Hello brains a few days ago
I put out the call for questions for question time because I realized I haven't been doing question time for a little bit
so I wanted to answer a bunch of questions in one video is kind of a vlog style video where I can answer as many
Questions as possible
And as quickly as possible
Hopefully while still giving good answers and the reason why we're gonna be doing very minimal editing on this is because Edwards busy editing
The next video which is gonna be really cool
He's animating a lot of metaphors to help people explain their ADHD to others by the way, if I don't answer your question
It doesn't mean that it wasn't a good question. It might mean that it was
More of a complicated answer that I want to take more time
For so it might turn into a video or I might save it for another question time if I run out of time so here
We go Nick W asks, how do I become a more punctual person? It has been a very serious issue in my life
So ADHD years do have a skewed sense of time are what they like to call Time Horizon is a little different. So where's somebody?
Who's a neurotypical person might?
Realize like oh, okay. I have a project due in a week I should start on it today
Maybe outline it today do this tomorrow do that tomorrow and then at the end of the week
I'll have the paper ready to turn in or I need to leave. Let's see ahead of time
maybe an hour if it's gonna take half an hour because I know it's gonna take
15 minutes to park and I want to allow an extra 15 minutes in case traffic gets bad or whatever rate that their time horizons
Are different the the point at which they're like, I should really get to this is is a lot
Prior to ours ours is like oh shoot. It's the night before the test
Maybe I should study and that's how our brains naturally work so we can build in more time
But another thing that we tend to find challenging is we don't get bored
right
So I don't necessarily want to leave ahead of time
To get to a place maybe fifteen minutes early because then I'm gonna be bored for 15 minutes
So another strategy is to have something that you're looking forward to doing
For me, it's I play forge of Empires on my phone
And if I get somewhere early
I have like 15 minutes to play find something that you look forward to doing if you get there early because it's actually really hard
To do anything on time. It's easier to do it early
But you have to find a way to make doing early
Tolerable for your brain cricket star says, what are the best fidgets that don't distract others. I'm a really big fan of the tangle
It's really not distracting. But it's it's engaging to me. It's engaging enough that I can use it without getting distracted
And it doesn't distract other people
But it still helps me keep my attention on my task because it's engaging enough that my brain doesn't bounce all over the room
But you kind of have to figure out what works for you. Some people need a little more stimulation
Some people need something less stimulating. Some people might do well with a paper clip
Really just try it out and see what works for you
I would say alehna keen asks
What was your biggest struggle as a kid with ADHD because I am struggling with it and I'm a kid
Personally it it changed ADHD can change over time?
So I was originally diagnosed with a DD and I was more of the what would call
What would now be called the inattentive presentation?
But I actually got a little bit more of the impulsivity and hyperactivity as I got older
Some people start out with the hype wreck a lot of hyperactivity and just become kind of restless
Internally as they get older so it can change for you for me as a kid
It was it was very very inattentive. It was a lot of daydreaming a lot of forgetting my stuff. I got really really
Acquainted with the lost-and-found box at my school as I hit my teenage years. I was dealing a lot with impulsive behaviors and emotional dysregulation
Became a real issue for me. I had a lot of trouble with executive function
Organizing prioritizing planning all of that stuff
I would just jump from thing to thing and forget what I was doing and get distracted and I struggled quite a bit
I was
I love to read so I I was really good in subjects like English, but things like math and science
I just had a really hard time focusing on then see something asks. Do you have videos or advice for burnouts and sensory overload?
Yeah, we actually did it was more from meltdowns, but we did a video about making glitter bottles, which really cool
I'll link to that in the description and we also did a to our glitter bottle
So if you're overwhelmed
Then you just want something like pretty to look at and kind of help you calm down for a little bit
I'll link to that video as well
And when you get burned out I find for me that the most helpful thing is to take a break from whatever it is
I'm burned out on and so for me personally
I'm not really good at just sitting still and doing nothing and relaxing in a peaceful garden
Even though that's ironic because we're sitting in a peaceful garden at the moment, but I'm also doing something
I'm not good at just relaxing personally
But I at least give my brain a break from whatever it is that was burning me out personally
I find meditation really helpful for that. I can just have half an hour or however long I feel like sitting still that day
okay to just take a break from
Input essentially, so that's that's what works for me Morgan asks can an attendant brain still be hyper sometimes
Yes, it's called primarily inattentive presentation. That doesn't mean that you don't have any of the hyperactive-impulsive
Traits and many people with inattentive presentations do send bitch Sartre asked
Can you be diagnosed with ADHD and something else? Yes, and it's common it's very common for 80 ADHD to come with comorbidities
It's what they call it basically another condition anxiety depression autism
OCD there's a lot of different things that can come along with ADHD
including learning disabilities like dyslexia
Melonie Diaz asks, what do you tell someone when they say ADHD is just an excuse
There are two kinds of people who tend to say this one or people who don't believe
ADHD is real to which I would refer them to any of the research that we've done over the past 50 years. I don't know
They they just don't understand or they don't think it's real because they read a headline
So I I try to be patient with those people, but I try not to spend too much energy on them
If they believe that you're using it as an excuse, that's a different thing. Sometimes you it is possible to use
Right like oh I've ADHD
I can't do that because and this is how I feel about it
If I'm short I can't reach the tall shelves because I'm short. I'm too short to reach it
It's an explanation if I'm like, I'm short. I can't reach that top shelf
I'm gonna need a step stool if I'm gonna reach that tall shelf
It's an excuse if I'm like, I just can't reach it
Somebody else is gonna have to do this for me so that to me is the difference between an excuse and an explanation
ADHD is an explanation for why we have struggles. It's only an excuse if we're like can't do it
I have ADHD, so maybe explain that to them. Ooh. Naughty Kippur asks, how do you choose the right career path?
