ADHD and Trying to Conceive with Taucha Post
Taucha Post shares her journey with ADHD and how she uses yoga and community support as part of a holistic approach to managing her condition. Through personal anecdotes and practical advice, she offers insights into navigating the complexities of ADHD, especially as it intersects with motherhood and medication management.
Highlights:
Taucha's transition from aspiring veterinarian to speech therapist, revealing the hidden challenges of ADHD in professional settings.
The intersection of yoga practices and ADHD management, providing a unique tool for addressing ADHD-specific challenges.
Insights on balancing ADHD medications during pregnancy and the importance of a comprehensive treatment approach.
Summary
Taucha Post, founder of ADHD Yoga, candidly discusses her journey of living with ADHD, highlighting her diagnosis at the age of 31. Despite excelling academically, she faced significant challenges in task management and decision-making in her professional life as a speech therapist. Her story illustrates the continuous struggle with working memory and organization, which she navigated with the help of supportive colleagues and unique adaptations.
The podcast episode also explores the intricacies of managing ADHD, from the hurdles of getting a diagnosis to the challenges of balancing medication during pregnancy. Taucha emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive treatment approach that goes beyond medication, incorporating strategies like community support and counseling. She shares her personal experiences of the internal conflict faced when deciding to stop medication during pregnancy, highlighting the hereditary aspects of ADHD and the necessity for proactive management.
Incorporating yoga into her ADHD management, Taucha explains how traditional yoga practices can address specific ADHD challenges. Themed yoga classes emerge as a transformative tool in her narrative, offering practical advice for those living with ADHD. The episode concludes with insights from ADHD thought leaders, reinforcing the importance of continuous exploration and development of strategies to support individuals with ADHD.
Transcript
00:00 - Sarah (Host)
The Adulting with ADHD podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Please see a medical professional if you think you have ADHD or if you have questions about your current treatment. To support this podcast or to access the podcast archives, visit patreoncom slash. Adulting with ADHD. This is the Adulting with ADHD podcast self-empowerment for people with ADHD. Today I'm very excited to have with me Taucha Post. She is the founder of ADHD Yoga and she's a fantastic woman with ADHD, and she's going to tell us a little bit about her journey and what's been working for her these days. Yoga is one of my favorite things. My dad was super into it and so I kind of grew up around it, even though I don't practice it every day. But I was so excited when you reached out because I think yoga has so much to offer what you're going to tell us about. So first let's start with what is your diagnosis story?
01:02 - Taucha (Host)
I was diagnosed about three and a half years ago. I was 31 years old at the time. It kind of like stemmed from just as a kid, just always feeling a little bit different, like always feeling like easy, easy, air quote easy things were hard for me. I always had to work harder than my classmates to do like not even as well as them when I was young. I'm just always like having just always feeling like things were really tough. Eventually in high school I started doing really well because I just I wanted to be a veterinarian and I knew to do that I needed good grades. So I pretty much just dropped every other part of my life to to do well in school, but at the cost of like a social life and like mental health and all that kind of stuff. Like on paper I looked great, but underneath I was I was not doing good, went to university and all that kind of stuff Changed my mind about veterinary school but went for grad school and you know the struggles all kind of followed me there. But my grades were good enough to get into a good school and a very good program and eventually I became a speech therapist. So I have a master's in speech therapy. I practiced for about seven and a bit years. I'm still registered but I'm not currently practicing.
02:09
But while I was at that job I had had a lot of autonomy at that job, a lot of independence and it was very. It was a very specialized job. I worked with adults who were nonverbal, who needed alternative forms of communication, so basically any diagnosis where an adult was no longer capable of verbally communicating. So Down syndrome, autism, severe strokes, tumors, brain injuries, als, degenerative conditions, parkinson's, like a whole bunch of different things, and I made them communication systems kind of like low-tech and high-tech alternative communication systems like Stephen Hawking used. That communication systems kind of like low tech and high tech alternative communication systems like Stephen Hawking used. That was the kind of thing I did. Yeah. Yeah, it was really cool, it was a cool, cool job.
02:51
But the thing is is when I was in school, basically like my school schedule and my syllabi were like my frontal lobes right, they told me like where I needed to be, and when I was kind of like, I was really like motivated by affirmation, yeah, and output and like you know, like scholarships and good grades and like that kind of thing like really got me going. So when you get a job. You don't have that kind of feedback anymore, right, and you don't have that kind of structure. Nobody sits you down, gives you a schedule for your next four months and says this is due here and here and here and here, like at my job. That was already a pretty tough job. It also had a whole lot of autonomy, which, on the one hand, I really loved, because I don't like I like a lot of ADHD years. I don't like being told what to do, but on the other hand, I had to like make my own decisions and do my own planning and doing my own organizing and all that kind of stuff.
