Tracey Goodwin (00:00.298)
Welcome to Make ADHD Your Genius®, the podcast for lawyers and legal professionals. I'm Tracy Bromley Goodwin, certified coach, consultant, speaker, and your host. Through neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, and practical strategies, you'll learn how to work with the brilliant brain you have rather than against it. Because your ADHD isn't your limitation. It's unique to you, and it's time to make
ADHD, your genius. Check out the disclaimer below and let's get started. There are so many myths out there about ADHD, and personally, I find them so frustrating because they're damaging in a variety of ways. Number one, myths are based on assumptions, on misunderstandings, on
Parts of ADHD that are not accurate. And when that happens, it holds you back from being able to step into everything that makes you unique. It dampens your areas of genius. Myths put you on a path that does not help you get where you want to go. They are also damaging to those people.
Trying to understand ADHD because again, the information is false. It's not accurate. So it causes miscommunication, misunderstanding. It can cause resentment. It can cause people's view of ADHD to be very misaligned with what is actually going on.
So this episode is for you and it's also for people in your life that might be a misunderstanding what's really going on when we're thinking about ADHD. So the first myth that I love to think about is this idea that you might be telling yourself, no, if I really wanted to do this task project thing, I would do it.
Tracey Goodwin (02:20.608)
If that is something you are telling yourself and you are using that as motivation to get yourself to do something differently, it is not going to work. And the reason why it's not going to work is because you do want to get things done. You do want to finish the task. You might not be interested in what that task is.
You might feel like you don't want to because the task is boring or it's overwhelming or it feels frustrating for you to get it done. But the myth is that by telling yourself, if I just really, really amp up my desire to get it done, that will help me get it done. ADHD, as we've been talking about, is all about extremes.
Executive functioning skills are involved for all of us when it comes to getting things done. And telling ourselves if we just want it more, that means the skills will all magically align and happen. The environment around us will change. The story we're telling ourselves in our head will change, and then we'll get the thing done. That is false. That is false. The truth or the fact.
Behind it is that you can find ways to accomplish the task, to activate your brain to get started on something, keep working on something, and continue until it's complete. There are ways to get there, and it is not about having you find more motivation to get it done. Second myth I want to take a look at.
is if you try harder to calm down, then everything will be better. So if you are telling yourself or have had people say that to you, just calm down and then you'll figure it out. The myth is that it's that simple. Okay. When we are calmer, do we tend to problem solve better? Sure. But if we are telling ourselves that the
Tracey Goodwin (04:45.806)
Impact of what's happening with ADHD is just about you calming down, then we are missing the mark entirely. Emotional regulation is difficult with ADHD. You may experience going from zero to 10 very quickly, or you might feel the intensity of a comment that someone makes, feedback that you are given.
It is a lot more than just telling yourself, stay calm and things will get better. It is about truly understanding and recognizing that emotional regulation can be difficult, that feeling chaotic and overwhelmed or angry, nervous, frustrated, any of the emotions, you may feel them very intensely. It's not imagined, it's not your fault.
It is how your brain is taking in and experiencing what's happening around you. When you are trying to stay calm or just be calm and things will be better, you are doing the opposite of what your nervous system really needs. Your nervous system doesn't need you to be trying harder to feel a certain way. It needs you to be able to process your
Emotions, feelings, energy stuck in your body needs you to move around when you need to move around. It needs to process things, not push them down. The third myth that we are going to talk about is if you are thinking, you know, I should just get organized and disciplined. So the myth being, if you just got organized.
Disciplined with things, all of the challenges would fall away. That is a myth. Underneath the being organized and disciplined is a whole bunch of stuff running underneath. You could, and I know you're capable of this, you could get organized, hire someone to come into your home or office and organize everything for you. But if underneath
Tracey Goodwin (07:08.0)
There is some part of you feeling like you're not capable of that organization. How in the world are you going to sustain it? What are the individual parts that need to be involved on a daily basis or weekly basis? If those things are not pulled apart and looked at and really thought about, and you're supported while you're working on them, you can get as organized and disciplined as you want to. It's very difficult to sustain that. And again,
This isn't a character flaw. It's not a, you just need to work harder. That's not what it's about. It's about working with your brain rather than against it. Okay, another myth that is out there is that ADHD is all about a lack of focus. This one you're probably pretty familiar with. Okay. You actually have a surplus of attention and focus. So much so.
