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Dave Delaney on Living and Thriving with Adult ADHD

Dave Delaney on Living and Thriving with Adult ADHD

Released Monday, 15th January 2024
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Dave Delaney on Living and Thriving with Adult ADHD

Dave Delaney on Living and Thriving with Adult ADHD

Dave Delaney on Living and Thriving with Adult ADHD

Dave Delaney on Living and Thriving with Adult ADHD

Monday, 15th January 2024
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1:40

Hello, and welcome back to another episode

1:42

of Beyond the To-Do List. I'm Eric

1:44

Fischer, and this is the podcast helping

1:47

you not just be more productive, but

1:49

find the real meaning of productivity, living

1:51

a meaningful life. This week,

1:53

I was excited to welcome back to the show, Dave

1:55

Delaney. He's no stranger to me. He's

1:58

a friend of mine, but also he's a digital. marketing,

2:00

social media strategy, keynote speaker

2:02

on business networking, also an

2:04

author, a veteran podcaster. In

2:06

fact, he's got a brand

2:08

new show called ADHD Wise

2:12

Squirrels, which is a great resource. It's

2:14

really taking off and that's why I

2:16

wanted to bring him back because I

2:18

knew he had this great new project.

2:20

And before we get into his adult

2:22

ADHD diagnosis, we talk briefly about his

2:24

sobriety journey that he started just before

2:26

the last time he was on the

2:28

show. We talk about the why and

2:30

the how of that and how he

2:32

has kept that going. And then we

2:34

jump into again his adult ADHD diagnosis

2:37

and then awareness that that brought

2:39

him and the first steps for

2:41

treatment that he's gone through and

2:43

honestly ongoing things he's learned in

2:46

his journey so far talking with

2:48

other experts on his ADHD Wise

2:50

Squirrels podcast. We also

2:52

talk about how ADHD manifests

2:54

differently for different people, the

2:56

connections it has with anxiety

2:58

and depression. And ultimately,

3:01

this conversation is about noticing

3:03

signs and giving you permission

3:05

to be okay with checking

3:07

if you or someone you know

3:10

is struggling with this but may

3:12

not know it. So let's get

3:14

into this conversation with Dave Delaney.

3:18

Well this week it is my privilege

3:20

to welcome back to the show Dave

3:23

Delaney. Dave, welcome back to Beyond the

3:25

To Do List. Thank you sir. It's

3:27

a pleasure to be back. It's great

3:29

to reconnect. Let's see. So you've

3:31

been on the show I don't know how many

3:33

times. I should probably start doing homework. No, I

3:36

know what I'm doing. I didn't think

3:38

to because it's like who cares if it's three or

3:40

four times. It's at least three or four times. And we

3:42

know each other for a very long time and you've been

3:44

on the show a number of times. We've talked about

3:46

a number of different topics, networking, multiple

3:48

times. And what's funny is that I

3:51

think the last time you were just

3:53

then starting to or barely had gone

3:55

sober during the pandemic

3:57

and then also we're talking talking

4:00

about distractions and things, irony in

4:02

some ways. So

4:04

people who have listened to the intros know

4:06

we're talking about ADHD today, but before

4:09

we go there, let's do a sobriety check.

4:11

Are you sober right now? No, I

4:14

know you are. It's dry January,

4:16

but also how is that going? Let's talk

4:18

about that again. Let's do a couple minute

4:20

quick revisit because I think it bleeds into

4:22

the ADHD journey. Yeah,

4:25

no, it totally does. Yes, I am

4:27

still sober. I quit

4:30

drinking for 30 days in

4:33

June of 2020 and

4:36

I discovered delicious

4:38

non-alcoholic beers and

4:40

I'm like, huh, well, these are pretty

4:43

good. So I started

4:45

drinking those when I would partake

4:48

with friends and then I kept

4:51

finding these good non-alcoholic beers. We

4:53

took a trip to Europe and

4:55

we were in Brussels. We were

4:57

in Belgium rather in Bruges and

5:00

I'm like, I'm just going to

5:02

stick with non-drinking, still not drinking

5:04

alcohol. So I drank the non-alcoholic

5:06

beers there, which were stellar, of

5:08

course. And then after that,

5:10

I'm like, well, now that I've been

5:12

to the place in the world that

5:15

has the best beer and I didn't

5:17

drink the beer, the regular beer, the

5:19

alcoholic beer, I'm like, well, what the

5:21

hell is the point of stuff? I'm

5:23

not going to start drinking again just

5:25

to drink some crappy beer here or

5:27

something, not to say, I mean, there's

5:30

plenty of good beers. So

5:32

yeah, 30 days became 60, became

5:35

90 and I just

5:37

celebrated like 1200 days. It'll

5:39

be four years this June.

5:42

Great. I'm glad to hear it.

5:45

And partly people that are listening

5:47

to this show regularly know I

5:49

had a recent episode with Jillian

5:51

Teeth's her brand is SoverPowered and

5:53

we talked about preparing for dry

5:55

January and her journey. And so I

5:57

thought, you know, we got to bring it up. I

6:00

mean, it's part of who you are in a

6:02

lot of ways. I really admire you making that

6:04

step at a time where I know I was

6:06

doing the opposite and

6:08

a lot of the world was too and

6:11

that you've stuck with it. And so, I

6:13

mean, have you found clarity? You know, you've

6:15

probably found some weight loss, obviously, well, to

6:17

a certain extent because you're still drinking non-alcoholic

6:19

and those still have calories, but the alcohol

6:21

has probably not weighed you down as much,

6:23

right? Oh, yeah, yeah.

6:26

I've definitely been able to feel

6:28

clear, sleep much better. Those

6:31

are probably the two main things. But then,

6:33

like, even, you know, as you know, as

6:35

we get older, like, you have one

6:38

too many beers or whatever that

6:40

you're drinking with friends and like,

6:42

man, I'm 50 now. Like, those

6:44

hangovers last like a frickin' week.

6:46

Like, my wife still drinks, but

6:48

not very often. And she's kind of a lightweight,

6:50

but she'll have like a vodka with friends. And

6:53

then the next, like, day, she's like, oh, why

6:55

did I do that? Like, what is wrong with

6:57

me? You know, so,

7:00

yeah, the lack of hangovers

7:02

certainly has been great. My

7:04

friends love me because

7:06

I'm always the designated driver now.

