Hey team!

This week, I’m talking with Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist with a PhD in clinical psychology. She focuses on mental health, ADHD, and various psychological disorders. She is triple board-certified and is a tenured associate professor at Pepperdine University, where she teaches graduate-level psychology.

In our conversation today, we talk about how ADHD can impact self-esteem, the importance of understanding your brain’s wiring, and practical ways to manage attention and relationships. Dr. Ho shares insights into how cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can help train your attention and how reframing your thoughts can reduce self-sabotage.

In our conversation, Dr. Ho also shares some of her favorite strategies for improving focus, managing emotional regulation, and mindfulness to tackle ADHD challenges. Whether you’re struggling with self-sabotage or finding it hard to keep up with tasks, this episode is packed with tips that will help you thrive with ADHD.

If you’d like to send me a question answer on the show feel free to head over to hackingyouradhd.com/contact and click the orange button

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Ask me a question on my Contact Page

Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/197

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Train your attention like a muscle. Use a simple task and set a timer for 15 minutes, gradually increasing the time to strengthen focus. You can also work on capturing distracting thoughts by keeping a notepad nearby while working, jotting down distractions without letting them derail your task.
2. Try using multimodal mindfulness, which involves engaging multiple senses to stay focused, such as reading or taking notes, and then combining those activities with visual or auditory elements.
3. If you’re procrastinating, ask yourself why and address the underlying reasons—whether it's fear of failure or overthinking. Often, procrastination is a sign that you have some need that is being unmet. Addressing that need can often help to get you unstuck.

Hey Team!

This week we’re going to look at what is entailed in ADHD research—what it is, how it works, and what it all means for us.

Before we get going though I wanted to start with a brief explanation of what really drove my thinking about this topic—which now looks like is going to end up as a multi-part series.

So there’s an idea called the illusion of explanatory depth, which occurs when people believe they understand something but, when asked to explain it, realize that they don’t quite understand the underlying mechanism as well as they thought. Classic examples are things like how a computer works, how a bicycle stays upright, or how a toilet functions.

If I were to ask you how any of these things work I expect most people would say they could. But let’s take the toilet example—I know personally, I’d probably start with something about the flush adding water and maybe creating a difference in pressure and… okay maybe I don’t know how a toilet works. And that’s the point here: with the illusion of explanatory depth, we have some understanding of what’s going on, but when pressed for details, we often find those gaps in our knowledge.

And this was something that I was feeling about ADHD research and had me questioning what I really knew. That isn’t to say that I didn’t know anything but we hear all the time that new studies are coming out about ADHD, but what does that really mean? How is this research being conducted? Who’s funding the research? What are ADHD scientists actually studying? Who's doing this research? What kind of research are they even doing? And what even makes one research study better than another?

We all have some semblance of feeling like we know some of the answers to those questions, but this is also where the illusion of explanatory depth comes in because the answers to all of those questions is far more complex than our initial assessment would grant.

In this series, we’ll be examining these questions more closely. And in this particular episode we’ll be focusing on the different types of research, the methods used, and some the challenges that researchers face when studying ADHD.

I also want to emphasize that I will not be able to cover everything in this series, but that’s not the goal. What I’m hoping you get out of this is a better understanding of what goes into the making of the science of ADHD.

Find the show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/196

This Episode's Top Tips

1. ADHD research is comprised of three categories: basic research, clinical research, and behavioral research. Basic research seeks to better understand the underlying causes of ADHD through genetic and neuroscience studies. Clinical research tests different treatment options, such as proper medication levels and the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions. Behavioral research studies how ADHD impacts daily life through observational and longitudinal studies.
2. As a spectrum disorder, ADHD manifests differently for everyone, making it important to recognize that symptoms and challenges vary across individuals. Combined with the high levels of comorbid conditions with ADHD, means that researchers have to be cautious when determining what’s actually a factor in ADHD interventions.
3. Because there’s no definitive medical test for ADHD, diagnosis relies on behavioral assessments, which can be influenced by cultural and societal factors, leading to both over- and under-diagnosis in certain populations. This creates challenges in ADHD research as it limits who should be included in studies.

Hey Team!

I’m excited to bring you my conversation with Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright, hosts of "Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast."

If you haven’t checked out their podcast before, Nikki and Pete have been a mainstay in ADHD podcast realm with over six hundred episodes across twenty-nine seasons - if there’s an ADHD topic you’re interested in, they’ve probably covered it. And Nikki and Pete recently released their new book, Unapologetically ADHD, A Step-by-Step Framework For Everyday Planning On Your Terms.

In our conversation, we explore how their personal experiences and professional expertise in managing ADHD shine through in their work, providing both structure and understanding. Whether it’s tackling procrastination, enhancing organizational skills, or simply learning to partner with your ADHD, this episode is packed with practical advice and real-life strategies.

Unapologetically ADHD: A Step-by-Step Framework For Everyday Planning On Your Terms

Checkout Sunsama

If you’d like to send me a question answer on the show feel free to head over to hackingyouradhd.com/contact and click the orange button

Support me on Patreon

Ask me a question on my Contact Page

Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/195

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Embrace your ADHD and plan your day around it to avoid unrealistic expectations and the ensuing shame.
2. When looking for a system, we need to recognize that no one-size-fits-all tool exists. Try to avoid the trap of looking for the best options; focus instead on eliminating the worst options to simplify decision-making.
3. When we recognize the importance of revisiting and adjusting our systems regularly rather than constantly switching to new tools, it’ll help us acknowledge that every tool or system will have days it fails. With that in mind, we can focus on embracing resilience so we can get back on track when things do go awry.