77. Dr. Kojo Sarfo on ADHD in Women: Presentations, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Nov 8

listen to this episode:

Today I am joined by Dr. Kojo Sarfo a social media content creator, mental health nurse practitioner, and psychotherapist to discuss all things ADHD.

Connect with Dr. Sarfo: https://beacons.page/drkojosarfo

This week's DBT skill is the PLEASE skill. Learn more here.

Dr. Sarfo and I dive into the following topics…

+ What is ADHD? How does it present and how do these presentations change depending on age and gender?

+ What is the diagnosis and treatment process for ADHD?

+ ADHD vs. ADD

+ Are ADHD medications addictive and Dr. Sarfo's perspective on prescribing them

+ Is ADHD more often a primary and secondary diagnosis and how delayed diagnosis impacts this

+ the importance of a balanced diet, good routine, and healthy habits on for ADHD

+ Dr. Sarfo's favorite ADHD resources

+ how to support a peer that has ADHD and supporting your child if they have ADHD

+ so much more!

Mentioned In The Episode…

+ Ep. 75 Adolescent Substance Use feat. Dr. Jay Faber

+ Ep. 39 Your Foolproof Guide to a Good Night's Sleep

+ https://www.additudemag.com/

+ https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.kojosarfo

+ https://www.youtube.com/c/HowtoADHD

SHOP GUEST RECOMMENDATIONS: https://amzn.to/3A69GOC

Episode Sponsors

🛋This week's episode is sponsored by Teen Counseling. Teen Counseling is an online therapy program with over 14,000 licensed therapists in their network offering support with depression, anxiety, relationships, trauma, and more via text, talk, and video counseling. Head to teencounseling.com/shepersisted to find a therapist today!

🍓This week's episode is brought to you by Sakara. Sakara is a nutrition company that focuses on overall wellness, starting with what you eat. Use code XOSADIE at checkout for 20% off your first order!

About She Persisted (formerly Nevertheless, She Persisted)

After a year and a half of intensive treatment for severe depression and anxiety, 18-year-old Sadie recounts her journey by interviewing family members, professionals, and fellow teens to offer self-improvement tips, DBT education, and personal experiences. She Persisted is the reminder that someone else has been there too and your inspiration to live your life worth living.

Want to create a podcast video just like this? Check out veed.io! It streamlines the process of adding audio, subtitles, photos, and more!

a note: this is an automated transcription so please ignore any accidental misspellings!

Sadie: Welcome to she persisted. I'm your host Sadie Sutton. Every Friday, I post interviews about mental health dialectical behavioral therapy and teenage life. These episodes break down my mental health journey. Teach skills to help you cope with life and showcase testimonials from individuals, including teens.

Whether you've struggled yourself or just want to improve your mental fitness. This podcast is your inspiration to live a life you love and keep persisting.

Dr. Sarfo: It's important to understand that it's not character flaw. Your child doesn't have ADHD because they're a bad child, or because you're a bad parent.

This is a condition that it's not all the way understood, but we know that treatment, you know, For boys and for girls, you know, girls seem to get diagnosed later in life treatment for boys and girls equally, they do just as well. And the results show that if you treat and they have ADHD, it can, it can change your life.

It can relate to

Sadie: this week's DBT skill is the PLEASE skill. We've talked about it before, but it's so relevant to this week's episode. And Dr. Sarfo does dive into it. And bits and pieces. So I wanted to reiterate it at the beginning of the episode. So please use an acronym that stands for treat physical illness, eat balanced meals, Lloyd mood, altering drugs, sleep, balanced, and exercise.

So this skill works to decrease your physical, emotional vulnerability and decrease your likelihood of struggling with mental health challenges. When we're sleep deprived, mountain Orisha, not taking our meds, not exercise. We are more likely to be irritable, hangry, exhausted you name it. So this skill works to make sure that that baseline is good to go.

You're staying on top of these things and setting yourself up for success. So physical illness, pretty simple. If you're sick, you're taking time to rest recuperate. You're regularly going to the doctor. If you're taking meds regularly, you're making sure you're taking those small tip. one thing that I want to insert here, if you take melatonin, one of the best tips that I learned from my time in treatment was to take it at the same time every single night. If you struggle with insomnia, you know that when you wait to take melatonin and you're like, oh no, I'm good.

I'm tired. I'll go to sleep. And then you don't and then you're up at 3:00 AM. And you're like, do I even take melatonin now? Because it's so late. What if I can't get up? So if you take it at the same time every night, you will avoid that process. You were kind of anticipating the insomnia. If it comes on, if not, you're already asleep, you're good to go.

