or some epiphany they had that made me go
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: oh,
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: fabulous. Like brain capo like just brain blown. And I think that was really, I think that was really cool.
And just the camaraderie. Too, of just, and just being able to be like, Hey, we're not alone here. We're all having similar struggles we're having, we have some different stuff too. But we have some really similar stuff. Yeah. It's, we're not the only ones.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And it's, so again, and that's what I mean by it's so important to have a community that kind of just gets you, and they might not get everything, but when you have.
Safe space where you can just come and be. It's so different than from feeling like, oh, I can't say that out loud because my coworker is gonna think that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because they have no problem here and therefore blah, blah, blah.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: So that connection. Yeah. Con, we talk about connection a lot and resilience.
We talk about connection, and that's that connection that you get from having truly shared experiences. That is there's a lot of negatives to all the online stuff and all the social media stuff and all of that for sure. But that's one of the real positives Yeah. Is being able to actually form connections and community and that stuff's critical.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And I think Covid made it such, where again, I didn't even know how to use Zoom like or anything. Really prior to this. Yeah. But Covid made it such that you could wonder, Hey, I can have a conversation with anybody anywhere in the world. Okay. That's cool. And it made it a norm to be able to have that instant connection because I know when I then finally met you in person, oh my God, it was like a
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: world of different, That was so funny because it was like at that conference.
So for those of you who don't know, we're referring to the international conference on A D H D, which happens every November. By the way, please keep your eyes open and your emails open. It is fabulous. Baltimore. It's coming up. Here we go, crabcakes. But it is, it's three days of. Communing and having just the most fun time as well as very informational and educational with 1500 of your bestie, A D H D humans.
But anywho, needless to say, for 2020 and 2021, we were virtual, which was still great. I'm glad we had it, but it just wasn't the same. And I met all these people like Diana and some of our other physician friends and other folks. And then when we finally all came back together, The conference this last November in 22.
It was the funniest thing cuz there were people who was like, oh my God, it's so glad to see you again. And they're like, we've never actually met. And then there were other people who I'd actually met right before the pandemic who I was like, I'm so glad to finally see you in person. They're like, Carrie met before.
And I'm like, alright. Our sense of time was just so messed up. But it was oh, it was so much. Yes. So much fun. And the party was awesome. If I do say so myself, oh yes,
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: We party again. Oh my God. We party till like midnight or something crazy and yeah, we,
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: there's videos out there.
I, there are videos. They are posted online. Because yes, we are still responsible adults. There was nothing crazy. It was just a lot of fun. Feather boas and Elton John glasses. But there was, I, each night I went to bed later and later, I think the first night it was like 1:00 AM. Second night to I was like, I'm getting too old to stay up this late.
I was in so much pain by then. Yeah. But it was just, we were having so much fun finally being together and getting to see each other and Yeah. Talk about some deep stuff, but also just have fun and talk and chill and Yeah.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. And again, that's what I mean about community. Come into the place where everybody just gets you.
Yeah. It was so funny to hear people be giving a presentation and then midway they stop and they're like, what was I saying? And everybody's laughing, oh, and yeah. And then they're like, no, I'm serious. I got lost. What
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: was, it's amazing. I love it because I don't, one of the things I've always said about that conference, and part of why I've stayed so involved is because the first year I went in 2018, it was honestly, The first time that I felt like I could be 100% completely and totally authentically myself, both as a professional and as carry the D h D human.
Because so many times at these conference, when these professional conference, I feel like I have to mask Yes. And compensate to be taken seriously. Yes. Because if I'm my full, if I'm on full volume, I will not be taken seriously and people will look at me like I'm being annoyed. And at this one, like the very first time I went, people were like coming up to me.
I wasn't presenting right. I was just, And would raise my hand or, make comments or answer questions and people would come up to me and go oh my God, I love your energy. I'm like, I'm sorry, you said what? And they're like, and they looked at me like I was the, some sparkly unicorn because I was a physician with a d h adhd.
And I was like, y'all do know there's a lot of us, right? This is a lot of us. Like probably half the doctors out there, but I'm just saying. But no, but it was. It was so cool and it was not being myself didn't take away from who I was as a professional. It gave me more credibility. Yeah.
And it was incredible. It was incredible. Yes. And and it's continued that way. And working with those folks again, it's great because it's like, deadlines are a funny thing when you're working with a whole bunch of ADHD people. People are very forgiving which is nice, but also you also have to hold to 'em really tight or nothing ever gets done, exactly. So yeah.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Is that you? You should see me planning my Costa Rica retreat. You know when the deadline was? Oh my
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: gosh. Was it first,
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: right? Oh yeah. Like it firsts was the deadline and I'm like still getting Oh, I just booked my flight yesterday and my mom's coming too, and I'm like, give it the details.
I'm trying to organize. Getting you to and fro, right? Yeah.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: But again,
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: To your point. I think we need to remember that our energy is important and that we need to protect it. But we also need to realize what enhances it so that we refill and recharge ourselves. Yeah. And like you said, we don't give it all away with the.
Things that you know, can distract us and if they were not really what was IMP would be important five years from now, then maybe that you could gauge it that way. But Okay. I'm gonna wrap this up cuz I know our time is valuable and I know you and I can talk for hours cuz we've done that before.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: Yes ma'am. But in the interest of time
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: You already told us where people couldn't find you, but just tell us one more time and then I'm gonna ask you one more question and
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: we'll wrap it up. Our website is www.gtwhealth.com. My clinic is in Fort Worth, but we also two other clinics in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
The social medias are instagram@thehd.md which is the same at TikTok, Carolyn Lynch, l e n t z s c h, Parcells at for Facebook and then Twitter, but. Whatever. Awesome. Not Twitter.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: If people just started tuning in, because we have wondering attention, what is the one takeaway point that you would want them to walk away with?
I
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: get asked that, of course whenever we do these and my always go-to takeaway is this, which is do not let. Whether you are an adult with D H D or a parent of someone with D H D or you love someone with d h d, don't let what other people say prevent you from advocating for and fighting for what you or the person you love needs.
Everyone will always have an opinion. There will always be opinions and there will be always be opinions that disagree with whatever you choose to do. It is not shame. It is not failure to ask for help and to fight for what you and the people you love.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Preach. Awesome. Okay, the last question, I know I said it was only one.
What do you hope to do for fun in the next three to five years? I know you already have a lot of fun, but tell me, oh, tell me what are you
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: dreaming about in the next three to five years? Yeah, travel. Lots of travel where to Lots and lots of travel. Internationally, already checked off Italy. Wanna go back to Italy, London.
I do love me some tropic. I got a whole list of bucket list countries. Like I'm one of those people that wants to make it to just about every, continent or whatever. Yeah me too. I'm not a cold weather person, so some of those but yeah, a lot of travel. Awesome. I'm hoping to suggestion.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. We were just looking into maybe doing a cruise cuz that would be amazing. Like a 10 or 12 day cruise. Yeah. Like Mediterranean, because then you just have to literally get yourself on the ship and then you get on and get off, get on, get off. And you have hotel taken care of for you.
Exactly. Yeah. And then it's actually a lot more affordable than you think, how you do all your connections and. Stuff. So yeah, I think cruises are amazing for our A D H D brain dude. And we need an A D H D
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: physician's cruise. Oh, that'd be so much fun.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yes. We gotta plan something.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: Go team. Woohoo.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Stay tuned guys. Stay tuned. This is coming up. Awesome. Thank you so much for spending your time here with me today and with everybody who's listening because like I always say, Time is our most valuable asset because unfortunately we don't know how much or how long we have a it.
So let's try to do our best to be present in the moment because we know that we like to dwell on whatever already happened, and we like to plan so far ahead that we forget, like right here, right now, don't know
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: what you're talking about. I have no idea. I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't do that over.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: So yes, thank you again for coming. It's been, I'd delight to have you.
Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: Appreciate
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: it, Diana. Thank you for spending your time with me. I really believe that time is your most valuable asset. Please subscribe to the podcast, share with your colleagues, and don't forget to check out my website@hdlivecoach.com where you can find out about my upcoming coaching group classes, as well as free master classes and other exciting events that are happening.

The Metabolic Syndrome and ADHD Link

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Come join me May 1st through the sixth, so that you can rest, rediscover your strengths, reconnect yourself and those physicians like you who are ready to leave, work at work and re-energize. This is the invitation for you. 2023 your year. Join me in Costa Rica in this really amazing, non-judgmental, intimate decision community.
I am gonna show you how to rest and how to recharge. Let's transform your brain up so that you can start to dream the life that you always wanted this year in 2020. I can't wait to learn all about what kind of year you're gonna have after this conference. Take care. Hello. Welcome to Beyond ADHD, a Physician's Perspective.
I am Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh . I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered by my adhd, but I now. See it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in my personal life. In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs.
And some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of skills. I am so excited about today's topic, which is the relationship between metabolic syndrome and A D H D. I see this in my practice every single day. People look at me like, oh my God, she's a genius. It's not that I'm a genius, it's that I have firsthand real life experience with it myself.
It, when you have that real life experience, you're able to pull it out and make connections that somebody else might not have. So again, let's go through what is D H D A? D H D is a neurological neurodevelopmental. Disorder that affects our executive function and our executive function is this mental task ability to complete tasks, right?
So most of us, when we think about D H D, we think about the usual things like attention. It affects attention, okay? We think about impulse control, we think about the hyperactivity. Many of us might not be aware that there's more than those three. There is 12 executive functions and all of them, or some of them could be affected and sometimes one day more than the other.
