The Hidden Ways to Focus, Stop Spiraling, & Build Wealth: ADHD Doctor Sasha Hamdani

25:33with a clinically proven electrolyte blend and no artificial colors or flavors. Great tasting hydration no matter where you're going. Shop now online or at retailers nationwide. Gatorade hydrates better than water. Is it in you? Symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration. Consult a healthcare professional if symptoms persist. Like to a point where I'm flying to Vegas tomorrow to do a speaking engagement and I'm going solo and someone just asked me something about the time and the schedule and when I have to be there. And I could feel this thing like bubbling up in my chest of like, I don't know.

26:08I don't know. I'm overwhelmed. What if I'm late? And like the spiral starts happening, but it's because it had to do with details and scheduling and timing. And those are often things that I really struggle with. Yeah. Why do ADHD people get overwhelmed so easily? So the way that I look at that is there's many different things happening. Number one, If you're asking someone, okay, you have to fly out to Vegas, you have to do the speaking engagement, and these are the things you need to think about. They, in their brain, usually have, like, these are the things I need to worry about. This is in the order of importance.

26:45And if I don't nail all of these, here are the resources I could go to, and I can look at this email, and I can look at this. For ADHD, especially if there is multiple things happening at once, or if there is, like some sort of emotional component, like I'm already losing my grip on this and this is hard and they're going to think I'm stupid. It becomes harder to remain clear. That threat detector in your brain starts going off. It releases alarm chemicals. You get increasingly more agitated and stressed, which makes it harder for that logical side to kick in and do what it's supposed to be doing.

27:21So sometimes it truly does. It doesn't start from an emotional place. It starts from this is executive function stuff. I already struggle with this. But then once you add that layer of I'm losing it, they're going to think I'm dumb. This is like I'm getting overly stressed out. I'm getting overly overwhelmed. I'm getting anxious. You start adding that. And then that emotional side of the brain kind of kicks on. And the logical side is just like can't keep up. This type of person sounds like someone that could never be high functioning. I got to be honest. Like when I hear us talk about this, I'm like, there's no way these people can run companies.

27:56There's no way these people can be in successful relationships. 29 % of entrepreneurs have ADHD. What is the flip side to this? How are these people able to be so high functioning in some capacities of their life and then experience everything you've already talked about? Because they just do it alongside. They feel all those things and life can be at times very difficult, but they move on from that and they gain resilience and they start doing other things and funneling their efforts into this is what I know my brain is going to be good at and this is what I'm interested in and they can get done with a tremendous amount of work and a small amount of time and they really thrive in those kind of situations like when you look at entrepreneurs a lot of them they're building things and they're less concerned about like I need to have it absolutely perfect before I do it They're like, I'm going to learn and go.

28:47And that really is such a incredible skill for business, because a lot of times it's just that tenacity and getting started and being willing to accommodate and adapt and change, where some people might be too rigid to deal with that. When you think about these incredible entrepreneurs who have built these businesses, what makes us attracted to go work for people like that? Because to my sister's point of like even working for me, right? Like it is visionary. It is inclusive. It is like a team that is working on a mission. It's very charismatic. But I have definitely been known to spiral. and I'm very much working right now as a leader on like not taking people with me on that journey.

29:34So I guess what are we fascinated with with these incredible entrepreneurs that have ADHD? I think there is a magnetism and there is an energy and there's a passion that if you truly feel it and you feel committed about what you're doing, people want to be part of that. And so I I think it's just a very natural thing to feel inclined to want to follow along and be part of that journey. As you're thinking about building out your team as someone that has ADHD, do you want to hire people that have ADHD as well? I do. I think that there is so much positive that you can get from that if you foster the right environment, if you are passionate, if you build an environment that their brains can flourish, if you are encouraging, if you are giving them the right kind of soil for their ADHD to kind of blossom and grow, I think they are incredible to work with.

30:35Can I play devil's advocate to that? Yes. So when I was thinking about bringing my sister into my business, like I'm extremely ADHD and my sister is the complete opposite of it. That's how my sister and I are. It's the best thing because I feel like we have these complementary skill sets. And I think people understand me as a leader more now than they probably have in any other podcast episode. And my sister is the one that I always say, like, keeps the train on the tracks and is like the yin to the yang. And I can even tell, like, can you tell in this conversation that we're both ADHD? Yes. Same.

