Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Every year, many of us feel pressure to set resolutions, overhaul our lives, or become a “new version” of ourselves. That approach rarely works for ADHD brains. In this episode, let’s talk about a different way forward. Instead of adding more goals, habits, or systems, this episode explores the power of choosing one word to guide the year and why simplicity wo...
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Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Every year, many of us feel pressure to set resolutions, overhaul our lives, or become a “new version” of ourselves. That approach rarely works for ADHD brains. In this episode, let’s talk about a different way forward. Instead of adding more goals, habits, or systems, this episode explores the power of choosing one word to guide the year and why simplicity wo...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Every year, many of us feel pressure to set resolutions, overhaul our lives, or become a “new version” of ourselves. That approach rarely works for ADHD brains. In this episode, let’s talk about a different way forward. Instead of adding more goals, habits, or systems, this episode explores the power of choosing one word to guide the year and why simplicity wo...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Join Tracy as she breaks her women only guest rule by welcoming Dr. Edward Hallowell to Episode 106 of ADHD for Smart Ass Women. If you know anything at all about ADHD you recognize Dr. Hallowell’s name as the leading authority in the field of ADHD. Dr. Hallowell is a board-certified child and adult psychiatrist, and a New York Times bestselling author. He, al...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ What if the intensity you’ve chased in relationships wasn’t love, but dopamine? Amanda McCracken is an award winning journalist, endurance athlete, and intimacy researcher who was diagnosed with ADHD at 36, long after she had built a successful career. From the outside, her life looked accomplished and disciplined. Inside, she struggled with distraction,...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Some ADHD stories come from authors, psychologists, and researchers. This one comes from a 23-year-old ER nurse who learned early that the brain she has is exactly the one she needs. Nina Padilla spent ten years trying to get someone to take her ADHD symptoms seriously. From age thirteen through twenty-one, she told her pediatrician every year, “I think I have...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Gratitude is talked about a lot, but for us with ADHD brains it isn’t just a feel-good idea. It is a physiological strategy that changes how the brain functions. In this episode, Tracy breaks down why gratitude is not optional for ADHD. It starts with dopamine. ADHD brains rely on positive emotion to initiate action, sustain focus, and regulate emotion. Gratit...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Dr. Gilly Kahn spent years studying psychology before realizing how much of her own emotional world had been shaped by ADHD. Dr. Gilly earned a Master’s in Experimental Psychology, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and built a full clinical practice before receiving her ADHD diagnosis in her early thirties. Looking back, the signs had been there all along: migra...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ When Susanne Schotanus was fifteen, she spent two years in weekly psychiatric appointments before someone finally said she had ADHD. No one explained what it meant or how to work with it. She simply left with a label that didn’t change much of anything. Years later, as a university student struggling to finish assignments she deeply loved, she realized she was...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ When Devene Godau adopted a retired racing greyhound, she thought she was just rescuing a dog. Instead, she found her purpose. What started as an effort to help an anxious greyhound with separation anxiety became a lesson in communication, connection, and compassion. Those lessons didn’t just transform her career; they changed how she saw herself. A certified ...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ A 10-year-old boy sat across from Dr. Kalaki Clarke, MD during her psychiatry rotation, and she saw herself. Smart, charming, good grades but couldn't get it together. That's when she knew she had ADHD too. Dr. Clarke was in her first year of residency at UC Irvine, working 80-hour weeks in a system designed to test you constantly. She'd been the good kid, the...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ You walk into a room and forget why you're there. You miss deadlines even though you care deeply about the work. You can remember a random conversation from 15 years ago but not what someone just told you five minutes ago. Welcome to life with an ADHD brain and a memory system that works differently. Dr. Daniella Karidi knows this firsthand. Diagnosed with ADH...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Kiersten Lyons spent most of her life being told she was too much. Too loud, too dramatic, too many feelings all at once. She was also told she wasn't enough. Not pretty enough, not the right fit, not what Hollywood was looking for. The dichotomy nearly broke her. But it also became the foundation of her story. As a working actress in LA for over a decade, wit...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Nicole Bela was brilliant at her job. She could read a room in seconds, remember every donor’s story, and raise millions for causes she believed in. But behind the polished professionalism, she was quietly unraveling. The same systems designed to do good were slowly breaking her down, and she couldn’t understand why. After being diagnosed with ADHD at 37, just...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ What happens when doing everything "right" still leaves you miserable? You start asking better questions. Shell Mendelson was a successful CEO of KidzArt, an international children's art franchise she founded, when everything fell apart. Despite looking accomplished on paper, she was disconnected, dysregulated, and drowning in work that no longer fit. At her l...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Burnout was Skye Waterson's PhD companion. She'd switch majors—psychology to law to sociology—convinced each time that she just hadn't found her passion yet. The truth was simpler and more complex: she was trying to outwork her undiagnosed ADHD, and no amount of grinding harder was going to fix a brain that needed different systems entirely. By the time she fi...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Sometimes the thing that saves you is also the thing that masks your greatest struggle. Swimming was Meg Hennessey Schofield's lifeline through college—three to four miles a day that kept her ADHD brain calm and focused. When she quit her senior year to focus on teaching, everything fell apart. The anxiety and depression that led to her diagnosis at 21 made ...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Sometimes, the most humbling moments teach us the most about ourselves. Tracy recently found herself in Santa Barbara, recording courses for major companies like LinkedIn Learning and Google. After three flawless, scripted trainings, she was asked to do an impromptu training on ten ADHD tips. Despite having written a book and recorded 350 podcast episodes, Tra...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ From the outside, you look like you've got it all together. But inside? You're drowning in the endless mental load, feeling guilty because you need breaks from your kids, and wondering why other moms seem to breeze through daily routines that leave you completely drained. Amy Marie Hann was diagnosed with ADHD at just five years old in the mid-1980s—making her...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup Natasha M. Nurse lived 37 years not knowing she was neurodivergent. Then motherhood changed everything. The crying, the overwhelm, the dark thoughts that felt like more than typical new parent struggles—all of it led to a discovery that would reshape her understanding of herself completely. Diagnosed with autism and ADHD at 37, Natasha finally had answers for a life...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _ Barbara Baskin spent 30 years convinced she wasn't very smart. School was academic probation and "needs to try harder" report cards. Then came an ADHD diagnosis at 30, followed by three decades of raising four kids (including triplets), caring for her mother with dementia, and running a business while being everyone's executive function. At 60, Barbara made a deci...
*This episode has been updated* Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _ What would it be like if you could see music as colors dancing in front of your eyes? For Justine Glaser, that's just a normal Tuesday. Justine is a creative force who doesn't just hear music, she sees it. Diagnosed with ADHD at age 3 and born with synesthesia, a rare neurological trait where sound shows up as color, Justine has a...
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup _____ Every year, many of us feel pressure to set resolutions, overhaul our lives, or become a “new version” of ourselves. That approach rarely works for ADHD brains. In this episode, let’s talk about a different way forward. Instead of adding more goals, habits, or systems, this episode explores the power of choosing one word to guide the year and why simplicity wo...