7:09

Love it. Yeah, you

7:11

know, I'm still waiting for

7:13

some non-alcoholic brewery to be

7:15

like, Dave, influencer, let's

7:18

go. Because, yeah, God knows

7:20

I preach a lot about all the

7:22

wonderful brands of non-alcoholic beers. So,

7:24

I'm really looking forward to the next time. It's

7:26

been way too long. I can't remember when it

7:28

was. Honestly, I think it was pre-pandemic since I've

7:31

been. I think it was 2019, late 2019, that

7:33

I was down in Nashville area where

7:35

you are. So we haven't had the chance

7:37

to go have a non-alcoholic drink together. So

7:40

I'm looking forward to that at some point here soon this

7:42

year. Let's do it this year. I

7:44

will make it happen. So, I am on

7:46

board. But I can't help but think that

7:48

you going through that step first allowed you

7:50

to think, even in a subconscious level, something

7:53

about some of your other thought

7:55

patterns, tendencies, etc. Do

7:57

you think that played a part in... Starting

8:00

to inch towards not just from

8:02

maybe your wife and maybe your

8:04

own internal subconscious when it came

8:06

to ADHD Let's talk about

8:08

how you discovered slash decided to you

8:11

know What was your journey like pre

8:13

and then what was the catalyst moment

8:15

if you can remember it, you know

8:17

super clearly or whatever But when

8:19

it comes to your ADHD, okay, I'm gonna

8:21

get tested. I'm gonna get diagnosed Yeah,

8:24

great question So and actually this

8:26

would be the moment when I

8:29

shamelessly plug ADHD wise Squirrels,

8:32

which is of course being a

8:34

veteran podcaster and an ADHD or

8:36

I'm like Oh, I need

8:39

to start a podcast and share my

8:41

journey in my story and and also

8:43

interview experts and and you know High

8:45

achievers with ADHD on the show. So

8:47

yeah, obviously I jumped at the opportunity

8:49

to do that and it's been fantastic

8:52

So to go back to your question was

8:58

Not the year that I was

9:00

diagnosed, but it was just such

9:02

a big year of stress both

9:06

from Just the political climate

9:08

I mean, obviously it was just kind

9:10

of a terrible time then with you

9:12

know Police violence and

9:14

and you know black lives matter

9:17

all of these lots of factors

9:19

Yeah, I mean the pandemic itself that's the

9:22

ones you just mentioned and at

9:24

that point we didn't know We had

9:26

no thoughts or inklings of any kind

9:28

of vaccine anytime soon. So right right

9:30

totally get it So my year started

9:32

January 2020, you know things were looking

9:34

really great. I do a lot of

9:37

presentations as a keynote speaker And so

9:39

things were going really well and I

9:41

was working with Google as a speaker

9:44

for Google for five years So January

9:46

was great February was like

9:48

hmm. What's going on here? I started hearing

9:50

rumblings about kovat March 2020 the world shut down

9:55

but in addition to all the stress and

9:58

Things that were going on And at that time,

10:01

I decided to make a few different changes.

10:03

One of them was that my wife and

10:05

I decided to start seeing a virtual fitness

10:07

coach because we knew we

10:09

needed to be exercising more, in part

10:11

to build our immune systems and just

10:13

to make sure that we were making

10:15

health choices. But then in March

10:17

of 2020, a tornado blew

10:20

through Nashville and destroyed my kids'

10:22

school and, you know, a friend's

10:24

house. It was just

10:26

an extremely, you know, add that to the

10:28

stress. Fast forward from March

10:30

2020 to May 2020, we get another storm. It's

10:35

a derecho, which is a straight line wind

10:37

storm, you know, 70 mile an hour winds.

10:39

And that one kicked us out of our

10:41

house. We had to move out of our

10:43

house for three months because we lost seven

10:45

trees. We had 10 holes in our roof,

10:48

a branch like shish kabob, my roof

10:50

and attic right in my living room.

10:53

So then my job

10:55

was as a speaker, not

10:57

speaking a lot because not a

10:59

lot of opportunities to go and speak

11:01

places. So my business was

11:04

in a rough way. So I

11:06

had a lot of stress with

11:08

that plus this kid's school plus

11:10

the pandemic plus now dealing with

11:12

the insurance and contractors. And

11:14

that was a nightmare. And so three months of

11:16

living out of our house and dealing with that.

11:18

I say all that because at that time I

11:20

started drinking a little too much and I was

11:22

like, okay, I need to take 30 days off.

11:25

And that's when we got to that June of

11:27

2020. This

11:29

is a long winded way of answering your question, but I

11:31

swear I'm landing the plane now. Fast

11:34

forward to 2023. Last year

11:36

I joined a mastermind with two friends

11:39

and one I know very well. The

11:41

other I didn't know. And

11:43

we, you know, we started meeting weekly

11:45

to discuss our businesses and the

11:48

one I didn't know very well, sends me a text out of

11:50

the blue one day and says, dude, do you have ADHD? And

11:53

I said, no. And he said, I think

11:55

you do. And

11:58

you need to go see your doctor. and

12:00

he has ADHD, so he saw it in me.

12:03

And I was like, okay, so I

12:05

went to see my doctor and

12:07

there's a longer version of this story, but

12:09

the short version, I'm happy to share that too, but

12:12

the short version is he diagnosed

12:14

me with ADHD then. That's

12:17

kind of how I got to this point. The

12:19

longer version is actually I was, I

12:22

saw a psychologist

12:24

in 2016 who

12:27

apparently diagnosed me with ADHD, but

12:30

for some reason I

12:32

did not get the memo. And so when I

12:34

saw my doctor last year, he looked

12:37

at my charts and he was like, oh, I

12:39

mean I did some questionnaires and things with him.

12:42

And then he looked up my charts in his computer and

12:45

he's like, oh, Dave, he's like, yeah, back in 2016, it

12:48

looks like you were a candidate for ADHD. And I'm

12:50

like, huh, okay.

12:52

Well, what's five years and

12:55

50 of being diagnosed

12:57

a little later than planned? So

12:59

that's where we are. I

13:02

think it's hilarious to hear that you were but

13:04

didn't even know you were because you say you

13:06

missed the memo. That's so ADHD. I

13:10

know, and I mentioned it to my wife and she's like,

13:13

well, and to your point, like my wife, who's a

13:15

school teacher and who is

13:17

obviously teaches children of all types,

13:20

she's done it multiple times over the years

13:22

and had a stressful year in

13:25

2016 and that

13:27

led to going to see the psychologist and also

13:29

my wife was like, I think you have ADHD.