So that's one of my favorites. Next is eating balanced meals. I am currently working on this and making sure that I'm eating food that is fueling my body and making me feel good. So one kind of inner monologue tip that I'm doing here is asking myself, how will this make my body feel? Long-term how will this make my body feel two to three hours from now?

Instead of like, what should I be eating? What is a quote, unquote, good food to eat? So asking yourself, how will this make me feel and making sure you're staying balanced with that avoid mood altering drugs. I always like to bring up on this one. Caffeine is something to be, keep in mind here.

If you're anxiety prone, just keep an eye on how caffeine makes you feel. Are you more jittery? Are you more anxious, et cetera? You get the deal. I did an episode two weeks ago with Dr. Faber. I'll link it in today's show notes, all about how mood altering drugs like alcohol vaping and marijuana impact our moods.

If you want to learn more about that and understand like, kind of what you're getting into, I'll link in the show notes. Sleep balanced. This is my number one mental health tip. Anyone asks me, I say, you need sleep. You need to sleep more. You needed to get enough sleep. Teenagers are not getting enough sleep.

And it is detrimental to your mental health. Be different in my mental health from when I wasn't sleeping through the night to when I was getting eight hours was like suicidally depressed to like actually functioning. Like that's not an exaggeration. That was the shift I saw. So make sure you're getting enough sleep.

Make sure you're prioritizing sleep and a Lincoln episode in the show notes about how you can improve that process. Last one is moving, getting exercise. Again, this also helps with sleep. This helps you have your appetite regulated. It helps with physical illness to improve your immunity, moving and staying active and getting outdoors is so important for your mental health.

You release endorphins heave know it. You've heard it before, but so important for physical health. So a little longer than normal, but I wanted to give you those extra tips and tricks. So let's dive into the rest of the episode.

Hello. Hello and welcome to she persisted. If you're new here, I'm so excited. You're here. Make sure you subscribe, hit follow. So you don't miss any new episodes and go ahead and send me a DM and let me know you are a new listener and your. Tuning into the podcast. I would love to connect with you. And if you are returning welcome back. I'm so excited that you're here. We have an amazing interview today with Dr. Kojo Sarfo. When I was thinking about what episodes I wanted to put out in the next couple of months, I realized that I had not done an episode.

On ADHD. And I wanted to find an expert to give their perspective on this, offer their insight, rather than just kind of speaking blindly. And so I thought who would be better than Dr. Kojo Sarfo. And if you are in mental health tech talk, you've definitely seen his videos before. He's always talking about different ways that ADHD presents and can impact your lifestyle and all these different things.

So he seemed like the perfect individual to dive into this with. And the interview did not disappoint. It's an amazing conversation. We talk all about what the diagnosis process looks like, what you can expect, what ADHD looks like, how it presents differently in men versus women and children versus teenagers and resources that are helpful, how to support your kid.

If they have ADHD, just so many helpful pieces of information for you to take away.

If you listen to last week's episode with Dr. Alexandra Solomon, I talked in the intro about working to deepen connections and continue to build relationships and all of that kind of stuff. We're doing a follow-up moment. We are circling back to that on, I think it's so fitting. I'm recording this on Halloween and we're coming right out of holiday weekend and this year, especially because we're on the.

Tail end of COVID. If you can even say that, because many people are vaccinated, Halloween did not fall on a school night, just like kind of a perfect storm. And so if you struggle with FOMO, the holidays especially can be a really difficult time to navigate that because people are very connected and sharing that on social media.

And so when you're not feeling as connected, that can be really tough and it can take a hit on your self esteem and your inner monologue and all of these kinds of things.

And so as Halloween was happening and we were seeing everyone being Uber connected and coordinated costumes and all of these different things going on, I wanted to be really intentional in my inner monologue. And this was a shift I was making for myself. It was that instead of focusing on all the ways that I could've done better in building relationships and adjusting to college and getting to know people, I focused on what I'd done so far and what I did this weekend.

How did I make an effort to connect with people? How did I put my. There and ask people to spend time together or get coffee this week, or grab lunch. How did I start a conversation or initiate an interaction? Because those ones are really important to mention. I think we get so caught up in all the ways that things don't go well, that we, we forget how many things are going our way, how many wins we're having, how many things we should be celebrating that have happened in our lives so that we have done for ourselves.

