We spend a lot of time building gates and systems to protect ourselves from distraction of ADHD. But, what might we be losing at the expense of saying No? This week on the show, Pete talks about control and ADHD. Spinning off of the concept of Margin as discussed by Shawn Blanc and Richard Swenson before him, what does it mean for ADHD when our systems and processes that we use to protect ourselves and our focus cause us to run out of margin in our lives and run headlong into a broader world that doesn’t understand us?

Links & Notes

Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon!

Giving up Control at Work — Shawn Blanc

Margin from The Focus Course — Shawn Blanc

Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives_ by Richard Swenson

There aren’t many practitioners writing about today’s topic. Unless, that is, you look up the collected works of Dr. Bill Dodson. Dr. Dodson is an award-winning board-certified psychiatrist and specialist in adult ADHD and his contributions to the study of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria bring him to the show today. According to Dr. Dodson, nearly all those living with ADHD live with some level of rejection sensitivity, and thanks to the poor training on the ADHD connections to the condition, patients are going misdiagnosed and mistreated as a result.

Today on the show, Dr. Dodson joins Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright to discuss Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and provide new language to frame a state those living with ADHD know all too well.

About Dr. William Dodson

Dr. Bill Dodson is a award-winning board-certified psychiatrist and specialist in adult ADHD. While Dr. Dodson has been on the faculties of Georgetown University and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center he is primarily a clinical practitioner who tries to combine evidence-based practice techniques with practice-based evidence. In addition to being named a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and recipient of the national Maxwell J. Schleifer Award for Distinguished Service to Persons with Disabilities, Dr. Dodson is one of two experts from the US to the World Anti-Doping program for the development of guidelines for the use of ADHD stimulant medications in the world’s athletes.

Links & Notes

• Dr. William Dodson at Additudemag.com

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast
• (02:24) - Become a Member of The ADHD Community
• (04:28) - Introducing Dr. William Dodson
• (05:53) - What is Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria?
• (10:59) - Defining Characteristics of RSD?
• (13:37) - Mental health trends
• (17:23) - RSD and Imposter Syndrome
• (20:15) - RSD and Gender
• (25:45) - Treatment paths for RSD
• (34:14) - RSD and ADHD Coaching
• (43:44) - Finding Dr. Dodson

As we kick off our summer break, we’re re-releasing a few classic episodes that still hit home—like this one on email from way back in 2017. Yes, some of the tools we mention (hello, Evernote) have aged out of our workflows, but the core ideas about attention, overwhelm, and building ADHD-friendly systems are still spot-on. Think of this as a time capsule with a message that’s still relevant today. Enjoy the listen, and come say hi in the Discord while we’re on break!

Billions of us send hundreds of billions of email messages every single day. Email is bigger than any other social platform around the world and thanks to the explosion in mobile Internet, we’re doing more and more emailing every day in the palms of our hands. Is this how you want to live? Is your ADHD brain adopting to the always-open door to your life that is electronic mail? This week on the show, we’re talking about changes in lifestyle, behavior, and technology you can make to impact your relationship with email for the better!

Links & Notes

• Gmail
• Edison Mail
• Airmail
• Mailbird

• (00:00) - A Message from the Future Past!
• (00:52) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast
• (01:26) - Follow-up: ADDA Webinar Thanks! — Celebrating Mistakes
• (04:29) - Thanks for your support on Patreon!
• (07:56) - Follow-up: Where does the diagnosis start?
• (11:04) - Follow-up: Learning to love yourself
• (14:36) - Let's talk about Email and the ADHD Brain
• (18:44) - Challenging Email Behavior and Lifestyle
• (26:08) - Stop filing. Just stop it. Please, stop it.
• (28:50) - Workbox versus Inbox
• (37:04) - Switching Costs of Changing Behavior
• (40:15) - Revisiting "Inbox Zero" and ADHD
• (45:14) - Apps that make email better