31:10But I like it. Same. But I'm thinking about, okay, if there was two people building a business, like we're thinking about finding a co-founder for our company, okay? Okay. And you're the one that is like this charismatic, visionary, like high energy, can do a million things. But you also have this emotional dysregulation and you can be known to spiral and you might make up scenarios in your head. Two people like that as co-founders, is that a good match? whether you have ADHD or whether you don't I think you have to find someone whose skills match each other and complement each other naturally so I don't think it's as simple as saying this person has ADHD and this person doesn't because ADHD can present very differently for some person you can have someone with ADHD I just think ours presents very similarly but I know but I think that there's some people who have ADHD and are just very meticulous about details and like very you know they just they're not hyperactive at all and they're not you know but I feel the same way you do when I was doing my app focus genie I brought on my sister to help me with that because she's so analytic her brain like just works like a grid she's so analytical so organized and she I would like come up with an idea and she's like okay Here's how we execute it.

32:25And so that combination worked so well. And that got it from like an idea to a finished product. But if the question was like, just like a general team or are people with ADHD good to work with in general? I think yes. When I feel as though we have very similar ADHD and you agree, what do you mean by that for people that can't read our energy right now? I mean, our stories are so similar. I got diagnosed in fourth grade. I was hyperactive and impulsive. The teacher brought it up to my parents. My parents were like, yeah, we know. And so like I was starting on medication, didn't know I was on medication.

33:04It was just like something that helped me help, something that helps you with school. So I would take this and I took it every single day. And then I did well enough that I got into this combined undergrad graduate medical school program. So I started medical schools classes when I was 18 years old. And when I got there and I was by myself without my parents, I stopped taking the medication. everything fell apart. And then I like kind of fought with it. And I was like, I don't really want to be on medication. I don't want to do I don't believe I have this. I've seen it in other people. I know it's for boys.

33:33I don't think this is me. And so then I had to kind of come to my own realization and health journey and things like that. But I think it's led me some places I really enjoy. And also, I just think that our vibes are similar right now. Even the way that like I can see you even doing this with your foot, like you're tapping your foot, which is very me. And I think it's funny because I just had Vanessa Van Edwards on the show. She's one of the number one leading researchers at Harvard about behavioral science and the way that you are presenting yourself and body language. And she said something very interesting where she said no self-touching at work.

34:07And I am just known to do this or this or like this. And I'm not nervous. It is a tick. It's self-stimulation. And why are we doing this? What you're looking at is fidgeting. And fidgeting is really a way your body is trying to stimulate your brain. And so your body is like, if I stimulate with movement or whatever I'm doing, I'm going to release more dopamine. It's going to be usable and you'll be able to regulate your attention better. So you'll notice some of that fidgeting and stuff increase with goal-directed activities sometimes. Like if you're doing something. So if you're like during a test, if you're trying to focus, you're tapping your pencil and things like that.

34:50But I feel so seen right now in a way where I'm sitting across from someone who's extremely high-functioning and extremely intelligent, has built multiple businesses. And I think that that is still not the norm when you think of ADHD. And I'm just interested in the ways that you feel like we can do a great job today by destigmatizing what it is like to be a high-functioning ADHD entrepreneur. Like I would replace what you're saying, high-functioning, with high-achieving. I think high-achieving, you're looking at like what is this person capable of by traditional metrics of like relationship and job and are they making the mark, like what's happening.

35:31But it doesn't describe internally what's happening. So like with functioning, I get into an issue with it because, yeah, they could have that external thing. But from the functioning perspective, they're not actually high functioning because internally they're not functioning all that well. So that's a distinction I like making. That's why I replaced high functioning with high achieving. How do you communicate to people in your practice's parents that your child is not lazy? Yeah. They just have ADHD. I think when you explain this interest-based nervous system, like your body is with ADHD, you respond to something that is interesting, something that is new, or something that is urgent.