So, however your Halloween went this weekend, whether you felt super connected or you felt more isolated, if you felt super confident or you were struggling, I want you to think of three things that you did to work on yourself and work on your mental health. And that means building relationships that means improving your inner monologue. That means putting yourself out there, that means doing the opposite of what you felt like doing three little wins that you can celebrate and give yourself a pat on the back, because I know you just, weren't going in the opposite direction.

I know you did things that you were proud of and that you can celebrate. So what are the. Take a minute, write them down, reflect on that. And I'm proud of you for whatever those things were.

So today's guest is Dr. Kojo Sarfo. If you want to follow along with him after this episode, his Instagram is D R K O J O S a R F O. His tick-tock handle is the same, except for . He's one of my favorite people to follow on Instagram and tech talk. He posts so much amazing mental health educational content that you can incorporate into your social media consumption.

But Dr. Sarfo is a social media content creator, as well as a mental health nurse practitioner and psychotherapist.

He is currently practicing. So he has tons of up-to-date current insight offer from working with current patients, as well as answering and feeling tons of questions on social media and having a feel for what people are confused about what they want support on, et cetera.

So this is an amazing conversation, all about ADHD, and let's just dive into it.

So welcome to she processed it. I'm so excited to have you here today.

Dr. Sarfo: Thank you for having me.

Sadie: I want to dive in and go deep on ADHD and adolescents. How it looks differently between girls and boys.

How that can change as teams get older. So just laying a foundation, what is ADHD? What does it look like? And yeah, just a little bit of a background

Dr. Sarfo: there. So ADHD is a cluster. You know, where you see things some where you see things that will represent hyperactivity and impulsivity and also.

And a lot of people get confused because people have this notion where you think that everybody's a little ADHD. It's not quite like that. And you might have some symptoms, you know that people with ADHD have, but in order to have ADHD, you have to have, you know, a few of these symptoms, you know, and it has to be technically before the age of 12, but some people aren't diagnosed in time.

So that's why you have people, especially women sometimes in the late twenties and. Finally receive a diagnosis, but with ADHD, when it comes to intention, you can see things such as disorganization no losing track of time losing important items, such as your keys, your wallet, your phone, things that you actually need.

Being late to places turning assignments in late, and then with the hyper activity side of things and impulsively you can see people who. My cut you up mid conversation unbeknownst to themselves, you might see individuals who you are impulsive when it comes to shopping. Maybe relationships, you might see impulsively as a results as it relates to talking over others.

So these are some of the things that you see when it comes to ADHD and it has to happen. Have a marked impairment on your life. So for the person who struggles with ADHD you can have somebody who was, you know, outwardly successful. They might, but they might struggle with, you know, the dishes or laundry, or they might have relationship issues that frustrate them.

And when it's undiagnosed a lot of times with those present with anxiety or depression and frustration, because they don't know what's going on. And it's kinda like. You know, disability or mental health condition. So that's important that we talk about it and the main ways that I present.

Sadie: So do you find that a lot of the times when ADHD is undiagnosed, it has the secondary conditions, or as ADHD more often the secondary condition to something like depression

Dr. Sarfo: or anxiety?

It depends you know, it could be different for two different people. So surface say what the more common presentation is, but at least from what I've seen I've seen a lot of times. People present with classic symptoms of, they can have a narrow vegetative symptoms of depression, you know, not eating, not sleeping or sleeping too much, eating too much things of that nature.

And you can have somebody who appears to be anxious and they're fearful and they're worried and they're on edge, but it's kinda like I saw a meme online and I liked it. It was the little school we do me marina. Pull the cover off and you see who it really is at the end of those episodes. That's kind of how it is with ADHD.

A lot of times, like, you know, somebody will appear anxious and depressed, or they may have co morbid eating disorders or wherever the case may be. And then when you, you know, they a little deeper and then you take off the Cape, you're like, oh my gosh there's actually ADHD. That's going on here? And this person wasn't diagnosed.

No wonder why they're frustrated and his lead to all these other things.

Sadie: Yeah. So what are the differences in presentation between men and woman? Of course, it's different for everyone. So these aren't just a hundred percent certain to be presentations, but generally, what do you see as differences that.

Dr. Sarfo: You know, boys, a lot of times you have the classic picture of the young boy who is like interrupting in class and he's hyper and he can sit still and he's disrupting class. That's happened picture, you know, if you see a child at the, especially a boy the likelihood that he'll be referred to a specialist is very high because he's disrupting class, right class.

But a lot of times the women, you see them present with more so inattentive symptoms. And it's interesting because when I've been looking at ADHD in general, even people who quote unquote grow out of it, which really just means that they find a way to cope with, you know, their symptoms. Even those people, they, some of the the inattentive symptoms linger into persistent to adulthood.

