Hacking Your ADHD
William Curb
Recent Episodes
This week, we are rebroadcasting an insightful earlier episode featuring 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, we delve into 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.
Dr. Ho also shares some of her favorite strategies for improving focus, managing emotional regulation, and using 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 Support me on Patreon Ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/197
Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD Brain. Today I'm joined by Skye Waterson for our research recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper and dive into what the paper says, how it's conducted, and try and find any practical takeaways.
In this episode we're gonna be discussing a paper called The Role of Executive Function in mediating the relationship between Adult ADHD symptoms and hyperfocus in university students. Now I think this is a really interesting subject and how about we just jump right into this. Can you tell me a little bit about this paper?
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at https://HackingYourADHD.com/259
https://tinyurl.com/56rvt9fr - Unconventional Organisation Affiliate link
https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk - YouTube
https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD - Patreon
Hey team!
This week, I'm joined by Rae Jacobson, journalist, ADHD expert, and host of Hyperfocus at Understood.org, to talk about how we make sense of ADHD when it feels like it's everywhere. Rae has spent over a decade reporting on mental health and neurodiversity, and she brings that blend of research, lived experience, and sharp humor that makes big ideas actually relatable.
This was honestly one of my favorite episodes that I've recorded this year - while Rae and I were brainstorming ideas that two ADHD podcasters could talk about, I think we hit on a very salient topic, the over-pathologizing of ADHD within the community. While we love to find all the things that are from our ADHD, it's also true that not everything is because of our ADHD.
In our conversation today, we dig into the ways ADHD often gets pathologized, how everything from losing your keys to getting a song stuck in your head can get blamed on ADHD, and why that can actually make it harder to understand what's really going on. We get into "symptoms of symptoms," the tricky overlap between ADHD and other conditions like depression and anxiety, and why community spaces like Reddit can both help and hurt when it comes to self-diagnosis. And of course, we also go down a few very ADHD side paths about clutter, shame spirals, and why having too many pens is basically a personality trait at this point.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/258
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD
This Episode's Top Tips
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- When considering what is and isn't ADHD, it's important to remember the context of ADHD as a chronic condition - as in it's something that we deal with all the time. Everyone is going to lose their keys every once in a while, but with ADH,D the difference is in the pattern and the impact. Without the systems I have in place to make sure my keys go into the same place every time, I would be losing them every day.
- Not everything annoying is an ADHD trait; sometimes it's just being a human in a busy, overstimulating world. While there are a lot of comorbidities with ADHD, if we try to label everything as ADHD, we lose the ability to tell what actually needs attention. Instead of asking, "Is this ADHD?", try asking, "Is this making my life unmanageable?" That's the line that separates "normal chaos" from "I might need help with this."
- But when ADHD does show up alongside things like depression, anxiety, or trauma, those conditions can feed into each other. You need to figure out who's driving the bus. Treating the wrong "driver" means you'll burn energy fixing the wrong problem. So before building systems or blaming ADHD, step back and ask what's actually behind the behavior.
As many of us navigate shifting routines and rising expectations right now, it's a perfect time to revisit this affirming conversation with Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright. Together we unpack what it means to stop fighting yourself, lean into your strengths, and build supportive systems that make life feel lighter, not harder. A great listen if you need a dose of ADHD-friendly self-compassion this week.
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
- Embrace your ADHD and plan your day around it to avoid unrealistic expectations and the ensuing shame.
- 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.
- 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.
Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Waterson for another Research Recap. In this series, we explore a single research paper—what it says, how it was conducted, and what practical takeaways we can find.
In this episode, we're discussing a paper called "Shifting the Focus: Exploring Video Accessibility Strategies and Challenges for People with ADHD." It sounds a little out there—and honestly, this paper is a bit different. So Skye, want to start us off?
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at https://HackingYourADHD.com/257
https://tinyurl.com/56rvt9fr - Unconventional Organisation Affiliate link
https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk - YouTube
https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD - Patreon