And so when we talk about that, it's. Important for you to know, because if you don't realize that task response response inhibition. Task switching. Task initiation task. Completion management of time planning, prioritizing emotional control, time awareness, all those metacognition. There's so many of them.
There's 12 of them that can get affected, and if you're not aware of that, you might be blaming yourself and thinking you have this character. Defect is part of your condition, and you'd be surprised how many times my clients have this aha moments and even my patients when I asked them, okay, gimme all the things that you love about yourself and gimme all the things that you dislike about yourself, and many times all the things they dislike about themselves.
Are part of those executive function, and there they are sitting thinking that they are broken and they have a character flaw because they can't seem to do X, Y, and Z, when in reality it's part of their condition. And why am I talking about this? I'm talking about this because metabolic syndrome a set of symptoms or a.
Things that come together. For example, if you have high blood pressure, if you have high blood sugar levels, if you have excess abdominal adipose tissue or fat around your waist, or you have any. Cholesterol levels that are elevated. All those four things put you at risk for developing metabolic syndrome.
And what people don't realize is that A D H D is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is, Affected how much dopamine levels are around. So usually your A D H D tends to be unfavorable when your dopamine levels are low, and you tend to do well with your A D H D when your dopamine levels are high.
And so certain things like food can really increase your dopamine levels. And so that makes sense why, three o'clock, two o'clock, you might be looking for candy or for something for you to use to help you enhance your dopamine levels, because they're probably a little bit low. So with that premise, I am explaining to you that many times your eating habits can be a response to your unmanaged.
And there is a link. Okay. You see what I mean? When a individuals with A D H D have a higher risk of developing this syndrome, because people with A D H D have higher rates of obesity, insulin resistance, and. That is concerning because if you're not aware that you're using food as a means to regulate your A D H D, you're not aware that the underlying cause is not that you're eating so much, but that you're using food as a way to increase your dopamine so that you can try to complete the task at hand.
If we were to treat and diagnose you with A D H D, then it would. Easier for you to not have to be overeating. You be surprised how many times I have diagnosed people with A D H D when they had been told that they were just depressed or they were just anxious or they just could not lose weight. And I would, we would sit down and go through the diagnostic criteria and then when, then we would do all the labs and everything, and then we would realize.
There was ADHD there and once they started, Getting treatment for D H D, they've lost 20, 40, 50, a hundred pounds because now they are now no longer using A D H D. They're not, they're no longer using the food to treat their D H D and, okay, so fine, whatever. We're a little, all a little bit overweight. What does that have?
Anything to do with anything. The reason I am talking about it today is because it has everything to do with everything. Why do I say that? Again, our current lifestyle. Sets us up for metabolic syndrome like most of us are living quick, busy lives. And that is ha that causes us to go through the drive-through to eat sugars to have diets that are high in sugars and probably cokes and caffeine is probably another way, or energy drinks is another way for us to increase dopamine, and most of us tend to be.
Like not exercising as much as we want, and most of us tend to actually even drink and smoke. And some of that is gonna increase our health concerns. And when you have all that things going on, It actually decreases or estimated life expectancy due to you using all those sources as a way to in, to help you with your A D H D.
It actually can diminish how much time we haven't deserved, like it can decrease our life expectancy by 10 to 15 years. So it is important to talk about it because you might not realize treating A D H D. Either with medication or with behavioral therapy, or with coaching or all of them together can help improve your impulse control and can encourage healthy habits.
So that might, now that you understand that you don't have that two second delay between the stimulus and response, That might help you enhance your response inhibition. You might set up a strategy to help you just take a deep breath before you answer or before you go grab the cookie and ask yourself, what do I really need in this moment?
So the important thing is to realize that if you're somebody who might have metabolic syndrome, it might be important for you to. Get curious enough to realize if you might have a D H D and whether you can treat A D H D, and that can help actually decrease your risks for being overweight, for developing heart disease for, having a stroke or diabetes.
Thank you for spending your time with me. I really believe that time is your most valuable. Please subscribe to the podcast, share with your colleagues, and don't forget to check out my website@hdlivecoach.com where you can find out about my upcoming coaching group classes, as well as free master classes and other exciting events that are happen.

Unleashing the Power of ADHD Heroes in Healthcare

Dr. DIana Mercado-Marmarosh: Come join me May 1st through the sixth, so that you can rest, rediscover your strengths, reconnect yourself and those physicians like you who are ready to leave, work at work and re-energize. This is the invitation for you. 2023 your year. Join me in Costa Rica in this really amazing, non-judgmental, intimate decision community.
I am gonna show you how to rest and how to recharge. Let's transform your brain up so that you can start to dream the life that you always wanted this year in 2020. I can't wait to learn all about what kind of year you're gonna have after this conference. Take care. Hello. Welcome to Beyond ADHD, a Physician's Perspective.
I am Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered by my adhd, but I now. See it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in my personal life. In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs.
And some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of skills. Hello. Hello. I am so excited about today's topic. It is called Unleashing the Power of A D H D, heroes and Healthcare. It is a topic that is obviously very dear to my heart because. I am one of those A D H D health providers and also I work with a D H D clients who are physicians who are healthcare providers.
I actually use that type of information to apply for a conference in Rome that I got selected to, to go speak about in July. So I'm super excited about that. But anyways, today, We wanna talk about why. I really think when we lean into those healthcare providers or physicians who have adhd, it is so important to do and again, we all know that when we step into a room where the community just gets us, it makes a world of a difference. It's having that real life experience that can really make a difference. Between how you handle whatever you're going through and how the other person handles whatever they're going through.
The A D H D hero has been in the trenches battling their own symptoms coming out on the top, and when they share their real life experience, it just, Becomes obvious that they have superpowers and strategies and they can use this to show others. They too are on a journey. A D H D is a lifelong condition and it can get easier if you know how to deal with it because you understand it firsthand.
I always tell my own patients just because I'm talking to them about it, it doesn't mean like I have all the answers and it doesn't mean I'm a hundred percent. Got it under control because it is a journey. One day you show up fully, a hundred percent charge. Another day you show up. 20% charge based on the task that you're having at hand is how you are going to deal with whatever comes your way.
But having real life experience makes a big difference because you can just almost tell them exactly what they're thinking because it's your brain that is so similar with theirs. But again I also wanna point out that there is a spectrum. So it's not like a hundred percent of everything that I tell you that I'm doing is you're gonna do.
I'm always very careful with that because it. It almost becomes like gaslighting, right? Instead, it's important to ask yourselves what usually works, what doesn't work, so you can start to create some insight with that. I don't know if you're aware or not, but the AMA released a survey in 2016. It actually stated that 30% of US medical students.
Had disclosed that they had H adhd. It is very likely in your healthcare team you have somebody with H adhd. So it's important to point them out if they want to, right? So that they too can relate to each other and come up with a community to support each other. Brain power, like they get to tap into their brain power with their ADHD brain.
These heroes are unique it that they have this unique perspective. And they have obviously a wealth of knowledge about the condition. They can see things from a di different angle and come up with creative solutions. It's so important to not only. Use the brain powers to help educate your patients, but it could also be used to help educate your colleagues and it can also be useful to help modify the current system that might not be supporting them or not supporting the whole flow.
So what do I mean by this? For example, in my practice we, we were the ones responsible for starting our own notes and I suggested what if the nurse or the ma preloads a template and they may be type in one word or one sentence explaining why the patient is there. Now the note is open. You have an easier way to start.
It seems obvious to do something like that, but it was not until one of us suggested it and the rest of the team was like, oh yeah, we should try it. And all of a sudden we weren't missing, not even having started a note on a patient. We could track it easier. So it's just coming up with more solutions and being creative.
And another thing why it's important to have this A D H D superheroes in your team is because. They can help to destigmatize this condition. They can show others how A D H D could be a superpower instead of a weakness. They can help not only the patients, but also the families come to understand.
There's nothing wrong with them, you know that. Just thinking differently and there's, it's like thinking right or left-handed. And so if you're naturally left-handed and you're trying to use your right hand, it's just a little harder to do that task. But when you understand that you are left-handed, then it's easier for you to.
Do something with it. Taking the stigma away from a condition that is genetic that you didn't choose, it makes a world of a difference. For me, this was the realization that finally got me to open up to others. When I was coached in October of 2020 by Sunny Smith and I was told, A D H D is a circumstance.
You get to decide how you want to. What do you wanna make of it? You can decide that it's the best thing in the world, or you can decide it's the worst thing in the world. You can decide it will benefit you or not. Like it's up to you. And she asked me like, how is the diagnosis of A D H D any different from high blood pressure or from cancer or from diabetes?
And in my mind it was, I was trying to make all kinds of justifications. I was, but then I came to realize that A D H D. Like you're born with it and it's probably been there all along, but you were not even aware of it because that was just your norm and. Once you get the diagnosis or once you come to understand that you, this is it, then you can start to work towards understanding it and using it as a superpower and.
Another reason why it's important to have an A D H D superhero in your team is that it can lead to more collaboration. It could lead to better teamwork, not just for you, but also for your patients. Like you can, because you understand it, you're able to. Find more resources for this individual. You're able to get them to the right people, like either a therapist or a coach or explaining to them that, they might.
Have iron deficiency that can make their D H D worse. Or you could look into vitamin D deficiency and that could supplementing, could enhance their A D H D. Or you have awareness that Sometimes P T S D can almost appear like a D H D. So it's important to be aware of these things because then it could help you enhance, be a patient's advocate, but it can also enhance their diagnosis management once you have identified it.
