Setting The Stage

Caitlin Kindred 0:22

Hi, we're so glad you're here.

Ariella Monti 0:26

We should just do a whole episode of like complaints, like boomer-like complaints about how things have changed. And the funny part about it is like some of this stuff will only be like five years old and we'll be sitting here like back in my day. It was like three years ago.

Caitlin Kindred 0:48

I told you there's gonna be like in my next life with like a rebrand, I have a couple of ideas for how this podcast could go. It could be called the Millennial Urge, right? And it could be just like all of these millennial things that we're dealing with right now and like kind of how to deal with it. Uh or like everything's fine. The everything's fine podcast. This is fine. And it's just like the picture of the dog in the burning, in a burnating the countryside sort of setting.

Ariella Monti 1:22

Yeah.

Caitlin Kindred 1:23

Right. Um, and I could fill it. I could fill it with stuff like this where I'm just like, and then we uh it's a little bit boomer-esque, like, and not even just like boomer-esque, because there are some fairly cool boomers who get it, but it's like it's almost like boomerslash, you know, greatest generation esque. It's like I used to walk up the hill both ways in the snow, uphill with bare feet. Like, right. No, you know. This show, though, is not called either of those things. This show is called How to Be a Grown Up, and I'm Caitlin, and I'm here with Ariela Monti, who is a novelist and cupcake made of ambition and glittering realism. Uh this show is for women who believe in both retail therapy and regular actual therapy, like I do. And I have a scenario. And if you're able to raise your hand or a finger or whatever, you can do it while you're listening. If this has ever happened to you, you're taking your ADHD medication religiously, same dose, same time, every day, but some weeks it works like magic, and other weeks it might as well be a tic-tac. My hand is in the air. Before you start questioning your sanity or your pharmacy, I need to remind you of what's actually happening. It's not your medication that's changing, obviously. It's your brain's ability to use it. And that's because of hormones.

ADHD Meds And Hormone “Wi‑Fi”

Caitlin Kindred 2:54

Yay! So this is the final episode of our ADHD in hormones series. We've covered the science, we've talked about life phases. We've now we need to talk about some of the practical stuff, which is like how to actually manage your ADHD when your hormones are calling the shots. Have you followed us yet on Instagram or threads? No, shame on you. Please go do that right now. The links are in the show notes to do that. Yay. Let's get into it.

Ariella Monti 3:24

Or if you have pathological demand avoidance, don't follow us. Don't follow us. We don't even follow us. Yeah, I bet you won't follow us.

Caitlin Kindred 3:33

I dare you. You won't do it. Um, again, I have uh literally 13 sources here. Everything from attitude mag to WebMD to women's mental health to the American Heart Association. Wikipedia. There is a Wikipedia piece that I use for this.

Ariella Monti 3:53

Nice.

Caitlin Kindred 3:54

This website is kind of a or this is kind of a dangerous title, hormonet. Hormonet. As in hormones. There's all kinds of things. There's a YouTube video, all sorts of stuff. If you want the full list of sources, because I'm not a scientist, I had to use this many. Please go to the blog post for this episode. And I've mentioned this already. Here's my Wi-Fi analogy for medicine with ADHD. Here's the simplest way to understand what's happening with your medication. Think of your hormones as your brain's Wi-Fi signal for ADHD meds. When your estrogen is high, you have a strong Wi-Fi signal, and your meds will work beautifully. Everything is connecting properly, the streaming is smooth, life makes sense. But when your estrogen drops, you have a weak Wi-Fi signal. Your medication is still there, but your brain can't access it properly. It's like trying to watch Netflix with a dial-up internet connection. I guess it's technically possible, but it's frustrating as hell. And it's not your fault. It's because your hormones have changed, your prescription hasn't changed, your brain's ability to use it has. You didn't do anything wrong. So let's talk about those times when you feel like your meds have gone on strike or you're taking tic-tacks. I truly feel like there are some weeks where I'm like, why am I even taking this? It does nothing. I should just save it so that when there's another AHD med shortage, I have it.