So with women they're more likely to present with the irritative symptoms and that can be. Quite devastating because you can't catch it, you know, and for us as clinicians, it's hard to. Put a finger on what's going on. You, you just might see that she has low self-esteem she's behind on things. And even ADHD is somewhat poorly understood, you know, amongst mental health professionals because it's still somewhat of a controversial thing.

And it's almost as if you have to have it, you know, or excessively have studied it. I understand the you know, the massive cost of ADHD and how much it can, you know take away from your life. So with women, when they present with the more so ineffective symptoms, you know, they might be quiet, this organized you know, they might be restless, but it's harder to catch it.

I, and it's unfortunate because it's not until women allow women are in their twenties and thirties that they get diagnosed and they have, you know, years and decades of Trauma from having to live life. And the world has that set up for them. And women are also rewarded for masking their symptoms. You know?

So if it could be something like you have, ADHD is undiagnosed and then, you know, the emotional dysregulation. Has, you know, your mood going up and down and you might get to a point where you start to make fun of yourself, you know, and you see a lot of self deprecation because that's kind of your way of protecting yourself.

Cause when people make fun of you, it actually really hurts. So a lot of times women will overcome. You know, and this is how the, this is like a survival tactic. That's how they make it through life. So it's important to, you know, be on the lookout for some of those subtle symptoms of ADHD in women, whether it's, you know, being a little bit late with assignments or Somebody who seems to be detached in the middle of a conversation like, oh, what'd you say that I pay attention?

So it's important to I tell one all the time, like if you think that you might have ADHD you know, maybe ask your friends like. Well, what am I like? Do I cut you off in the conversation? Do I lose a lot of things? A lot of times we need the collateral information from friends and family members to kind of help us, like, for instance, the right direction for us to think like, oh, this might be, you know, ADHD.

Maybe let's give her a questionnaire and see if we can ask some questions and get more on the right thing.

Sadie: How do ADHD symptoms evolve with age? Is it something that's constant from that before 12 diagnosis period, or as you get into your twenties and thirties, it, it changes, it evolves as you learn to

Dr. Sarfo: cope with that. That's a good question. And I've seen some stays that, you know, seems to suggest that there's a developmental delay with people who have ADHD as opposed to, you know, the neuro-typical person.

So your brain is still developing. Not developing as fast as, you know, the standard or normal, whatever normal is, we'll be developing. So with people with ADHD, a lot of times, I, like I said, sometimes people do grow out of symptoms, which I think is just the way of coping with it. To the point where it's not as big a, of a.

But a lot of times we see that if we build up ADHD, that it doesn't go away. You know, it's something that does affect people. Like, even if you weren't diagnosed in childhood you know, if you're 31 and you're diagnosed with ADHD you had ADHD when you were a child. It's just, it wasn't caught, you know, it doesn't come out of nowhere at age 27 and 28, but some that you were having, you know, as a child and from what I've seen, especially in my experience ADHD, doesn't go away.

And it's kind of frustrating when you have to tell And the frustration comes from telling parents cause if somebody is, you know, 15, 16, they get diagnosed and they get treatment and it's helping them out. Like they know because it's helping them out. But sometimes parents have a hard time understanding the ADHD.

At least in my experience, like it's not going anywhere. It's more about having to deal with it because sometimes the symptoms persist into adulthood and it frustrates you in different.

Sadie: This week's episode is sponsored by teen counseling. So if you've heard of better help, which I'm sure you have teen counseling is their teen.

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Dip your toe into the water without actually having to go into the therapist office. Navigate that whole thing. If you're not ready to take that step.

So, what you're going to do is you're going to go to teencounseling.com/shepersisted. You're going to fill out a super quick survey about what you want to focus on. Again, all the things I mentioned, ADHD, trauma, relationships, depression, anxiety, you name it. They're going to send a consent link to your parents.

And I tried it. Don't worry. I know exactly what they're going to say. They're going to say Sadie or whatever your name is, is interested in meeting with a clinician from teen counseling.com. Please learn more here and give consent to treatment. None of your information about what you want to work on or what you will work on in therapy is ever shared with your parents or guardians.

They're just giving consent for you to work with a therapist. So from there, you're matched with a therapist that meets your needs and your goals, and you start working via text talk and video counseling. I meet with a therapist every single week via video. And it is a game changer to make sure my mental health is maintained and on track and good to go.

It's such an amazing support system to have in your toolbox. So I highly, highly recommend trying this out and giving it a shot. So if you want to learn more, you can head to teencounseling.com/shepersisted.