03:41
Decision-making- especially yeah, yeah, it was really tough. When I first started at that job I thought that all of my difficulties more stemmed from just being a new clinician. Like I'm just new, I'll get the hang of it and after like my first two years or so this will be no problem. But then after a couple of years, all of the clinical stuff like seeing my clients and coming up with recommendations and doing assessment and treatment all of that stuff became easier. But like all of the all of the admin stuff behind it like writing my notes, making referrals, following up on emails, making appointments, like getting to appointments on time like none of that got easier at all. And I had a colleague her name was Sarah she. We worked in teams, so she was a speech therapy assistant and she worked there long before I did, and so she worked with other speech therapists before she worked with me, so she got to see how other speech therapists did that job. She would make kind and gentle comments about how different I do things. She was just like you do that, so interesting.
04:45
How I take notes was very odd because we sat we're at all of most of the appointments together and she'd watch me take notes at appointments, and sometimes I'd start a sentence like in the middle of the sentence and form the sentence around it, or I wouldn't be able to, I wasn't able to summarize my notes very well or appointments, because my working memory is so bad. Pretty much all my notes session notes, at the end of the appointment were like half sentences by the end. I'm like what the hell even happened here. It's really hard. And then also like writing, like writing my session notes on time and all that kind of stuff.
05:22
And because I had to tell her like what she needed to make, I had to like manage her as well, like for this appointment, I need you to get this done by this time and I often would forget or leave decision-making about what to make to the last minute and not give her enough time to make them, and that kind of stuff I felt obviously super bad about but also didn't know how to handle it. That was all like a big mystery to me. I was always like late and having a hard time and all this stuff, and she'd made a few comments and then, like one day on my way to work there was an episode on. We have a Canadian broadcasting system, cbc, and they have a show called the Current that always played when I was late for work. That was always like the sign that I knew I was late. I'm like damn it.
06:04
So, I was listening to that and it happened to be an episode on ADHD and girls and women. I was listening to it as I was driving and there was a woman they were interviewing who was like a Nobel prize winning journalist who was there, who was diagnosed when she was like 48, when her son was getting diagnosed, as that happens to a lot of women and then she was describing what it was like and how it presented in her work and I was like, oh my God, this is me. Like all of that past suspicion of being, like I feel different, like that finally like made sense in the context of what she was describing. So on the one hand, I was like holy crap, I think I need to look into this. But then, on the other hand, I was like you're just looking for excuses, like you're just looking for a reason and I kind of grew up with those voices too, whether it be society or certain family members.
06:54 - Sarah (Host)
I'm sure you had, oh yeah, internal dialogue.
06:56 - Taucha (Host)
It was so it was a very, very strong, very mean internal dialogue and I've been I was always hard on myself from a very, very young age. And then I was also I'm a December baby like just even like at the very, very end of December, so I'm also very young. So any challenges I did have were either attributed to one of those things. It was either because I was just a runt and I'm younger than everyone else and I'm just catching up, or because I'm so hard on myself and I just need to be, just need to ease up. So those were the two things that kind of always made me make sense of everything. And then, and then, because my grades were so bad for so long, I was convinced once I switched from doing like poor in school to really good in school when I gave everything else up.
07:37
The only way I could make sense of that transition and looking good on paper is that I was a stupid person who worked really hard. I was really good at biology and chemistry. I got like the biology award in high school award and. But people would come up to me or like ask me to help them with studying and with labs and stuff like that, and they're like you're so smart, how do you do so well in biology? I'm like, I'm just a stupid person who works hard Like I.
07:58
That was like my literal response. It makes me cringe, it makes me so sad, but yeah anyway, that voice that voice has always been there was telling me you know, like you're just looking for an excuse on something that fit and you don't want to be the flawed person. You're scared, you are and you don't want to admit that you're the flawed person, so you're looking for a scapegoat. It was just kind of like in the back of my mind but I kind of like brushed it off, but it would keep bubbling up. And then the next day, on my way to an appointment, I was in the elevator and my colleague, sarah, who had been on my, been watching me carefully this whole time.
08:36 - Sarah (Host)
You're different.