13:32

Last year was a stressful one as well, and

13:34

as was 2020, obviously, for all the

13:37

reasons discussed. So yeah, I was diagnosed

13:39

last year at 50. Which

13:42

that in and of itself, it's one of those things

13:44

where it's like, actually, I should probably add in here,

13:47

I also have it. I also have

13:49

been diagnosed. Now, when I was diagnosed, I

13:51

think it was the summer of 2005. So

13:54

here we are almost 20 years in, and

13:58

my journey's a little bit different, but... Yeah,

14:00

I think that being diagnosed as

14:02

an adult, especially, you know, further

14:04

up in years, not that we're

14:06

ancient, but it's

14:09

one of the things where it's like, well,

14:11

it may change the way that you look

14:13

at yourself. You may think, no, I don't

14:15

have it. You may hesitate to even approach

14:18

the diagnosis or seeking it out

14:20

because you think that can't be right. How

14:22

can it have been true this whole time but may not know

14:25

it? I mean, did you have any of that doubt? I mean,

14:27

you had a couple people that were kind of pointing it out,

14:29

but... Yeah, no, I didn't.

14:31

Partly because, well, beyond the people

14:33

pointing it out and the more

14:35

that I learned of ADHD, I'll

14:38

be clear to share some of the things

14:40

that I've been learning, obviously,

14:43

with everybody. Like, for example, you know,

14:45

ADHD shows differently in different people. So

14:48

that's an important point because some

14:50

of the symptoms may be different.

14:53

So things like anxiety and depression

14:55

are comorbidities, and I didn't

14:57

know that word before. Okay,

15:00

explain that because I think some people may not know what

15:02

that means. Yeah, I didn't. Yeah,

15:05

they're basically, and I could be

15:07

butchering it, but my understanding is

15:09

they're sort of symptoms of ADHD

15:11

or they can be symptoms. So

15:13

if you've been diagnosed with anxiety,

15:15

for example, another thing in 2020

15:17

because of all the stress

15:19

is I was seeing an online therapist,

15:22

but they were not a psychologist or

15:24

psychiatrist, so they couldn't diagnose

15:26

me with anything. But she

15:29

thought that I was suffering

15:31

from anxiety, which was accurate,

15:34

and some depression, more heavier on the

15:36

anxiety. The anxiety she got right for

15:38

sure, and that is something

15:41

that I've explored more this year. And

15:44

again, these are things that could

15:46

be caused by the ADHD as

15:49

well. So yeah, it's been a

15:51

great revelation, but to answer your question, yeah. So

15:54

my mom kept all my old

15:57

report cards, And I had them in

15:59

a box. My closet and after

16:01

the diagnosis I got it down and

16:03

my wife and I read through them

16:06

and lost our heads off when reading

16:08

the comments from the teachers and you

16:10

know just how clear that I was

16:12

like oh my god, it's so obvious

16:15

that I had a D H D

16:17

and still have it. Of course that's

16:19

another thing I wanted to point out

16:22

t that I've learned as as a

16:24

H D isn't something you develop, it

16:26

is something you at. I'm still struggling

16:29

with the term. And you've had it

16:31

longer Tv you It has some and

16:33

say here I struggle with the word

16:35

like having a D H D You

16:38

know what I mean like like are

16:40

a label. Yeah. It's part

16:42

of why I'd say the know it's a

16:44

kind of the H D. It's that it's

16:46

the have part. It's like it's not a

16:49

virus. It's not. It's like I I am

16:51

is T instead of I have a D

16:53

H D. You know, like right, you're born

16:55

that way. So. Yeah, but

16:57

anyway, yeah and know this is the wrong

16:59

way to look at it. I just the

17:01

way that I've looked at it for so

17:03

long is that it's part of my personality.

17:05

and that's just how it is. And you

17:07

know, take it or leave it. That's how

17:09

I have to treat myself. That how others

17:11

have to treat me. It's how I have

17:13

to navigate the world. It's if it's accurate

17:16

or not that still how I personally looked

17:18

at it. As some for you,

17:20

it kind of. He said i'm you

17:22

get off the report cards a kind of

17:24

retroactively changes your perspective on yourself and the

17:26

world. Yes, Certainly yeah, there's

17:28

a lot they're like, it's interesting

17:31

because of your diagnosed as an

17:33

adult And again, I'd been interviewing

17:35

these experts and you know, kind

17:37

of high achievers like I interviewed

17:40

Doctor Bob Dempsey that former Director

17:42

of Nasa's little operation called the

17:44

International Space. He said, you've probably

17:46

never heard of It's Artists but

17:49

like see was the Director of

17:51

the Iss for sixteen years and

17:53

he was diagnosed with a D

17:55

H D at sixty years. old

17:57

and now he works with like blue horizon

18:00

So to answer your question,

18:02

one of the biggest dangers

18:04

I have found in having

18:06

conversations and researching and reading

18:08

and writing and podcasting and

18:10

developing a new presentation and

18:12

writing my new book all

18:15

about this stuff, one key

18:17

area that I find important

18:19

among others is the importance

18:21

of not dwelling on the

18:23

past in a negative way.

18:26

So a lot of people, if you're

18:28

diagnosed later in life, you might start

18:30

thinking about all the what ifs, all the,

18:33

oh man, if I'd known I have ADHD

18:35

as a kid, I could have been treated,

18:37

I could have had medication, I could have

18:39

had therapy, and then I could have been

18:42

someone, I could have been a contender. So

18:46

you can easily go to dark places

18:49

by doing that. But thankfully, if anything

18:51

good came from 2020, I think it

18:53

was all preparation ahead of

18:58

2023 for me to handle this diagnosis. So

19:02

another thing I didn't mention and something

19:04

I've written a lot about is I

19:06

started meditating like a regular mindfulness and

19:08

meditation practice in 2020. And

19:11

it's something I dabbled with over the years, but it's

19:13

something I finally started taking seriously

19:15

for my own mental health during all

19:17

that stress. And it's something

19:19

I still do today. But again,

19:21

part of that, you learn

19:23

about not thinking about too

19:25

much about the past or the future

19:28

for that matter, but really focusing on

19:30

the here and now the present. Okay,

19:33

so I know that you mentioned Wise

19:35

Squirrels, your podcast and everything, you've talked

19:37

with some great people. I want to

19:39

jump into those lessons before we do

19:42

some of those. I gotta ask, like,

19:44

initially you're thinking, okay, I'm diagnosed. And

19:47

now what do I do? Like sidebar. My

19:49

hope is people are listening to this

19:52

conversation. And if they've had suspicions, they

19:54

can check with others, see what they

19:56

think, trusted, you know, accountability,

19:58

people, friends, family, etc. like

20:00

you and I both have had happen,

20:02

but then also maybe get away from

20:04

a little bit of the anxiety, the

20:06

depression, the guilt that they may be

20:08

feeling and really get checked and tested

20:10

and diagnosed one way or

20:12

the other to know how to progress

20:15

forward. That is really my ultimate hope.

