(VIDEO) Why I'm leaving the ADHD diagnosis behind

Good afternoon, Joe. Hello, thank you for having me. This is gonna be a long time. So this afternoon I'm recording this episode of the podcast with my own coach, Joseph Pack. Welcome, Joe. So I missed out the word ADHD when I said coach. So Joe is my ADHD coach. But I deliberately omitted the word ADHD, even though it's not a word. Uh, because the focus of this episode is about leaving the ADHD label behind, potentially.

We're not dismissing ADHD. Uh Joe and I both have it, we're both ADHD coaches. But we're questioning how how tightly we need to hang on to those letters, not a word, ADHD. Now, before we unpack this a little bit further, and there's no no pun intended on your surname there, Joe. Um As this is something for the Busy Brain podcast, what does having a busy brain mean to you?

Um well that is good and I'd not even thought it out transferring. What you're saying what you're saying, Joe, is you're challenging me in no, I'm challenging you I'm challenging you in the way that you challenge me then.

I would say having a busy brain, what does it mean to me? I would say it's extremely bloody annoying, actually. Um but I also think and I again I think that question is really relevant to why we're doing this episode and the conversation you and I had a week ago that people weren't privy to but might hear a lot of that in a minute.

Is that I actually think that the diagnosis of ADHD, which was ten years ago for me now, m almost justified and normalized the busyness of my brain. So that it became Not only an identification, but and people do not like the word I'm about to use now, but it is for me, I don't really mind what other people say about themselves, but an excuse to not work on the things that are typically challenges for people who are diagnosed with this thing called ADHD.

That that's it, I think. So I don't I don't think that The busy brain is necessarily a problem to be diagnosed. And if we're diagnosed with something like a disorder. It's so easy. I'm quite a strong minded person. I mean, you can see that from my content and over the years and the things I've done in my career and whatever. But even I was just totally wrapped up in the in the the diagnostic explanation of ADHD to the point where I actually think that the diagnostic explanation of ADHD

governed my behaviour and actions and certainly limited me. I don't think it explained me. I think it actually was almost subconsciously manipulating me to be a certain way. It's in it's interesting that you say limits you, because I I think your experience is probably not dissimilar to my own when you're working with clients.

Um, from my perspective, a client will invariably come to me fresh off the back of a relatively recent diagnosis. They're having a mini identity crisis. And they're consumed by those four letters A D H D. And and they want to know what it means and make sense of things. And If you take the, you know, if you take the ADHD away from someone, what are you left with? Exactly the same thing, exactly the same person. You're left with an individual. And

I I've had that own experience through my clients. I've had that own experience myself. You you try and explore what ADHD means to you rather than actually understanding yourself. You know, I I I know from my diagnosis about twelve years back I told everyone I'd got ADHD for about two years. That's all I talked about. I didn't even know what it meant to me. Me too. That's exactly exactly what I did. And you know, when I got diagnosed with ADHD, I was struggling the most

that I had ever struggled in my life. I was twenty six and uh I had not long come out of hospital after having the seizures that, you know, anyone that knows me knows about. And I was desperately seeking something stable to hold on to. And I couldn't find it. I was very, very I really was very, very lonely at the time. And I was Seeking success at any cost. And it wasn't coming. Even though that is completely and utterly subjective, what does that use? What was behind that then? I don't know.

I really don't. And I don't think it even matters. Like it was obviously, you know, it was it was probably mimetic desire, I think. And I think that that if you don't know what memetic desire is means it was a coined by Rene Girard, the philosopher. And it's basically where It expla I think it explains human behaviour to a T, which is that we will often take on the characteristic characteristics of those around us.

completely subconsciously. We we've no control over it. We often want what the others in the community want. right down to the very specific colour of something, we can often fall into it. And you think, why do people with ADHD all seem to be similar to each other when you get them in a room? It's not because of some diagnosis, it's because of mimetic desire. And I think that that's exactly the same thing that happened to me in my mid twenties.

It was around about the time that, you know, things like Instagram and YouTube and stuff were really flying. And I worked in the marketing world and marketing agencies and that's what I owned. And it was all about Success and growth and ego and one-upmanship and all this kind of thing. And you just fall into it, and no matter how well you

are doing objectively, you don't feel that you're doing well. And actually, when I look back to say that I was twenty I mean, I was twenty two or twenty-one when I started that business. To think about how well we were doing, not just financially, which was great, but in terms of like the clients we worked with and what were opportunities we had at twenty three was just bloody ridiculous. But I didn't feel it. Mm. Didn't feel it at all. Felt like it just wasn't working, but it it really was.

