ADHD and the High Achiever with Dr. Jennie Byrne

Hey Team!

This week I'm talking with Dr. Jennie Byrne, a board-certified psychiatrist and neuroscientist with over 20 years specializing in high-achieving professionals and adults with ADHD. She has a PhD in Neurophysiology and an MD from NYU with her psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai (pronounced SIGH-nye). Now she runs Constellation PLLC, a concierge telepsychiatry practice where she helps busy professionals manage their ADHD. In her most recent book, ADHD in Professionals: Embracing Your Brain, Dr. Byrne examines how ADHD shows up at work, and why some individuals thrive while for others everything looks great on paper, but underneath they're struggling.

In this episode, we consider why the idea that "you're too high functioning to have ADHD" isn't a diagnosis and how often that same high performance at work can lead to a crash at home. We also play with the ideas of using anxiety as fuel and the costs that come with that, how productivity advice built for neurotypical brains can backfire for us and our environmental fit can make all the difference.

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/312

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD

This Episode's Top Tips

1. 1. Your environment can play an important role in managing your ADHD, but it can cut both ways. A brain that loves working fast and connecting dots could easily be an asset in a high-stress fast-moving environment like the ER, OR or ICU. But then that same brain could fall apart when stuck in front of a pile of emails. Finding the right fit for you allows you to get the results without paying an extra cost you never intended to.
   2. While it is possible to use anxiety as a fuel to get stuff done, it often comes with a physiological cost. And it's important that we acknowledge the cost because it's too easy to let ourselves fall into the trap of letting anxiety provide all of our extra motivation which can then lead to chronic stress, health problems, and even a shorter lifespan.
   3. The idea that you're "too high functioning" to have ADHD often comes from a training gap and it is not diagnostic. High achievers are often able to hold it together at work but then fall apart at home, so it's important that you are able to express the totality of your existence with ADHD and find a clinician that is up to date on the current research.