08:37 - Taucha (Host)
You've got a certain something. Exactly, her and I were in the elevator on the way to an appointment and she was like, hey, did you listen to the Current yesterday? Yeah, what that's awesome, it was great. And I was like you're awesome, she's like.
08:52 - Sarah (Host)
That sounded the best way of talking to you about it.
08:54 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, she's like that sounded a lot like you. Yeah, I know, right, I know.
09:06 - Sarah (Host)
She found a good way of like telling you or introducing the idea to you without being yeah, insensitive, totally, totally.
09:08 - Taucha (Host)
I mean she was a bridesmaid at my wedding way. Yeah, that was, that was early days, though actually like that was early on, when her and I were working. We worked together for almost seven years and she became a yeah a long time yeah.
09:21
After that I was like, okay, this is actually something I need to take seriously, because I'm not the only one noticing this now and this isn't just in my head and this isn't just me looking for excuses and it got to a point where, at work, I was just really doing bad, just like all of the guilt and all of the pressure and all of the things that were piling up and building up and all of like just trying to keep the impression and appearance of having everything under control was just yeah, it was a lot.
09:50
And I just kept feeling like every day was the day I was going to get found out and pressure fuels to me, I think pressure fuels the symptoms.
09:59 - Sarah (Host)
So whatever you're struggling with it's getting worse. Oh, totally.
10:02 - Taucha (Host)
Because that takes up space in your frontal lobes, that takes up activation in your frontal lobes, which, as an ADHD is also is already not working super great. Then to overload it with all that worry and stress and all that other stuff means all those ADHD symptoms are going to get worse. But you know, like getting diagnosed is not an easy process and I feel I feel like that's like such a joke and such an irony in ADHD is just that all of the steps I feel like so much part, so much treatment for ADHD is like so ironic and hilarious.
10:31 - Sarah (Host)
The prescription process is ridiculous. You couldn't have covered the worst system for people Totally Cause like I can't get it refilled over the phone.
10:39 - Taucha (Host)
I have to make an in-person appointment all the time and when I so we're going on a tangent. But here we go, so like when okay.
10:47
I moved last summer across the province, or sorry, across the country. I moved from Vancouver, bc, to like Ottawa, ontario in Canada. It's a big, big move and I didn't get a doctor right away and we kind of have a shortage of doctors. I was med free for a long time and I knew that this would happen. I suspected this could happen because I knew doctors were hard to find, refilled my prescription in BC and got like the maximum amount I could before I moved and then, instead of taking my full dosage, I was like rationing it. So instead of taking, like, my morning and my afternoon dosage, I just took my morning dosage just to buy me some time. And I still ran out of time. But I couldn't go to a walk-in clinic, I couldn't go to the hospital or emergency Like I had to get a doctor. It was such a pain and the wait list here is to get a family doctor was three years. Yeah, I eventually. Yeah, I eventually, like my.
11:41
My aunt-in-law is a nurse and she found me a doctor, a previous colleague, but anyway, that was not easy. So, yeah, so much, so ironic. Getting the diagnosis. I mean it's a lot of money to get that assessment. It can be between like $1,700 and $2,300. So I was like do I really want to do that when that may not even be the answer? I might find out I don't have this and that I am in fact just stupid and lazy. And or what if I do get the diagnosis, but because I've never been consistent on anything else before, what am I really going to do to change? What if I fail at treating myself?
12:15 - Sarah (Host)
Those were very real concerns. I had as well was okay, what if I do have it? Who am I? You know how am I going to improve?
12:23 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, Like, am I really going to take all the steps? History tells? But who am I? You know? How am I going to improve? Yeah, Like, am I really going to take all the steps History like tells me I'm not gonna. What's the point? And then also, what was the other? Oh, and also thinking like I don't think I have it as bad as some people do. Maybe I'm in the clear. I mean, I have a good career. I did well in school. Is it really that bad? Yeah?
12:45 - Sarah (Host)
I that bad? Yeah, I'm really. Is it that bad? That's the bar right. You you bring up medications, which is a really good segue into something else I wanted to ask you about, which was you had mentioned you're trying to conceive and that you were going to be going off the medication in anticipation for that. I assume that you did find medicine that was working for you, because I mean the fact that you were trying to coordinate your move with your medicine.
13:05 - Taucha (Host)
I assume that medicine was really doing a lot for you, because I mean the fact that you were trying to coordinate your move with your medicine.
