Mental Health Misinformation with Dr. Joe Nucci
In this episode, I interview psychotherapist and author Dr. Joe Nucci about the realities of ADHD, the dangers of mental health misinformation, and the importance of nuanced conversations. Dr. Nucci shares his personal journey, debunks common ADHD myths, and offers practical advice for listeners navigating their own mental health.
Highlights:
The rise of ADHD diagnoses and common misconceptions
How social media shapes mental health narratives
The importance of thorough assessment and self-responsibility
Mentioned in the Episode:
Dr. Joe Nucci’s website: joenuccitherapy.com
Psychobabble: Viral Mental Health Myths & the Truths to Set You Free
ADHD Online - To save $40 and get assessed now for ADHD, depression, anxiety, and more, visit adhdonline.com/adultingwithadhd and use promo code AdultingADHD40.
Enjoyed this episode? Don't forget to rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platform to help me reach more listeners.
Summary
In this episode, psychotherapist and author Joe Nucci to discuss the complexities of mental health information in the digital age. Joe shares his background as a practicing therapist and content creator, describing how his social media presence grew unexpectedly and led him to address widespread misinformation and the misuse of mental health terminology online. He emphasizes the importance of nuance and accuracy, especially as conversations about mental health have become more mainstream in recent years.
The discussion delves into common myths about ADHD, such as the misconception that it is the sole cause of focus problems, and highlights the need to consider factors like sleep, nutrition, and overall well-being. Joe explains how the overuse and misapplication of mental health labels can have real consequences for individuals seeking help, and he encourages listeners to approach online information with curiosity and skepticism. He also shares practical advice for managing ADHD, including the value of structured routines, body doubling, and self-reward systems, particularly in the context of writing his upcoming book, "Psychobabble."
As the episode concludes, Joe and Sarah reflect on the evolving nature of mental health discourse and the responsibility that comes with sharing information online. Joe announces the release of his book, "Psychobabble: Viral Mental Health Myths and the Truths to Set You Free," and provides details on where listeners can find his work and connect with him on social media. The conversation serves as both a caution and a guide for navigating mental health content, encouraging listeners to seek balanced, evidence-based perspectives.
Transcript
This is the adulting with A DHD podcast. Self-empowerment for people with A DHD. Today I'm excited to have with me Joe Nucci, a psychotherapist and author of the upcoming book, psychobabble. A Fellow a d, adhd, or he made a name for himself on Instagram and TikTok, addressing misinformation and calling out the misuse of mental health jargon.
Welcome to the show, Joe. Hey, Sarah. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Let's start by you telling us a little bit about yourself and what led you to write Psychobabble. Sure. I have been practicing in some capacity. Gosh, how long has it been? We're approaching a decade now. I think it's been about like seven or eight years.
I started posting on social media a little over two years ago. It was honestly. On a whim, it was like I had some people encouraging me to do it. I saw that seems to be where the economy was going and where a lot of marketing was going. So in my head I was like, maybe I'll just do this and I'll advertise for my practice for it.
But I had no idea that I would end up taking it so seriously because my 14th video ever got like a million views on Instagram and I was just like. Wait, what? It's, and it's, it's funny how quickly things can shift for us, right? Because before that, people were like, why don't you make content to people in my life?
And I was like, dude, 'cause cringe. I was like, 'cause I never want to do that. And then you get some positive reinforcement and you're like, oh, I'll do it. I'm not cringing. And so as I started to take it more seriously, I started to look at self-help content and mental health content more seriously and mm-hmm.
You and whoever's listening is probably familiar. This wasn't such an open conversation even like five years ago. It was really, I think, yeah. A lot of things, but primarily the pandemic forced a lot of us to slow down, to turn inward and just to acknowledge that mental health is a thing, right? It needs to be talked about for so many different reasons.
It's so important, and as I was just exploring like, how are people talking about this? I started to encounter what I felt was a lot of people talking about it. Either a incorrectly spreading misinformation or. Messaging the information in a way that lacked nuance that I believed was, was problematic.