20:17

I thought when I said, let's talk to Dave,

20:19

that was kind of my end outcome that I

20:21

had in mind. To that end, I hope that's

20:23

what's happening right now. I hope people hear that

20:25

and think, oh, Eric just gave me permission and

20:28

Dave echoed it. Yeah,

20:30

100%. That's the goal

20:32

of Y Squirrels.

20:34

It's the goal of the presentation that

20:37

I've developed called The Root Down, which

20:39

I can tell you more about later.

20:42

There's a person, an authority in the space

20:45

who is now retired, but still a YouTubing

20:48

frequently and he's a gem.

20:50

His name is Dr. Russell

20:52

Barkley. Dr. Russell Barkley is

20:55

really outspoken, well-known in the

20:57

ADHD community as like the

20:59

guy or one of the

21:01

people who's just such an expert. He's

21:03

retired, but he still does these YouTube

21:06

videos all the time. What he does

21:08

is he reviews research and

21:10

then does YouTube videos disproving or

21:12

proving or throwing people under the

21:15

bus and with good reason like

21:17

Jordan Peterson, who's shared

21:19

all sorts of misinformation or maybe

21:21

even disinformation about ADHD. He

21:25

does such a good job with it. I

21:27

bring him up. There's also a great resource

21:29

called ADDA, the Attention Deficit Disorder Association,

21:31

which we should also mention

21:33

ADD and ADHD. That

21:36

is the same thing. The acronym changed. We

21:38

can talk about that, but it is the

21:40

same thing. So if someone

21:43

says ADD, ADHD, it's

21:46

one and the same. But I mentioned

21:48

Dr. Barkley because he's researched

21:51

multiple studies and found that

21:53

the average lifespan for somebody

21:55

with undiagnosed

21:57

and untreated ADHD is

22:01

approximately 13 years or

22:03

can be 13 years

22:05

less than a neurotypical

22:07

person, meaning somebody without

22:09

ADHD or somebody

22:11

with ADHD that is

22:13

receiving treatment for the

22:15

ADHD. So it could be up to 13

22:17

years less. That's

22:19

a big part of why I'm trying

22:22

to remove stigmas and educate folks as

22:24

well. So it's important. It's

22:26

really important. So what were your thoughts?

22:28

When you first were diagnosed and you

22:30

know, so how do I proceed forward

22:33

with treatment that's going to immediately help

22:35

you, but also knowing then, okay, this

22:37

is a journey I'm going to learn

22:39

more. And that's also partly

22:41

where we go with the podcast and your guests. Yeah.

22:45

So at why squirrels.com there is a

22:47

free like assessment there. There's a link

22:49

there. I don't see the results. So

22:51

that's a good like starting point if

22:53

you're curious and you want to do

22:55

an assessment just to see. But

22:59

regardless of what the outcome of that assessment, regardless

23:01

of what it is, it can help

23:03

you get an idea of maybe

23:05

you have ADHD, but the most important thing

23:07

is seeing a doctor. So

23:09

going to see first your

23:11

family doctor probably, and then maybe

23:13

a psychologist or a psychiatrist who

23:16

can actually diagnose you or not.

23:20

So you really have to go see a

23:22

licensed doctor who can actually diagnose you

23:24

to be able to receive a diagnosis.

23:27

So as I said, like I was

23:29

diagnosed in 2016 when I saw my

23:31

doctor last year, he saw

23:33

that in the system and he also

23:36

did some exercises and assessments with me

23:38

and we concluded, yes, in

23:40

fact, I have ADHD. So your

23:43

family doctor can prescribe meds.

23:46

So he prescribed me

23:49

some stimulants. That's

23:51

a common thing for ADHD years. By

23:55

the way, I say why squirrels, because why

23:57

it's for late diagnosed adults. So

24:00

it's wise because of the wisdom

24:02

we've earned in our lives, you

24:04

know, dealing with not knowing we

24:06

have ADHD, but still surviving and

24:09

thriving. And then squirrel because... Yes.

24:12

Exactly. In case anyone's wondering.

24:15

Yeah. So I went and saw my doctor.

24:17

He prescribed me meds. And

24:19

then we started going back and forth on

24:22

changing the meds or updating

24:24

the dosage, kind of starting

24:26

low and gradually getting higher

24:29

in order to get

24:31

a better understanding of what might help me.

24:34

What we concluded too was that I wasn't

24:37

really seeing the results that I wanted from

24:39

that. So my

24:41

doctor recommended a psychologist to meet

24:43

with with a specialty in ADHD.

24:47

And then she assessed and prescribed

24:49

me a different medication, a different

24:51

stimulant. And we went through sort

24:53

of a trial and error... Not

24:55

error, but a trial, you know,

24:57

the same sort of thing until

24:59

we landed on something. But before

25:02

we did, we actually stopped and

25:04

realized that we needed to treat

25:06

my anxiety more first. And so

25:08

we went back starting from scratch and

25:10

away with treating my anxiety. So now

25:12

I'm on a medication for that and

25:15

then reintroduced the stimulants. And now I'm

25:17

in a much sweeter spot. Still

25:19

experimenting with the dosage of the stimulants, but

25:21

that's kind of where I am now. When

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28:36

I think that's a really good example

28:38

of, one, it manifests or exhibits in

28:40

different ways. No diagnosis is

28:43

the same as anybody. The way

28:45

that our personalities are different is also the same

28:47

way that we have it exhibit itself

28:51

the symptoms, in other words. The way the symptoms

28:53

show is going to be different. And the way

28:55

you treat them is different. It's not one to

28:57

one. It's all different. It's good to know that

28:59

ahead of time. And I can

29:02

say to myself, or I can say as

29:04

far as myself, it was the same exact

29:06

way. I started on meds right

29:08

away. It really wrecked my

29:10

sleep. Although part of that was

29:12

probably that we had a six or seventh month

29:14

premium newborn in the house at that time. And

29:16

that really didn't help either. And I kind of

29:19

said, you know what, I'd rather just go off

29:21

completely and come back around to it later. So

29:24

that's a different journey, obviously. Yeah,

29:26

but you're right. I mean, there are certainly,

29:28

I mean, it's not like ADHD is

29:31

completely different for everybody either. I mean,

29:33

there are certainly commonalities. I mean, it

29:35

is an acronym, right? I should also

29:37

add that a couple of different points.