13:08 - Sarah (Host)
I assume that medicine it really was. Yeah, yeah. So tell me a little bit about that. Like, when you came to that decision, how did you feel about the thought of going off these meds after learning how?
13:16 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, it scared me a lot.
13:17
The thing that's really tricky about like wanting to have, like pregnancy and and medications with ADHD, is that like they don't actually know anything about it.
13:27
They don't know anything about it, like when I told my doctor and had an appointment and like told them I'm planning on having a baby this year and I'm on these medications and I don't know if they're safe, they had to call me back three times to ask, like different professionals, what to do.
13:42
And at the end they're like we really don't know, because the only research that they had that was related to my medications were on mothers who were on meth when they were pregnant, which is not the same thing, and there were all kinds of other factors coming into play in a situation like that. So really the choice was just up to me, because there's research to suggest that there could be problems with my kid's heart, but again, that's more based on meth than anything else there could. But also there's research to suggest that there could be problems with my kid's heart, but again, that's more based on meth than anything else there could but also there's research to suggest that a mom who's feeling imbalanced and really scattered and incredibly stressed can also cause health problems for the baby.
14:18
Basically, it was up to me to weigh the risk when I was first diagnosed with ADHD. So when I finally got diagnosed, there was like a pilot project in Vancouver that was free. That was just. I couldn't. It was the only one in Canada, so I got my diagnosis that way and it was. I just happened to live there.
14:32 - Sarah (Host)
Yeah, sorry.
14:33 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, but yeah. So I got it eventually because there was a clinic, a pilot clinic that opened up. Just that happened to be where I lived. I mean, I'd probably still be undiagnosed by this point. So I got my diagnosis and I knew like after doing all my reading and everything like that, about ADHD, you know it's there's a lot of heredity, you know there's a big hereditary component. So my kids I knew like I've always wanted to be like, I always knew I'd be a parent and I and so now knowing like throwing that into the mix, I was like, well, my kids are likely going to have it. I'm not coping well, so I can't imagine throwing a kid into the mix and doing okay and then also being a good model for my kid to help them manage their ADHD. Knowing I was going to be a parent was actually one of the biggest motivators for me to actually take treatment seriously.
15:23 - Sarah (Host)
A hundred percent Same.
15:24 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, I knew, because I knew meds. You know, and meds are really, they're always just a small piece of your treatment, whether you have kids or not. They're not the whole picture. It's a tool, it's just, it's a piece. There's strategies, there's social community support, like all kinds of all kinds of stuff coaching, counseling all kinds of components and I tried to dive into each one. So I was like trying to like prepare, because I knew being a parent was going to be the hardest job.
15:51
I would ever have. Yeah, and you also can't quit yes.
15:56 - Sarah (Host)
No, you can't, and my mother-in-law reminds me if I ever complain about anything, she says you know exactly.
16:08 - Taucha (Host)
Getting treatment, getting like what's the word I'm looking for?
16:12 - Sarah (Host)
It's not holistic, but it's more like like complete, I guess, holistic To me that's holistic, Cause you're not just looking at medicine, you're looking at everything.
16:20 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, so it was kind of like I started medication thinking like this will be the stepping stone and the little boost to help me learn all the stuff I'm going to have to learn. And knowing that at some point, like it will be temporary and I have. I'm in control of it, I choose when to take it, I choose when not to take it, and I will have periods of my life where I won't get to have it and that's when I'll rely more heavily on the other stuff I need to learn. Wow, can I?
16:44 - Sarah (Host)
just interrupt you. That's such a healthy, proactive approach you have there.
16:53
These days, I've found myself needing quicker access to therapy from the safety and comfort of my home. This is why I started using BetterHelp for my immediate therapy needs. They will assess your situation and match you up with a licensed professional therapist, one who you'll likely start communicating with in 24 hours or less. It's more affordable than traditional therapy, and financial aid is available. You can do it through text or chat if you don't like phone calls or video appointments. To get started and to save 10%, go to betterhelpcom. Slash ADHD adulting. I just wanted to stop and just, you know, just celebrate that, because I know in my case and I know a lot of other people's cases, it was like what's right in front of them. Like I was introduced to the medicine first and then I learned later oh, I can't have this if I'm going to be pregnant or I. You know I chose that, but my point being the fact that you're already thinking this way, that's going to help you so much when you get to paramenopause and menopause and postpartum even.
17:48
So I just wanted to stop and just highlight that that's such a wonderful way of looking at it. Yeah, yeah.