So I really think having an A D H D hero in your team could, can unleash the beauty of this relationship between management, understanding, and treatment that can really change a person's life. Thank you for spending your time with me. I really believe that time is your most valuable. Please subscribe to the podcast, share with your colleagues, and don't forget to check out my website@hdlivecoach.com where you can find out about my upcoming coaching group classes, as well as free master classes and other exciting events that are happening.

Spiritual Cleansing with Dr. Oxana Ormonova

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Come join me May 1st through the sixth so that you can rest rediscover your strengths, reconnect with yourself and those physicians like you who are ready to leave work at work. And re-energize. This is the invitation for you to make 2023 your year. Join me in Costa Rica in this really amazing, non-judgmental, intimate decision community.
I am gonna show you how to rest and how to recharge. Let's transform your brain. So that you can start to dream the life that you always wanted this year in 2023. I can't wait to, um, learn all about, uh, what kind of year you're gonna have after this conference. Take care. Hello, hello. Welcome to Beyond ADHD, a Physician's Perspective.
I am Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh I'm a family medicine physician practicing in
rural Texas. I used to be hindered by my adhd, but I now. See it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in my personal life. In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs. And some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of skills. Well, hello. Hello. I am so excited today. I have a dear friend of mine who has also actually been one of my coaches and, um, I have her here and I'm so excited. Uh, That we are gonna be talking about, uh, energy. We're gonna be talking about how sometimes we get so drained and we wonder like why we are so tired.
And this is, um, my physician friend. This is Dr. Oxana Ormonova. And I'm might have mispronounce that, but I'd like to call her Dr. Oxana Ormonova. So tell me a little bit about yourself, Dr. Oxana.
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: Well, um, thank you so much Janna, for having me here. It's such a treat, but, um, anyway, so I was born near Mongolia and I grew up in Siberia and I went to medical school in Siberia.
And since I was a child, I was very intuitive and I could see things that people could not perceive, right? Yes. And at the same time, I was very, very sensitive. I was sensitive to other people's emotions, um, other people's problems, what they were going through. And, uh, my mom was a physician and I used to make rounds with her, you know, in the hospital when I was four years old.
So, and I always wanted to help people and I always wanted to heal people. So naturally I went to medical school and. Even when I was in medical school, after my lectures, I will go to local clinic and I would put, um, I did hands-on healing where I will put hands-on, uh, people and they were getting better, so their pain was going away.
Uh, they were saying like, oh my God, what did you do? Right? Um, finally, I'm, I'm feeling better and I would go home and I would be just, You know, exhausted. I, I will be just go straight to bed. And I was not realizing back then that I was putting, you know, taking all the energy and absorbing all the emotions.
All the pain, and I was, um, taking it on. And then, um, also many years ago in my training, I was doing, um, rheumatology elective. And of course I was, uh, thinking, oh my God, it's going to be so easy. It's not a surgery rotation. Right. I can, um, get plenty of sleep. It's going to be like a, you know, uh, almost like a vacation, you know?
Right. And so after a few days working, and again with outpatient clinic in this rheumatology, Office office, I started feeling depressed. I was getting all the aches and pains, my joints were hurting, and I was young and I said, what's the heck, what's going on? And I was looking to, um, my attending and she said, oh, it's, it's okay.
I feel like that all the time. And she said, why don't you start taking, um, just. Small dose of antidepressant, you can just take half a pill of antidepressant. And I said, oh my God, I'm in the beginning of my medical training. If I start taking antidepressant now, what I'm looking down through, this is not a solution.
And so, um, and throughout my journey, journey, um, I've been on a, again, um, I tried a lot of different me meditations and, um, You know, I'm always been a seek of truth and so forth, so, and it's made me realize how much as a physicians, we are taken on and you and I see, you know, you are aware of that too. We taken our patients, uh, pain.
We are taking out patients suffering. We are trying to solve the problems and so it's interesting. When I start reflecting, uh, and again, I've worked as a hospitalist for, um, 20 years, almost 20 years, and I start reflecting. I was like, my God, um, why I am sometimes still feeling tired and when I start counting how many patients I've seen throughout my, you know, including med school residents and so forth, and ballpark was at least more than such a thousand patients.
And then I also. Okay. These physicians, we deal with pain and suffering on a daily basis. Um, sometimes we deal with most challenging cases, right? And so I also start thinking how many professions out there in the world who do something like that. It's really right. So it gives you perspective. Where you realize, oh my God, it's not very, something wrong with me.
It's not underachiever or loser or, um, not capable, but it makes you realize, oh my God, this is a lot what I'm dealing with. This make sense?
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yes. Um, I think as physicians, we just assume that we're supposed to do everything for our patients and then some, right? Mm-hmm. And then we don't realize that sometimes like we have to be the most important patient in the room if we don't take care of us.
Like that could be very draining. But like you said, some of us, um, I'm gonna make a general statement, but usually females tend to. Be more in tune with what, uh, the oth the patient in the room is sharing. And sometimes we, yes, we take our time with them, but like you said, we feel like it's our duty to like solve all of their problems like so many times, like I.
I've been like getting onto good Rx to find the cheapest like medication at the cheapest store so that I could get to them. Like I'm pretty sure most physicians just write the prescription and walk out of the room, but I would put myself in their shoes. If I didn't have insurance, I would want somebody else to go the extra mile.
Mm-hmm. And, and again, it's not that, uh, it's good or bad, it's just that being aware. If you do that on top of whatever's already expected, like it can drain you even more and more and more because of the current system, the way it's set up. Mm-hmm. It's not meant to give you that flexibility to be able to do those kind of things.
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: Yes, and this is exactly what I was going to talk about too, because again, most of us, we go to medical school because we want to help people, we want to heal people. Just like you said, we put our heart and soul in trying to, um, help patients. And exactly what you said, it's not about just providing treatment, it's trying to find a placement, trying to find a nursing home, or, um, somebody's homeless, you know, you try to find place for them.
Right. And so, um, and because people, we are dealing. We're in so much fear. We're in emotional pain, we're in physical pain. And because of that, you, us as a physicians, we see us as like we we're trying to grab onto us, right? We are, we in survival. And so, um, and we're like, okay, this is a person who can help me, right?
And so it's, and, and I don't blame them because this is the way as I add. And so it's almost. When somebody is drowning and you're trying to save them, if you are not careful enough, they will drown you. Right? Because we panic, we an anxiety, they're grabbing onto you. And so it's almost energetically this is how it is.
And um, uh, this patients and in our me medical system, because also medical system is set on principle where patients come to the physician and they go. You are my doctor, fix me. And you probably heard it so many times, right? And we, it, the system said that, okay, patients give all the responsibilities for their health and we put it on a doctor's shoulder and so many of us against raw medical training, it's, it's expected.
We trained like sad and, but exactly what you said. You have to make yourself a priority even when you're on a plane. You know, if I go, okay, put oxygen mask first on yourself, and then put it on your child. Right? So at least you know, airlines got it. Right. So hopefully our, you know, our medical, you know, society and system get, you know, catch, catch up with it.
Yeah. And so, and what happened? As Einstein's, you know, you can't argue with Albert Einstein. He said, everything is energy. So our emotions, our feelings, our thoughts, our en vibrations of our, um, bodies, it's all energy. And so all of us, we are like radio stations. We absorb, um, everybody, you know, our, everybody else, emotions, thoughts.
So, and a lot of times people don't. That some of the feelings we're having, it's not even their own, they're picking it up from a loved one or, um, from their patients. From their clients. I, I work with a lot of coaches too. And so w you know, there is a lot of anxiety in the world right now and, uh, people don't realize, oh, the reason I'm feeling.
Because I'm tuning in and picking it up from what's going on in the world.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. So how did you first start to realize that? Okay, so you, like you said, you realized that. All this world is is energy. We are energy. And most of us will always say we're depleted of energy. Mm-hmm. Most of us say, oh my God, I'm so drained, or, I'm so exhausted, I'm so tired.
Like how did you, during all those years, like how did you finally learn to like manage your energy or, or to be more mindful about it so that you wouldn't continue to allow yourself to be so depleted? Mm-hmm. That's a
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: great question. And again, it's. Many, many years of, uh, trying different meditation techniques and, um, practicing different, um, again, um, tools and so forth.
What I realized, oh wait, and it's actually, um, this is a great story. Two days ago I was, um, talking to Mel's physician and I was telling him, oh, I'm going to be, um, talking, uh, on a podcast about how to maintain. Energy boundaries, and so you're not picking up, uh, patient's energies. And, and he's retired and he said, oh, why would any physician want to learn that?
He said, physicians just build walls and this is what works, right? He said, oh, you know, we, we just built walls so we, we are not. Absorbing. Cause, you know, patients pain and emotions. Why would somebody want to learn something different? Isn't it amazing? Yeah. And, and I was just, oh my God. So this person saw that this is actually the way to, to go about it.
And, and I don't notice, notice again, a lot of us doing that. So I would say I'm noticed more male physicians maybe doing that compared to female physic. But again, it doesn't work in a long, in a long term. So let's say if you are running a code and you have to tune out everything around you, um, let's say yes, you are in, you know, in that space for whatever, 30 minutes, one hour.
But if you don't snap out of it and it keeps you, you carry it on for many years, um, days after days. Then it starts affecting your relationship with yourself, right? It's because you are not processing it. So you still, the building falls out of resistance, out of, again, trying to protect yourself. So, and then it starts affecting your own relationship with yourself.