29:39

One is that women

29:41

are being diagnosed, I guess,

29:43

maybe with some more frequency

29:46

now. And the reason why

29:48

is because of our sexist

29:50

history, not ours, Eric and

29:52

I are not sexist. But

29:57

the medical professional or industry where

30:00

ADHD or ADD back in the day

30:02

was always thought of as this naughty

30:04

boy syndrome. It was a naughty boy

30:06

thing. The boy was hyperactive, couldn't sit

30:08

still in class, goofed off constantly. I

30:10

was a complete class clown, so it

30:12

makes a lot of sense there. But

30:15

they didn't think it was something that

30:17

girls could have or they were too

30:19

sexist to see it or whatever. Or

30:21

didn't even call the boys out on it in

30:24

a way. It was just that it was behavioral

30:26

problems. Yeah, exactly. True.

30:29

For girls, ADHD often

30:31

shows differently in the sense

30:33

that with the hyperactivity part,

30:36

they're more mentally fixated on

30:38

stuff, daydreaming out the window,

30:40

playing with their hair, just

30:43

that kind of thing and not

30:45

really jumping around out of their

30:47

desks in the classroom. So it's

30:49

less obvious or less apparent. So

30:51

yeah, so everybody, it doesn't matter

30:53

your gender or whatever. I'll interject

30:56

and say that's how mine was.

30:59

I was way more like what you just

31:01

described, playing with my hair when I had

31:03

some. One

31:06

of the things my wife noticed when we were

31:09

first dating was I was pushing my hair back

31:12

over my ears, but there was no hair

31:14

there. I had that undercut buzz to look

31:16

there. She's like, why do you keep moving

31:18

your hair? I just didn't think anything of

31:20

it, but it was like that. Right.

31:24

There's like two categories. And again, to be

31:26

clear, I'm not a doctor, right? So this

31:28

is just the stuff I've learned. But there's

31:30

two main categories of ADHD. There's

31:33

the impulsive hyperactive type, and

31:35

then there's the inattentive distractible

31:37

type. And there's some commonalities.

31:39

And again, it's not one size fits all or

31:41

anything like that. But yeah, absolutely. So that's part

31:43

of the reason why it was more ignored or

31:45

missed in a lot of girls. The

31:49

other thing too is now that it's known

31:52

as ADHD and the age is hyperactivity, as

31:54

soon as I was diagnosed, now I've always

31:56

been very transparent and open and

31:58

I don't know. I just like sharing

32:00

my journey with people. So I wrote a blog

32:03

post and posted on Facebook, hey, guess what, everybody

32:05

have ADHD. I joked that

32:07

I kind of like came out of the mental health

32:09

closet, as it were. And

32:12

I got all these messages from friends

32:15

and people. And one person, actually several

32:17

said, I thought I had

32:19

ADHD, but I'm not hyperactive. And

32:21

hyperactivity gets shown, it shows up

32:23

differently in different types, but

32:25

it also shows up differently in adults

32:27

where you're not bouncing around the room.

32:29

So two of the ways

32:32

for me, one, you'll be like, oh,

32:34

okay. And the other you might think,

32:36

that sounds kind of weird. The first

32:38

is like chewing your lips, chewing the

32:40

inside of your mouth. I

32:42

do that chronically, always half to the

32:44

point at periods where I couldn't even

32:47

go to sleep because I'm still chewing

32:49

the inside of my mouth. And that's

32:51

more common than we know. The

32:53

other thing that's really weird in a way

32:56

is I love wearing soft T-shirts

32:58

and always have loved the touch

33:01

and feel of my

33:03

soft T-shirts. It's not like someone else, I'm

33:05

not gonna go and reach and touch your

33:07

shirt, that's weird. I mean, you have

33:09

done that to me before, let's be honest. Yeah, that's

33:11

true, that is true. And I used

33:13

to play with your hair as well. But

33:16

so I do this thing where like, I'll like

33:18

kind of touch my shirt and I'll do it

33:20

like under the table. And I'm not even thinking

33:23

of doing it like I'm hiding it. I just

33:25

do it that way. And my wife's

33:27

always known, she sees me doing it, she's like, and I'm

33:29

like, I don't know why I always do this. And

33:31

I'm reading Dr. Tamara Rocie's book, Your

33:33

Brain's Not Broken. That was the first

33:35

book I read. I've since interviewed her

33:37

on my podcast, by the way, and

33:40

she's awesome. She's

33:42

incredible, tons of fun and

33:44

just great resource. But I interviewed

33:46

her on my show and

33:48

I was telling her about this and she was laughing.

33:50

She's like, yeah, that's, and as I was reading her

33:52

book, I told her, I was like, oh my God,

33:55

that's totally me. And I messaged Heather and

33:57

she's like, oh, like, I know.

33:59

Like this. This is part of the ADHD

34:01

too. So anyway, just the

34:04

hyperactivity thing can show up in different

34:06

ways, not just like jumping around the

34:09

room. Yeah, it's definitely, it's integrated

34:11

into the senses and the sensory, you know,

34:13

the way that you want to reach out

34:15

to sense the world, but also the way

34:17

that you actually sense the world coming at

34:20

you is the best way I've kind of

34:22

felt I can describe it myself. Yeah.

34:25

And something else that's interesting about ADHD

34:27

is that, so, and again, not a

34:29

scientist, but my understanding is that

34:32

it affects your prefrontal cortex

34:34

is where the front of

34:37

your brain ultimately, and your

34:40

dopamine receptors aren't as good

34:42

as, you know, quote unquote,

34:45

a neurotypical, right? So somebody

34:47

who doesn't have ADHD or

34:50

other neurodiversity. And I

34:52

say that because it's an interesting thing

34:54

because because of the lack of

34:56

dopamine you're receiving, you crave it

34:59

and you try to find ways to produce it. So

35:02

like I interviewed Peter Shankman, who's a,

35:04

you know, serial entrepreneur, popular digital marketing

35:06

fellow, like, you know, kind of from

35:08

our school, I guess I've known Peter

35:11

a long time and he's written a

35:13

couple of books about ADHD, has a

35:15

great podcast as well. He

35:17

had a great exit from his company,

35:19

Haro, that allowed him to afford the

35:22

luxury of jumping out of planes and

35:24

he loves skydiving. And he's like, it's

35:26

the ultimate dopamine rush. But

35:29

with ADHD or wise squirrels, we are

35:31

craving dopamine all the time. And I

35:33

realized for me personally, as a keynote

35:36

speaker, and, you know, I perform improv

35:38

and comedy and things, when I'm standing

35:40

in front of a stage and I'm

35:42

receiving feedback from the audience, they're laughing

35:45

and so on. I'm on cloud

35:47

nine. I'm receiving a huge

35:49

rush of dopamine and I'm like, Oh,

35:51

this is amazing. And

35:53

it's this huge revelation for me that that

35:55

is why I love to do what I

35:57

do and why I love people.