Ariella Monti 5:31

Right. Yeah. But then then you don't take it and you're like, wow, this is even worse. This is even worse tired. Right. Right. Yeah. If anything, you're just more tired. Like you have brain fog and you're tired.

Caitlin Kindred 5:48

And you're exhausted. Yeah.

Ariella Monti 5:49

Ridiculous.

Caitlin Kindred 5:50

Okay. The luteal phase is your monthly low point. This is the phase that starts right after ovulation and it lasts until your period begins. This is again when your estrogen drops and your progesterone spikes and your medication feels tic-tac-ish again, right? You're not imagining it. Research shows that the response to stimulant medications really does worsen when your estrogen drops. So it's the same pill, it's just different brain chemistry, and it can't work the same

Luteal Phase And Period Low Points

Caitlin Kindred 6:16

way. So right before and during your period is when your estrogen hits rock bottom. So we'd already talked about alludeal phase is when it starts to go down, but now you have this rock bottom phase when your period is actually starting. A lot of women report feeling like their medication has completely stopped working during this phase. Yachting is contagious. And some describe it as taking sugar pills. I've seen that. Like several of the articles I read were like, it's just like taking a sugar pill, which is basically what it is when you're taking hormonal pill birth control, and there's that week where you're not taking it. It's kind of it's basically like that. And the only reason that those pills exist is to help you remember to take it. It's the sugar pill, basically. The frustrating part of all that is that you still need to be able to function because you still have deadlines, you still have kids to manage, you still have life that you have to handle, but your brain's like pharmaceutical support system just technically has clocked out on you and you can't do anything about it. So we've talked about this already in the previous two episodes. So please go listen if you haven't. But these other low estrogen times would include postpartum when your hormones hit rock bottom after childbirth, perimenopause and menopause when your estrogen levels are chronically low. And another time is during breastfeeding. So that postpartum period when you and especially if you because I mean postpartum, I guess most people think of as technically the first three months after. Although for me, I think it lasted for about six months. My hair started falling out around three months after. I would say when my hair started to grow back in was like six to seven months later. So but I was still nursing until he was a year old. So I would yeah, so if you're nursing and you're kind of out of that postpartum phase, you still probably have estrogen levels that are suppressed. So that's another issue. So a reminder, TLDR, anytime your estrogen takes a nosedive, your medication effectiveness goes with it. So you might get like one week a month where things don't suck and you're not in any of those other phases and your meds work. And I think I said this in the last episode, but like men could never just men could never. So I want to get into this medication piece. And this is something that Casey Davis mentioned once on one of her episodes, and it was early on in her podcast. If you haven't listened to Casey Davis, go look up her show, listen to this one first, prioritize this show, and then go listen to Casey Davis. But she talks about how a lot of times the providers will say, like, take a break from it over the weekend. Because if you don't need to be productive on the weekend, because it's the weekend time, then you don't need to take your meds. But that advice originally was given to men because it was men who worked out of the home and then they would go home on the weekend and they would relax. Whereas for women, the weekend is when you're managing everyone home for the entire day.

Ariella Monti 9:20

Yeah.

Caitlin Kindred 9:20

And I would almost trade weekend meds. You know what I mean? I would rather take it on the weekend and not take it during a couple days of the week because I need to be my best self on the weekend in everyone's home. Yeah. Anyway, that's a different conversation. But here's what we need to talk about when it comes to medication and what actually works. This is where healthcare systems, huh? This is where like it's the only place healthcare systems can actually fail us. If you live in the United States, you know that there are multiple ways that this can happen. Um, but most doctors, as I kind of mentioned, are trained or not trained actually to think of ADHD medication in terms of hormonal cycles because the patriarchy. So there are a few ways that you can kind of work on adjusting your medication yourself. You can use a timing approach. Some women find success adjusting their medication, timing or dosage around their cycles. So this might mean slightly higher doses during the luteal phase, an additional short-acting medication during low estrogen times, different timing strategies when your symptoms are at their worst. I talked to someone who said that they would take their pill. Mine is one that I can like, it's a capsule, I can open it and dump the contents out. You could do that, take half of it in the morning, and then the other half of it in the afternoon, things like that to kind of get you through the day. It's important to know though that this might require working with a