Again, that's teencounseling.com/shepersisted to get started today.

What are the most common reports, symptoms, presentations that you see teenage girls coming to you with relating to ADHD

Dr. Sarfo: when it comes to you know, undiagnosed ADHD or for example, let's say a teenage girl who comes in. And if let's say the venture diagnosis is ADHD, a lot of times you'll see things such as, you know, I've seen women that feel like they're, you know, not like their peers, they're comparing themselves a lot.

They feel like they're behind when it comes to schoolwork. You know, they feel like they're very disorganized or just, they're having to spend a lot of. Finding simple things, or they have a hard time shifting from one task to the next. So if they're, you know, doing cheerleading and they enjoy it, they'll Excel with that.

But things that they don't like to do necessarily, they might really struggle with that. And also with teenage women ADHD, a lot of times when it's undiagnosed unfortunately you may see things such as a higher you know, a rate of car accidents you know, maybe sexually transmitted infections from impulsive.

And also substance use disorders. So you might have. Someone who is, you know, maybe drinking you know, more than usual. And they don't really know why they're drinking. Maybe started off because it was a thing that you did socially with friends, but it became something that helped calm me down or keep your mind from racing.

So a lot of times sometimes you see these things when it comes to undiagnosed ADHD, especially with patients who are in the teens. And one thing that I've seen is also low self-esteem. You see that a lot in terms of, you know, and sometimes it makes sense, like if you're not able to get things done in time and you don't know if you can't put a finger on it, right.

You don't know that it's ADHD. You say that your, your

Sadie: confidence

Dr. Sarfo: takes a hit you're dumb. We think you're behind. We feel overwhelmed. And then that's where some of the risky behaviors come in. You have that hopelessness, cause you're not sure what's going on. So I think in that situation, it would be normal for anybody to, you know, struggle with herself.

Sadie: Yeah, we've talked about undiagnosed ADHD, and then a little bit on the diagnosis process, but I kind of want to dive deep there and talk about what a teenager could expect. If they're like, Hey, I recognize these things. I want to talk to my doctor. What does the diagnosis process look

Dr. Sarfo: like? So this is a, this is an interesting one because people asked us on a think talk and there's a couple of different ways.

So. Yes, you can go ahead and do neuro psych testing, which can be quite expensive. And they can, it takes forever. You can measure the brain activity a lot different than. At least the way I was trained in school. I think neuro-psych testing can be very helpful. Like there is a place for it. Near-site testing can help to sometimes give you objective markers in distinguishing between the different types of ADHD.

Like, oh, this person might be more attentive or more so hyperactive, but at least. I think, you know, I could be wrong, but at least the way I think the diagnostic process, you go, you come in and, you know, you get the information from the patient after an adult, then you get information from, you know, if let's say they have a spouse, you can talk to them and see like Hey, like how is so-and-so like in their day to day to pick up on the level of impairment, but if, as a team but what does a teen or an adult?

No, you come in. You do a full-out psychiatric evaluation. That's what I would recommend for people who are watching our Ted talk to get a diagnosis, you can go to your primary care provider, but I'm going to talk from the perspective of a specialist. If you go see a psychiatric. They'll do a full-out psychiatric evaluation.

So that's, it'll take like hour, maybe 90 minutes. But here you're assessing for everything. And that, that is not only ADHD, but also anxiety, depression, mood disorders, such as bipolar one or two, I thought disorders such as schizophrenia or Schizoaffective disorder. You're looking for all these things.

Cause as we know with ADHD, You might have ADHD, you might also have comorbid anxiety or depression, or you might have you know, like I said, eating disorder, so a full out psychiatric evaluation we'll, you know, get a handle on how you doing right now. And also we'll ask you questions about like your childhood.

What type of child were you, were you in special education classes where you're a gifted child where you disrupting the class? Things like that. So we'll take. Past history, then we'll get what's going on right now. And if we do suspect that this may the issue going on, we'll give you a questionnaire.

And then, you know, if the questionnaire seems to suggest that this person is a lot high likelihood for them to have ADHD, then we'll ask you more open-ended questions. Like, tell me a little bit about your day or what frustrates you, you know, we wouldn't say we wouldn't say things like, oh, can you not focus?

Cannot organize yourself. You're not going to get any information on that. So pretty much it's a 60 minutes to an hour and a half evaluation where we ask you questions and a good providers should be able to pick up on ADHD. Cause we have, you know, the criteria in the DSM five for people 17 and below in adults.

