Hacking Your ADHD

Hey Team!
This week I've got Cate Osborn and Erik Gude on the show. Cate, known online as Catieosaurus, holds an M.Ed and uses her background in research and sex education to help neurodivergent folks navigate relationships and communication. Erik, known online as HeyGude, is an advocate and speaker who uses his platform to destigmatize the messy internal monologue of the ADHD brain. Honestly, it almost feels like I don't need to introduce these two given everything they've produced; they are definitely an online powerhouses. I've been a fan of their podcast, Catie and Erik's Infinite Quest: An ADHD Adventure, for quite a while now. So I imagine you've probably seen at least something from them.
And they've spent the last few years distilling their combined experiences into a new book designed to act as a foundational knowledge base for neurodivergent adults. The book The ADHD Field Guide for Adults was a ton of fun to read; it's written in an incredibly ADHD-friendly manner, and I really appreciated the approach, making this a book for adults where I don't feel like I'm being talked down to. So in the episode, we're definitely talking about the book, but we go into a ton of different topics. We talk about the "systems-first" approach to ADHD management. We break down the precision of language and why understanding that distinction matters. And a whole lot more, there's just a ton of stuff in this episode.
Check out The ADHD Field Guide for Adults which is available in hardcover, e-book, and as an audiobook narrated by the authors Cate and Erik.
Visit Catieosaurus.com for information on Cate's national tour, "Wildly Unprepared," and upcoming book signing events.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/279
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD
This Episode's Top Tips
Understand the difference between shame (a fixed belief about who you are) and guilt (a feeling about what you did). Shame is an unchangeable dead end, but guilt is a "window for change" that allows you to acknowledge a behavior, such as being late or having a messy car, without condemning your entire identity.
Recognize that "defeat" is often more comfortable than "failure" because defeat asks nothing of you; it simply means the game is over. Overcoming ADHD difficulties requires a healthy relationship with failure. Try viewing failure as a data point for "dissecting the system" rather than a reason to just stop trying.
Many ADHD systems fail because they are built to satisfy "residual gook" from childhood. We often have internalized rules about how things "should" be done, like folding socks or separating silverware that have no basis beyond that it's just how we've always done it. Audit your tasks to see if you actually care about the result; if you don't, dismantling the expectation (like using bins instead of folding laundry) can remove the cognitive load of a performance you don't actually value.

Hey Team,
I've been working on a presentation for an upcoming conference called Neurodiversion, and when I was thinking about what I wanted to present, the idea of memes came to me, and I'm gonna be honest here: this was mostly out of a desire to just make looking at memes part of work. As I started looking into the concept more and putting together the presentation, I realized there's a lot more to it than I initially thought.
Memes are more than just digital clutter; they're a fairly vital part of modern culture. I know how that sounds, but this is visual shorthand. They give us a way to communicate that we are part of an in-group simply by understanding what the meme is. They are these inside jokes across entire online communities, and the more I dove in, the more I realized that memes are more important than they seem on the surface. They aren't just jokes; they're ways to find community, understanding, and meaning in our own experience. That's important even if they come from something silly.
And so that's what we're going to explore in this episode: how memes can give us meaning, how they can give us community, and how they can be a little dangerous.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/278
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD
This Episode's Top Tips
For ADHD brains, traditional social upkeep sometimes requires more executive function than we have available. "Pebbling" allows for a low-stakes connection that signals "I am thinking of you" without the cognitive load of a conversation.
Digital content can act as a starting point for self-discovery, but it's still not a diagnostic tool. A meme can point you in the right direction, but it doesn't represent the actual lived experience of your impairment. Don't mistake a "relatable quirk" for the totality of the disorder.
Virality is not a proxy for truth. ADHD brains can be prone to "sticky" ideas and sometimes skip steps on verifying facts. The shift here is moving from "It's relatable, so it's true" to "It's relatable, but what's the source?"

Hey team!
This week I'm talking with Dani Donovan, a neurodivergent artist and designer whose ADHD comics have been shared all over the internet. Dani holds a BFA in Visual Communication and Design and is the creator of The Anti-Planner. She's spent years as an advocate for neurodivergence, using her background in design to simplify those complicated, invisible daily struggles we all face. In our conversation today, we're diving into why traditional planners often feel like they never work how we want them to and how we can transition into a "toolbox" mindset instead. We explore the concept of "anti-shame" tactics and how to stop using mean-spirited self-motivation. Dani shares some of her favorite hacks for the mundane stuff, like an "Inbox Sprint" for tackling email debt and some unconventional strategies, including how she uses "worst drafts" and even Magic: The Gathering packs to keep herself moving.
Check Out the Anti-Planner: https://www.anti-planner.com/
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/277
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD
This Episode's Top Tips
We often beat ourselves up for "failing" to use a planner reliably after three months, but the reality is that our brains stop responding to the same stimuli once the novelty wears off. Instead of trying to find the one system you'll use forever, you can try building a "toolbox" of multiple strategies.
Executive dysfunction isn't a monolith; it's a collection of specific emotional roadblocks like being intimidated, over-committed, or paralyzed by perfectionism. Approaching every task with a standard to-do list is like trying to use a hammer on a screw; it's the wrong tool for the specific resistance you're facing. By identifying the specific flavor of your resistance first, you can choose a tool designed to dismantle that exact barrier.
Many of us have spent a lifetime using "mean" self-talk as a primary motivator because getting in trouble was the only thing that worked in the past. However, shame is a paralyzing emotion that actually increases avoidance. Shifting to an objective, "engineering" mindset allows you to view a failure not as a character flaw, but as a data point . Asking "Why did this fail?" instead of "Why am I like this?" allows you to troubleshoot the system rather than blaming the person.

Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Waterson for our Research Recap series. In this series, we look at a single research paper, dive into what it says and how it was conducted, and try to find practical takeaways.
In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called "Evaluation of Maternal Inflammation as a Marker of Future Offspring ADHD Symptoms: A Prospective Investigation." This study investigates the biological origins of ADHD—specifically, whether a mother's immune system during pregnancy might be able to predict ADHD symptoms in her children once they are born.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at https://HackingYourADHD.com/276
https://tinyurl.com/56rvt9fr - Unconventional Organisation Affiliate link
https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk - YouTube
https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD - Patreon

Hey Team!
Today, I'm talking with Erika Levine, a special education professional with a clinical background in Occupational Therapy. Erika has made it her mission to simplify the legal and procedural hurdles that keep parents from getting their kids the support they're legally entitled to, drawing from her deep well of lived experience as both a professional and a parent of neurodivergent children.
In this episode, we get into the nitty-gritty of advocating for a child who isn't "failing" but certainly isn't thriving. We dive into the legal weight these documents carry, the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan and how we can walk into those meetings with six professionals without feeling like you're the one being sent to the principal's office. Erika also shares some personal history about her own mother's advocacy and why she created "My IEP Hero" to help parents navigate the system.
Mentioned in this episode: https://myiephero.app/
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/275
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD
This Episode's Top Tips
Treat the IEP as a legal mandate and understand that it is a legally binding document that schools must adhere to strictly; it is not a set of globalized suggestions, but a tailored plan for a specific child.
Remember that the IEP team should include more than just teachers; it includes specialists like OTs, PTs, speech-language pathologists, and psychologists who can address the child's needs.
If a school denies services because the child is "fine" academically, parents can request an Individualized Educational Evaluation (IEE) from an outside psychologist, which the school may be required to fund. Remember we want to focus on our children thriving, not just passing by through school.