36:11So if you're telling me this homework is due in like two weeks, like this book project is due in two weeks, like, no, I don't care about that. I'm not going to start that. No. If you tell me this is due by 8 a.m. tomorrow, I'll work on it all night. I'll get it done. I'll finish it. So I think it's a bit of a skill being able to kind of figure out how to work with your brain. And some of that is like break it into. So when I started to in medical school, I'm like, okay, I can't get away with doing this the night before because I have to have foundational knowledge. I need to build on this. And so then it became like, okay, I need to do this and create urgent.

36:51I didn't know what I was doing at the time, but I need to create urgency in my life. So I had to like take the syllabus and breaking down, break it down by like week. And I'm like, this week I have to be done by Friday. I would tell someone else about it. I'm like, you have to make sure I get this done. And if not, you have to stand by the door, like make sure it gets done. And I was so afraid of them wasting time that I would get it done. So I would create these little hurdles that caused urgency, caused interest, caused novelty. I would bribe myself. I would do like, you know, there's there's things that ADHD people have done for a long time and they don't really know what they're doing or why they're once I'm done with this, I'm going to go to the coffee shop, get myself a treat.

37:31Like there are things you don't know you're doing. You're creating interest. You're creating urgency. I would do that as it related to hitting certain milestones at work with luxury purchases. So like when I was in my 20s and I started to achieve things, I was never that person that was like, I'm going to go buy a Chanel wallet like on a Wednesday. I would tie everything to like, if I do this, I will reward myself with a Chanel wallet or whatever it ended up being. Which is interesting and enjoyable for you. So you have that motivation to go towards that. If you're like, I just have to get through this work milestone, it's going to be really hard to push yourself towards that.

38:07My question then relates to this conversation around money and ADHD. What does the research say about how ADHD people treat money? It depends on their presentation. So like having that hyperactivity, having that impulsivity is not a guaranteed for people. You don't necessarily have to have that for the ADHD diagnosis. There's some people that the impulsivity is not really their thing. They're not impulsive when it comes to money. Maybe they're impulsive in other ways, like they're impulsive in relationships or impulsive in speech or impulsive in other ways. I was previously very impulsive with money.

38:42And what I found is that my spending habits were directly related to like stimulation. And I didn't know this until I was working on this app. So I was working on this app with my sister and we have this thing called the focus tracker where you put down like, this is what your, this is what my mood was like today. This is what my focus was like today. This is what my impulsivity was like today. And then, you know, it ties it to sleep and food intake and water. I was looking and I was tracking this over time and I was like, God, the last four days of the month, I'm so impulsive. And then I, you know, I then I tracked it back and I was like, oh, my God, that's related to my cycle.

39:21And then, oh, my God, I go into my credit card statements and I was like, there is like a twofold bump in how much I spend in those four days because I'm literally sitting on the couch. And I'm like, I'm using it. That's when I online shop and I'm stimulating myself that way. So that's when I get in trouble. So you're saying that if you have ADHD and you don't want to spend money, stimulate yourself in other ways. Yeah. I mean, you can. Wow. With impulsivity, that's why, like with medication, when you're appropriately stimulated or, you know, when you're appropriately regulated, your impulsivity goes down.

40:04So if you're finding an alternative method to stimulate you and you feel more regulated, you're not going to feel that drive as much. Have you heard of this thing called the ADHD tax? Yes. And I pay it constantly. Can you explain what it is? So ADHD tax is the money that you unnecessarily spend because of some sort of executive dysfunction. So examples of that are unused gym memberships. Lost wages is a big one. I mean, things that you miss opportunities, miss days of work. I think doctor's visit, the cost of medication, parking tickets and speeding tickets and unpaid tickets. There's so many things you forgot or you didn't return something in time.