So if it matches up. No, you would have a diagnosis of ADHD or whatever else you're diagnosed with. And a psych evaluation should get the job done. And nurse eye testing can be helpful to confirm. But I don't think it's necessary in diagnosis, somebody with ADHD. So, and people don't know that. So that's why it's kind of convoluted and difficult because people have to go through like a, a series in barriers of tests to get a diagnosis.

And I don't understand that process. I think one psych evaluation should get the job.

Sadie: Yeah. When you're on Tik, TOK, Instagram, all of those, what are the top three questions that people are constantly asking about ADHD? Like what are they always like? We want to know this, this is brings a lot of confusion.

What are you asked all the time?

Dr. Sarfo: Well, wow. That's a really good question. So I don't know in what order, but let me go off some of the most common I know people ask the difference between ADHD and add yeah. I was going to ask that it is an outdated term. So when somebody says, add they're referring to the inattentive type of ADHD, so attention deficit disorder.

So when you say, oh, my friend has ADHD or my son has ADHD add they're referring to somebody who would be. And attentive side of ADHD. So this is somebody who, for forgetful, you know, loose things is organized. So that's add in a nutshell another common question I get is the difference between how it presents in men and women.

We talked about that how women might tend to be more attentive. Another common question I get is are the you know, are the stimulants Addictive or are they going to change my personality? And for somebody who was prescribed like a schedule to stimulant, whether it's Vyvanse Ritalin Conserta at or whatever it is, those medications, if you're diagnosed with ADHD and you're giving them medication I think that those are some of the most effective meds we have in psychiatry.

You know, I think maybe lithium and claws are all the only other ones. As effective for their condition, but similar are very effective. They're life-changing measures in my opinion. And people might feel like their personality is off because maybe they're not as high strong, or maybe they're not as relaxed as they used to be on the medication, but for the person who has ADHD, those medications are extremely helpful and life changing.

If somebody doesn't have ADHD and the medications are being abused, yes, somebody might be able to focus, but you run the risk of. Heart issues you know, psychosis, if it's abused insomnia. So it's important to make sure that somebody who is taking medication like that has actually prescribed it, but I'm actually I'm a huge fan of those medications.

When prescribed to somebody who actually has ADHD.

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So that was exactly what I was going to ask you next. We talked about how you can't like get rid of ADHD, but there's lots of different treatments that you can do. So walk me through what those options are, what is recommended in different cases and, and what teenagers can do both independently and then with the help of our preferred.

Okay, great question.

Dr. Sarfo: So I think, I think obviously let's start with the professional side of things. That's where I heard people to, you know, eventually go, if you can find a provider and you. Or if you can solve with your primary care provider, you know, like your doctor, you see every year for physicals, a lot of them are very qualified to I'm uncomfortable diagnosing and treating ADHD.

So professional help is always the best, you know, meds therapy or a combination of the two I've been in terms of practical things you can do at home, or there's a couple of things. So when you wake up, it's important to eat breakfast, you know, eat a good nutritious bread. Stay hydrated with water and get some aerobic exercise in.

I think if you can eat breakfast every morning, get a little bit exercise and have a routine. Those three things right there. Like you're already ahead of like a lot of people, like, I think that's very helpful people. People don't realize how effective that is to get you a good breakfast you know, to get some exercise in and to have a simple routine, because with ADHD, you're going to struggle to have a consistent routine.

So something super simple, like you wake up in the morning. Do 10 pushups. And you say affirmations that you give reference. If you can do the overtime is going to boost your self esteem. You'll have more confidence and confidence is something that is very important with ADHD. The way you speak to yourself is important.

Make sure that you're hanging out with people who lift you up. Of course they have to keep you accountable, but if they make you feel bad for how you are pay attention to how you feel after you hang out with a group of people, if they don't make you feel good, Pay attention to that. Anything that's gonna you no lower self-esteem was important.

Cutting out processed foods, refined sugars, a lot of the foods that we know know and love sometimes they can hold us back. Diet wise synthetic food dyes, like the colored brightly colored cereals. Some studies have seems to suggest that they can make impulsivity and irritability worse in kids with ADHD.

So these are some of the practical things that we can do to kind of clean up our diet. Make sure that we're not dumping a whole lot of sugar into our bodies, which can make it hard for us to focus. And with ADHD, you know, is difficult to get into that group where you're finally motivated and you're focusing.

So some of these things are the practical, so things that we can do to help ourselves out with add.