17:54 - Taucha (Host)
So I mean that doesn't mean that I wasn't scared about not taking them anymore. It was scary because, like they were, with medications, like you, you don't always find the right ones on the first try.
18:02
Yeah, and sometimes you know some people don't find good ones at all. Some people really want them and can't find them. And, you know, or the side effects are too irritating or whatever, and I I feel really sad for those people that really want them and just can't find the fit. I was very fortunate in that I I did find a fit Eventually.
18:18
I had one type of medication that was like kind of mediocre for me and I was like the only real thing I noticed is that I didn't seem to have that emotional reactivity that I used to have. Like there was like if something super irritating happened where I would have flown off the handle, like it gave me that pause to like see that. But that was like the real. Only difference, like some people, when I heard them on their meds, are like wow, it's like a to-do list pops into my head and I know exactly what I need to do, in what order I. I kind of got there like the ones after. So the first ones weren't that like that. Then I tried like I heard other people's descriptions Cause I was going when I was doing medication trials it was in like a group that's how this pilot clinic was doing it every Wednesday morning, kind of everybody who tried something new would like sit and talk about their things, so I was hearing their stories. I'm like I want what you're having sit and talk about their things.
19:11 - Sarah (Host)
So I was hearing their stories. I'm like I want what you're having. I'll have what she's having, Just like when Harry met Sally.
19:15 - Taucha (Host)
I want that kind of aha like this is working. So for us is it, is it not? Am I just more self-aware now because I'm looking, I don't know, because that takes steps to decide to change and make an appointment. I put it off for forever and my husband who's like so neurotypical? I call him super typical.
19:30 - Sarah (Host)
Oh my God, Bless them. We have to balance each other out. Bless them, but I think we make their lives more interesting. If I could, just you know, I agree, and my husband would agree, I'm like don't I make your life interesting?
19:41 - Taucha (Host)
He's like do you ever hon?
19:44
Oh yeah, and then they just smile, yeah, but he was the one who was like you are, your medications can do better for you. You should make an appointment. So I finally did, and this was like we. Just we did it again right before the move. I tried these new medications. You know, I told you I was always like so behind on on my clinical notes and all this kind of stuff and every time, like sometimes I would like book an actual like office day to just write office notes or like a session notes, but I'd still only get like two done. Yes, even though I and like I don't know like I, I could only get two done. So I took these medications and I'm like I need to catch up on session notes before I move. I wrote 16 notes that day. Yeah, I have never in the seven years I worked there have written more than like three.
20:26
Three was a good day. Yeah, I have never in the seven years I worked there have written more than like three. Three was a good day. I wrote 16.
20:33 - Sarah (Host)
I have a few ADHD friends. I'm going to tell that too, because you are not alone. I know a couple of other clinicians with ADHD and it's like it's exactly what you're saying with the paperwork and the admin is just like killer, and so even after you're diagnosed it could still be a pain. So I'm going to tell them. Maybe you need to.
20:55 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, oh man, that was like I couldn't believe it 16 compared to usually like squeezing out.
21:02
Yeah, oh my gosh, it was just amazing, I couldn't believe it. Like I felt like super human, that'shuman. It was awesome.
21:08
I had that experience with my meds, like they really helped me. And the other thing that they really made a huge difference with was just my alertness in the morning, cause I think I know, like ADHD is a lot of us we're more prone to sleep disorders like sleep apnea and then circadian rhythm disorders and stuff like that. And I I'm convinced I have a circadian rhythm disorder because I don't get tired until like two in the morning. I have to like force myself to go to bed and just lay there thinking forever because I just want to try to align my life with the rest of the world, but my brain doesn't turn on until like noon. So my medications really helped me with that because I would take my like I would set an alarm seven or six, 30, take my medication, go back to sleep until seven, and then they would just wake me up and then I was just, I could just start my day. It was like magic, it was great. So that's been the biggest change now that I'm no longer on them. One of them.
22:03 - Sarah (Host)
Right, so your sleep is back to being just like not sleeping when you want. Hey, it's good practice, because when your baby gets here, they're not going to know night from day. I know I remember that phase where training them what daytime and nighttime was like opening up, opening up your windows. So they know.