40:52Like those are all expenditures that continue to add up. You will appreciate this more than anyone else. I used to have a diamond ring on my pinky and it was like$3 ,500. Okay. And I was fidgeting so much at a dinner this summer that my ring fell through the picnic table, fell through the wooden floor of the restaurant and it was on a roof. I lost my diamond ring because I was fidgeting. and I was with my family and you know my whole life they've been like stop fidgeting stop fidgeting you're gonna lose something I've never to this day lost anything until this summer when I couldn't leave my rings alone that I lost like I think it was a$3 ,500 diamond ring that's so painful by the way like it was the sweetest thing I was at this dinner and this like old man it was in cottage country and this old man's like I have my tool belt in the car you want me to like get it out and like pop up the boards and I was like no no if you end up going to that effort your daughter should keep the ring oh and then the owner of the restaurant literally dm'd me the next day and was like the guy found your ring do you want it and I was like let him give it to his daughter oh isn't that a crazy story do you think that ai will help adhd people with things like this I don't know enough I don't know enough to be able to be thoughtful about that I think I think I'm so conflicted about that, its role to actually be super helpful versus not helpful because I just – I don't have my finger on the pulse of it yet.

42:23I was fascinated. So apparently, according to this study, 78 % of neurodivergent employees will use AI tools at work compared to only 59 % of neurotypical employees, which I can say maybe from my own experience, like I have been loving AI for myself because my email inbox is a scary place. and having ai help me organize make sure things don't fall through the cracks is just a level of sophistication that i haven't had yeah because even training uh executive assistant to assist me is is much more difficult i would say for an adhd person and someone that's neurotypical i just saw a headline that said planters billionaire ceo says only two kinds of people will succeed in the AI era?

43:11Trade workers or the neurodivergent? My fear is that, you know, you look at some of these studies, MIT released a study where they were talking about use of AI and they compared it to just using your brain versus using Google versus using AI. There's, you know, if you're using it for like executive function and those like menial tests, maybe that's different. But if you're using it for like creative and heavy workload functioning things, I think that can be really difficult because there's very little retention that happens. Thousand percent agree. Like we at our company, you cannot use AI for creative ideation.

43:48You can use it to actually help an idea go from an actual human idea into a different type of format. So for example, we actually use an AI where it takes all of my TikTok videos that is not using AI, and then it will just script it for LinkedIn. So it's like taking my original thought, but it's actually just putting it in a tone of voice that will work for a professional crowd. That I think is actually okay. You know that rent and mortgage payments have got to be the least sexy thing we spend our money on, but they're a necessity. You have to pay them whether you like it or not. And with our sponsor built, you can earn points on rent and mortgage payments to put awards the nicer and finer things in life, like flights, hotels, that hot yoga class you've been putting off, and more.

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47:23Download the new PayPal app to get started. See paypal.com slash protection terms. But let's talk about other ways to manage ADHD. Yeah. AI is one that I found a lot of success with. I also was on medication for two decades. Yeah. And I remember feeling like I was super focused, but I couldn't think clearly towards the last few years of being on medication. For people that don't know what the medication is actually doing to your brain, what is it doing in your brain? And so if you're looking at stimulants, there was this paper that came out of Washington University. And it actually looked at how do stimulants work in the brain.

48:03And it works in two different ways. Number one, to increase alertness in the brain. So it literally fights off sleepiness cues. And number two, to push you towards reward. So help with motivation. The issue sometimes with stimulants is that it's a pretty short window. Like even if you have a long acting one, it's not going to give you all day coverage. And that's good. You don't want to be stimulated 24 hours a day. But sometimes what people realize with that is that eventually over time, because you do build a tolerance to these medications, is that your level of functioning when you feel like I'm on medication versus I'm not medication, it feels like there's too much of a contrast.

48:41And eventually, as this part stops working as well, it can sometimes make you feel foggy and tired and you just don't have that kind of oomph that you had previously. I felt that 100 percent my weekends were hell. I went to India and I decided that I was going to not even tell my boyfriend at the time, not my husband, that I was going to try to quit my medication because I figured I was already going to be jet lagged. I was like, I've been on this for two decades. I will probably have withdrawal. I'll just try to do it. So if I fail, I haven't had to admit it to anyone. And I literally was able to successfully wean myself off of it just by, well, not even wean myself off of it, just cold turkey, not use it again.