Sadie: What are your top three favorite resources relating to ADHD, whether it's educational support groups, all that kind of. Okay,

Dr. Sarfo: great question. So I actually liked the as called that attitude mag. I'm not sure if you've heard of it, 80, 80 D I T U D e.com. And I found out about them because one of my Ted talks was featured on the road.

And I went through and they have a whole lot of free information from a lab, other mental health professionals. And it's like a safe space for people with ADHD. Cause once you go in there and you read up about, you know, hyper-focusing, you know, or you read up about, you know, the financial. You know cost of ADHD and having to pay things over, cause you forgot to pay a bill or you forgot to cancel subscription, you feel seen and you feel heard it's kind of like a safe space.

So I love that. That attitude mag a website. I'm not sure the exact website for it, but I love

Sadie: I'll put it in the show notes. Okay. I love that

Dr. Sarfo: website. I Ted talk is actually. A really nice place for for validation, for people with ADHD. So there's maintenance and Tik TOK pages, including mine.

I will say that if you, like, if you're watching my two thoughts, right. Or another verified healthcare professionals, detox talks, like, of course, like. Back it up to make sure that, you know, it aligns up with the latest evidence-based practices. Now I was checked out before I post, but take off is a great place.

And even if somebody is not a mental health professional, and they're acting out escape, it can make you feel seen and heard. So I think that's perfectly fine. As long as you realize that, you know, whatever you're watching, make sure that you, like, if they're an, an, you know, that they're just an actor, right.

But they can be your favorite page or they're a healthcare professional. They know that, okay, this is where I can get evidence based information. So just be mindful of this, verify your sources, but I love data because it breaks it down in a fun and easy way. And there's actually one more page on YouTube.

I think her name is how to ADHD. One of my followers told me about her and I love her page because she breaks like ADHD down on, in terms of practical ways to like get through your day, like. She was talking about via where she separate desk space. So that way everything that she needed was right there.

And that's very helpful because if you have ADHD and you're working in a space here, like I'm working on this computer with two screens, if I have to go downstairs to get something, by the time I go downstairs to get something, I might get sidetracked. I'm like, oh, I forgot to do this. This. And then when you come back as like two hours later, you know, you lost her at that time.

So she gives like a lot of practical tips. I wish I had her name, but I have to check out her page more, but I loved her work.

Sadie: I'll find it and put

Dr. Sarfo: it. I love her, her website. Our YouTube channel is very helpful.

Sadie: That's awesome. For peers of teens, individuals that have ADHD, how can you be supportive?

And, and helping them navigate things, or even just being a good friend, validating all of

Dr. Sarfo: that. So first of all, I want to say acceptance, right? You know, we all have a, you know, in our friend groups, we all have, you know, different individuals who. Different things.

We all have our own quirks. Right. So I think it's important to accept your friend, but you can also put those boundaries in place. Like if you're a friend who has ADHD and they tend to cut you off no, you can, the way you say things is helpful, you can say, Hey you know, John Terry, like, no, you're, you're, you're my brother.

You're my friend. But like when you cut me off, sometimes it hurts my feelings. I know you don't mean to do it, but kids be mindful of that. And then they're like, oh, okay, I'm sorry. They're like, oh no, it's cool. Like I wanted to hear your story and, you know, please continue. But just, just letting you know, so that we, like we can, you know, clear the air.

So I think the way you talked to your friends is very helpful without making them feel bad. And even with me, I've talked about my personal journey with ADHD and like I've realized, you know, recently that my friends are telling me things. They've accepted about me. Like maybe I might cut somebody up mid conversation or I might, you know, jump in you know, impulsively add my 2 cents.

And and when they told me about it, I was like, oh, I've been doing this. And they're like, oh yeah, this is this something that you do. Like, this is this how you are, you know? So when you have friends who accept you, that's helpful. But there are times when my friend's like, oh, like, let me give me, give me five minutes.

Let me tell this story. And I said, oh my bad, let me hear you out. So it was just by having that safe space people who respect you, if they respect you, they'll respect wherever you're going through. And I think that acceptance is good. Make people feel a lot better and people don't have that. And I know they don't have it because when you go on these online forums, like I read the comments, people will say, oh, I'm texting my boyfriend in your video because this is like, I've never seen this broken down like this, or I've never seen somebody understand me.

So people want to feel. And if they can't get that in their everyday lives and they come online, which I'm happy, we have the safe space online to where people can have that understanding it and that acceptance. So if you can build that type of environment in real life, that's going to do wonders for somebody with ADHD, just having one person who believes in you can be just as effective.