I've tried everything worked at corporate taught students training counseling HR music etc
I'm 26 years old now and thinking of going for PhD because I feel like I'm behind others and it's the only way I can
Get my self-esteem back. How should we 82 years deal with our career issues?
This is actually a really common situation for people with ADHD
it
Seems like we kind of need to explore a lot of different options
Before we settle on something that we want to do long-term and I think that that's okay
A neurotypical person might be able to be like this is my career path
And this is what I'm gonna do and this makes the most sense for my life and their brain goes
okay, let's prioritize that and make it happen our brains prioritize a little differently and
Our brains need to be engaged in the work that we're doing
And so sometimes we do this for a while while it's engaging and then it's no longer engaging for us
And so we try something else and it's no longer engaging for us. And I think that that's okay because
what we tend to do is like
B's like we go from flower to flower and then we take that pollen and bring it to the new place so if you've tried
a bunch of different things
Whatever you end up doing even if it's only for a short period of time is going to benefit from all of the other things
That you've tried and I think that that's something that's maybe underappreciated about people with ADHD
Yeah, we might not settle into it the same job for 30 years
But that's not the way that the world is starting to work anyway
So I don't think there's anything wrong with that and as far as needing to go for a PhD to get your self-esteem back
I really relate to that I
Dropped out of Community College and for a long time. I felt really bad about that. Like I should have gone to a university
I should have gotten a degree then I could respect myself
But I will link to somebody named Lydia brown who's a disability advocate who has autism actually and they at the pan
Yesterday brought up a really good point, which is that sometimes those of us with disabilities
are only valued for our ability to overcome those disabilities and get to a certain level of success and they challenge that that
concept
Why are we any less valuable as people if we dropped out of college versus got a PhD?
Why can't we be respected if we work waiting tables versus you know have a successful YouTube channel. It doesn't change who you are
You're still the same person and you're still deserving as Renae brown says which I will always
also link to you're deserving of love and belonging and you are enough just as you are if you want to get to a
certain level of you know
Financial success or social acclaim. Okay, but
You are deserving just as you are and your self esteem doesn't need to depend on that Lowell Unicorn asks
Okay, so I cry a lot and I'm really sensitive and emotional
ADHD is to blame, right basically
Yeah, so I did an episode on emotional dysregulation
Which I'll link to in the description and it's something interesting that I'm going to be talking about soon, which is rejection sensitive dysphoria
That's dr. William Dodson's term for that sensitivity that ADHD years tend to feel so I'll be doing an episode on that
Look for that soon Michelle Maloney asks, how do you deal with finances when you are a married couple?
Do you know what programs to use édouard actually built a spreadsheet for this which is something we might be putting into a future episode
To be able to share with you guys
But here's the basics we take our money and put it all in one pot
And then from that money we take out
allowances for ourselves each week
just as just a little bit of money into each of our separate accounts every week that we can spend and that
Way if we run out of money
We don't spend stuff that we can't afford to spend because it's going to build that is separate, right?
like I'm never gonna buy a pair of shoes that I like and not be able to pay my bills because it's got
completely a separate account and
Two if I run out of money, which happens
I only have to wait a few days before I have money again and in that big pot groceries come out of that
So I'm not gonna starve
I might not be able to go out to eat
But I'm not gonna starve cecilia morrison says how long does it take to see improvement to start meds or the techniques to improve?
It depends on the medication strattera is a non stimulant non stimulants tend to take a while
It has to build up in your system the same with antidepressants stimulant medication
You can tell really quickly those kick in within usually, I mean, it depends on your metabolism
But for most people within like half an hour to two hours
You can feel a difference but a responsible
Psychiatrist will often start you at so low a dose that you don't feel a huge difference because they want to find the minimum effective
dose the the lowest amount that they can give you that's effective for you because they don't want to overdose you and stimulant medication if
It doesn't work for you
It also leaves your system really quickly - so I'm not a doctor talk to your doctor about it
But yeah stimulants. Usually you can tell fairly quickly super brain asks. Why are you so busy? What have you been up to?