49:19So it took me a very long time to be self-motivated again. How do you make those decisions to know if it's right for you. Always try to recommend either starting with behavioral modification and then kind of if that doesn't work or if it's too hard or if you can't access them because of that level of dysfunction, then starting to talk about medication. So I try to start with that. I have someone in my family that takes ADHD drugs today. And what we notice is that they are extremely abrasive and short when they are taking their medication. And we're trying to figure out, does the benefit offset the costs that we all feel by being around someone when we know that they're on their medication, that they're very abrasive, they're very short-tempered, they're very aggressive?

50:05Is that a normal side effect of ADHD medication? What I would tell you is that means it's the wrong medication. Correct medication management. You just feel like yourself, but on a good day. But that irritability and that shortness and things like that, typically, and I'm not totally sure what's happening in this situation, but sometimes we see that when people are being overstimulated. How does ADHD affect relationships? Pretty comprehensively, because I think when you look at ADHD as a regulation kind of thing, you have to look at it in terms of how do you interact with this other person? How do you communicate with this other person?

50:44What are your expectations of this other person? And then how do you learn how to share space? And I'm assuming romantic relationships, but how do you learn how to occupy space and existence and like accommodate for somebody else in your life? I think that's hard, especially if you're trying to manage your own executive dysfunction and emotional regulation during that time. It can be difficult. So, for example, a lot of times what you see is like a breakdown in communication. I know that I'm very emotionally sensitive. my husband doesn't have adhd and so there are things that he says that are totally neutral that if it hit me on a different day i wouldn't respond to and then there's some days where i hear that and it's devastating to me and then i like kind of shut down and i'm quiet and i like it's hurt me and then we have to kind of work through that and talk about it there are other things that happen in terms of like going back to the impulsivity and distractibility i mean i wish I could bottle up the beginning part of relationships.

51:42Like it's so addictive and fun and wonderful. And just like it's, it is like a complete dopamine overload. It's so stimulating. But then you move into the more stable parts of your relationship and you're like, ah, the fire's gone. Like this is, this isn't what I felt before. Like I don't have the butterflies. This must be the wrong relationship. And they leave. It's confusing because you're like, what's dopamine? what's love, what's right, what's wrong. And so it's gaining a little bit of self-trust. How do you recommend ADHD people disclose to their partners that they have ADHD? I mean, the way that I did is it was a problem.

52:20What did you do? We were trying to do long distance and like he had a two hour time difference. And I would like straight up forget about like he wasn't with me. So I would forget to call him back. And then by the time I remember it, I'm like, it's 1 a.m. your time. And so like you do things and you like kind of forget. And then with the emotional sensitivity part, like we were just like, if we had conflict, I was like, you're being rude. It's like, literally, no, I'm not. And so then we'd have to like kind of figure out how to work our way through it. So if you are having a conversation with your, you know, partner and you're trying to tell them about ADHD, you're like, listen, I have navigated through my whole life and I value this relationship, but I need to tell you the way that my brain is wired.

53:09I have ADHD. I respond to things differently. I respond to emotional things differently. I respond to like day-to-day tasks differently. And I want to make sure that, you know, I'm, I'm trying really hard in this relationship and I'm being respectful, but there's some things that are hard for me. And then I think what the natural progression from there is, is that it becomes kind of a collaborative kind of thing. Like, what can I help you with? And then that opens up dialogue. Do you recommend that there's a good time in relationships to do that before there becomes problems? I don't think I've been in a situation or I don't remember feeling anxious or embarrassed about talking about it with people.

53:44But I know some people definitely are. So I think you have to feel it out within the relationship and see how you feel. But I think it does give the other person definitely a better lens of how they look at your behavior. Let's play this out where it's the boy that has ADHD. And we're the girl that is starting to really fall for this guy. But he's not calling us. He's not doing these little thoughtful things. He's maybe not able to regulate his emotions very well and is very sensitive. How much of that do you ascribe to like, this is just the way that the person is. he has ADHD or how much of it is like, he's just not putting in the effort.

54:24I want someone that's going to call me before I fall asleep at night. Like, how do you find that balance when you're dating someone that actually does have ADHD? You look at kind of behaviors like that and you look back at that interest-based nervous system. So if as the girl, you're talking to this guy and you've already had this conversation about ADHD, you know, he has ADHD and it's still continuing to happen, you can say, these are the things that I kind of expect and I want out of a relationship and I, you know, like, this is what, this is how, what makes me feel loved. And if he shows like a true effort into making that happen, great.