Yeah, and what I've been, what I like to remind people is I'm not this ivory tower finger wagging like therapist, like I have a license, so only I get to say what these words mean and how to use them. My biggest concern is that oftentimes we're using. These terms to pathologize or medicalize everyday life or to use the tools of mental health to understand something that I don't think that the tools are well suited for.
And so it's not just a matter of semantics, I think it's, it also has real consequences for people and how they navigate their lives and how they navigate their therapy journey. Absolutely. Can you walk us through a common A DHD myth that you're seeing when you're out and about? Sure. It seems like just yesterday, doesn't it, that I was watching documentaries on YouTube or on tv, and it was saying like, this is so over-diagnosed.
We need to stop diagnosing all of our children with it. And then I don't quite know when the switch happened, but now it's like everybody has it. Everybody's neurodivergent, like everybody should have an Adderall prescription, and so I'm not totally sure where or why the switch happened. There's probably more than one reason, but one of the biggest myths I see about A DHD, and it's one that I write about in my book is that.
It is this idea that this is the only reason why you have focus problems, when really there's actually, if you go see any therapist worth their salt, they're going to assess you for disordered sleep. They'll probably want you to get blood work done. And that's not just for hormones and stuff like that, but also like nutritional deficiencies, right?
Are you nourishing yourself? Okay. And I know that for me as someone with a DHD. Taking care of my body, like taking care of my vessel is the number one way I keep my symptoms under control. Now, we're not gonna get a perfect night's sleep every night. We can't always eat everything with the ingredients that agree with our systems.
And so that's why I use medication because it is part of my, it's probably one of my neurodevelopmental style or condition, however you want to think about it. And, but that I think does squarely put it in the category of a. Mental illness or neurodivergency if you don't prefer that language is 'cause for me that there is something different in my wiring, but how severe that is does go up and down.
Now, even if you don't have my wiring right, if you're low on sleep, you're not gonna be able to focus very well. If you have impulsivity things, maybe those get a little bit worse, right? Or whatever it is. And so I think for me, that's the biggest thing. I just want people to be a little bit more curious and listen, if you do, you have a D, adhd, and you have to fight for your diagnosis in order to get the proper treatment, I think that's awesome.
But what I often see is a lot of people claiming the label or claiming, oh, I have a little bit of it. I have a sprinkle of it. But then they're not actually taking it a step further. They're not taking any sort of responsibility or steps so they can actually function better. I'll tell you, Sarah. My team and I work with a team that edits a lot of my videos.
And I remember when I first decided to make videos about having a DHD and being open about that on my platform, I was like, they were all surprised. They were like, do you actually? And I was just like, yeah. I was like, oh my gosh. And then it inspired so much content. But I share that not as a humble brag or do you like that, but really just to let people know that it's, if you actually get the help, like it's not gonna be something that that's part of your identity or personality necessarily.
If you're listening to this show, you get how stress and overwhelmed can wreak havoc on your life and how sometimes the issue runs deeper than that. That's where A DHD online comes in. They offer a thorough, clinically backed assessment that not only checks for A DHD, but also screens for anxiety.
Depression and more. To save $40 and to get on the path to relief, now visit a ADHD online slash adulting with a H ADHD and use promo code adulting a HD 40. But yeah, I'm really glad that we're having a nuanced conversation about this because I, as someone who puts information out there, it's, it's difficult sometimes.
What do you have to say to people who you mentioned earlier, like who are having difficulty accessing a diagnosis? So why is mental health information problematic when you're getting it online? Is it always problematic? That's a good question. I think it's, I think there's a cogent argument to be made that mental health information is always problematic just because the field is so new.
People forget that there are people alive today who are alive during Freud's time. It's brand spanking new. Yeah. And. Because of that, there are things that we really sincerely believed just a few short decades ago that seem laughable today. So one example of this is the Veteran Affairs Association. Took the idea of PTSD and laughed it off as a quacky, just like ridiculous statement.
And now it's, and now trauma is something else I write about in my book, right? And like how it's so can be overused and misapplied and all this stuff. And so. I think that like any field, like medicine, like policy nutrition and fitness science, we're always going to be evolving and growing. So no matter where you're getting the information, whether it's from a journal or whether it's a social media post, yeah, be a little skeptical.