And then we're not going to be able to

Three years later I obviously get this diagnosis of ADHD and finally something to hold onto, something to tell everybody. You know that you know that you know that how I'm not very good at that thing, it's because of this ADHD. You know how I was late then? That's because of ADHD. Do you know?

And then all of a sudden there's like a relaxation. A lot of people that get diagnosed with ADHD'cause I've obviously I've spoken to so many people that have been diagnosed with ADHD over the past Several years, there's either a kind of like um uh a feeling of um uh what do you call it? Grieving. That's it. I couldn't I couldn't think of the word. There's a grieving or there's a great weight lifter.

Well the great that was for me, it was a great weightlifter. Why? Because all of a sudden I didn't have to try harder to be on time for I just said I've got ADHD. And some and some people I've worked with take that to the absolute extreme and it doesn't improve it makes their life significantly worse. And there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that they could that they could there's nothing stopping them from learning how to be on time.

But the diagnosis of ADHD. Listen, I'm being very careful with the wording. I'm not saying ADHD. I'm saying the diagnosis of ADHD is actually making it easier for them to not try to. Be on time. I'm not saying that it's easy for us to be on time. I'm not saying that people with busy brains I much prefer that. I much prefer the idea that we have busy brains. There's perhaps some people with busy brains and some people that don't have busy brains. It doesn't have to be a disorder.

I'm not saying that it's not difficult for us to be on time. I know it is. So I'm not denying that. But it doesn't mean that we cannot learn to be on time. We can. The diagnosis of ADHD c for some people, for a lot of people, can make it much more difficult for them to be on time. That's the interesting totally counterintuitive.

And that's the thing. Go on, go for it. You you said about the about the diagnosis. You and you said specifically about the diagnosis. So what is it about Uh it's I guess there's multiple different lenses to look at that through. I suppose in at the time at twenty six year years old all I could find were positive. But but with the benefit of hindsight, ten years later I don't think that they were positives at all.

And I think that they l I think over the last ten years I have significantly limited myself in my attempt and effort to get better at the things that I believed I could never get good at because I have this disorder. Mm. And Dr. Sami Timimi Timimi, who I think is one of the wisest people when he who um on the subject of ADHD and autism. in his book Searching for Normal, he actually says in there

that everyone in the sort of ADHD influencer space and I've been guilty of this as well. So I'll hold my hands up. Has said, you know, people with an AD people with ADHD are more likely to commit suicide. People with ADHD are more likely to do X, Y, and Z, very, very negative things.

He says if you really closely look at the data it's actually nothing to do with ADHD, it's to do with the diagnosis. Mm. So people diagnosed with ADHD are much more likely to commit suicide. That's true. But it's got nothing to do with ADHD. It's to do with the diagnosis. But that's the separation. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. So once you and it and this is really prevalent with autism where, you know, children that have been diagnosed with autism hard are then uh particularly boys

then just feel completely limited in their in in their like, well, what's the point? And they and he's he he has told me, and I think he wrote about this in the book, in Searching for Normal. You know, he he's he was by the way, he was a consultant psychiatrist in the NHS for like forty years. So he's seen all of these cases time and time again.

You know, young boys trying to kill themselves basically at like nine, ten, eleven, twelve years old, because they believe that this diagnosis of autism is means that their life will be crap. Like they'll never achieve anything whatsoever. And when he's basically lifted the shackles of that diagnosis from them and said, You don't have autism and then then works with the person

Doesn't mean it doesn't have struggles. This boy has struggled the boys have struggles. But once that's lifted, then he can help them see positive future and they change completely.

And I that's that is why I have dropped my ADHD diagnosis because I'm c I'm saying twenty twenty six is the year of shattering l my limiting beliefs. I have spent l the last decade swimming in limiting beliefs. Go on, give me give me give me some examples. Okay. So, for example, uh no not consistently exercising.

intermittent so for example, not having a habit dashboard like habit tracker on the wall in my office, right? Because I think, well, what's the point? I've got ADHD. I'll never sti I'll never put all the crosses in. you know, each thing. Or like um learning a language. So actually I have been

wanting to learn a language for so long. But I just believed what how it's such a difficult thing to do. And someone with ADHD, that's gonna be even more that's gonna be so much more difficult. How can I stick with it? Yeah. Exactly. I've lifted that from me. I've been learning Italian and I'm sticking to it every single day. Right. It's a what's been the what's been the difference there? That the I believe now. I believe I can do it now. There's no excuse now.