Postpartum, Breastfeeding, And Menopause

Caitlin Kindred 10:52

healthcare provider who understands both ADHD and hormones, and though they are not always easy to find. So that means tracking your cycle. I'm gonna say this with caution. You can use apps like Clue, period tracker, the Apple Health, whatever on your watch or on your phone. All of that's fine. If you use one of those rings that tracks all that stuff, you can do it there too. I'm gonna warn you that you should check privacy policies for H because we're very close to living in the handmaid's tale, and I don't really want that to happen to you. So just be very careful about that. If you're gonna track things, in addition to tracking your cycle, you need to track your ADHD symptoms. Choose your top, you know, four, three to five, whatever, and rate them on a scale. I have one to ten here, but I am someone who that's too much choice. So I would say like bad, okay, and good. And I would just choose one of those words. One, two, three, something like that. Don't make it overcomplicated for yourself because that's something that ADHD people suffer with is overcomplicating things that don't need to be super complicated. So just bad, okay, good. So those that's how you track your symptoms, and then do the same thing for how well you feel like your meds are working. My meds work great today. My meds did not work so great today. And then don't forget to include sleep and stress as another outlier factor that could impact those things. Stress can impact your cycle, stress can impact your sleep, sleep impacts your cycle, sleep impacts your stress. All those things kind of come together. So just keep that in mind and use that as you start tracking. But if you do this for like two to three months, or maybe even more, you're gonna start to see some patterns. And you can bring that to your doctor or to your psychiatrist and say, look, I have actual evidence of how this is working for me. Can we talk about a way that I can adjust my current prescription to be more manageable during these times of the month for myself? That's if you are medicated. Now, I'm gonna say I'm a medication advocate. We've talked about this before. I will be very open with the medications that I'm taking. I will tell you every single one why I'm taking it and how I feel about it. No problem doing those things. I'm all about supporting your needs with sore bot items, whether it's toilet paper or serotonin. I don't care. Just do what you have to do to be a functioning human. But if you are relying solely on medication to manage your symptoms, when your estrogen takes a nosedive and your medication becomes less helpful, you're gonna need a backup strategy here. And I'm I know that Ariel is gonna be nodding her head as I say this. Therapy. Yay! Especially cognitive behavioral therapy seems to be effective from all the things that I've been reading and researching. And or I added this piece in certified ADHD coaching. CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy, teaches you skills that don't depend on your brain chemistry to be perfect in order to work. These strategies are designed to work even when your medication feels useless. They're things that you can fall

Weekends, Gendered Advice, And Med Timing

Caitlin Kindred 14:20

back on to support your medication. The key here is to find either a certified ADHD coach, not a person who says she's an ADHD coach on Instagram. That's not what I mean. I mean a doctor.

Ariella Monti 14:34

Right.

Caitlin Kindred 14:35

Or someone with an actual degree in some sort of psychology, psychiatry, therapy, something that can support this because this is a medical condition.

Ariella Monti 14:47

Right. It's it's finding the like the therapist that specializes in ADHD. Like when my therapist had to take a like six-week leave of absence, she's like, here's the number and the information for this person that specializes in ADHD. And I think they would be a really good backup while I'm not here. And because I have ADHD, I've put off contacting her.

Caitlin Kindred 15:17

Could you please just start the conversation for me, doc? Thank you so much.

Ariella Monti 15:21

Right. I mean, it was fine, but you know, like but you know, that's my example. That right, that was a therapist who specialized in ADHD, and that's what you're talking about.