36:00

and networking and meeting others. All

36:03

of this stuff creates dopamine for me.

36:05

Now I'm extroverted as well, but that

36:08

really does help. Now the flip

36:10

side and what I mentioned earlier

36:12

about your life expectancy, a big

36:15

reason why people die earlier with

36:17

untreated ADHD is because

36:19

it's partly about like making poor

36:22

choices, being impulsive. So like, you

36:24

know, this can result

36:26

in a car accident that kills you. But

36:29

addiction is another big factor, a

36:31

big factor. And it's something

36:33

that for me personally, you know, I used

36:35

to drink like a fish back when I

36:38

was in my twenties and even younger. And

36:40

when I would smoke, I would smoke like

36:43

the entire pack. And again, I've quit smoking

36:45

many decades ago. And when I

36:47

drank, it wasn't that like for me, it wasn't

36:49

an addiction in the sense that like I had

36:51

to drink, but it was more that if we

36:53

went for a couple of beers, I would have

36:55

a couple more beers. So there

36:57

was this joke, my wife always tease me

36:59

about how excessive I am. So

37:02

this lack of dopamine

37:04

can also be received

37:06

through addiction, through smoking

37:08

or drinking or drugs, like not

37:10

all drugs, but bad drugs. And

37:13

this is why a lot of people end up

37:15

ODing or, you know, something like that. So anyway,

37:17

I'll shut up for a minute and breathe so

37:19

you can speak. That's the other

37:21

thing with ADHD. I ramble. Hello. It

37:24

makes you a good podcast guest. I

37:27

know. I know. Listers are

37:29

like, right? He's on medication today.

37:33

Well, I was going to say, I think one

37:35

of the main differences between us is

37:38

you're extroverted. I'm

37:40

introverted. Now, I get to flip

37:42

my, you know, turn my podcasting equipment on like

37:44

it's my Iron Man suit and use it to

37:46

be out there in the world to be in

37:49

front of people and do cool things. That's

37:51

not to say I'm not doing cool things outside the

37:53

suit too. Yes. Billionaire

37:56

playboy, philanthropist, something, something. That's the line,

37:58

right? From Avengers? Yeah, take

38:00

that suit away. It's to

38:02

say that you are as

38:04

an extrovert You're charging yourself

38:07

up as you are fulfilling that need whereas

38:09

as I fulfill that need I then have

38:11

to back away to then recharge. It's a

38:13

little bit different. It's a little bit cyclical

38:16

But that's again I want to call that

38:18

out as a difference that people might hear

38:20

you know again There's a prism here and

38:23

it's a spectrum So yeah my understanding at

38:25

least what I know is whether you're extroverted

38:27

introverted ambivert I don't know and again, I'm

38:29

not an expert here, but I don't know

38:32

of any relation or

38:34

connection to Neurodiversity

38:37

or ADHD For

38:39

that, you know I wrote in my book

38:41

new business networking and a lot of the work that

38:43

I've done and you know even talking to you on

38:46

the Podcast before about networking, you know, I've done a

38:48

lot of work around Writing

38:50

and thinking for you know networking

38:52

for introverts because obviously for extroverts

38:55

not too difficult And

38:58

also to be clear as you said it

39:00

is a spectrum So like I'm not a

39:02

hundred percent extrovert and you're not a hundred

39:05

percent introvert, right? I'd be out

39:07

somewhere talking to everybody I could find if

39:09

I was a hundred percent and you wouldn't be

39:11

talking to me at all Right now you're a

39:13

hundred percent introvert. Nobody is an ambivert.

39:15

I just think it's a bit of a whatever. Yeah Yeah,

39:20

it's like come on. So thing is

39:22

is that and I know you as you've been talking

39:24

you've been kind of You know

39:26

inserting slash Sharing

39:29

things you've already learned. What are some

39:31

of the big like bombshell things? You

39:33

probably I mean you shared a couple

39:35

of them already really but as you've

39:37

talked with these different experts like Tamara

39:40

and Peter Shankman who's been

39:42

on the show by the way, he's been on my

39:44

show Yeah, he's great and you've talked to Rob Hatch

39:46

as well who works with Chris Brogan So in other

39:48

words you've had at least two or three different guests

39:50

on your show already that I've had on mine Which

39:53

is great. So I knew like when I was going

39:55

through your episodes. I'm like you're on the right

39:57

track This is really really really good as a resource

40:00

Well and so i'm gonna comment and

40:02

answer your question there because it's one

40:05

of the revelations i've learned is that

40:07

you are. Far

40:11

more likely to explore

40:13

entrepreneurial means with

40:15

the hd the

40:17

hd is common

40:19

among entrepreneurs and

40:21

creatives as well

40:24

so you know i think of you know.

40:27

Brands like virgin jet

40:29

blue ikea are

40:32

just some of the

40:34

first three that come to mind in the

40:36

presentation i do the route down i talk

40:38

a lot about this and in the book

40:41

that i'm working on now to you this

40:43

is a big one so yes it's your

40:45

question like that was a big revelation was

40:47

how many creatives i have

40:49

a hd how many entrepreneurs

40:52

also because with the hd

40:54

you tend to take risks

40:56

good or bad and you

40:58

tend to think outside the box sorry

41:01

about the old cliche but that tends

41:04

to happen and so it's a great

41:06

operating system as i like to call

41:08

it for entrepreneurs and stuff to have

41:10

a hd so it's interesting that way.

41:13

You probably heard people and i've heard people go

41:15

both ways with this some of said oh

41:17

no don't think of a hd as a

41:20

disability think of it as a superpower but

41:22

then other people are like yet don't call

41:24

it a superpower i struggle. I have empathy

41:27

for both of those i've been able to

41:29

tap into it and use it like a

41:31

superpower sometimes but dang it's a struggle. been

42:00

on my podcast too, who

42:02

are not like doctors or, you

42:04

know, they're not even medically trained

42:06

per se, but they've have studied

42:09

helping people with ADHD. And so

42:11

they can coach you. I'm seeing

42:13

a coach who is fantastic. That

42:15

specializes in ADHD. So who understands

42:18

executive functioning skills, and who can help,

42:20

you know, help me with that stuff.