Like so for example, oh I've missed a day. Uh from a habit, oh ADHD, I'll never get back on it again. Now it's like, oh I've missed a day, I'll just do it tomorrow. It was just a switch. Something there were several things that happened last year that would that have led up to this.

There are things like people in the AD you know, a lot of I felt like the conversation of of ADHD and autism. I'm I'm using autism because my son is v very severely autistic, so I'm very much in that world. So The conversation is just being dominated by celebrities who just talk out their arse all the time. They have no idea what they're talking about.

Which is why if you go and pay close attention to, say, Doctor Sami Timimi, Dr Asad Rafi, right, people who are very trustworthy, they will tell you something completely different to what these celebrities are spouting. And uh but the but because of the nature of the world that we live in, the obviously the doctors don't aren't the ones that people are listening to. They're just listening to the celebrities and the celebrities are wrong. So

You know. That and so there was that. And then I stu I've started to sort of pull out, pull away from that kind of ADHD world a little bit. I'm still coaching clients and I really do enjoy that. Swim. Yeah. Um but it And then then I just made the decision to to drop the diagnosis to see what would happen. You know, it's if it's just for one year of my life and I and I and I was to go back to it in twenty twenty seven, so be it. But

There's no way that's gonna happen now. And it was um now that I can see that it's like The the bit the the most important thing really is If I don't stick to the habit, then it's okay, I'll get back on the horse tomorrow. And that wasn't the case for ten years. There was always that. Oh, ADHD makes that way more difficult. Oh, ADHD. And it's just an excuse. Mm-hmm.

Well obviously you've been diagnosed with ADHD and y what when I when I th there are gonna be some people listening to this they're gonna be so unbelievably offended. And you know and that gets me on to another point that we can come to later, which is that ADHD is not is not

The most prevalent part of the ADHD is not the diagnosis, is it? It's the identity. Yeah. If we were talking we were talking about diabetes, type say type one diabetes that most peop that's genetic, no one's gonna get offended. If we talk about it say, Oh maybe it's n maybe the doctors have got it all wrong, like look at all this data, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah no one's gonna get offended. But as soon as as soon as you start talking about ADHD, it's not

We're not it's almost s we're not talking about a diagnosis anymore, a medical thing. We're just talking about an identification. And actually you can go to to a Christian or a Jew or, you know, a Hindu and debate them all day about their religion. But you try and do that, someone who is diagnosed with ADHD and wedded to the neurodiversity movement. You will not be able to debate them. They will shut you down immediately.

So what's that? That's like okay, if we do look at that through a religious lens. What are we doing? Or is it like arguing with a fundamentalist Christian or something? Or or you know, there are obviously religious people out there that will not debate you, but they tend to be the most hardcore extreme fundamentalists.

Try debating with a neurodiversity person who believes in neurodiversity, you will get the exact same response. They just won't have the conversation. I think there's something here around I think so many people will have had that formal diagnosis.

will have tried to figure out what that means to them. Uh, they'll have disappeared down a rabbit hole googling things and reading every textbook under the planet and going, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me. Um I found through

Through coaching, one of the best ways to to s to sort of understand yourself and understand ADHD is talking to people with that life experience, particularly those who might be further on in you know, further on down the road. Um But then I think there's a challenge sometimes from and I'm guilty of it, when you find your tribe, you want to find other neurodivergents, you mix with other people, and it's

Great because you can have th you can still have that narrative of, Oh, that's just ADHD but then you laugh about it collectively. And and and I think that becomes the norm. And and I've noticed it with me that a laugh about those things. And that takes away from how Utterly debilitating it can be. Now

I I think there are there are clearly better ways of exploring ourselves, of unearthing our potential. Um This brings me into coaching with with with you. Now um You and I first had a conversation, I think about three years ago. And I think I said to you back then

I can see myself working with you at some point, but I don't think that point is is me right now. And that's cool because you're probably the fifth, maybe sixth coach I've had. Um And you work with different coaches at different at different points i in terms of where you are at and the coach that meets your needs for where you are at. Um, but what I particularly like about working with you, Joe, and this is s this sort of extends to anyone listening.