Caitlin Kindred 15:33

Yes. The key is finding that therapist who understands both and how the hormonal changes impact your symptoms. So I'm gonna make a push for a woman just because she will have experience with the hormone fluctuations on her own. Now, I might be wrong. There are plenty of male doctors and ADHD advocates who are supporting women and want women's ADHD to be understood more. So that does exist. I'm just saying in my own experience, I like when my doctor can empathize. Another support system. You need an organizational system that actually works for you. I wrote in my notes, your organizational system needs to account for good brain days and potato brain days. Just saying. We all know what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah. Also, I love the woman who said there is not a single potato that cannot help you no matter what mood you're in. Because she's not wrong.

Ariella Monti 16:37

I mean, it's a fact.

Caitlin Kindred 16:38

It is. Yeah, aren't you? Yes. Yeah, right. Always smashed potatoes? Always. Yeah. Okay. I would encourage you to have many of the tools we've already discussed, but redundant systems. So like multiple reminders and multiple places for important information. Your phone and a visual calendar, a sticky note, and a running to-do list. Places where you're gonna see it multiple times. Yeah. Um, hormone-aware planning. This was gonna retire, it's gonna require you to track just FYI. But like thinking about scheduling very important tasks during your high estrogen weeks when you can. This is why tracking your cycle can help, right? Low energy backups. So simple systems that work for you, even when your brain feels like mush. We've talked about in the past like food and how like the breaded frozen chicken tenders make a pre-packaged salad much more manageable and full of protein, and it's easy. So when your brain feels like you can't do anything, this is still easy enough for you to do. Things like that that make it easy for you to keep functioning even when you truly feel like you cannot. Right. Another

Cycle Tracking And Privacy

Caitlin Kindred 17:57

thing to turn to for some additional support. Support groups, especially those with hormonal awareness. Regular ADHD support groups are great, but finding one that understands the hormonal component is gonna be an extra special thing for you. In particular, because these will be the people who empathize with you, why you're struggling one week and why you're thriving the next. If you can't find an in-person group, or I wrote here, or you you don't want one because people some people don't like people, you know? Like some people are like, no, thanks. People, yeah, I'm out. Some days I love people, other days I hate everyone. So I get it. You can look for online communities, Reddit. I have found that Reddit has tons of ADHD subreddits, and there are some that are just for women. And it might be a good place to start, especially if it's kind of your vibe to like creep first and then start to participate. You know, it might make you feel a little bit better. That's my style on LinkedIn. I like to scroll the posts, kind of absorb a little bit, make a comment, get people to like me that way.

Ariella Monti 19:10

It works. I wrote my first Reddit comment ever, like two weeks ago. Did you? Yeah. I never got into Reddit, but this was some drama that was happening in the book world.

Caitlin Kindred 19:27

And um think you mentioned this to me.

Ariella Monti 19:29

Yeah, and I decided to get in there. Make your voice known and be mean. Yeah. Yeah, good for you. Deservedly mean. Yeah.

Caitlin Kindred 19:39

Right.

Ariella Monti 19:39

I was the mean person on Reddit. Yeah.

Caitlin Kindred 19:42

That's not what we're talking about here. Here we're talking about supportive communities. But see, this is what I'm talking about. Some people are not nice on Reddit. So I've just no. Listen, you're not a general troll, so it's fine. I get it. Yeah.

Ariella Monti 19:52

No, trust me, she deserved it.

Caitlin Kindred 19:54

I mean.

Ariella Monti 19:55

Sorry. I'm watching like you're talking, and I'm I've been watching this red tailed hawk like fly from like the roof of my neighbor's house to a tree branch. And I'm just sitting here like, I hope it doesn't eat my chickens.

Caitlin Kindred 20:11

Uh that's legit. And also, welcome to ADHD, where you are distracted by all the things. The last one I'm gonna buy a bird, buy something shiny, buy whatever. Uh the last I'm gonna include here in terms of um additional support, an additional thing to add to your toolkit besides like therapy and organizational systems and support groups, is educating yourself. Psychoeducation that includes your cycle. Understanding your patterns isn't just interesting, it's therapeutic. It helps you not feel excluded and confused by what's happening. When you know why your brain feels different during certain weeks, you can stop blaming yourself for the struggles that are literally chemical that you have no control over. The other thing I want you to remember is that different phases of your life require different strategies. Your ADHD management strategies need to evolve as your hormones change throughout your life. Right. It's kind of like when you're parenting, right? Where you're like, this worked last week, I'm gonna do it again. And then your child decides to completely flip the script, and you have to evolve with that

