Beyond ADHD: A Physician’s Perspective

Dr. Katrice Brooks: Give yourself, grace, this is a journey and we're on the journey. We're all trying to be better and you're even wanting to be better. You're on that journey. So give yourself grace and radically accept yourself, build community and other people. That's, you know, mirroring body, doubling, delegating, optimize your habits.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hi, welcome to Beyond ADHD, A Physician's Perspective podcast. I am your host, Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a Family Medicine doc, with ADHD, practicing in a rural setting in Texas. I am a mother to two very energetic toddlers who are three and four years of age.

And in the past year, I have undergone radical transformation after discovering ADHD coaching, and life-coaching. For the past decade, my typical day consisted of having 300 charts backlog, a graveyard of unfinished projects, and a lack of time awareness. I didn't realize that I was not filling my own cup. I was running on fumes. The last year I figured out the secret; learn to stay in your lane. So now my mission is to help others develop systems that tap into their zone of genius. So they too can reclaim their personal lives back like I have.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Well, hello? Hello. I am so excited today to have one of my friends Dr. Katrice Brooks. She is a double board certified Family and Lifestyle Medicine Physician, and she has more than 10 years of experience. So you need to talk to her because she does the whole holistic approach. Okay. She makes sure that she helps her patients get the care that they need.

She's the one who stays there and listens what she listens. She spends times with them, she answers all the questions. She's so passionate about health equity, improving their quality of life by reducing medicines and of course helping the patient make decisions. And so it's so important that you listen to today's topic, because she's gonna talk about how ADHD has been one of her superpowers to help transform her patients' lives.

One of her newest adventures has been having her own clinic. And so we're here to talk about how an ADHD entrepreneur can have all the things and how that can create a big impact in not only her personal life, but in the lives of her community. And everybody who works with her has this amazing transformation as well.

So Dr. Brooks, please let us know where you are and tell us a little bit about your clinic or what it's like to have ADHD and, start this amazing using adventure.

Dr. Katrice Brooks: All right. Hi, Dr. Mercado. I'm so excited to be on here. Just talking with your audience, super, super excited. You are amazing, and you're doing amazing things.

So I'm really so honored as well. My life basically changed when I began to accept my brain and to start working with it rather than working against it. When I stopped trying to, be like everybody else. And I started trying to help and support myself and that journey of supporting myself and radical acceptance, has helped me to radically accept my patients and to help them rather than to try to put everybody a square peg into a round hole, trying to fit everybody into these boxes. It helped me to see kind of the individualistic needs of people and meet them where they are and help them get where they're going. So I really kind of transform my approach to my patients. So I really do think of it as a superpower. And I have lived with this my entire life and not. Realizing kind of what it is. And I do wanna say that I'm self-diagnosed ADHD or self-diagnosed neuro divergent, and I might be, you know, just on the spectrum or a product of complex trauma, but my brain, you know, just doesn't work like, most other people, or my brain works like my brain.

I can't even say like other people, but my brain works like my brain. And I found that what everyone else did and the rewards that they were getting in their brain, I didn't get the same thing. So I had to create paths for myself. And it's been a journey because as you know, I'm sure as your patients know is taken me. I've taken lots of hits because of it too.

Like it is now my superpower, but this journey to entrepreneurship was because it was almost my Achilles heel, you know, I know you, you actually have a course where you've given talks on recognizing ADHD in your coworkers. And I wish some, one of my coworkers would've recognized it in me. You know, I like most other physicians who struggle with ADHD my entire career with those 10 years of experience working for big medicine.

Almost the whole time since hitting the ground, I struggled to close my charts. I would have periods where I did it. Great. And then I would, it would fall apart and I would do it great. And I would fall apart. And you know, the, the talk in the office would be like, Dr. Brooks is such a great doctor because, you know, ADHD does allow me, that's my superpower.

I'm able to...

Dr. Jessica Daigle: Having that sense of control and order is what allows you to be able to move forward. Like you need to .

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hi, welcome to Beyond ADHD, A Physician's Perspective podcast. I am your host, Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a family medicine doc, with ADHD, practicing in a rural setting in Texas. I am a mother to two very energetic toddlers who are three and four years of age.

And in the past year, I have undergone radical transformation after discovering ADHD coaching, and life-coaching. For the past decade, my typical day consisted of having 300 charts backlog, a graveyard of unfinished projects, and a lack of time awareness. I didn't realize that I was not filling my own cup. I was running on fumes, the last year I figured out the secret; learn to stay in your lane. So now my mission is to help others develop systems that tap into their zone of genius. So they too can reclaim their personal lives back like I have.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Well, hello? Hello. I am so excited today to have one of my good friends. Dr. Jess Daigle. She's a board certified Pediatrician. She's an ICU doctor and founder of mom and me. By Jess Daigle MD and upcoming in-home virtual postpartum care service. This may, that will provide medical care to newborns and education to the mamas, along with emotional and practical support during their fourth trimester.