And that's why, you know, there is so much suicide and oppositions with so much depression. It affects your relationship with your children. Um, your loved. So it's not a solution. Does this make sense? What,
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: what? Yeah, yeah. Like energy is meant to be, emotions are meant to be like a compass. Like, uh, you know, to understand happiness, we have to understand pain.
Cause we need to understand one from the other, right? And yes, like you said, there's periods of time. It is beneficial to kind of turn ourselves off like in the middle of a code so that you become, quote, unquote objective in whatever you're doing. Mm-hmm. And you focus on that. But after the fact, if you don't reflect or even take two seconds to realize that you were dealing with life and debt situation, that you, that life is fragile, like, mm.
Like if you don't look at like, what if that would've been me on the table, or what if it would've been my family member or, or my husband, or whatever. Right. Like if you don't reflect the humanity of it. Mm-hmm. Like you could miss the opportunity of what you were in front of. And when we don't reflect on it, I mean, even though while you're going through it, it sucks.
Mm-hmm. If you don't reflect on like being grateful that you are still breathing, that you are still here, right? Then you miss the opportunity to process. Like what a beautiful gift you could have given to that person if you brought them back and now they had a chance of X, Y, Z for many years to come, right?
Mm-hmm. Or if you didn't bring them back, knowing that you did the best that you could in that moment in. Yeah. And so, uh, so I think in, in terms of that, I can see why it's a protective mechanism and I can see why it's helpful, but I can also see that if you do that one too many times without the reflection part of it, mm-hmm.
You can get lost.
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: Mm-hmm. Yes. And this is what I see in, again, in so many of my clients, they say, I feel disconnected, or I have a hard time forming connection with people or, and, and most importantly, um, having true connection with yourself. So with your own emotions, right? And so, And
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: again, and I think Covid, sorry to interrupt you.
Mm-hmm. I think Covid did a number for all of us. Like yes, it ma it forced us to realize that maybe before we had a community we could tap into and like you felt like, oh, they can help me. They can help me. Mm-hmm. But then when everybody was functioning from a place of fear, from a place of like, oh my God, I'm gonna bring X, Y, Z to my nanny, or to mm-hmm.
Blah, blah, blah. To my elderly neighbor, I'm gonna be the one getting them sick. They're gonna die. You then kept away, right? We were no longer in community, and all of a sudden you were even more drained because you didn't have that extra help that you needed, and therefore you were even more depleted with your energy.
And again, we were functioning from a place of survival like you were just. Trying to survive. And then well, and, and for some people like that's primary care physicians, but I know some like specialists that were told like, we don't need you go sit down. They were like in heaven because they're like, Woohoo, I have to get one third of my patients.
Right. So like mm-hmm. But at the end of the day, I think it was tiring and draining for physicians because while everybody. Or were forced to take a stop and reflect, or not reflect, but at least take a stop. Like we were never given that freedom. Mm-hmm. To take a stop or like, unless you quit because you know you had some mobility or you felt like you couldn't handle whatever, or whatever your point was.
It's not that you couldn't handle, but you made a personal choice, right? Mm-hmm. So for the most part, I feel like in the last three years there's been a. Cultural, mental physician, mind awakening. Mm-hmm. Realizing that maybe being drained. I wasn't drained when I was at home. Maybe this is not the norm.
Maybe I shouldn't be drained all the time. Right.
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: Because it's, again, we, we are so used to it through medical training. Um, it's, it's like it almost becomes a norm. And I still remember when I was a resident and I would be like, oh my God, I'm on call every 36 hours. And some older physicians would say, oh, why are you complaining?
Um, when I was in my medical training, when I was a physician, I was on call every single day. Yeah. So it's was, and this was a standard, right? So this was, you know, expectation and it's. Interesting. You know, what I see with some of the, um, some of my clients who have a D H D, and again, I work, uh, with a a D G clients, so I, I see it on a different, um, again, on a different level.
So I, coming from perspective, looking at energy, um, again, being intuitive, um, being a spiritual healer and what I see, um, in a lot of people who have a d h. They have tremendous amount of creativity. They're super creative. Um, a lot of them have a lot of energy. And so what's happening is you, you again, especially, you know, when we are kids, right?
Our school system is trying to put everybody in a box. It's like a cookie cutter right system. And so a lot of those kids, they don't fit in. It's, you know, they have maybe more creativity that other kids have in, in, in the class. And so, and then we, you know, we get labeled you too much or, you know, get quiet or, um, don't, don't talk.
Right. And so, um, and another thing is, again, a lot of them I see they're very, very cap. But because through their life, again, even since, um, we were kids, we maybe were invalidated, we were criticized. So it's, you know, it starts, um, affecting them in a, in a, in the long ground. And sometimes I think about, um, little Mo.
You know, when he was a child and every, you know, and he was super creative. So I think if he was, um, you know, in present time and he was in school, he would be labeled a A D H D, right? So, because people, um, didn't know, would not know how to handle, handle him and handle his creativity. So, and another thing I noticed because.
ADHD people, a lot of them have a lot of creativity, so people around them, I mean, they recognize in some ways how capable the person is, and they go like, oh, why don't you do this? You have so much energy, or Why don't you do that? And then sometimes you taking it on and on and you end up with, you know, your, your plate is full.
So, You can't catch up with all those things on your plate. And then those people who gave you all those tasks start criticizing you. They're like, oh, you better time management. Or, um, but you didn't finish that. So, and like you said, learning, like what you're learning is how to maintain boundaries, right.
Or how to set boundaries and, um, which is so, so important.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. So, uh, it's, it's coming to understand that you. There's certain executive functions and some of the, some of them we are better at than others. Like, you know, maybe you're good at planning. Mm-hmm. Maybe, but maybe you're not so good at task initiation.
Right. So you can plan, but you're not gonna ever start the task. Or you have a lack of awareness of how long it's gonna take you, you know? Mm-hmm. A time, uh, or you feel like, Have a month and then before you know it, it's like I have a week. Oh my God. You know? And, and so I think realizing that, why are we saying yes before looking at our calendar?
Like maybe we've been conditioned to say yes and we don't wanna feel like we're disappointing somebody. Yes. So that boundary there might not seem like a big deal. But if you just kind of said, Hey, let me look at my calendar and I'll get back to you. Like, it's gonna save you so much drama, because then you're gonna realize, oh, I was already overbooked.
Or you're gonna realize you were not even in town that week and you said yes to something. Right? And so I think we, we forget that part of these boundaries have to do with, again, the in. Realization that we wanna belong. And, and it's not that we're trying to people please, but we want them to like us. And of course we wanna say yes to everything.
Mm-hmm. But saying yes to everything you're, that you're saying no somewhere to something. And it's likely something to yourself that involves you and your self-care and your self rest. So, um, those boundaries, when you implement them, they're really meant to be there to protect your energy and.
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: Exactly what you said.
And, and another I want to add is because again, I see people with, uh, A D H D, they have a lot of creativity, a lot of creative energy is, uh, learning how to channel it. So, because when you have so much, right, you could do this and you could do that, and you can do, um, you're so capable, you can do 10 other things.
So choosing, um, again, what you were mentioning, prioritizing, so it's, oh, Or even when I see a lot of people have a lot of gifts, again, creative energy, it's all our self-expression. And so one thing you choose as, for example, you can choose as your career. Another thing you choose as your hobby. So another thing you choose, you know, as your second hobby, whatever it is.
So then it's you channel link your creative energy. You streamline in it, right? So then it's creates less that, um, it's like, oh my God, you know, I don't know what I wanna do. Um, and then sometimes you, um, maybe people don't accomplish, um, what they want to do. So, but again, I just want to validate, um, those people who have a D H D who are listening to this podcast, I want to validate them that, again, some of their.
What problems we're experiencing is because we have a lot of creativity, we have much more creative energies than, you know, maybe people around them. And we have a lot of energy because creative energy is, it's energy. So we just, uh, one types of
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: energy. And I, and something that came up, um, and I can't remember if it came up during one of our coaching sessions when you were coaching my group or when you were coaching.
Oh, uh, when I went to one of your workshops was the, the fact that some strategies that are meant to protect us. Sometimes don't because we don't give ourselves the time to implement them. Like the sleep, right? The exercise, like, uh, the low carved diet, like sometimes we don't realize that those do play a role in there somewhere.
And then we wonder, why can't I focus long enough, right? Mm-hmm. And, and we don't realize that all those are affecting how we're showing up.
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: Absolutely. And. As we were talking, um, again about how we absorbing, um, others, our patients energies and so forth, it's, you know, first the key is awareness. Even recognizing that, validating yourself, going like, oh my God, I've seen in my life thousands and thousands of patients.
Um, how many people out there in the world even capable of doing what I'm doing? I. So many times my friends would say, I don't know how you do it. I would never be able to do what you do. And so, and given ourselves a break when let's say you are on your day off and you're beaten yourself up because you're like, oh my God, laundry's piling up and I have no energy to get to this, you know, pile of laundry.
So give yourself a break. Don't beat yourself up and realize. I am going through a lot. What I am dealing with is a lot. And so then you st instead of invalidating yourself, you start validating yourself. You start recognizing your power. You start recognizing your capabilities. And another thing, what I, uh, teach people might be helpful is when you start feeling, for example, sad or depressed, or you're feeling anxious, you can ask.
Wait a minute. What I'm experiencing right now are those my feelings or I'm picking it up from somebody else because majority people on the planet, we are not aware that we are constantly picking up other people's emotions and thoughts and including with thoughts. You know, if you're thinking something, um, you know, And your life is doing okay and all of a sudden you start, you know, having some weird thoughts.