Building Backup Systems Beyond Meds

Caitlin Kindred 21:35

change. It's the same sort of thing. You're changing too. Yeah. So be flexible in the systems that you have. During your reproductive years, focus on cycle tracking and finding providers who understand monthly fluctuations. This is that time when medication adjustments around your cycle might be most helpful for you. During pregnancy and postpartum, many ADHD medications are actually not recommended during pregnancy, which must be incredibly frustrating. So look for non-pharmaceutical strategies that really support what you're going through. Postpartum requires planning for that hormone crash and a potential medication restart. If you are medicated and you're you finally are on something that works, you know what it was like to go through that period of testing this med and then changing the dose and then testing that med and changing that dose and trying to get yourself to a place where things were working properly. And you just need to prepare yourself for that to happen again because I'm gonna tell you there's a very good chance that the same dose that worked for you before you had your baby is probably not gonna work for you this time. Right. Yeah. And you may not be able to take it because you're nursing, if that's the choice that you've made. Uh, so just keeping that in your head too. When you're experiencing perimenopausal symptoms and going through menopause, you probably need to reassess your ADHD management entirely. What worked for you for 20 years probably isn't gonna work the same way anymore. It might even stop altogether. Hormone replacement therapy can help, but it's not a guarantee. In fact, I would say that's probably a lot of women's situation as it is, right? They have HRT and it's still not fixing everything anyway. I want to get into some advocacy pieces here too, and I don't mean like advocating as like you would advocate for legislative policy, which I may or may not be very involved in right now because I'm angry. Yes, you are too. This is about advocating for yourself, and this is one of my favorite phrases. You've probably heard me say it before if you've listened to this show. It's because it matters. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, so be loud for yourself. It's okay to do that. Most healthcare providers are not up to speed on ADHD and hormones, even the female ones. Sorry. Um, so here's how to advocate for yourself. One, come prepared with that tracking data that you're using, bring it with you. Don't just say my medication doesn't work during my period. Actually, show them the charts, the patterns, the specific examples that you have written down in whatever you're tracking. You can even just use a paper calendar. Like who cares? Right. Color code. If you feel like coloring, today is red, this was a bad day, whatever it is, just show them and then also draw a little, I don't know, a tampon on the calendar. Who cares? Just do something so you know this was the day and this was my cycle, and here's what was happening. Educate your provider. There's one I shouldn't have to say, but you might have to be the one who teaches your doctor about the connection. Might be frustrating. Yeah. Bring the research, share resources, and don't let anyone dismiss your symptoms as just PMS. If someone does that, you're gonna use the phrase, I would like you to note in my chart that I asked for this and you did not give it to me. You're gonna use that anytime that you need something. You're gonna say, I would like you to make a note in my chart that I asked for an MRI or that I asked for XYZ and you told me no.

Ariella Monti 25:25

Because that will immediately trigger a reaction. So just putting that out there.

Caitlin Kindred 25:30

If you have a psychiatrist, ask them for support with this conversation. So you can say, You're the one who gives me my meds, but I need to go to my doctor and I need to figure out what something else. There's something else going on here. I need some support. What are some phrases I can use in this conversation? I love me a good sentence starter and I'm all about using them. Know when to find someone else. If your provider sucks, let me say that in a more professional way.