That it takes your attention in different directions all day, unless you're hyper focused on something in particular. And then it might do the reverse where dialing it back is really difficult. So when people talk about it being all about focus, yes, we're talking about focus and ADHD. A lack of focus, not accurate. You know.
And people around you may sometimes get confused by this part of seeing or experiencing extreme focus. And then the other side of it can be extreme inattention or distractions. Okay, so we are wanting to think about this as activating the brain when it needs to get activated to get started on a task or
refrain from getting started on something or bringing attention back to the task at hand. That's where we want the understanding and the thinking to be going. Another myth that I hear about all the time or that people tend to think when they're not fully aware of what's happening with ADHD is that ADHD just looks the same for everyone.
Tracey Goodwin (09:30.806)
Of course, there are different subtypes of ADHD that people are familiar with. But even within those subtypes, oftentimes it gets assumed that a strategy that works for one person is also going to work for the next, or that everyone's experience is exactly the same as far as how they're taking in the world and living their life and what works.
Breaking down that myth can help you claim your own ADHD uniqueness. That includes both strengths and challenges. There, of course, are going to be themes that come up across ADHD, and that can help us really understand it and can help you understand it and feel support by people that are having similar experiences. And at the same time,
We want to acknowledge that what works for someone you know with ADHD doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for you. And that's okay. That's your individual expression and support that you need for your brain. When thinking about all of these different myths that are out there, you probably also come across people saying that it's not even real.
ADHD is just some made-up thing. We don't even need to spend energy looking at that, talking about that myth, because you and I both know that that is false. That is false. ADHD is real. We can look at genetic factors. We can look at brain differences. We can look at many different aspects of the diagnosis. And
You know through your own experience, and I know that it is very real. It can be difficult when people in your life are not understanding ADHD. And it's not your job to be out educating every person you run into about what's going on. What is well within your wheelhouse is you understanding for yourself what myths tend to be the ones that.
Tracey Goodwin (11:54.552)
They wreak a little havoc in your mind. That self-doubt comes up, and you think, hmm, maybe if I did just do X, Y, and Z, things would be easier. When there is the pressure on yourself that feels like you're trying to fix something, that is oftentimes your sign, your signal that you want to reset your mind and think about.
Hold on a minute. I'm not trying to fix anything about myself. I'm acknowledging, here's what feels different. Here's what's difficult about this situation. How can I get from A to B? How can my environment around me look different? What are some supports that I may need around me? Or how do I get help? Because oftentimes that
Isolation that you might be experiencing it, that lone wolfing, like I'm gonna figure this out myself, can actually do the reverse. So, what would love for you is to be able to help you get really curious about these myths, which are the ones that maybe show up for you, that you sometimes get caught up in, that you can pause and get curious and question because I know.
your mind is definitely curious, and that you can take a look at the things that have been swirling around underneath your ADHD that may be keeping you stuck. And for loved ones, colleagues, people in your life, helping themselves understand and gain their own levels of awareness is
Always, always a way for spreading ADHD awareness. So, with this kind of episode in particular, if there's someone you can share it with that you think could use a different perspective on what's really going on with ADHD, that would be really helpful. Because, you know, it's really not okay when there is information out there saying that.
Tracey Goodwin (14:18.678)
You should be able to figure this out. You should be able to step up and work harder and be more disciplined without understanding that your brain's looking at the world in a different way. It's taking in information from the world in a different way. And that means how you get from A to B maybe looks entirely different than anyone else around you. You can get from A to B.
It just might look different. Thank you for joining me today, and I am looking forward to thinking about these myths more because we can go deeper and we will. Till the next time.