Is you challenge the good in me. You challenge me when I put those limitations on myself. So I I think having those people around you that can support you, that can champion you. enable you to lean into the best of yourself and explore that. And you do bloody challenge me, you really do, but I like that. I like the fact that often it's deeply uncomfortable and I sit there because I know I'm also in that safe space that you provide. To explore what could be if I looked at things differently.

And I think the benefit, you know, not a coaching plug, but the benefit of seeing things through a coaching lens is you're looking at what you're looking at how you move forward. And I think you and I have both got to a point Uh very you know, it very much aligns with each other. You know, working together we've had those conversations where we are both realizing the things that have been holding us back, but we also know what we are capable of.

And I think... that limitation that people can impose on themselves through ADHD as a label. Can be incredibly frustrating as a coach when you see so much potential. So um, you know, it I I think we need to be, we need to look at How we better ourselves, how we better explore ourselves. And sometimes that is a case of asking ourselves uncomfortable questions around are the people who are my tribe, are the people I'm around. Holding me back? Yeah. Or do I just need some more people in my life?

Who see the way I see things, see the potential, see the, you know, the the world changing innovations that you've got, and and allow you to get there.

And I I genuinely believe that the removal of an ADHD diagnosis that has to be a completely and utterly personal decision, of course, is the gateway to being able to do that. And I think that the AHD diagnosis will always be a weight around the neck of a person who even has the intention to do those things, like me. You know the other thing is that you know

If anyone and a lot of people are going to be disagreeing with this and that's fine. Again, it's good actually. And that we shouldn't you know, the people in the neurodiversity space I was talking about five minutes ago that won't have anyone disagree with them, they need to just

shut up for a bit because there is an opportunity to have a conversation between two people that completely disagree with each other and see where we can get to. And it doesn't even if you get to the end of that conversation and you haven't changed your mind, so what?

There may have been one little thing that maybe helps you see something slightly differently, so long as we can be open. But I will say this and this is gonna probably upset people. An ADHD diagnosis is actually extremely easy to get. And I would

I I feel quite confident I would be able to pick anyone off the street and within thirty minutes train them to get one. Now, of course, forgetting the fact that you some If an ADHD diagnosis is done properly, you know, family members and stuff need to have written basically a a a report about you or answer some questions at least, but not all ADHD diagnoses are done that way.

But, you know, if you look at the diagnostic criteria, it says things like ex excessive fidgeting, excessive distractability, excessive blah blah blah. Well what the hell does excessive mean? Yeah. So there are two th ways of looking at this. One is you and I might have totally different views of what excessive means.

Two psychiatrists might have two different views of what excessive means. That's just in this country. Now imagine that in Japan, for example, excessive is very different to in Indonesia.

So how the hell can you know with absolute certainty that the thing that you are being diagnosed with is correct? Especially when if scientists are being completely honest about this, that there is no DNA link with ADHD. There's no gene found that's ADHD at all. So and there's certainly nothing in brain scans, at least s brain scans that are non fraudulent. So It's a subjective thing.

So that again does not mean that people who have been diagnosed with ADHD are not distractable and late and fidgety. But also you might have been diagnosed with ADHD at, say, eleven. and be very fidgety and blah blah blah, but now you're thirty and you're not anymore. Mm. And a all these people in the neurodiversity world on LinkedIn and Instagram will tell you that it's for life. It's not for life.

Because it's just a word. It's not even a word. Like you said, it's just a collection of letters pointing to a description of something. It's not diabetes. It's not cancer. It's not a heart attack. It's not those things. And I and I think if you describe that's it. And and I think that that that's it.

Well on that DNA on the DNA DNA thing, I don't think people realise there have actually been tens of thousands of people, tens of thousands of people who have been analyzed in genetic heritability studies. um, who have been diagnosed with ADHD and they're they found nothing. Mm.

And so it's so much so, so they found so little that now occasionally if you're on the internet you'll find that people talk about this thing called the missing heritability link. I don't know if you've heard of that before. No, I haven't. talking about the missing heritability link. And what they're basically saying is

We couldn't find anything in the tens of thousands of people that we've tested over all these studies. So there must be something though. I mean look at us all. We're all the same, aren't we? We're different to those people over there. So there must be something. So it that's the missing thing. We're just still looking for it.