Not for me. I need something to send the people who keep asking this stuff. Okay?
so here's the
unfortunate part of being a youtuber is I have a lot more people talking to me that I can possibly talk back to you which
is horrible for me because if I could I would take
Everybody that I meet out to coffee and just sit down and be like, let's talk about your life like what's going on?
let's be friends and keep in touch and
There's only one of me and there's many many of you and so it's really hard for me to get to everybody's messages
I'm working on systems so that you can you can get responses back
But it's it's difficult. And also I'm kind of introverted in a lot of ways
So I also get flooded socially sometimes and I just need to cocoon for a little while
So if you don't hear from me on social media for a while
It means I overextended myself and I need to pull back for a while. But if
You know
If you're wondering why I can't put out a video every day
these videos take a really long time to make I think somebody else asked -
Why aren't you making as many videos each you used to our videos are getting much better
the research process is a lot more solid the
Editing the the writing everything is getting I think better and that takes more time
We're working on on scaling it back a little bit and doing videos like this where I can interact with you guys without it taking
80 hours for an episode but our short little you know
Six seven minute episodes looks but it takes a lot of work to make it look simple if that makes sense
Like I'm taking sometimes really dense
You know research papers and information and trying to translate that into something that's very easy to talk about and not just that
Translation process takes me some time. So thank you for bearing with that. And also I'm starting to do podcasts outreach
I went to a conference yesterday. I'm trying to reach out to the community
I'm trying to reach out to teachers and mental health professionals and talk to them and be a voice for you guys
so that those who aren't watching YouTube can still
hear you can still know what our experience is like and so I'm trying to trying to find a good balance between creating content for
The channel and and doing outreach in other areas. So yeah, I am doing my best. So thank you for being patient
Cool kid awesome asks, I'm the king of all the procrastinators
Congratulations, you want majesty? How can I fix this?
I set myself reminders all the time and I still have missing assignments in school PS IV impulsivity and hyperactivity of the ADHD side
okay, um yes procrastination
The first thing I would say is why are you procrastinating because it's gonna be different sometimes than others
So sometimes it's because well, yeah, I'm doing something that's really engaging to my brain and I don't want to stop and do something
That's boring right you're procrastinating because your brain is like that does not look interesting
I do not want to do that right for that. I find it helpful to whatever is engaging my brain
I just step away from it for like 60 seconds. Right? Like I can put it down for 60 seconds
And then that gives my brain a break to like detach from the thing. I've been hyper focusing on and
transition to the thing that I've not as much been looking forward to
Another reason why we procrastinate though is we don't know where to start right like we want to do it
But where we begin, it just looks like a giant block
And how do you get to the top of this giant block when you're like this big?
Or your attention span into this video, I guess and this is how you break it down into steps
So you take that?
giant block and you carve it down into steps and taking that first step is a lot easier than trying to figure out how I'm
Gonna get from here to up here. So
That can be really small. It can be as simple as if you have to write a paper for school
What's a very first step open your laptop?
you know go to the library, whatever that first step is take first step and
It can be helpful to have all the steps written out for you
So if you have something that you do regularly
You can write down all the steps and keep them where you know somewhere where you can find them again so that you can reference
That but if it's just a one-off project
You don't have to know every step just figure out what the first three steps are and get started and once you get started
It's a lot easier to keep going. I find that I procrastinate the most when I have not started yet
Lalla battle asks, when if ever will you be bringing back merch? Yes, we are
We are actually working on some merch for VidCon
If you're gonna be at VidCon, we're gonna do some giveaways if you're not gonna be at VidCon
We're working on
partnering up with some people to be able to do other kinds of giveaways while we're at VidCon because we don't want you to feel
Left out hashtag. No promises. We still have to get them to agree to this after VidCon
We don't know but we're gonna try and get merch out sometime this summer for sure. Eldritch Dwarf
I love these names you guys are so creative
Asks, if the videos are getting too long to have question time at the end of the video then why not have an entire video?
For question time at the end of every month
I don't know if it would necessarily
Be at the end of the month or at some point in the month or every month
But I will definitely start to do full question time videos. That's that's what I can promise
You know what? I'm working on under promising and over-delivering
That's it for this question time vlog
Thank you to my brain
advocates and all my patreon brains for making videos like this and the one that Edward is working on and you can't see it because
It's not finished yet possible
If you like this video and you want to see more question time videos like eldritch Dwarf suggests
Maybe one that one a month
Let me know and ask your hashtag question time questions in the description below and yeah, check out the links
I put some really cool links in the description for you guys as well
Like subscribe click all the things and I will see you next week. Bye brains