Be a little curious. I think that's number one. I think number two, I think social media makes. Particularly viral because that's, that's where the heartbeat of popular culture is these days. Whether people like to admit it or not. Yeah. I know. I spend more time scrolling than is probably good for me.
Speaking of having a DHD, that hyper focus can be a real killer. Yeah. I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? And I think that it's also the way you compete. And I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, it's just part of making content. I do this too. You wanna deliver it in a strategic or a sensationalized way that's going to grab attention.
And it is, and I'm not even totally sure where the line is, 'cause I think it's on a case by case basis. Where does that hook or whatever it is, at what point does that cross over into ethical gray area or an area where maybe the information is getting miscommunicated? I think it's different for absolutely everyone, but what I tell people is I'm like, listen, I think that the.
That the culture, mental health culture right now is like where I was when I was a first year psych student in grad school, where you're just really excited and all these things are clicking and all these light bulbs are going off. But the difference is I kept studying. Yeah. And even in if year one in grad school, I may have been accidentally trying to give my family a little therapy or using this term and this casual conversation or whatever it is.
Mm-hmm. I eventually learned how to employ these terms and concepts. Properly. It's a little bit like I write about this in the book too. It's a little bit like learning a new language. Mm-hmm. Or learning an an instrument. When you first learn an instrument, you're gonna be confined to these like rigid drills and chords and notes and songs that after you develop fluency, you can riff, you can put your own spin on it, but you have to be rigid in that first stage.
You have to learn how to do that. And so I would say to anyone that's. Listening to this, it's so don't feel overly guilty that, oh, I'm contributing to this problem, this epidemic of psychobabble, because I would be disingenuous by saying that a hundred percent of my content is messaged perfectly. Of course it's not, but it's great that we're having this conversation and that we could all just think a little bit more intentionally on how we're putting stuff out there and, and what to do.
If you put something out there and then a year later a new study comes out, or there's a nuance you want to add, like how do you continue the conversation? I love that. Yeah. On that note. It's a complicated, wide open question, but what do you have to say about how can patients better protect themselves from this misinformation?
Like you said, the line is hard to find, and if you're an end user, how do you even know? Are there any advice you can give us for being a smarter consumer of the medium? Absolutely. Mm-hmm. I think that when it comes to A DHD information specifically, I think that we want to. The word that comes to mind for me is like a balanced approach.
Balance. So what does that mean? It's, let's have a foot, like in what the literature says, there's a lot of great science about A DHD and how to treat it and how it works. And, and there's a lot of journals that are freely accessible online. Mm-hmm. And there's a lot of pages that are dedicated to, I'm going to tell you exactly what the paper says.
And they're, they're real researchers. They're not gonna lean it one way or the other. Right. They're gonna stay true to that. Methodology and I think it's okay to have your other foot and, and this research is always evolving and sometimes what the coaching community or the neurodiversity community has said about something maybe years later, it ends up being true.
The rub though, is I think that we want to be. I very cautious about making all or nothing statements or two, like big blanket statements. And so just a basic example that I brought up earlier is disordered sleep. People with a DHD, myself included, can have struggles with getting to sleep on time and regularly.
And waking up feeling rested. And if your sleep is off for whatever reason, it can mimic a DHD symptoms. And so I, whenever I see a post that's, this is definitely a trait of A DHD, right? It's, I like to stop and I like to think, and I like to use something called conditional logic. So anyone who has ever studied for the LSAT or ever took a class on this may be familiar with the following.
Example, if it's a dog, it's always a mammal. Right, but if it's a mammal, it's not necessarily a dog, right? If it's a DHD, you are probably distractible, but if you are distractible, it's not necessarily a DHD. It's not a two-way street, and I think that regardless of what the diagnosis or what the buzzword is, I think if you can keep that in mind, I think that'll help you sort through a lot of bs.
Most definitely. Yeah, definitely. I like that. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about psychobabble when it comes out and where our listeners can find it. Sure. So psychobabble viral mental health myths and the truths to set you free is gonna be available wherever books are sold. And so that can be Amazon, that can be Barnes and Noble, that can be Target, it can be local bookstores, and it's going to be out on September 23rd, 2025.