That's not how science works. Science must that's basically coming at it from the assumption that something exists. Science doesn't work like that. I'm no scientist, but the very basic uh uh a foundation of science is that you start from something called a null hypothesis, which basically means you start under the assumption that there's nothing there.

So basically if you're so let's use ADHD medication as an example, which is a you know, a controversial subject. Uh ADHD medication. One that you enjoy talking about. One that I enjoy talking about. Yeah. So ADHD medication of big pharma should do all of their research based on the assumption that it does not work and that it's dangerous. And they have to prove that that's wrong. So it's the opposite. They have to prove that it doesn't work and that it's dangerous is wrong.

Mm. I I'm being really careful with my words there. They're not they're not starting off with a the assumption that it's wrong and proving that it works. They're proving that the assumption that it's that it's dangerous is wrong. That's actually different. To proving that it's not dangerous. Yeah, see yeah, yeah. That's how also but they don't do it that way. Which is why you get

I was literally just talking to someone the other day and I'm not gonna disclose their name at all. But uh he was in he's someone who is in his late forties, I believe, been diagnosed with AHD recently. And he was in a relationship with someone who had two children, two boys, teenagers, and their father died when the they were eight and ten.

And he the young the younger one who is now in his maybe, I don't know, thirteen or something, he has been diagnosed with ADHD and has been put on ADHD medication. Okay. If you look at if you believe a lot again, another controversial figure in the ADHD world, Gabo Mate. Gabo Mate says that ADHD is really a A again, Gabriel Masi says ADHD is not a lifelong condition, right? He says that again and again and again. Mm. Well, obviously, this boy who has f father died at eight.

he's expi has experienced extreme trauma and it's manifesting as what looks like this thing called ADHD. So basically they put him on these stimulants. But now these stimulants are an inflammatory. So they inflame the entire body basically. And then they uh are uh hunger suppressant as well. So he's basically um taking the medication all day and then coming home and then binge eating junk food, which is then inflaming the body even more.

Mm. Well, that just makes him need more medication the next day because if his body's inflamed, then he thi what these so called ADHD symptoms will be significantly more severe the next day. Yeah. Well let's use what we said, the busy brain will be so busy than the ADHD medication, oh, it looks like it works.

it seems to make him focus. Well it will do, it's a stimulant. But then there's more inflammation and it's a cycle and it adds and adds and adds and adds and adds and adds. And then after three to five years that's when people generally come to me or have done the past few years because They did once believe that this ADHD medication was some sort of like magic miracle thing that was gonna make them feel better, which it does feel like that for eighteen months, but then it doesn't. Yep.

So so yeah, I mean it's it's It's such a difficult subject because I just really I I hope that people do understand that I'm not trying to take anything away from the individual struggles of anyone. I'm not saying you're not distracted and fidgety and um Apparently.

makes you have ADHD. I'm just saying I don't think the ADHD diagnosis itself and what that leads to, which is limited beliefs, potential medication, and everything, all the bad stuff that comes with that, I don't think is very good for us. Yeah, I think... I just I was frantically scribbling away so that I didn't um uh have that wayward train uh moment like I did about five minutes ago. And I think what's what's interesting here, Joe, is You and I, for very different reasons, have

have had a reason to explore what what can support ADHD. So we've we've opened the door to Ex exploring things beyond medication. When I was diagnosed I didn't know I didn't know what I wanted to achieve from the diagnosis. I just wanted to make sense of things. I was working in I'd prev previously worked in sales and marketing. And there was there was order systems, process, protocol. Um so I knew what I was working with and if information came in I knew where to store it.

And then I went and worked in the charity sector. And it was the most multifaceted job role I'd ever had. And Data storage was what? I've got a word doc or a scrumpled up piece of paper over there with some notes on and I I couldn't make sense of things, so I couldn't make sense of my brain. And because I was struggling, and I know why I was struggling looking back on it, hindsight and the experience and knowledge I've acquired since.

But I was looking for answers and I thought one of those answers was getting um was exploring the ADHD diagnosis. And then I still spent two years trying to explore how that was the answer and I tried different I tr tried different medications, I tried stimulants, I tried non stimulants. The side effects were horrific. I won't go into them because some of them were deeply personal. Um, but it they were horrific. So I had to go Okay, what needs to change here?

Now, I was working in the charity sector so I could put my heart and my energy into things. I I remember asking the head of Wales programs at a Christmas party after a few beers, why why I was chosen for the role. Wha and he said you beat sixty eight other applicants and I would say And I say, What was it about me? And he said, You're a rough diamond. There was that energy. There was something about you. And he'd say, I'd say that was because of your ADHD.