Her heart is towards mamas and their little ones. She loves to educate console and reassure families. She's on a mission to help moms ditch, overwhelm, and feel competent in their new lives so that they can reconnect with themselves and embraced motherhood with confidence and joy. So I am so excited. I want to her to tell us how she ended up being able to do all these things.

Dr. Jessica Daigle: Well, thank you so much, Diana, for having me. I'm so grateful to be here today and to share my story with moms, because I've really been there. I always wanted to be a pediatrician, which I think that was just a God given quality, but it became, it started to have more meaning after I had my own kids. Because essentially you have to go through something to kind of really understand someone else's experience. It's not enough just to have the education, the experience lends more meaning to how you can help. And so my first, baby it was a miscarriage, so that was hard, definitely for a lot of reasons.

It was my first clue into like grief dealing with grief and guilt and shame when it comes to losing a baby. Thinking about what if and what could have been. And then, God blessed me to have my second child. But he was all preterm. So he was born at 31 weeks and I actually was on bed rest with him for nine weeks in the hospital just to have him at 31 weeks.

And so, he had only been a later at first, but then he did fine acquire a feeding tube and things like that, which is typical for a new, preterm infant in the NICU. And then when he came home, I thought, you know, okay, But exhale, we can just kind of get on him growing and then he had to go back on tube feedings.

And so that was emotional because I was still finishing the last part of my training. And that was hard. And then, my third child ended up being a premature infant as well. So I've definitely had the experience of, of new mom and NICU mom actually at the same time. So my first baby that I brought home ended up being a NICU baby.

So, you know, on top of the newness of taking care of a baby, now you have a baby that has medical challenges. And so, that was definitely stressful and overwhelming, but by, you know, creating systems and understanding how to assess my knees and, and how to get what I needed, allowed me to get through it.

And so, but that foundation alone, coupled with the work that I do in the hospital, taking care of preterm infants and, just even normal newborns and seeing moms go through the concern and worry about being able to. Take care of your babies. You know, it is scary as new and unless you babysat babies before, you know, it really, you really don't know a lot about what you're doing and you kind of learning on the job training is what I call it.

And so just want to be able to be that guide for them, that mentor, that advisor, consultant, strategist, all of that, is what moms need to be able to set the right tone for their postpartum journey and their motherhood journey as well.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: That's amazing. So like you just said, you live this experience yourself, where you're already on track to becoming like a pediatrician and a NICU physician?

Dr. Jessica Daigle: Yes, I was actually, cause I, I read this book when I was younger. And my mom was like, why are you reading such a heavy book? But it was called The Long Dying of Baby Andrew. And it was about this family, Robert and Peggy Stinson who had this really extremely preterm infant. He was un...

Elisa Chiang is an Ophthalmologist, Oculoplastic surgeon and Life Coach. Elisa primarily works with physicians to master their money mindset so they can build wealth and practice medicine on their own terms.

Dr. Elisa Chiang: I think there's different levels of budgeting for some people having a strict budget really stresses them out. And I don't know that you have to have a really strict budget. I think you do have to have a sense of what you're spending and where your money is going.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hi, welcome to beyond ADHD, A Pysician's Perspective podcast. I am your host, Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a family medicine doc, with ADHD, practicing in a rural setting in Texas. I am a mother to two very energetic toddlers for three and four years of age.

And in the past year, I have undergone radical transformation after discovery, ADHD coaching, and life-coaching. For the past decade, my typical day consisted of having 300 charts, backlog, a graveyard of unfinished. And a lack of time awareness. I didn't realize that I was not filling my own cup. I was running on fumes the last year I figured out the secret; learn to stay in your lane. So now my mission is to help others develop systems that tap into their zone of genius. So they too can reclaim their personal lives back. Like I have.

Good evening, I am so excited today to talk to Dr. Elisa Chiang, is an Ophthalmologist Oculoplastic surgeon and life coach. Dr. Chiang primarily works with physicians to master their money mindset so that they can build their wealth and they can practice medicine on their own terms. So today you all got to pay attention because this is going to really change your life..

Dr. Elisa Chiang: I'm so happy to be here. Thank you.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Can you tell us a little bit about how you started this and money mindset? How did that come about?

Dr. Elisa Chiang: You know, so in the beginning of. Yeah, everyone. When they're starting to love, coach business tries to think about like, well, who are my people and what can I specifically do to serve my people?