You could also go to my page at ucci Therapy on any social platform or. Joe nucci therapy.com and my last name is like a Gucci, but with an N as in Nancy. Nice. So that's N-U-C-C-I, Joe Nucci Therapy and all the relevant links will be there too. Wonderful. And your handles, if people wanna follow you on social Yeah.
Is at Joe Nucci Therapy. So, okay. First name, last name. JOE Nucci Therapy. Can you tell us a little bit about your process behind making this book, especially as somebody with a DHD? Yeah, absolutely. Like anyone with a DHD listening, it can be really exciting to start a project and to ideate it and then to even do kinda like the beginning stages of implementation on whatever the project is, but then as it becomes less novel.
It becomes more difficult to sustain that focus. And so one of the things that I did is I really reorganized my schedule. So there were times where I was either like all in or all out. So the, when I was working on writing it, let's see, I wrote it for the majority of 2024, the year I was just a no to socializing during the week.
I was just, it was none of this. Oh, like I'll go out for dinner, I'll go out for one drink, I'll go out, whatever it might be. Now, would I take breaks? Like of course. And that's actually something that's an executive functioning skill that if you don't know about it, is very important. 'cause it's easy for us not to, but then the break we end up needing to take later is so much longer.
Or we can really burn ourselves out. And so of course, like I would go on like walks or go to the gym or stuff. It's not like it was the only thing that I was doing, but I was very clear that I could not schedule things that were more. Enticing or more novel during this time, during the weeks particularly, I was very good about not working on it on weekends.
Maybe there was a weekend here or there. If I was traveling during the week or whatever it is, I, I had to make a deadline, whatever that may be, and I. Very, very rarely drink any alcohol. I know for me, that is just a huge kind of trigger for my symptoms. I feel the next day, even after a glass, my symptoms are so much worse, even with Adderall, which I'm prescribed, and so that was something else I was very disciplined around.
That was very helpful. I also don't know if this is an A DHD hack per se. I don't, and may, maybe you would know, I haven't tried looking at like mm-hmm. The literature and stuff, but there's a, there's like a wellness spa near my place where I live in New York and I would go and I would do the cryotherapy or the cold plunge.
Yeah. And when you're in that sustained cold, you get a bunch of adrenaline, a bunch of norepinephrine, and they say, and I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's wellness biohacker babble from social media, but what they say is that you do have like elevated dopamine. I know that for people with A DHD, we need a little bit of extra of that.
That's why Adderall works for us like it does, right? Yeah. And so I was a regular goer of that. I would go and I would be in the cold room or in the cold tub, and I would come back and I would have a few hours, or I felt really just dialed in in a really excellent way. What are some of the other things that I did?
I also did, it wasn't something I did as much if I'm being honest, but I did do it sometimes, but. Other friends of mine who are entrepreneurs or other writers and stuff, we would just get on like Zoom or on a video call. Yeah. Like you and I are on right now. And what is that called again? It's body doubling.
Body doubling, yeah. Yeah. That's good. And it was just okay, like totally. It's like in an hour we're gonna check back in, this is what I'm gonna try to get done. And then we would do some rounds of that. And I thought that was absolutely amazing. And I was always very intentional too about rewarding myself, right?
Yeah. So whether that was just taking the weekend off or if it was like, okay, and if I finish these four chapters by Tuesday, like Wednesday I get to go out. I'm a pretty social guy. I'm pretty extroverted. And so giving that up maybe wasn't always the easiest, but it was pretty like motivating. Yeah. If you will.
And yeah, those are just some of the things that helped me complete the project. It's also, I've never really thought about this, but the book. It's 40 chapters, but the chapters are very short. Some of them are only 1500 words. I think the longest is about 4,000 words. And so that was actually a great book for someone with a DHD to write because a lot of times I could pump out the first draft like in a sitting, and then I was able to incorporate my rewards or my breaks like pretty naturally.
And so if there's a way to segment out your work like that, of course that's a great executive functioning skill for anyone with A DHD. Absolutely. Joe, thank you so much for being on the show and I'm looking forward to this book. Yes, of course. Thank you so much. Thank you.