Sometimes as to professional treatment, I believe. And I'm somebody who I, I recommend that you go out there and find, you know, professional treatment, but I was undiagnosed until I was 25. And I, in my opinion, I believe that I got, as far as I got, you know, like went through school, had successful businesses and all that, but I got to that point, cause I had people who believed in me and people who were like, oh, You know, I think you're smart thing.

You're brilliant. They put boundaries in place, but they were willing to wait on me and they're willing to be patient with me until I got certain things off the ground. So having someone who believes in you for the people who can't get to a professional, or I know they can't get, you know, meds or therapy, just having that support system that's extremely under.

Sadie: Yeah, so important. I want to come at it from a parent's perspective as well. I know that the recommendations and ways to be supportive is so different when you have like younger children versus teenagers. But specifically for teenagers, how can a parent be helpful? Offer resources, be supportive of their child who has ADHD

Dr. Sarfo: for parents?

You know, sometimes parents have to do the work on themselves. Right. You know, even as a parent, you're so growing and you're in your own journey, we're all in our own journeys, in our collective lives, you know, doing the best with the information that we have. And sometimes with parents, you know, when you tell a parent that, you know, I think your child has ADHD.

Sometimes they take it as a personal attack on themselves. Like I've seen that. And I don't know if it's because I come from Ghana, west Africa and. Or in the black community, we don't talk about mental health as much, but when you tell a parent that their child has noticed mental health condition, a lot of times they see that they either see that as bad parenting that you're trying to accuse them of being a bad parent.

Or they're, they're saying that, oh, my child doesn't have this. We don't have this in our family. When in reality, ADHD is a high genetic link with it. So you're most likely getting it from wherever are. But it's hard for parents to accept that your child has this condition. And if we proceed with treatment, it could change their, their their life.

And I saw one psychiatrist onto talk. He likened it to glasses, right? If your child has bad eyesight, you know that you can give them glasses and they can see good and they can do better in school. Wouldn't you, you wouldn't want to withhold that from. So in the same way, if medications, you know, where like the glasses, if they could dramatically improve your child's life, their confidence, their grades in school, their social life, you know, their self-esteem wouldn't you want them to have.

You know, the most abundant life that they can have. So when you, you put it like that, some parents start to get it. So I think with parents is important to understand that it's not a character flaw. Your child doesn't have ADHD because they're a bad child or because you're a bad parent. This is a condition.

It's not all the way understood, but we know that treatment, you know, whether it's for boys, for girls, even though girls seem to get diagnosed later in life treatment for boys, girls equally, they do justice. And the results show that if you treat and they have ADHD, it can, it can change your life. It can really change your life.

So I think that's the when you paint, like if a child is coming in, they're 17, they're struggling to, you know, make it through your last year of high school. And you know, their self esteem is they're to, if you paint a picture of that same time. On the flip side with good grades with friends, maybe a relationship getting ready to go to college when they're no, their parents like can conceptualize or, or visualize their child in that manner.

Then they're like, okay, you know what? I would like my child to have this life. So sometimes you have to really spell it out you know, for the parents to really get it. Whereas the kids, sometimes they're not as hesitant to start treatment because you know, they run out of options or frustrated. They're at the point where Southern has got to give

Sadie: a hundred percent for listeners that want to follow along with you and keep learning about ADHD and consumer content, where can they find you

Dr. Sarfo: online? Tik, TOK and Instagram. He taught us at Dr. Kojo Sarfo. Instagram is just at Dr. Cortisol software without the dot or my website, Kojo sarfo.com. So those are the main places where you can find me at.

I actually have an ADHD. Ebook coming out where I'll break it down, kind of like we did in this amazing podcast and I'll link it back to some of my favorite Ted talks to explain things about ADHD and women and ADHD and males ADHD in relationships, I is going to be free. So I'll put it out on my Instagram channel.

So make sure you fall on the IgE page. That way you can get access and download the ebook.

Sadie: Perfect. Well, thank you so much. I think this will be so helpful to so many people that are there, know someone with ADHD or have ADHD themselves. So thank you so much.

In case you skipped to the end of the episode, Dr. Sarfo and I talked all about what ADHD is, how it can present differently. And men, women, adults, children, and teenagers. We talked about what the diagnosis process looks like, what treatments he recommends, how to support a peer that has ADHD.

How do you support your child? If they have ADHD common questions, he gets asked about it and recommended resources. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please share it with a friend or family member who you think would love to listen, and that it would resonate with leave a review, wherever you're listening, make sure you're subscribed.

Follow on Instagram at chief resistant podcast, all of the things you know, what to do, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next Monday.

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