And so being a physician, you know, it's natural to want to coach other physicians because that's, you know, our people. And one of the places where, I have a lot more, you know, knowledge and just, experience is with. Investing and partially with money mindset. And I have to admit it's not because I've had to overcome a lot of, money mindset issues, but I, I guess was blessed with parents who actually talked about money and you know, not everything.

It's not like it was a perfect money upbringing, but. My parents, when I was young, like, you know, money was discussed in the household. When we got allowance, it was very specifically to kind of teach us how to manage money. When we want to kind of bigger ticket items like a bicycle, we actually would go 50 50 with our parents.

So we understood the value of money, the bio of working for something that we wanted and how much things like actually. And so that continued, you know, in college, like there was always talk about like saving for college and how much, , you know, college cost. And then when we're in college, like actually managing our money, like my sister and I literally had like independently, I don't even think it's like, my parents told us this, but somehow we just independently like had spreadsheets where we actually put all of our spending and like, yeah, like who does that?

But like, literally she did it. I did it. It's not like. It's not like we were ever told to do it, but somehow it just came up like, well, we should be tracking everything we're spending and making sure that like, it falls in, you know, the budget that we have so that, you know, we can, you know, I mean, freshman year we were all on meal plans, but after freshman year we were no longer on meal plans and we had kind of a budget.

And so we wanted to make sure that. Yeah, we had food.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: That's amazing. You know, I remember I'm the oldest of my family and I'm the first one to go to college and education was always like something that my parents were like, this is how you're going to get ahead. This is how you're going to have money security.

Right. But I remember like, I would always, because we didn't have excess money. So to say, like, I got scholarships and I was also on financial aid. I remember I was choosing like the biggest loan, like not knowing that eventually I was going to have to pay it back. Right. And so I would always choose the biggest loan and like, Use it to go on vacations and like all this other stuff, instead of being mindful.

Oh, I should be careful. But it was, it was silly because I remember always looking to see if I could find like a cheap book, because those were expensive. They were like $500 or something crazy. Right. But at the same time, I wasn't really c...

Dr. Sarah Tehseen is a Pediatric Hematologist based in Canada, and a Blood Bank Doctor. Apart from medicine, her interests include, volcanoes, dinosaurs, quantum physics and painting. Join us today as she share her journey; her challenges and wins!

Dr. Sarah Tehseen: Approach, cubit, curiosity, whatever you do approach with curiosity by the side, the why is going to be your saving grace.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hi, welcome to beyond ADHD, a physician's perspective podcast. I am your host, Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a family medicine doc, with ADHD, practicing in a rural setting in Texas. I am a mother to two very energetic toddlers for three and four years of age.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And in the past year, I have undergone radical transformation after discovery, ADHD coaching, and life-coaching. For the past decade, my typical day consisted of having 300 charts, backlog, a graveyard of unfinished. And a lack of time awareness. I didn't realize that I was not filling my own cup. I was running on fumes the last year I figured out the secret; learn to stay in your lane. So now my mission is to help others develop systems that tap into their zone of genius. So they too can reclaim their personal lives back. Like I have.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hello, welcome to the overachieving ADHD physicians.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: As we all know, ADHD is a spectrum. It affects people in many different ways and we all deal with it a little bit differently. I created this podcast to bring awareness that ADHD is a life long disease. I will be sharing with you many physicians who along there lives have had wins and challenges, but they have learned to overachieve in life.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: So my aim is to stop the mental stigma associated with this condition. When most people think of ADHD, they picture a little boy maybe running around and knowing people are distracting others. They don't picture somebody super and smart and intelligent and gifted or somebody who's daydreaming. So it does not have anything to do with your mental intelligence.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: It's just a different way of thinking. So I want to share with you that we can be adults. We can be professionals, but before I get to my very important guest today, I have to disclose something that my lawyer makes me say, which is that while today, our medical doctors, we are not your doctors. So the information that you learn here today is not meant to replace or substitute any advice of your own physician, therapist, or coach in addition, Everything that you learn here.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: As we share is considered our own views, our own opinions. It's not meant to represent any specific employer, hospital or healthcare system or a particular organization. All right. That was a handful. So today my special guest is Dr. Sarah Tehseen. Thank you. Hi. Hi. Tell us all about you.

Dr. Sarah Tehseen: I am Sarah. I am originally from Pakistan.

I have been in Canada for two years now. I have two boys. I have a one and a half year old and a five and a half year old. And I am a pediatric hematologist and, , blood bank doctor. Oh, wow. I enjoy painting, singing, astronomy and quantum mechanics. Oh my God. That's amazing.

Yeah. And that is once again, the fact that my brain can hold five things at the same time, but usually not one thing at a time that does not apply.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: We have that special gift. Yes. Yeah. I give telling people that ADHD is a gift that we just have to learn to unwrapped, but it can be a beautiful gift. Tell me, how did you get diagnosed? When did you get diagnosed here?