You can ask yourself, okay, are those my thoughts? Or I'm picking it up from somebody else. So yeah, and then you can ask like just such simple think, you can ask your awareness and say, okay, my awareness, I want to be aware of my own feelings. Please, let's shift my own feeling. So, and again, everything starts with awareness.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. Yeah. Everything does start with awareness because again, if we just assume that, that what I'm feeling or experiencing is because of something I did directly. Mm-hmm. Um, like we might miss that. You know, we, we can control our thoughts and feelings sometimes when we're aware, but if we're not aware, we, we feel like we're giving away all our energy to other people.
Right. Um, and, and we all have had those difficult patients sometimes where you just feel like exhausted and drained. Like they wanted 20,000 things. Then you're like, oh my God. And they're like, energy vampires. It's like, gimme back my energy. Take back your monkey. Like I don. I don't wanna keep your monkey, you know?
Um, but I think having tips and strategies to protect and refuel our energy would probably like be something that you guys can start to implement today. And it could be very, well be something like, um, Being mindful before you walk in the room, like making sure mm-hmm. That you know you're fully present and making sure that after so many patients, you're taking a break or you're for five minutes of meditation or just a water break, or just going outside, like something that is not like patient related.
That, I mean, just throughout the day, sometimes we charge your phones because it's dying. Like why wouldn't we recharge ourselves? Yes.
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: It's so important what you said. I love you. The analogy you said, we chat your forms. I was like, oh my God. This is, this is, um, such a great analogy. And also, um, you know, having this, like you, just exactly what you said, having a system in place where however it works for you, so is a, you have to have a, um, you know, After you see five patients or, um, whatever it is, or you have to after work, at least walk in nature for five minutes.
So, and also recognizing that we are all different and recognizing what works for you or what works for somebody else might not work for you. So for somebody seeing 25 patients a day, it's not a big deal, but maybe for you. Um, seeing 15 patients a day, this is your limit, right? So, um, after 15 patients, you, oh, 10 patients, whatever, whatever is the number.
And so not invalidating yourself because somebody else, um, achieving more or, um, seeing more patients, right? Because we are all, all very, very different. And when I'm teaching, uh, physicians and coaches about how maintain. Energy boundaries a lot of times, um, because it's exactly almost like, you know, built like this physician said, oh, we just built walls.
What's a big deal? Uh, but it's coming out of resistance, coming out of fear. And so when uh, people tell me like, oh, uh, how do I protect my energy? And I teach them it's not about protection. Because again, when we think about protect. They're coming out of like, we have to wall something off. And so I'm saying, oh, you're just learning how to maintain it.
How to maintain and replenish. So then you are not, again, you are not trying to, um, build like a, a wall wall or fortress around you because you phrase it.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Um, yeah. So when we're asked to multitask, We might be able to do one or two things. Exactly. Then you throw like five things on there. Then you can quickly see why our brains become overwhelmed or anxious or mad.
Like we are like, you know, we don't wanna be bothered, and so, mm-hmm. I think those are the type of boundaries that you have to understand your own limits so that you don't get to the place where all of a sudden you look like you're just blowing off steam. Mm-hmm. Because you weren't even aware that.
What steps did I miss three decisions ago? Instead of just saying, no, I can't do this, or, no, let me do it this way, or let, or let me ask a clarifying question. What is the priority here? Is the priority seeing that patient right here in the clinic? Or is it seeing the patient in the hospital or is it writing this, uh, these orders that you just brought and you pulled me out of the room for like, what is the true priority here so that we can reach.
Whatever needs to be reached at the end of the day. Mm-hmm. Without feeling like you are the one who's depleted and then being labeled as, you know, misunderstood or not the team player. And then, uh, we get ourselves into trouble.
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: Yes, exactly. And you know, when I, one of the tricks I, I do, and sometimes I teach also, Physicians, it's, you know, after you see a patient and you get out of the, you know, came out of the room and you washing your hands, but while you're washing your hands, you can just imagine that any energy you picked up from the patient just drains down the sink, right?
You just washing it off, like you cleansing it all from your energy field. Um, all the pain, all the emotions, and just being, again, aware of it or being mindful about. And then you just go, oh, I just wanna feel my own energy. Um, I want to be rep. Replenish is my own vitality, my own life force. Um, so this is something what people can do.
And again, our system is built on. I don't know about your training, but when I went through my training, it's almost like you're supposed to feel your patient's. And I heard, and you probably heard too, from so many patients, um, I would try to cheer them up and I would be, okay, you know, let's make you feel better.
Let's, you know, get you home. Um, and they would be a, oh, you don't know what I'm feeling, so you don't know what I'm going through. You are not feeling my pain. And it's almost like accusation. So, and sometimes again, this is, um, how we trained. Oh, we have to, we have to do that, but it doesn't help our patient.
It doesn't help us. And this was again, what I teach, um, physicians. It's how do you, what's the difference between being in sympathy to somebody, being in sympathy to your patient versus, um, being in a state of compassion, which is very, very different. Yes, this is would be another great reminder.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah, those are amazing tools and tips there.
Okay, so if people wanna reach out to you, where can they find you? Uh, do you have an email to share or, um, should they just reach to me or how should we, where can they, you have a website you can share with us? Yes. They can find
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: me on, uh, my website and it's Divine Wellness MD dot. I'm also on Instagram, the same name, divine Wellness mg.com.
You can email me, uh, and my email is aana and divine wellness mg.com. And uh, I'm also Lincoln. So yes, would love to connect and I love your podcast and I love, um, how you're helping physicians with A D H D and. Yes, you are a trailblazer.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Thank you. Now, if my physicians just started paying attention because we have wandering attention mm-hmm.
Um, what is one takeaway point you want them to have?
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: Well, is again, to recognize how capable they are to recognize that part of the label. The society labels them as a D H D. Because they have a lot of creative energy. They have a lot of energy and learning how to channel it in the right direction and use it to their advantage, instead its resume becomes like a destruction, right?
So, um, this would be take away, be besides what we already talked about. Talked
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: about. Awesome. So what do you hope to do for fun in the next three? Oh,
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: well, um, I enjoy teaching. I enjoy teaching physicians and, uh, coaches and, um, doing my one-on-one coaching. So, and um, yes, building the practice, serving people, and, uh, it's my, my passion again after Any, any travel
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: plans?
Oh,
Dr. Oxana Ormonova: always. I love to travel, so, and I love to travel to foreign. So, um, I love learning about different cultures and meet people from different parts of the world. Awesome. Yes, definitely.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: So, all right, well, thank you so much for your time and for your amazing advice. And there you have it. You, you guys have to start implementing some of those energy boundaries.
It could be as simple as remembering to allow all the energy that is not yours to be back to its source and you keep yours and. Being willing to, to ask yourself, what is draining me? What can I let go of and what is refueling me? What can I do more of? Because the things that are fueling you probably have really good dopamine for you, and you should do more of those so that you can show up better in the world.
Thank you for spending your time with me. I really believe that time is your most valuable. Please subscribe to the podcast, share with your colleagues, and don't forget to check out my website@hdlivecoach.com where you can find out about my upcoming coaching group classes, as well as free masterclass and other exciting events that are happening.

A Conversation with author and fellow life coach Simon Arnold

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Come join me May 1st through the sixth, so that you can rest rediscover your strengths, reconnect with yourself and those physicians like you who are ready to leave, work at work, and re-energize. This is the invitation for you to make 2023 your year. Join me in Costa Rica in this really amazing, non-judgmental, intimate decision community.
I am gonna show you how to rest and how to recharge. Let's transform your brain so that you can start to dream the life that you always wanted this year in 2023. I can't wait to learn all. What kind of view you're gonna have after this conference? Take care. Hello. Welcome to Beyond ADHD, a Physician's Perspective.
I am Dr. Diana Mercado Marmarosh. I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered by my adhd, but I now. See it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in a personal life. In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs and some of my habits, We're just as important as learning the new set of skills.
Hello. Hello. How is everybody doing today? I have a very special friend with me today and I'm excited because I've been wanting to get more men to come to my podcast so that we can share all the resources. So I have a very special guest his name is Simon Arnold. And he comes all the way from Germany and isn't it exciting?
And he's here to talk to us about his journey with how he got diagnosed with A D H D, but also he's actually like changing the world. He has a book and it's called The 13 Hour Life Coach. And so I wanted to just bring him here and. Have him talk to us about why he wrote the book, and I will explain a little bit about his book a little bit later.
But first I wanna introduce you to him and hear how he came about. And I, some of this that I'm asking is in the book, so you gotta. Buy the book, but he will, he'll give us
Simon Arnold: a preview. Yeah, exactly. Thank you so much Diana, it's so nice to see you again. Really? So yeah, I'm the 13 hour life coach and I was diagnosed with a D H D Wow.
Three years ago now. And I went to a psychologist and he basically flipped his book through with what ADHD was and said, I think you're right. And I was like I'm right here. And I needed to help myself. There was really no. Help for adhd, certainly three years ago, and I wrote, I think about 107 strategies to help me live with A D H D.
And And I find them to be working. So yes, .
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Awesome. I'm gonna just read what the back of his book says, because this is gonna give us so much material to dive into the conversations of this book. Simon realized one day that the external life. Distractions had disappeared and that he could read and comprehend a book for the very first time.