So I got in there because of me before I knew I had ADHD. I got in there because of me. That was that was it. Yeah. The slowest I moved moving forwards was those two years when I got the ADHD diagnosis and I tried to figure out what the fuck it actually meant to me. Mm-hmm. But you know a and and I know that nothing was that that the medication wasn't helping. Um When I found medication that calmed my brain.

It didn't turn me into that guy who could just go out there and sign up people left, right, and centre. People would say, How do you do that? I I dunno, it just it's just something that I do. Exactly. And I think I you know, I would like you to give your account of why you had to explore alternatives. Um and I and I I know you're you're a a deep long avid learner. You have this thirst for knowledge. Um you've you've quoted people and books and speakers like no one I've ever heard before.

Um and that was actually how I was going to introduce you, but I thought, no, I'll I'll see if he drops a few in and you haven't let me down. Okay. Yeah. But I'd I think it would be really beneficial for people to hear that you had to explore alternatives to medication because it wasn't, you know, the magic pill. So, you know, please, you know, give a give a little bit of a of a backstory, Joe.

Yeah, I mean so you know, I did try the medication for a couple of weeks, but it was and I shouldn't have done. I wasn't supposed to because I'd had these seizures in twenty sixteen and they were caused by exhaustion and caffeine, basically a huge amount of caffeine that I was taking every single day. Um in a form of coffee. And um I had no choice, basically, but to explore other methods. And I I found that, you know, meditation breathing techniques, cold exposure were very, very beneficial.

And then actually in the last two years or so I've found particularly diet and exercise have been extremely important. You know Oh God, you could get so nerdy about this, but it's it's Go on, go on, don't surprise me, Joe. You know, like it's it's mad how. Okay, so if you go into a supermarket and look at the ingredients on everything that you buy in your shopping trolley, if you don't recognize one of the, say, several ingredients in it, put it back on the shelf immediately.

And if you do that, that's a really quick, sort of shortcut. You'll feel better very quickly. Uh without going into a huge amount. So it'll be an it'll if you don't exp un if you don't have never heard of that ingredient or can't go and find it in a field somewhere, then it will be made in a factory. And therefore it will be ultra-processed.

And what you're doing there is making a conscious decision. Yeah. Your body will not be able to process it properly. And as there's so much evidence on this, it's been led by a what's it called again? Well, there's Doctor Tim Spector, who has got a TV show on Channel Four at the moment. Um, and he's part of hi what company is he part of now? Bloody Hell Forgotten.

You'll f go and Google Dr. Tim Spectrum and you'll find there's a like a company that he's like the chief scientist, ch science officer for, or chief medical f officer for. And basically um You can put it in the link afterwards. Yeah, the research has shown that um ultraprocessed foods effectively kills your microbiome. Microbiome, it's called. And the microbiome is like trillions of little cells that live inside your stomach. And when you eat, they basically eat the food you've eaten.

Certain foods help the microbiome flourish, even grow in number. So things like fermented foods like kimchi, kombucha, Temper, tofu, that kind of thing. That that helps to grow the microbiome that actually increases the numbers.

foods that are ultra processed. So like for example, um most of the things in the freezer aisle in the supermarket, most of the things on the crisps and the chocolate aisle, pr most of the things in the supermarket, unfortunately, have some one or more um ultra processed additive in that. serves really either one of two purposes, to keep it on the shelf longer or to make it uniform. So I don't know why this comes to mind, but if you look at, for example, a Cadbury's finger.

Right. Every single you could line up every single cabra's finger that's ever been made in history, billions and billions of them, every single one will look exactly the same. That is ultra processed. Um but there are different categories of food. There is natural food, which is milk, for example. And then there's processed food, which is cheese. So it's taking milk and processing it into cheese.

Now, you can make an ultra processed cheese, like for example, a cheese string. You're not gonna be able to make a cheese string outside of a lob a lab. It'd have to be in a lab or a factory, right? Once you cut all of those things out of your diet and I've just given you the easiest shortcut in the world, which is to look on the back of the packet and if it's if it's got an ingredient on you don't understand, put it back, that will make an enormous difference to you.