22:23 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, but you know what, with my luck, I'm going to have a kid. That was just like me, because as a kid like I still don't know what daytime and nighttime is you know, like I still feel like I have that problem and I was like the kid I'm like. I never napped as a kid, I hated napping. I would like sneak around the house. I could never fall asleep and that nighttime I was always really scared to go to bed because what would happen is I'd go to bed. I was always really scared to go to bed because what would happen is I'd go to bed. The rest of the house would fall asleep. I'd just be in my room in the dark, all alone, wide awake. It was scary because I was just. I wasn't allowed to wander around, I couldn't turn lights on or get in trouble. So I was. It was scary and I'm probably just going to have a kid just like that.
23:05 - Sarah (Host)
You know what I don't know if you've read Sari Solden's latest, the workbook.
23:09 - Taucha (Host)
Yes, I have it. I'm working through it right now. Yeah.
23:12 - Sarah (Host)
Yes, Okay, so I was looking through it the other day and there is a good part in there that'll probably help you with that. But it's like, instead of trying to fit into this shoe, re-engineering your life so that you don't have to be like that which it sounds like you've kind of done with your yes I totally did actually Cause.
23:29 - Taucha (Host)
So, yeah, leading up to like having to not take my meds, like I said, I was apprehensive, I was scared, cause they had been very effective. But I also had, because I had like done coaching and counseling and, like you, started to learn how to use a planner. Cause like that's a skill you have to develop, like you can't just use a planner and expect it to fix you. You have to work at it. That's a skill. Yeah, I, I take work, it takes work. So I felt better equipped when I like I'm like I've never been this prepared to be off my meds. Now then I'm okay.
23:59 - Sarah (Host)
I'll make it.
24:00 - Taucha (Host)
But one of the things I definitely did have to do because, like, the sleep was a real thing, like I, I had one yoga class and my schedule that it was at 10 30 in the morning, which is not early, but in the morning I like, I wake up, I shower, I eat, I plan that class. I have to rearrange my entire apartment so that I can set up all my equipment and all that kind of stuff, so, like it was a lot to do when your brain doesn't wake up until noon. So I actually, after I stopped taking my medications, I had to change that class. Like there were too many mornings where I was trying to teach that 10 30 class where, right before I turned on that camera, I had been crying because I was like this is so hard, I feel so groggy, I'm still yawning my butt off. I don't. I don't know how great this class is going to be and I just had to, like Sari Solden said, I just had to kind of like accept this is where I'm at and I just had to change my schedule.
24:52
I work late. Like I don't need to feel shame about having a different work schedule than other people, because I work later than most people, and I work on weekends a lot, so I'm like what's this guilt about? Yeah, cut it out Like this is just like a social, social expectation. I felt like I had to fill. I felt like a real grown-up gets up at seven. A real grown-up has breakfast at eight. You know like that.
25:15 - Sarah (Host)
Those are all the stories I had in my head isn't it industrialism really that told us that we needed to get up at seven?
25:22 - Taucha (Host)
yeah, like Henry Ford and the assembly line yes, you don't.
25:26 - Sarah (Host)
You don't work in a steel mill. Why do you need to go get up?
25:31 - Taucha (Host)
But I had so much drama about that and actually that book, that workbook, helped me identify that I had shame about that, like that shame particularly around sleeping and when I go to bed and when I wake up, that shame was so deep I didn't even know it was there. Yeah, like I had, there was like a to-do list in the workbook. That's like you know list, all the things that you're trying ways, you're trying to fit in, that you don't quite, and like I didn't even put that one on there, it like hit me like a ton of bricks, like later on, when I was like trying to, when I I think when I was probably preparing for a yoga class in the morning, beating myself up, and then that chapter popped into my head oh I see I'm trying to fit a mold, I don't fit in.
26:14 - Sarah (Host)
Yeah, exactly, I think motherhood and I think surviving the pandemic you know, for me it's taught me both. I mean, I'm a four year old and she she's a lot like you where we may tell her it's bedtime but it's not bedtime to her, what are you supposed to do?
26:31
And and so I tell her hey, you know, here's a little trick I'm going to share with you. You know, you don't have to go to sleep, you can just lay quietly and play with your dolls. And just, I had a psychiatrist tell me when my child was a toddler like really little toddler I said I can't get her to nap. She won't nap. I know she's going to get burned out and she needs rest because, right, growing brain brains need rest. And she said you know what, just sit her in a quiet dark room and hang out for an hour and yeah, the doctor told my mom pretty much the same thing.