42:23

But I brought the

42:25

coach up because I feel

42:27

part of the curse of it

42:29

is, and getting back to the

42:31

creative side and entrepreneurial side is that when

42:33

you get in the zone, you know, we

42:36

talk a lot and a lot of hustle

42:38

porn that you in the culture,

42:41

you know, you hear people are striving for to

42:43

get in the flow to get flow, which

42:45

is like a legit thing. And

42:48

with ADHD, you do

42:50

get fixated on something.

42:52

And whatever you are excited

42:54

about, and really in the zone for

42:57

you can go

42:59

full steam ahead with ADHD,

43:01

you're fixated, hyper fixated. The

43:04

bad side about it is it is

43:06

as if there is like a wall between

43:09

you and the task that you know,

43:11

you need to do, you know

43:13

how to do it, but for whatever reason,

43:15

you don't want to do it. And

43:17

you can't do it. And it's

43:20

like paralyzing and incredibly frustrating because

43:22

you know you need to do

43:24

that thing. And you just for

43:26

whatever reason, you just can't, you

43:28

just can't do it. And it's

43:31

it's incredibly annoying. Okay,

43:33

where is the camera in here that you

43:35

have been watching me from? Because that's been

43:38

the camera in my head. You

43:40

never had a camera in my

43:42

head. Anyway, right. That's Jim

43:46

Carrey from Truman Show. Anyway,

43:48

yeah, that's what it feels like. Also,

43:50

he has ADHD in a

43:52

very obvious way in a lot of ways. You

43:54

know, it's almost easy to call that one out

43:56

for sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, but he's

43:58

definitely a wise squirrel. because he's up there in years. And

44:01

he's kind of mellowed in some ways,

44:03

but he approaches life that way. His

44:05

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee episode. This

44:07

is one of my favorites. I

44:10

mean, he's so good. He's so talented.

44:12

Definitely somebody I want to interview for

44:14

the podcast as well. Fellow Canadian too,

44:17

so who knows. Maybe he'll answer my

44:19

calls. But I wanted to mention, to

44:22

that point, and this is something I actually did

44:24

a video about this, and I plan to do

44:26

more videos kind of sharing

44:28

what I'm going through with this.

44:30

But I wrote in my journal

44:32

also another thing that I talk

44:34

about, the importance of journaling. Overwhelmed

44:36

equals paralysis equals stagnation.

44:39

And I wrote this down because

44:41

it just, I had this revelation with

44:43

my therapist recently that when I am

44:46

overwhelmed, and this is an ADHD thing,

44:48

when you become overwhelmed about something, you

44:51

hit that paralysis mode, and if you

44:53

don't do that thing, then

44:55

it's stagnation time. You're just going to be

44:57

stuck. And so we all have to do

44:59

things we don't want to do, certainly, in

45:01

life. But another big revelation and

45:04

part of this adventure for

45:06

me is the importance

45:08

of giving myself grace, so

45:10

that if I'm dragging my heels on doing something

45:12

that I know that I need to do now,

45:14

I understand why it is the way it is,

45:18

and giving myself enough grace to be like,

45:20

okay, it's okay. I could

45:22

do it tomorrow. Or not to procrastinate

45:24

it to the point of not doing

45:26

it, but just find ways to make

45:29

it more fun. I'll actually share

45:31

very quickly the journal entry that I wrote.

45:33

I won't really read the whole thing, but what I'll share with you

45:36

is that when I am feeling

45:38

overwhelmed, and I made a little list

45:40

of things to do, and I encourage

45:42

folks to try this or yourself. So

45:45

one is meditation and mindfulness. The

45:47

second is to break big projects

45:49

into small chunks. The third

45:52

is to reward myself. So

45:54

if I do it, go have some pizza

45:56

or whatever. Visualize the end.

45:58

So think about the end. and envision that,

46:01

manifest the future, daily journaling, as I

46:03

mentioned, and that's how I came up

46:05

with this, blocking my calendar to times

46:08

in the day to work on some things I don't

46:10

want to do, and then also getting

46:12

help from my friends or

46:15

outsourcing. And to outsource, I've

46:17

learned about what's called the Eisenhower Matrix,

46:20

which is something you can find. You

46:22

can see the matrix at ysquirrels.com. I

46:25

wrote a blog post about this, and

46:27

it's from the one and only Dwight

46:29

Eisenhower, the former president, but it's this

46:31

matrix he created of deciding how to

46:34

delegate or decide on things to do.

46:37

And so I wrote a blog post about that because I found

46:39

it really helpful. So those are just some

46:41

things. And I find, again, I

46:43

thought to myself, overwhelm equals

46:45

paralysis equals stagnation, but then

46:48

I opened my journal and wrote it down, and

46:51

I'm looking at it like, okay, great

46:53

to know this. It

46:55

doesn't help. And I started thinking about, okay, so what

46:57

do I do when I reach that

46:59

feeling of overwhelm? And so that's kind of

47:02

where I landed. Journaling is

47:04

one of the biggest things for me. Honestly, my

47:06

practice of that is one of the things

47:08

I wanted to revamp. And I know I'm

47:10

not a New Year's resolution kind of person,

47:12

but it was one of the things that

47:15

recently I've been noticing needed to be reinstated

47:17

and reconfigured. And it was because

47:19

of this exact thing. It was a revisit.

47:21

It was a check-in. It was a ask

47:23

yourself certain questions regularly and being surprised at

47:26

the thoughts and conclusions that

47:28

don't just come from doing it once,

47:30

but come from doing it continually. So

47:32

thank you for bringing that up. Yeah. And

47:35

one of the things I wrote, and I think

47:37

it was before I was diagnosed, it's interesting to

47:39

look back at things I wrote or talked about

47:41

and be like, oh, that's why I thought that.

47:44

Or that that's why I came up with that

47:46

solution. But for some reason, I created this like

47:48

undue stress about journaling because originally I was treating

47:50

it like a diary. And

47:53

then I realized I saw some talk

47:55

or something. Somebody was talking about

47:57

journaling. And I realized like, wait a minute,

47:59

my journal can. just be like pages

48:01

filled with like scribbles or a

48:03

recipe or a sketch or whatever,

48:05

or the journal entry that I

48:09

write can be a paragraph or it can be pages.

48:11

It doesn't matter. It's almost

48:14

like morning pages from Julia Cameron

48:16

from The Artist's Way. It's just

48:18

giving yourself permission to write

48:20

a paragraph or a sentence and call it

48:22

a day. But the point is

48:25

to use the journal and also find...