One of the main reasons for that is because it will help you sleep better. So even if you're getting, say, eight hours of sleep a night, lucky you, I don't even get that. That's the joy of having little children. But if you do, it's likely that if you're eating all the processed foods and all all the habits that may not be very good for the ol for the body, sleep will be poor. And poor sleep also leads to inflammation. And then inflammation makes things like

fidgeting, distractability, lateness, blah blah blah. More difficult to deal with. And there's no wonder that you're struggling. And by the way, Doctor Chris Van Tulliken, again, another wonderful doctor, said, It's not your fault. I totally agree with him. Of course it's not your fault. The supermarket is stacked full of foods that's toxic. Mm-hmm. But we don't know we don't know. They're also so addictive it's really difficult not to eat those foods. I'm not perfect, by the way.

Oh and I and I'm massively struggling with with sugar cravings at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. Again it's just it's a vicious cycle. And eating these ultra processed foods makes it more difficult to have the motivation or to to exercise. Then f but then on the flip side, exercising can make it easier to eat better food.

Yeah. So it's an it's it's all s you know, if we went back a hundred years, not only would there not have been ADHD around, there would there wouldn't have been because it w there wouldn't have been an environment for it to flourish. Because the the people worked with their bodies physically. There was no such thing as ultra processed food at all. And there were no screens.

Apart from what we're going, what, nineteen twenty six, there would have been a black and white T V with two channels at one. You know, people read books there's this v fascinating book that was about working class people in the north of England who were basically working in a mine all day. or factory and then going home and reading these extremely intellectual books and having book group meetings about it.

No, it was host a completely different time. And now, as one scientist said, I I forget his name, that our brains have not developed to cut to t take in the amount of information that we that we have today. So we're we're fucked really and and but we can we can undo it. And I genuinely believe that the first step is questioning this diagnosis.

But without but but but but still respecting the fact that you are distracted and fidgeting and and blah blah blah. Still respecting all those things and going, right, okay, one by one I can work on these things and it and this ADHD thing it's not for life.

This is a environment, it's totally environment. And in fact it could be it's it's not just environmental, it's cultural as well. I think it's a cultural construct. And I think there were there were things that you said there, and again I was frantically scribbling scribbling things down. Because I think it's it's important for for us to sort of make some of the connections, connect some of those dots for for people listening.

I think and I'm gonna be processing this out loud. There's a lot of common sense. that we all know there are things that we should do that make us function better. You know, you hit on sleep as the water, less caffeine, less alcohol. There are things that we know but we just go, Yeah, but I don't want to give that up. And that's fine, but these are things that we know

Um, the food that we put in, you're you know, you can be a result of the food that you put in. I know, um I'm struggling with uh with energy crashes at the moment, but I also know I'm eating vast amounts of sugar and I know that that crash Uh is my brain shutting down after I've just fed it with a load of crap. Well look at look at what we do what what I was doing at twenty six before I had the seizures and got diagnosed with AD. Oh, I'm really tired. I need a coffee.

Yeah. Oh, I know. I'm tired, so this coffee that is so normalized in society. Tired. I've had a tough day. I'll have a glass blind blamed down. Yeah. Tired sleep, not tired coffee. And you know, I I just got it completely wrong. And I'm glad that that happened because it woke me up, basically. Actually, I think it's a little bit more stopping, not pausing, actually stopping to

Think for ourselves, because everything is available like that on screens, tech, AI, you know. So there's no patience. So I think we we've lost a degree of Exploration um and trying to understand things um and and actually like you said listening to the body list you know if you If someone said to you, if you said, Oh, I'm permanently, I'm permanently exhausted, permanently exhausted, um, and I, you know, I get to this point and I keep nodding off.

So what do you do? Oh well I force myself to carry on watching the thing on the TV or I make myself a coffee. So we know there is so m so many things that are obvious in front of us and we know why that's happening. And I think it's very easy, and I'm trying to I'm trying to bring this back to the the ADHD label thing because I know That's the same thing. When certain things are missing in my life

My symptoms are significantly worse. Significantly worse. And We can either and and I th this is the bit that I'm that that I'm sort of thinking through out loud. You can either try and Explore ADHD, explore the medication and find the things that can that can be the sticky plaster. For what's currently broken. Or you can say, actually, there are more healthier things to explore here.

You mentioned the environment, the environment critical. Earlier on I mentioned the people that that you're with, the foods that you that that you that you consume. I think let's look at and it's so it's very much through a coaching lens. But it's obvious. Let's look at who we are when we are at best, when we're at our best. If you look at the times when you worked incredibly well. And I look at certain points in my life where I look back and just go, holy shit, how did I achieve that?