27:00 - Taucha (Host)
She was going to the doctor being like she won't nap, she won't nap. I don't know what to do better. She won't nap and the doctor's like, as long as she's quiet and resting, that's the thing I'm going to. I'll probably have to tell my kids too, like you don't have to sleep, but here's, you know, here's the books and here's this. Just just have some quiet time to yourself, cause being in the dark trying to sleep is really frustrating and scary as a kid.
27:23 - Sarah (Host)
Yeah, I hear her all the time just talking to herself and she's a lot like you, Like she's very sensitive to noises and so she hears things that no one else does and it'll keep her up and it's like I don't hear what you're hearing. It sounds like she's hearing electricity, but I don't hear it.
27:39 - Taucha (Host)
I could hear like TVs turn on and stuff like that, like just the static. I could hear the static, even if nothing is like on the screen. I could feel it. Oh yep, I know I feel like, yeah, I get your kid.
27:56 - Sarah (Host)
Yeah, I feel like you two are really synced up. I've tried really hard this is a tangent I've tried really hard not to see ADHD everywhere and I'm trying to let her just live her life and then, if other people notice it and you know, be sensitive to it in case she does have it. But I mean, I'm pretty sure she has it, just by observation and I know it's highly inherited from the mother. But it's really hard because you got the pandemic stress and then you got age appropriate. I mean, like what do you expect? A four year old Total tangent there. But I wanted to get back to you going off your meds. You were really scared at first and then you did it. So what are some tools you've been using? We talked about the holistic stuff like, besides pills, what have what?
28:37 - Taucha (Host)
has been working Really Like a big one has really been my mindset around it Just actually like taking a step back and being like whoa, whoa, whoa. Why do I actually have to get up at seven, says who. You don't need to do that and you can get a full day's work in if you just work later when your brain is actually more functional. So kind of just adapting my work day and not making that mean anything, just being like this is just when my brain works, so I just work when my brain works. That just makes sense, just makes sense. So I also I like, leading up to this, like last January I started focused with Kristen Carter, so I have a coach, and then with that comes like yeah, so coaching has been so helpful. And also with it comes like a community, because it's like a membership where with all kinds of people, so like just having like that support and having a bunch of people who also just know what it's like to be an ADHD or what it's like to be a mom, what it's like to be pregnant, all of that like cause there are all stages of life there. So just having like that moral support has been a big help and also knowing like I can get coaching if something comes up that I feel like I can't get a handle on. That makes such a difference, like just knowing, just having like that confidence. It felt like I had like a safety net. I'm not really doing this alone, so that was really good.
29:58
And then I had a planner that like was discontinued in December and I like worked with like a local stationary company and they made one for me and I just got it. I know so, I know it's I can't believe she did like to say it even just like it still makes me so happy, but I just I know so she made she made me a planner similar to the one I had been using, cause I could not find anything similar at all. Just having a planner again has been a big difference. I've been like planner free since December, so I just got it last week and it's already like made such a difference to like see what I need to do. I was using like to do lists and other things.
30:37
I had like this weekly planner thing. But ADHD years need like time like. This is just like columns. You see that doesn't have time for you people on the podcast. I am holding up a weekly pad of paper with seven days on it, but they're just columns without actually like time slots. So it's. I mean, that's pretty much how ADHD brain is. Like oh it's Wednesday, I don't know what time it is. Like that's no help, you need to see it.
31:03 - Sarah (Host)
Time is relative. I've used Google calendar for my time block events. I tell you I was going to post this on Twitter the other day. Aside from you, I just don't know people who consistently use planners and they work for them, but it sounds like for you you needed to create what worked for you, like your own custom solution.
31:22 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, well, it's like in my last year of university, my A very, very dear friend of mine, my last year of my master's, she taught me about, like the Pomodoro technique yes, it's so helpful. And then I just happened, like years later, to find a planner that actually had like the Pomodoro technique built into it. And then when that one was discontinued though I couldn't find a replacement, so I just asked like if this company would make one. And so they're like that's a great idea. We were planning on making one anyway, let's do this together. And I was like okay, yeah, do you?
31:52 - Sarah (Host)
saw them yeah they totally do.
31:53 - Taucha (Host)
They just launched them. I mean they come out on the 12th. I didn't mean to make this a plug, but this has been like a big help, but yeah, she's actually like the ambassador for Her, planner for her. So yeah, you can go to my link in my bio. Get 15% off, use the coupon code ADHD15.
32:12 - Sarah (Host)
Oh my God, yeah, totally share all that stuff and I was going to give you a promo section at the end anyway, so please promo away. Yeah, thank you for sharing with us all these things that have been working for you while you're TTC, as they say, trying to conceive.