55:06If he's like, that's really hard for me because I literally don't even know what time it is. Like, I can't keep track of time. I can't, then show me a different way that you can give me those same feelings and make me feel loved. Like prove it to me some other way. So I don't think that this is ever going to be this get out of jail free card. It's not an excuse. It's an explanation. That's what I was going to ask because I think one of the misconceptions you did at the beginning was that you can grow out of ADHD. But how much of the things that you don't love about yourself from your ADHD can you actually change the behavior of?

55:39You have the capacity to change your brain and to use behavioral techniques to actually alter behavior and neural pathways. That is something we are capable of doing. And so the difficulty in that is kind of gaining that consistency and continuing to lean in on this path where maybe you're not getting a huge dopamine rush and it doesn't feel fun. Making things into habit, it's probably not going to be fun. It's probably not going to be easy. But people are capable of doing it and building supports that you can do it. And generally what I tell people is like habit stacking, so that things become more automated and automatic.

56:17Those are things that could potentially help. And then once they become cemented, I mean, you can change your neural pathways with that. Were you always late growing up? Yes. And I'm late now. Although I was like 15 minutes early today. Well, so that's why I was going to bring this up because I used to be notoriously late. Like you couldn't catch me early to anything. I was usually 20 to 45 minutes late for stuff. Yeah. And so this was something that I knew was going to hold me back. And I actually was so not proud of at all that I made a commitment to myself over the last few years that like I would tell myself that things were happening 30 minutes before they were happening.

56:56I am very rarely late. And the reason I ask you that now is when I saw your car outside 15 minutes early, I was like, she must be like me. So it changed. So truly, I was late all the time. Social engagement to everything. a change when I started taking care of patients in an outpatient setting because I was like, I cannot be late for this. I can't like I have patients who are waiting on me who have taken time out of their day to drive here to see me. I can't even take a minute away from their appointment. So I think that was my gateway into being on time. And if I've learned anything today, it's because you made it urgent and you made it.

57:38And it was I was accountable for other people. And so it was interesting to me to have them be happy about me showing up. Like, so there was an urgency that I had to be there. I have to ask you about brain health and, like, what are things that every single person can do that might not even have ADHD. How do you work out your brain the same way we work out our body to maintain the cognitive function to have the healthiest brain possible? Sleep. Like, if you go back and look at that WASHI study where it's talking about why stimulants work so well. And you're saying that it fights off sleepiness cues.

58:13It made every psychiatrist look again at what they prioritize is important. And sleep is so important. It is quite literally the only thing that's going to give you energy. So like you can take caffeine. You can take stimulants. You can take all those things. It's going to prevent you from feeling sleepy. But it's not giving you energy. Eventually, the tap is going to run out and you're going to feel tired again. So when you sleep, you actually give your brain time to restore and respond and figure out how to allocate resources for the next day. It clears out toxins. You are doing a tremendous amount.

58:48And that's hard because sleep is so boring. I get my best ideas at night. I'm not tired. So I think this is like one of the best things you can do for your brain health is just prioritize sleep. How do you have a sleep routine to get the right amount of sleep that you need for your brain? I'm going to say something that people are going to hate. I have to be away from my phone. And that's, it's really hard because my phone is my alarm. But I put it in a different room and I plug it in while I'm still like in the living room and hanging out. And then I, and then I will go into the bedroom and my alarm is already set automatically.

59:24So I don't really access my phone because there's interesting stuff in there. Like I can't, and that's not something that I, I like, I try to do that as much as possible. and I fall off the wagon a lot. But I feel like when I go through patches of time where I really prioritize my sleep, my brain absolutely works better the next day. And I feel like I look better. You do when you sleep well. I want to throw my phone into the sun. There's like, I don't like, it's so easy for me to lose time on my phone. All of my work lives on my phone. Like I know I need it and I feel like very unnecessarily tethered to it.