Dr. Sarah Tehseen: Absolutely. I, when I looked back, so I was the kid who got in the most trouble, but my parents, it's not a big end.

Like it wasn't a big population and only the person with my brother, but I got in trouble with every single adult who took care of me? I got angry very easily. It was very hard for me to self sued. I was very emotional. I lost an insane amount of things. And when I say insane, Cell phones. Cool bags. You name it? I lost it. Important documents once I got to med and stuff. Yes. I was this smart kid in the school. Who would I belong to a school system? Coming from Pakistan, like that celebrated smart, but I was always an odd smart, because I would be saying inappropriate things or talking too fast or walking too fast or stimming, like constantly moving when I'm trying to tell people something or like doodling in the class.

I'm moving my legs too much wind seemed to annoy our teacher in what? Her grade I couldn't stop myself. And yeah, so like, it's, that was how school went. And then I came, as I grew older, it became more about being very daydreamy and missing details in med school and in high school, the actual content of what I was studying was always super interes...

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Come join me May 1st through the sixth, so that you can rest rediscover your strengths, reconnect with yourself and those physicians like you who are ready to leave, work at work, and re-energize. This is the invitation for you to make 2023 your year. Join me in Costa Rica in this really amazing, non-judgmental, intimate decision community.

I am gonna show you how to rest and how to recharge. Let's transform your brain so that you can start to dream the life that you always wanted this year in 2023. I can't wait to learn all. What kind of view you're gonna have after this conference? Take care. Hello. Welcome to Beyond ADHD, a Physician's Perspective.

I am Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered by my adhd, but I now. See it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in my personal life. In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs and some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of.

Hello. Hello. I am so excited to have a dear friend of mine here and an amazing person, Dr. Carolyn Lentzsch-Parcells, and we've been knowing each other for some years now. I'm gonna say two or three years. I don't know how long, but it feels like a pandemic sometime. Yeah, it feels like a lifetime, and it's been amazing because.

She is here in Texas and she is doing the work of encouraging young adults and teenagers and all the works to have better life. And it's an amazing, right? Yes. And it's an amazing journey that she's been on. And not only that, but she's a really solid advocate for A D H D using as a superpower.

Thank you. And she, At all the platforms and not just here and there, but like at the national level. She is been an amazing speaker at the a D conference and she's been there years and years. So anyways, I just wanna bring her today for her to share her story and for her to share a little bit about herself and so that we all can see that we can do wonderful things like.

Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: Thank you, Diana. Like Diana said my, my full blown full doctorate name is Dr. Carolyn Lentzsch-Parcells. I'm a board certified pediatrician practicing adolescent medicine in Fort Worth, Texas. And as Diana said, I do, I take care of basically kids and teenagers and young adults, many of whom have a D H D learning disabilities.

Or other challenges. And of course myself am also A D H D, human and mom and business owner and all the things. Yeah, and I'm happy to be here. I got to meet Diana through our A D H D nurse and it's been really fun getting to know her. Awesome. So

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: I know that your story is a little bit different from some of our stories in the sense that, yeah, some of us females tend to be diagnosed a little bit later in age.

Yeah. And I remember you telling I knew a little bit earlier. So would you mind sharing a little bit about

Dr. Carolyn Lentzch-Parcells: that? Yeah, I would love to I consider myself very lucky especially for a woman and especially for a woman of our generation because, like you said, so many of us slipped through the cracks until really recently.

And essentially what happened for me was my, my I had a family member who was a younger male and he was getting diagnosed cuz he had more kind of classic symptoms. And my parents looked at that and went, hold on a. That looks familiar and they had already advocated for me throughout my life.

My dad would read my summer reading to me because I also have a learning disability in reading, which we didn't know, but he still did that. They got me tutoring and they really supported me all the way through. And then this occurred when I was a junior in high school, so I had a full assessment done and was diagnosed with a D H D combined type and a learning disability and reading and written expression as a junior.

At a very rigorous, private all girl school. So that was interesting. But it explained a lot for me and for my folks. And what was interesting too, though at the time is, being 17 and therefore knowing everything I refused a lot of the help that was offered to me. I refused medication.

My parents were actually very supportive of medication. One of my mom's favorite phrases has always been, You know that this is like diabetes it's another condition. And if you were diabetic, would you not take your insulin? I don't think so. So that's again, something that's pretty unique from what I came from.

But I still refused medication at the time. For the same reasons. I had a lot of the same kind of, Concerns, misconceptions, what have you that a lot of folks have. I was worried about the side effects. I'd seen some family members have some negative side effects and that concerned me. I was worried about using my di...