32:29 - Taucha (Host)
I actually had to Google that when you emailed me. I'm like what? Yeah, I'm like what is that?
32:38 - Sarah (Host)
There's a whole world out there of message boards of just TTC, Because I remember when I was trying to conceive I wanted to read everything I could you know, especially, like you said, because you're so nervous about going off meds and everything. I definitely you guys. After this interview, I'm going to put in the show notes the link to this planner for those of you who, like Pomodoro, can check it out. And then Taucha also has yoga studio. You want to tell us where they can find?
33:05 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, sure, so you can find my yoga. It's an online yoga studio, and so you can find it at ADHD yogaca or ADHD yogacom. Both of them will get you to the same place. I have an online membership, so I teach four live classes at least four live classes a week. I do an extra two a month, usually for a special occasion. This week I'm doing a new moon flow for the new moon and it's going to be yoga and journaling, yeah, and then I usually do one brunch flow the last Saturday of the month. So, and then I also have a library that contains all of my recorded classes plus pose tutorials if you're new to yoga, so you can break them down in a little bit more detail as well as like shorter sequences for things like digestion and sore hips and things like that. Yeah, so that's my membership. I also have drop-in classes and you can also follow me on Instagram. Find me there at ADHDyoga. You should join my email list and then you can stay up to date.
33:57 - Sarah (Host)
I would love to do that, because I love the fact that you're you're yoga, but you're also ADHD. So it's like you get it.
34:03 - Taucha (Host)
You know it just I feel like, yeah, and I do theme like I purposely theme my classes around like ADHD things, like I try to stay as traditional, to like as true to the traditional yoga teachings as I can the thing that's very interesting about yoga I'm going to try not to go into such a huge tangent here, but the thing that's really interesting about yoga is that we in like here in the Western world, have this conception that yoga is just about the physical, like poses, but yoga is actually a whole lifestyle practice and it's uh, so it includes mindfulness and like ways to behave with other people and ways to behave with yourself and turning your senses in towards your body and breathing techniques and all of this stuff.
34:47
As I was doing research on ADHD were things that they said were beneficial to ADHD. That just also happened to be in all of my yoga training. Yeah, it's so cool, so I so I try to incorporate like traditional yoga teachings but also relate it to ADHD themes and ADHD struggles. So it's very ADHD focused and yeah, so I like to theme my classes on that and then you can embody and feel these teachings in your body throughout the sequences I put together.
35:16 - Sarah (Host)
Awesome, I can't wait to check that out, and there are a few things we talked about today that are actually being discussed at the ADHD Women's Palooza.
35:25 - Taucha (Host)
Yeah, I'm signed up for it. I keep getting the newsletter. I'm like, oh yeah, I signed up for that.
35:29 - Sarah (Host)
Yes, so I wanted I figured a lot of us, a lot of people listening, are probably signed up for that. But three things we talked about that you might want to check the Palooza about. We talked about medication and we talked about the lack of research out there and why, why doctors can't feel confident either way when it comes to describing medication when pregnant. So there was a lecture yesterday about medication, so that would be a good one if anybody wants to catch it. And then today I think Dusty Chapura is going to be talking about ADHD in pregnancy, so that would be something interesting. And then Terry Matlin actually is going to be talking about how to use a planner. So that's the one I need to go check out.
36:11
I don't, it just doesn't stick and I just let it go, Like maybe I'm just not meant to, but if she's got a lecture on it, then maybe it's possible. Or else she would just say, let it go because you know she, she's been around a while so she would know. But it sounds like there's just a way to learn. But anyway, I'll put all the links to all the things in the show notes. And, Taucha, thank you so much. It was wonderful to meet you and if you ever want to come back on the show, I would love to follow you through your journey, as you progress and everything.
36:42
And hear about how it's going and all that good stuff, awesome Yay.
36:47 - Taucha (Host)
All right, sounds good.
36:48 - Sarah (Host)
Thank you so much I've always wondered if weighted blankets could help me with anxiety During the pandemic. It was the perfect opportunity to find out. Ever since the first night I have slept with my weighted blanket, I have had very relaxing sleep. I don't deal with insomnia nearly as often, and at a point where I don't want to sleep without it. It is that awesome.
37:09
To find out which blanket I use. It's just so comfortable and so beautiful. Go to adultingwithadhdcom slash mosaic and you'll see my favorite one, and there's many, many others to choose from.