And he came to face with his inner voice. We all know about that inner voice, right? He was recently diagnosed with a D H D and he labeled his inner voice or he Big Mo and Big Mo basically, Is able to add clarity to his life while he's on medication. So that's the key here. He feels like he's able to concentrate for about a full 13 hours while he's on medication and every da every day.
When Big Mo leaves, then he realizes that he's thrown into a world of confusion together. Big Mo and Simon. Learn to figure out a D H D in a unique way of using diaries. So he's able to understand himself through those moments of clarity. Not only does he do that, then he turns around and he creates a successful.
Group in his town in Germany so that he could, they could each help each other learn strategies every day. He has clarity and then confusion, but obviously a strong bond happens now here he is being a coach for others. So tell us what was it like to finally get
Simon Arnold: medicated? Okay, so I was, It was during my diagnosis process, really.
My son already had ADHD and was medicated for it. I was completely under doctor's orders, allowed to take a tablet just to see how it, worked in my body really. And I took it and I found that my outer distractions were all gone. Diana the sound of the trees, the chirping of the birds at the windowsill, the yeah the cars three, three roads away.
I would hear them on a daily basis and all of a sudden I just had clarity and that was really the first and we can go in into this later. I'd search for 34 years for this. And I got to where that I where I wanted to be since I was eight years old. I knew something was wrong with me from the age of eight years old and I was determined to find out what it was.
And it was a d h D really. Yeah, the, I could concentrate for about four hours, I think. I knew exactly how I was filing paperwork at the time and I was like, wow, that goes there and that goes there and that can go in the bin. And my inner voice came out and I call him Big Mo and we can go into this bit later.
Big for just the feeling I have when he's around and mo for the moments that he's here with me. So that's really the start of everyth.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: So when you were eight years old, you said you knew. What was it that you knew? What did you feel like? Did you look around and people concentrating? Or did you feel like you were daydreaming so much?
What did you knew? At the age of
Simon Arnold: eight, I can. I can go right back to the exact, not the exact day, but I can go right back to the moment in my mind, sitting on the on the red thick carpet in England, of course, where I grew up and yeah, I was eight and I just sat there and I thought, There's something different with me.
I'm different to everyone else. I had to go on belief in faith hope and faith, and, but I had to find out what hope and faith meant, to be honest, at the age of eight. So it took a few years to get there, but I had the, I always had the inner feeling without having the inner voice. That something was wrong and I was determined to find out what it was.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: That's good that you had enough insight there and that even if it took three decades , to finally get the diagnosis. When you did it finally made sense. And that's also a sign of like understanding that we are always on our journey and we're always gonna be life learners. And realizing if you're not at a place where you want to be, Or things are not exactly as you wish them to be.
Like you have the opportunity to change stuff. And in your book, I was kinda amazed by some opportunities that you took . Oh, thank you. . You decided you wanted to become a physical therapist, is that correct? And you decided I'm not gonna do it here in my hometown. Lemme just go to another country and see what that's like.
Can you tell us what that was about? ?
Simon Arnold: Oh my God I'll never forget that I was on the computer at home when we had dial up internet. It goes bing bing. And then, The, the sound, it takes forever. And my mother was in the living room and I said, yeah, I just I feel so great. And she goes, why'd you feel so great?
I said, I've just booked a course for physiotherapy at the Best Physiotherapy school in Australia. And she says, How much that cost and I showed her what it cost on my credit card statement online. It was 6,700 pounds that I paid straight off, and she nearly fell off the chair in amazement. ?
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah.
So people with A D H D are risk takers, right? ? Yeah. You describe what I think most of us with A D H D in the book about having a dream and going for the dream, but sometimes, unfortunately, the dream doesn't always pan out like you wish it would. Would you tell us a little bit about. Yeah.
Simon Arnold: Wow. It was the dream to be a physiotherapist.
So in England, we say in English, we say in England we say physical therapist. You say physical therapist. That's right. I over I, I basically, When I paid for the course in Australia, I had, I knew no one in Australia. I didn't have any money, put it on the credit card, but somehow I came, and this is where it comes from this, I somehow run into people or they come into my lives and it's hey.
My parents live like 20 minutes from the schoolwork the university where you wanna study from, so I went to Australia and due to the executive functions and memory recall, really, I just didn't have a clue. And it, I can I describe it now as just having a mind that's like a siv.
And that, whatever information comes in, it just goes straight out. Nothing stays. So I re, over a long time I tried in Australia with no funds to go further. I didn't have any money for shoes. I had to phone up my father and get, yeah, that was hard. Brunelle in London first year, no idea.
Didn't have flu. And then in Berlin, As well. And bear in mind, I spent all my free time at a friend's private practice from the age of 17. So the first attempt for physio was about 2025, so I had a good five years of solid experience in the area and still didn't do, and still even today didn't pass it.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. And so I bring that up because, I'm pretty sure if you had decided to practice physical therapy, like you would've been amazing because you picked it all up from experience, right? But again, you didn't know what you didn't know. You didn't know that your executive function, attention to detail organization, you name it, right?
Giving you the possibility or ability to only capture written stuff in a short window. And so you were picking up parts of it and your knowledge was not necessarily reflected on what you had learned in. The actual experience of being there and doing the things, and I'm sure everybody complimented you on your bedside manner and ability to, for you to optimize the treatment to each person because of how much you were so in tune with it.
But it was. The written part could have kept you out or maybe you didn't have enough time to finish test or different things like that, right? And so I bring that up because people always say, okay, they graduated from blah, blah, blah. As if the degree is what makes a person. Have the ability to quote, unquote, be labeled as success story.
But it's not that, and it's a, it's an understanding that you, there's so many different areas of knowledge and so many different things and all those, at the end of the day, while they might seem like filled experiences, their still experiences, that what I see. Got you to bet on yourself and bet on your dream and keep trying and trying.
Most people probably without a d h, ADHD would've given up after the first or second time , right? But. Not somebody who knows their why and what they want to do and so that is something that is to be admired. And all those experiences, they don't negate us. They actually propel us and they continue to help us because now you can relate to all your clients that you're teaching with a d h, ADHD because you understand exactly.
Drive and that almost stubbornness. But at the same time, it's excitement, right? Yeah. It's like a mixture of both. It's excitement for the unknown and, yeah. And I know like you're ready to move to a new country, right? Yeah. You wanna tell us about that, ?
Simon Arnold: Yes. I've wanted to move to Seattle for three years, so if anyone can help me out, please help me out.
And . It really starts in the morning with meditation and, just imagining being there and just using all different techniques possible. Yeah, just to be able to experience it. I think I said to you recently that, three years ago a and Seattle was really the A D H D hub.
Somehow, I'm not sure whether it is now, but it was really big on A D H D, which is strange because h d's coming out more now. It was different three years ago. Yeah, that's my goal. Pretty much everything at home here in Germany is pretty much sold and my goal is to land in Seattle with two suitcases at the end of September.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Woohoo. That's around the corner. , how exciting. Let I wanna ask you about that group that you formed in Germany when you finally got diagnosed with A D H D. Like what were you thinking? What was propelling you? Like, why did you decide to make this group?
Simon Arnold: Okay, so I'd written the book. I actually launched the meet up h d in the , bay where I live in Southern Germany, the group.
And it ran for 13 months. Once a week I would go and either to a park where we could go for a walk or into the town 20 kilometers away. And a lot of the time, to be honest, I just turned up hoping that people come. To be honest, I had my little A for a D, H, D, not adhd. So everyone I go, Hey, oh my God, these are the weird guys.
I just wanted a, I just wanted the A, so it looks like maybe it's insignificant, right? Except to my group. I knew that other people needed help cuz I didn't get hit. That's why ,
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: and how was it? What did you, I know you went with no expectations and I know you went because you didn't want others to go through what you went through.
What kind of friendships did you develop?
Simon Arnold: Here's the twister. Okay, so the meetup group ran for 13 months. People would continuously write to me and say, yes, I'll be there. And I turn up at the event. And there was one summer in particular. It was so busy for my d h d brain in a beer garden. It was so full.
The lady had given me a table in the middle of all of these hundreds of people, and no one turned up. Basically the characters like Riker in the story for the walking and everything else. That's really experiences of my own because A D H D didn't have the open following like it does now. I am really sad to say actually.
For 13 months, not one person turned up. And then three days after I canceled the course, I met the first person and just had the most amazing connection ever with our, with both of our inner voices. And and we helped each other. But that was hard. That was hard. So I basical. I all the stories in, the walking and the, and everything in the chapter, which I'm talking about.
They're all my experiences, but I real experiences, but I put them into different characters to explain it so much better.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And that's the thing with a D H D, like sometimes we overcommit or sometimes. We are just not good at timing. . Yeah, true. We have the best intentions. Yeah. And so sometimes it just doesn't happen.
Or like you said, three years ago, label was not something necessarily to scream at the top of your lungs. Because even for me, you, we, you and I had this conversation. Three people knew I had a D h D three years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And now it's I say it like it's sky's blue type of thing.
Yeah. But it's because of the work that we have to do with the inner voice, like you said, because our mind might tell us that we are broken. And and it's a running thing and we don't want anybody to know that we're broken, and it's not true. It's just our mind is different. It's like being left-handed instead of right-handed.
And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that you maybe weren't aware that your innate thing was this way and we being conditioned to do it the other way due to culture, due to society due to expectations of gender roles, you name it, and so again, that also shows your ability to keep showing up, right?
Like you kept showing up regardless. Yeah. And so all those seem like it's the bittersweetness of it, like you said, like when you decide, okay, screw this , and then you have the most basic conversation. It's almost like society's okay, fine. I guess the universe will conspire against you to make it work.