48:28

But another thing with ADHD is you

48:30

have to find what works for you. So there may

48:32

be apps that work for you. It

48:34

may be better on your computer in a

48:36

Word document or a Google Doc or whatever.

48:39

It may be better in a written

48:41

analog journal or scraps of paper or

48:43

a legal pad or whatever. So

48:46

it's finding what works best for you as well.

48:48

Well, I'm going to call out that analog versus

48:50

digital is also something to really consider. One of the

48:52

things that Rob Hatch, when he was on my

48:54

show last, talked about, and I've shared this tip

48:56

a number of times, but I'm going to share it

48:58

again here because it fits, is this

49:01

idea of having like the legal pad, the

49:03

analog legal pad sitting here that you can

49:05

pull over, right? Yep, you're holding it up

49:07

right there. You pull it over and you

49:09

write on it and then you push it

49:11

away and you acknowledge the thought and

49:14

you then give yourself... It builds

49:16

trust in yourself, in other words, that, oh,

49:18

I've captured it. Now I can put that back

49:20

out of my mind and focus back on the task at hand.

49:23

Yeah, no. And to your point, I mean,

49:25

what I do is I'll fill up legal

49:27

pads, two things on that. One is when

49:29

I meditate, I'll have a legal pad next

49:32

to me. And so as I think of

49:34

something that I want to remember,

49:36

I'll jot it down. It used to be

49:39

that if I think of something, I turn

49:41

on my computer and go and

49:43

write the article or create the

49:45

event or launch a podcast or

49:47

all the things. And

49:50

instead I just jot it down on the legal pad

49:52

and get back to the breath and get back

49:55

to like my meditation. And then

49:57

like once a week or months

49:59

depends. I'll just like sit on

50:01

the couch and go through all the notes my

50:03

legal bad and there's so much satisfaction and just

50:05

tearing out All the pages and throwing

50:08

them in the recycling bin But keeping

50:10

some pages that have relevant things and then deciding

50:12

like what are the next steps or how to

50:14

shut I treat whatever It is that I wrote

50:16

so but some of them are like, oh, yeah,

50:18

I did all this stuff already Scrap

50:21

and just ripping it out. Yeah, feel feels

50:23

good And just having your own frequency for

50:25

that like if it's once a week you

50:27

go through those fine if it's oh, you

50:29

know What I check it after the end

50:31

of that actual meditation session. I just

50:34

go through and okay Is there anything that like I

50:36

did right down here? That's like today or tomorrow or

50:38

this week? Let me park that where it goes and

50:41

it's just it again. It's knowing what

50:43

the frequency is So and this by

50:45

the way, this is all stuff that

50:47

I am working on for my next

50:49

book it's also going

50:51

to be I think a Kickstarter

50:53

and if

50:55

your listeners would like to Support

50:58

me on this I would be

51:00

you know eternally grateful. Of course that

51:02

would involve me creating a Kickstarter Yes,

51:04

well first I'm gonna say I'm gonna

51:06

jump in for sure Yes And you

51:09

I've been taking notes all along of

51:11

a bunch of different things to one I want

51:13

to point people to wise squirrels I want to

51:16

point them to Dave Delaney dot me and

51:18

then also Russell Barkley and his YouTube

51:20

videos And all the other things that

51:22

we mentioned But I want to put all those in there

51:24

because one I hope people got a lot out of this

51:26

conversation In terms of awareness first

51:28

and to maybe a next step I'll link

51:30

up to that mini assessment thing that you've

51:33

got on your site. That'll be

51:35

another reinforcement a little encouragement You're

51:38

not alone all of that and then to

51:40

what's funny is I'm giving away all the

51:42

hey Dave. Thanks for being here I'm

51:45

flipping it. I'm telling them At

51:51

the end and I love it so yeah anything else

51:53

you want to call out I've already called out wise

51:55

squirrels calm Dave Delaney That me what else would you

51:57

call out? Yeah? I mean obviously We're

52:00

in podcast land here. So

52:02

I encourage folks to search

52:05

ADHD Y squirrels and

52:07

you'll find the podcast and I encourage you

52:10

to follow it, check it out if you

52:12

like what you hear or even if you

52:14

don't, although hopefully if you like it, you

52:16

know, like we podcasters are known to do,

52:19

please leave a review and

52:21

a rating and I'm not just because and

52:23

do it for Eric's if you haven't yet

52:26

because I'm going to do this part for you, Eric. Because

52:30

we're doing the work, we're putting the content

52:32

out in the world and we hope it's

52:34

sticking and we hope people are finding it

52:36

helpful. But besides like download numbers and things,

52:38

I mean, really at the end of the

52:40

day, we do this for our listeners. And

52:44

so receiving feedback is just

52:46

such a wonderful way to

52:49

know that you're listening and know that you're

52:51

enjoying it. So yeah, I

52:53

do encourage you to check out the

52:55

show and leave Eric a review here

52:57

as well. Well

53:00

said. Dave, it's great to see

53:02

you and talk with you as usual. Yeah,

53:04

I can't wait to see you in person

53:06

sometime soon, hopefully this year. In the meantime,

53:08

let's stay connected online and we'll see you

53:10

next episode. Thanks, man. Well,

53:14

that's another podcast crossed off your listening

53:16

to do list. I hope that you

53:18

enjoyed listening in on this conversation with

53:20

Dave Delaney. I hope that you got

53:22

some understanding, some awareness, maybe not for

53:24

you, but maybe for other people around

53:26

you that either you suspect may have

53:28

ADHD or that you know have ADHD.

53:31

And that maybe this gave you a

53:33

little bit more, not just awareness, but

53:35

understanding empathy sparks some ways in your

53:37

mind in which this can help you

53:39

to help them. That said, if you

53:41

feel like you suspect you might have it,

53:44

definitely start by going over to Dave's site.

53:46

You can find the link to that in

53:48

the show notes where you can go and

53:50

do that quick assessment. That's also where you

53:52

can find the links to his podcast and

53:54

everything else that he's doing ADHD wise squirrels,

53:57

among other things, different links to resources that

53:59

were mentioned. in this conversation if you

54:01

know of somebody that needs to hear this

54:03

conversation. Would you do them the favor and

54:05

do me the favor of sharing this show

54:07

with them? Hit that share button in your

54:10

podcast player app of choice. Let them know

54:12

you were thinking of them when you heard

54:14

this and that you think it might be

54:16

able to help them. Thank you so much

54:18

for sharing. Thanks again for listening and I

54:20

will see you next episode.

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