And when I take that apart and understand why I achieved that, my environment was different. The people around me were different. I was I was going to the gym all the time. Um I was investing, I was investing in me. And you and I are coaches. And I think the key thing here is listen to yourself. Invest in yourself. Invest in what you need as a human. You are an individual.

So explore what makes you individual, not what makes you the same as that other person over there with ADHD. So that's that's the sort of You know, you could I think if you can do I mean, I've been fortunate that I've been able to build a business um, you know, ADHD coaching business on p basically based on posting things on the internet and getting people to pay attention to me and blah blah blah.

My best advice for anyone who really is like likes what we're saying is to just close all of that off completely. Because how do you do that? Well, shut it down straight away. Blo so there's for example, practical steps. There is an app called Opal that you could just download that will block all your social media rounds.

And I would even get to the point where maybe you just delete those apps from your phone if you're really serious about it. Also turn your phone to grayscale mode so it takes all the colour out of it, so it makes the phone look boring.

And then just slowly get back to the point of being a human rather than just being a consuming organism, which is basically what we've become. There's there's a I think there is a link though. There's well, there's a a missing bridge between Knowing that you want to find the answers, knowing that you want to improve and actually making that first step. And I'm gonna ask you openly now. We talked previously about do about recording a different podcast episode around reset.

And I think sometimes when you are feeling lost You can't find the answers, so you go you know, you can't find them in yourself because your brain is blown. Uh so you go asking people, you go reading books, you disappear down rabbit holes on the internet. Um so um My God, where's that going? Help me Joe. Where was I where was I going? Where was I going? What I mean the f I don't know what exactly what you're gonna ask but what came to mind straight away was

Would you recommend I I I don't know if this is kind of linked to what you were asking, is I would actually recommend you do a really extreme reset. I don't think it should be done reset. That was it. That was it. Thank you, Joe. Yeah. Like full blast. But it's got to be the it's got to be an extreme. Has to be the other o the exact opposite to what you're doing. And I I think rather than

us opening that dialogue now. Thank you so much for bringing me back to the resets because I think Where we want to get to, if we're going to leave things behind, if we are potentially going to, you know, acknowledge the label but dis but take more control over where or if we want ADHD to to to to f to form a key role in us navigating our way forwards. I think you need to be able to stop. Take stock of where you're at.

and see things from a different perspective and you're not going to be able to do that if you're wired but tired and you and you're struggling with burnout. So I I I think there is a place for Reset. and to work through those resets. Because I think when you're left to your own devices it it can feel really difficult to take that first step. When someone is there to support you or something or someone guides you through it. Yep. I think it would be great to have an episode where

We work we work through those things. We we work through the breath work, you know, we And we and we do it in a way that people can pick up. We do it in a prac you know, in a in a very practical way. Yeah. Not suggesting you and I have a have an ice bath on uh On video. No one needs to see that, and I'm just talking from my own perspective. But I think practically Actually s porting someone through that to go

Yes, you can say, I've tried breath work, didn't work for me. Don't close the door. Yeah. It's about doing it properly. Absolutely. And you know a separate session on It's interesting, just before we finish now, there's one last thing I think. It's that um earlier on I I said

uh ADHD or the ADHD diagnosis is environmental. I think it's also cultural in that so people will say, oh, but there's you know, ADHD diagnoses are skyrocketing today. W and they'll say, Why? And then there'll be one argument, oh people have been under underdiagnosed for ages, it's just catching up. No, it's n that's not true. It's just a cultural shift.

So all those things, fidgeting, distractibility, bloody bloody bloody blah that are being created by the environment we live in are considered bad. So then but why? What if they're not? What about if we remove all those distractions, those things that are causing that? Then that whatever's left is whatever's left. Maybe fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty percent of the people no longer have excessive anything. And the ones that do are just people with excessive that.

An excessive fidgeting ba uh uh based on a UK standard of fidgeting, which is not the same in Japan. Mm. So I think that's a perfect place to leave that, Jake. Exactly. That's um some great food for thought. Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming on. A lot of fun. And and for helping me when I lost my way. Yeah. That's what I'm here for. Brilliant. Have a great afternoon, Joe. Cheers for your time. See ya, mate. Bye bye.