Yeah. Thing is, like you said, you're getting closer to the A D H D hub in Seattle, and hopefully in November we can meet in person at the chat conference. That'll be great. . Yeah, like there you will see like your tribe, like every single person in the room, just picture like 2000 people a, d, adhd.
, and they're giving like lectures and they'll be giving the lecture and then halfway they're. What was I saying? And everybody's laughing. They're he, and they're like, no, I'm serious. I lost my train of thought.
Simon Arnold: Where was I? . Yeah, exactly. It went out that way. . Yeah.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And so it's like the norm.
And it's funny, and it, and you don't have to explain it because people just know and yeah. So I think that your book. So good at explaining some of those cultural cha like some things that, like you said, I grew up in UN, in England, and then you going and marrying your wife from Germany and living in Germany and the difference in their style of speaking and.
You trying to make sense of all of it. And it's in, in us realizing that we, with a d, adhd, I think we, we learned to use people pleasing skills to survive and at some point we don't realize that. No, I just have to be myself. Like I don't have to do anything else. And we forget who ourselves our true, authentic self is, but it is this work.
This is why now you're a life coach to help us to be ourselves. And so what do you think was like one of the hardest thing in, in writing this book? Because like to me, I'm amazed like one day maybe I'll write a book, but to me right now that's something that's oh my god, that's mind blowing.
But I know you. Thousands upon thousands, about thousands of pages that you write, and this is how your mind helps you clarify things. What do you think was the funnest or hardest thing in writing this book?
Simon Arnold: The easiest thing was actually spending two days every day for a year and a half writing the book.
That was what, then people are in one. The 1% of writers that actually do this, I wasn't as good as Stephen King. Stephen King managed three hours a day. I think JK Rowling managed two, two hours a day, and I wanted to stick with that. And I did. I did that quite easily with my journalism background.
I'd written a diary every single day since 2006, every single day, so I could actually compare. Was different now than it was back then. I had half maybe a quarter written a book on culture as well. And I pretty much put everything together. But there's a really good point that I just wanna bring out actually.
Of course I live in Germany. I speak fluent German, which is fine, but I actually never felt part of society in England. I never felt part of society in Australia and also in Germany. So that means that I've never. I've belonged to any, anyone or anywhere. And this is where self-care comes from. If you've got no sense of belonging to other people or social systems, like I've got zero.
You build up the insight because that's where it all comes from, right? And I know that for my whole life. Hopefully with the A D H D chat conference and this area, this is my tri. But up until right now and this day I've I've always had to do it by myself and lead from myself, through myself as, give myself as much confidence as possible to go on, that's, if that answers the question.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. And that's one of the hardest thing I think because our brain is conditioned to not think that way. Our brain is conditioned to think in the negative to make us think no, let me keep you safe. Cuz that's gonna be bad if you do that. And you're right, like community.
And belonging, like those are the things that are primitive and need needfulness. Like we all want to be loved and accepted. And if one of those two is threatened, like our identity or self-worth or self understanding of self, like just get shattered and exactly. That's why I created the A D H D group for physicians.
And again, it was not because here I am and I got all my shit together, but it's because I have figured out some steps and I wanted to share that. And in normalizing it. You then learn more steps and you learn from each other and you enhance each other and it, and we're not doing it again cuz we're broken, but we're doing it because we're just trying to be curious to see if there's a different way.
And all along you have to be that true. Both internal true leader and also that like referee no stop. You're being, you're gone way too far in. But at the same time, like we know that sometimes our brain like will tell us things and it can be traumatic and that's why it's important to realize that inner dialogue and that self-reflection, whether it's through meditation or it is through writing is so powerful when we actually sit down and do it because makes you focus.
like it makes you focus on what it is that you're trying to put on paper, right? Like not just sentences and sometimes yes they can free flow, but then you can go back and understand what you were trying to point at. And it's so much easier. And I think that most of us don't want to sit down and do that because we have this sense of it has to be right the first time, but.
You didn't learn to walk the first time like you needed to try different things. So that was genius that you gave yourself two hours every day because it's not in wanting to do two hours for two weeks and putting all this pressure on yourself to have this perfect product, but it was a, the muscle, the repetition, the trusting of yourself that something from there was gonna be life changing or worth sharing with the world.
Simon Arnold: Yeah. They, they say when you've written a book then the work starts. You have to basically every day you have to promote the book, of course. And just keep going. Do you wanna know the reason why I started the podcast, which by the way, next week is its first year anniversary.
Woohoo. So tell us. So I'd written the book and I was like, is this for real with this a d h D? Am I the only one experiencing this? And my first ever episode was called Blackouts, right? That I just basically came to the. Realization that there's no way I could have a blackout because I couldn't store the information in my brain anyway.
Cause it was like a si coming out. Yeah, I did a whole season, of course, 13 episodes, you're magic
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: 13, huh? .
Simon Arnold: Yeah. It's amazing. And and then I spoke to Annie Bush a a brain coach and she actually said about, the free frontal cortex with the medication actually getting the signals and.
Retaining the information and basically said that blackouts, what I'd said on the very first episode was true . And and then the guest series started and I was like, Hey, we've got stuff in common as well. You feel the way I feel, whether it's male or female. And then of course we met, didn't we?
And, Narissa Bower and everyone I wanted then of course, To move from normal people with a D H D to medical professionals like yourself to actually say this is how we all feel as a generation and the people. Let's put it to the doctors and see if it holds water.
And it did. I'm running in typical A D H D style for the one year anniversary. I'm running three seasons at. So I'm running the Kids Edition ages six to 12. The Gen Z edition 13 to 19 for girls, young women, adolescents and season nine, which is adults. Can I explain what, what's coming , please do.
I'm now launching within the next week a it's called the gen. High functioning d h D program for the ages of 13 to 19, and it's a 12 week course. The mothers that have got in contact with me, especially for girls as well, from the ages of 13 to 19, we have a half an hour conversation twice a week.
It's what's gonna happen. We go through a theme. I'm very flexible with what they need to go through. It's always best that, a parent actually accompanies the teenager during the chat as well. Whatever age it is, really boy, boys or girls or young adults. And we just go there and we just do this together and just make progress in the best way possible.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good to be able to have a community of the same age group and it doesn't matter. Once we are adults, like we all. Mingle and stuff, but there is a difference when you're talking to kiddos versus when you're talking to adult. And so it's good that you are giving them each their space to be able to have that flexibility.
But yeah, that's her A D H D we. Yeah, there was a time also, like I just realized, like in January, I started my 10th cohort. I didn't realize it was my 10th cohort. Like I've just been doing this for about two years. But in one moment in time, just like you, I had three cohorts going at the same time, plus a full-time job, plus you name it, right?
And. . When we get excited about something and we are aligned with our purpose of what is meant to be, it doesn't feel at work. It feels so much fun. And then you're like, oh my God, I'm getting a little tired. Maybe I should slow down a little or reevaluate how to do things. But yeah, that's so cool. So tell me more about do you have another, like bookwork or is it just going to be your coaching for.
Simon Arnold: The second book's already written. . Yeah. I just need to basically edit it and then publish it. Perfect. There's lots of things going forward there. Lots of things. .
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: That's amazing. Can you do one, you ready for the sec? The second one's written and now it's gonna give published soon. That's so
Simon Arnold: good.
Yeah. Yeah. And I talk about quantum theory. I will really go deep into metaphysics and actually. It is really neuroscience kind of geeky stuff, to be honest in certain areas. But also and people have said to me, how can you do this A D H D stuff? It's really heavy. And I said if you look at me, it's, I don't make it heavy at all.
We know that there's some real serious issues. If I can explain a serious issue actually The re the time when I was writing my book, there was a Canadian study. And this is what has gravitated me towards teenagers actually is the fact that the suicide rate for males was 5% and it was 9% for females.
And then they did, so that was April, 2020. I think. I'd have to have a look at the source. The middle of 2000 and 21 males had gone up to 9% and women had gone up from 9% to 23 and a half percent. I always crying my eyes out, Diana, when I was reading this stuff. I thought, this is a call to arms and I'm in a really good position to do this, so let's do this.
So even with that information, and you as a doctor, I'm sure you hear a lot of these real life events and causes and everything, but we have to know that, push it to the side, carry on with our work, keep it all upbeat, find new ways to move forwards and just make everyone's life so much better.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. You are hitting on something that is so real. Again, Prior to the pandemic, we really didn't talk about mental health like, or we really didn't talk about A D H D because we just assume it's a kid being shy in the back of the room, or it's a kid being disruptive or whatever. Kid being lazy, right?
They're not doing their work as they need to, and we just dismissed it, but it was. Okay. Quote unquote, because they had a community they could still come back to, like they had a teacher, they had a coach, they had different people they could do, right? Then pandemic happens. Then all of a sudden it's you and mom doing home homeschool or doing virtual thing or doing something, and it's.
Not that human connection that would have allowed you to understand more stuff, right? And all. And maybe if they are on the computer, what are they doing? They're looking at social media at the picture, perfect thing, and da. And people don't post all their shit. They post all their beautiful things.
And you don't know that pe everybody's going through something different, but you. You don't understand that sometimes the reality is not the reality and you orchestrate all these things. And unfortunately, I've had this conversation too with a lot of ER physicians and I and I see it as a primary care doctor, but a lot of ER physicians say, I used to have one or two suicidal teenagers, like every three to three.
They're like, now I have five per shift or 12 hour shift. That's crazy. And again, and it goes back to not putting mental health front and center and this is why like you and I connected because I think we're both on the same mission of normalizing the need to use all the tools and not make one be better than the other.