1:00:03So I feel like it's a leash. I don't love it. And I also do kind of love it at times. It's a problem. This is why I love my husband so much because no one interested me that I would want to get off my phone until I met him. Whereas now when I'm with him, I do not care about my phone to the point where like my team will be like harassing me to return messages. But I'm just so interested in my husband that like I don't really care to be on my phone at all. I know. So I feel like finding things that interest me in the real world is difficult because it's so much more interesting on my phone, except for these very few things that I do find very interesting.

1:00:41And this is why I think ADHD people have these hyper fixations, because we find such few things interesting that we become obsessed with them. What is your current hyper fixation? My daughter recently got into like this like air like air dry clay. And I was like, this is awesome. And like it's like dries and it's so light and it's so fun. I've been doing a lot of writing. I've been doing a lot of painting, which I really enjoy. And I've been doing more acrylic than oil. And I think there's something just like very therapeutic about taking out my paints and picking the colors I want and not really having a plan.

1:01:18And if things mess up, I'm OK. And so I think as long as I have time to do that, I really like it. Dr. Sasha Hamdani, is there anything that we haven't talked about today that you would feel sad leaving if we didn't cover? No. I think we got it. We got a lot. Yeah. Okay, well, we're going to have some fun and do some rapid fire then. Love. Dr. Sasha, what is the last thing you put on your credit card? Gluten-free bagel. Are you gluten-free too? I am. Are you celiac? No, I'm not. Okay. I'm just gluten intolerant. What gluten-free bagel? Yeasty Boys. Love that. They have a gluten-free one? It's amazing.

1:01:54It's so soft. Okay, I'm going to get it tomorrow. Yeah. What is the most expensive last thing you put on your credit card? I bought a suit for my book signing from Veronica Beard. Love that. And I was just like, you know what? I just can't waste more time on this. What is the most impulsive purchase you've ever put on your credit card? Impulsive in terms of like, that was weird or impulsive like that was expensive. Both or one or the other. Okay, impulsive, weird. I went out to get my carrots and ranch, came back with two kittens that I put on a credit card. Cats? Cats. Two small cats that are still, you know.

1:02:30That is so ADHD. Yeah. And I was like, I guess this was, like, had no plans. That wasn't part of the journey. No litter box, no food. I was like, all right, come on. You went out for ranch and carrots and you came home with kittens. In all fairness, I had been going through a breakup and I was like, I need these. What are some of your best tips to hack an ADHD brain? Using brain dumping at night. Find something that you naturally enjoy and can maintain some sort of consistency with. And whether that's like walking with a friend or doing something. What about doing hard things first? I think sometimes when you phrase it like that, there's some people that depending on the day that they're totally capable of that.

1:03:14There's some people that if you start with the very hardest thing first, it is so daunting and so difficult that they lose momentum and they're paralyzed for the rest of the day. Sometimes when I realize that that is too hard, I go back and I do something really easy and dumb. And that's why I make my bed every morning. It's like my way to start the day with like this little win, something I could check off my to-do list. I did this. And so then you can go about your day. Tell on a first date you have ADHD or keep it a secret for the rest of your marriage. Oh, tell them on the first date. I probably would do that anyway.

1:03:46You can only pick one for the rest of your life. Run 30 minutes late or get there an hour early. I mean, I'd rather be early. Love that. I mean, it's just a waste of time. Both of them are a waste of time. But like, okay. But like, it's so much better because like, I can't even think about being that late for a patient. No. I could never do that. We do these things called HSR love notes to retrain my toxic brain and my spirals. Okay. So if you could only tell yourself one HSR love note for the rest of your life, what would it be? It would remind myself to be kind like I am to other people because I don't do a lot of that to myself as I do for like my loved ones.

1:04:27And if you had to title this season of your life, what would it be called? Like sweat. So sweaty and anxious. That's probably what it would be. Dr. Sasha Hamdami, I am obsessed with you. Where can people find you and how can HSR help you? I am on all the socials under the Psych Doctor MD. Oh, get this. Too sensitive. Here we go. Because I love it. And I think it is really good for anyone who has been dealing with just feeling emotionally sensitive. and it gives you actual tools. It helps you implement them in a way that you're not already like dysregulated. And I mean, this was so helpful for me.

1:05:11I wish I had this 20 years ago. Thank you so much for coming on. Yay, thank you.

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