While medication yes, can bring clarity. It's not gonna fill in all the other gaps. It's not going to help you set up those behavioral systems. It's not gonna help you to realize you need to go run or to meditate or to dance or to take pause, , or to do all the other things. And so it's so important to know that and then to go forth and change different ways and like you said, we are doing, knowing the why we're doing.
Is what's so important and a lot, and sometimes we, I don't know about you, but we all go into like the you should be doing this for free because da. And it's yeah. But all those hours of me studying and trying to give you the best tools and understanding and grasping like.
It's still work and it's not just work. It's amazing value that you're going to provide to hopefully alter the trajectory of that person's life. And it's not just for that, but when people pay, they pay attention. , they pay attention. And so I'm so glad that you looked at that data and I know it's coming because you have your kits and you would.
Thought not to be a sadistic of one of your kids, right? My, one of my nieces like had to be hospitalized, because of suicidal ideations. And you would think, okay, where did I go wrong? How come I miss this? I'm the aunt, I'm the one who, but again, everybody is in their own world.
And you don't think about that. You think about how can, here we are, how do we go forward? What do we do? What's the next step? How do I, how do we, what does she want? What do you know? And so she's doing so much better now. But it takes a community, it takes a village. It's not just like whatever.
And did I talk to her about coaching? Yes, of course I did. But not in a sense like you should like. Think yourself something else, but in the sense that, hey, we don't realize that our thoughts sometimes can be playing tricks on us. Like they're not the real thing, right? Yes. And so realizing that there's always a choice and not making a choice is still a choice.
Can help them feel empowered when they feel like they don't have any say so, because you know their parents are gonna say this, or their teachers are gonna say that and their friends are gonna say that. So it's so important to realize that we all can do something for someone. And sometimes it's just sharing the stories that can allow somebody else to see.
There, there might be a different way.
Simon Arnold: And I just wanted to pick up, actually, even though I knew there was something wrong at the age of eight, I always thought, keep yourself healthy. Keep yourself going. I was never addicted to anything. I didn't do any drugs. I never smi, I hadn't even picked up a cigarette before, and just to do that is, is pretty cool. When so many people just find it difficult. And, another thing, when I was medicated for the first time, I thought, oh wow, this is how people can actually think. This is cool. And then I was really disappointed that so many people just don't take the opportunity to.
Realize the best in their lives really. And when I do, I just wanted to put an extra thing in really that even though maybe unfortunately I haven't been through addictions and everything else, I've seen every manner of in as a physiotherapy assistant in medicine, in cancer unit, in the drugs and rehab.
Orthopedics and trauma and you name it, everything. And that's really where all the experience comes from. It's okay, I haven't had it myself, but I've experienced it from others and this is how we go forwards.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Awesome. Thank you. This has been an amazing conversation, . Of course. I'm sure we can go and dissect so many other things, but tell me if.
Where can people find you? Where can people get in touch with you? All right,
Simon Arnold: they can find me on LinkedIn. And that's for the course, the high functioning, gen Z course for the teenagers 13 to 19. Just find me on. On LinkedIn, write me a dm and or to my email address. I'm also on Facebook as well.
Simon Arnold or the 13 Hour Live Coach. Instagram is where you see some really cool pictures there and things. My book is best purchase by lulu.com, the 13 hour Life Coach. And the podcast. Yeah. Available on all, pretty much all podcasts provide us the 13 hour live coach.
And it just it's just good for consistent information about A D H D. And of course, I keep all the records there just in case maybe you, Diana, you're like let's have a look at executive functions. Which one can we go back to? So it's just you can pick and choose. A D H D area that you want to find, so please check me out on all those areas Really.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Awesome. And do send me some of those links so I can put 'em on the show notes so that they can Yes. Will get straight there. Now if my people just started tuning in, because sometimes we have wondering attention, what would be one or two takeaways that you would want them to have from our conversation today?
Simon Arnold: I just wanna tell everyone that they're not broken. Okay. It's like, we are just fine. We just need to use different strategies that, you know that Eva I have, and this is the thing that maybe Diana knows a bit more about a certain area. And we are, we're fine. We are good as we are. We just need to celebrate ourselves and just live our lives really.
If you've got adhd, remember that you are not broken. You are perfect the way that you are. And if you do need any help, just find the best person suited to you really to go
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: forwards. Okay. One last question. What do you hope to see yourself doing for fun in the next three years? More fun.
Simon Arnold: For fun. I intend to speak to so many people using sign language.
I love it. It's something I can use for my hands for and just yeah, just being able to communicate with so many more people in into world now that I've got this opportunity.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. I do not know sign language, but maybe I could dance with you. That would be closing up
Yeah, of course. .
Simon Arnold: Yeah.
Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Thank you for spending your time with me. I really believe that time is your most valuable asset. Please subscribe to the podcast, share with your colleagues, and don't forget to check out my website@hdlivecoach.com where you can find out about my upcoming coaching group classes, as well as free master classes and other exciting events that are happening.

Parenting Hacks To Keep You Sane

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Come join me May 1st through the sixth so that you can rest rediscover your strengths, reconnect with yourself and those physicians like you who are ready to leave work at work. And re-energize. This is the invitation for you to make 2023 your year. Join me in Costa Rica in this really amazing, non-judgmental, intimate decision community.
I am gonna show you how to rest and how to recharge. Let's transform your brain. So that you can start to dream the life that you always wanted this year in 2023. I can't wait to learn all about what kind of year you're gonna have after this conference. Take care. Hello. Welcome to Beyond ADHD, a Physician's Perspective.
I am Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered by my adhd, but I now. See it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in my personal life. In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs and some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of.
Okay, so today's theme is one that I've been coaching a lot of my clients on, which are. What are the parenting hacks that could keep us sane? So A D H D, and how to chill or how to keep us sane. And so I'm so excited to talk to you guys about this. It's a discussion that is real. So here's some strategies that might be helpful and please feel free to send me a text or an email.
Leave a comment in the podcast letting me know if these are some of the hacks that you yourself are using or you want to use. If you tried them, did they work out or not? I can't wait to share the story. So first of all, , you need to establish a routine. Children with A D H D tend to thrive on routines and structure.
How we do this, it doesn't have to be necessarily step by step, but the more that you have a daily routine regarding meals or homework or playtime and bedtime, the more likely you can provide stability and predictability for your child. Number two, use some visual aids. These could be anything like calendars or chore charts to-do lists.
They can be very helpful, not just for the children, but also for you so you know what's coming up. And I have found some of these really nice big. Chore charts or to-do lists like at the Dollar Store or the Dollar Tree, and they can help your child stay organized and stay focused on the task. And it could be very rewarding to just check it off, know what is expected next.
Number three, provide positive reinforcement. This is a very powerful tool that can. Help your child realize that they have gifts and they have strengths. And no matter how small a task is that they completed, it can help to boost their self-esteem and to encourage good behavior. So if you notice that they picked up their laundry and they actually went.
Put it where it needs to be done, thank them for that. Or if they, if you notice that they took off their shoes and they left them in the same place where you had already had a discussion that they should be at, so that you know where to find them, like positive reinforcement can really make a difference.
Or saying, Hey, I really like how you handle that, or, I really liked what you did with that interaction, can make a big difference. Number four. Is mindfulness. It's a technique that can help you manage stress and stay calm in the face of a challenging situation. When we as parents are practicing mindfulness, it can be a way to role model for your kid that they.
Can to stay present in the moment and practice. Mindfulness can be done in different ways. It might be that you stepped out into nature and took a walk for a few minutes. It might be that you did a three minute Headspace meditation or that you did a three minute tapping solution meditation, or it could be you chose to slow down long enough to see what was going around you and being more present.
Another hack number five is to really prioritize physical activity. Regular physical activity can improve focus and attention for children, and of course with poor parents as well. And I say a hack could be that as soon as the kids get get home from school, take them to the playground take 'em just to do a walk around the house in the neighborhood if possible.
Or make sure that they are involved in sports, dance or any other active hobbies because when you're doing this, what you're ha what is happening is you're increasing the dopamine that they have, which then helps them to have enough. Energy to be able to do the homework or the task. Most of us want to go directly to the homework and then to the food or to different things, but when you are able to first prioritize physical activity, you have a way of it actually increasing the dopamine, which will increase your reserve.
Number six, limit distractions. I know it seems like almost common sense, but if you're able to minimize the distraction in your child's environment, such as turning off the TV or putting away electronic devices during homework or during Lunchtime or during dinnertime or during bedtime, like all that is going to cost them to be having attention that is dispersed throughout.
So this can help your child focus better and complete tasks way more efficiently. Number seven, encourage healthy sleep habits. Getting enough sleep is crucial for children with a D H D. So it can really help them refuel their energy and sometimes we might have to set alarms to remind us that it's time to go to sleep.
So these are just some of the few strategies that can help parent. Kids with a D H D, and of course you have to remember that each child is unique and that it's a D H. D is like a spectrum. And what might work with one of your kids might not necessarily work with the other. Be curious, stay curious, stay in awareness.
Realize what might be going well, and really take note like what worked well, what didn't be patient. Find the right strategies for your child, and with the support and resources you can help your child succeed. Thank you for spending your time with me. I really believe that time is your most valuable.
Please subscribe to the podcast, share with your colleagues, and don't forget to check out my website ahdlivecoach.com, where you can find out about my upcoming coaching group classes, as well as free master classes and other exciting events that are.