Support Groups And Psychoeducation

Caitlin Kindred 26:02

If your provider refuses to consider hormonal factors or dismisses your track patterns, which is a likely scenario because people don't believe women. Even some women don't believe women. Find someone else. Your reproductive health and mental health are connected. I don't care what anyone says, and you need a provider who gets it. And if your person doesn't, I don't care how much you love them, find someone else. But it's convenient. There's probably someone else nearby. I hope. I hope for you there's someone else nearby. Because it's time. Consider a specialist. That's another option to go. Sometimes you need a team approach, a gynecologist who understands ADHD, a psychiatrist who understands hormones, back and forth. It's okay to see multiple providers. I do. If that's what it takes, do it. If you're able to see different providers who all use the same programs, like maybe they all use my chart, even better, because that means your information is shared. Yeah. There's a clinic nearby where I go for pretty much all of my healthcare needs. It's like a little medical plaza. There's like a MRI station across the street, and then there's like a lab here, and it's all this kind of stuff. It's all connected and they all use the same tracking system. And when I ask for referrals, I always ask for someone who's in that same kind of provider network because I know they're all going to share the information back and forth. And if they don't share the information back and forth, sign whatever forms you need to make sure that your information from one provider gets shared across to the information in the other provider. It might require some sort of HIPAA release, but the HIPAA release would just be to share across providers and not share like with outside people. So it's fine. Here's my bottom line with all of this. Advocacy for female-specific ADHD care is important. If you are a clinician and you're listening to this, please take these dynamics seriously. I beg of you, it does matter. It makes a difference in the overall mental health of your patients. And all women should be empowered to track their cycles, speak out about changes, and insist on care that is specific to their bodies and their brains. Full stop. When it comes to managing ADHD as a woman, it's not just about finding the right medication, it's about understanding how your hormones impact your medication and also how your hormones impact your symptom severity. So that's a big component here. Again, as I mentioned in other episodes, your hormones are central to the ADHD experience. But what that means is it kind of gives you another layer of it's not your fault. We've already talked about how ADHD is not your fault. There's nothing wrong with you. It's just that you have to work that much harder.

Strategies Across Life Stages

Caitlin Kindred 28:58

You're not failing when your strategies stop working during certain times of the month. It's not because you did it wrong. It's because it's just that time of the month or that time of your life where hormones are changing and things don't work the same way. You're experiencing in that moment, I hope that you can separate and tell Gladys, like, hey, this must be a time when Gladys is really just ramping it up and she's she and progesterone are really kicking it together and having a good old time. Because you can just, it's just another layer of separating, and you can say, like, okay, this is my hormones. This is why this system that I have that's worked for me is not working right now. Take a deep breath and and re regroup. The goal is not ever to eliminate the fluctuations because that's impossible. You can't do that. The goal is to find ways to work with them so that you are able to manage your life as best as possible. Right. So I have some practical next steps for you. One, again, start tracking your cycle and symptoms if you haven't already. Find some healthcare providers who understand ADHD and hormones, build flexible systems that work during both high and low estrogen times. We have plenty of episodes on how to cope with different things related to ADHD. So please go listen. Connect. With other women who understand this experience. Ariel and I are here. We will read your DMs. We will read your emails. We would love to understand and empathize with you. And please be patient with yourself during these hormonal transitions. Because it's really, these are really hard. All of this is hard. In this series, we've covered the basic science of hormones and how they affect your ADHD brain, how your symptoms change during your different life phases, and all of these practical strategies in this episode. The most important thing to remember here is that your experience is valid. It's complicated. It's not your fault when things are harder during certain times. And you deserve a healthcare provider who understands all of this or multiple providers. And you deserve medication strategies that account for your hormones and support systems that recognize what's actually going on with you. You're nodding. I'll take that as a yes. Agreed. Sometimes I'm just so good and like so prolific that there's really nothing that needs to be said.

Ariella Monti 31:29

I'm speechless, like absolutely speechless.

Caitlin Kindred 31:33

I'm so good at this. I took today on it. I do have some more reflection questions for you. Have you ever tracked how your medication effectiveness changes throughout your cycle? What non-medication strategies help you the most during your low estrogen times? And what would you want to tell your healthcare provider about your hormonal ADHD experiences? If you if you needed to say something, what would you tell them? Again, we want to hear your experiences. So please send us DMs. You can reach Ariela at Ariela underscore Monty on Threads or on Instagram. You can find us at CKNGK podcast on Threads or Instagram. You can send me an email. You can do that through the website or through the show notes. You can also send us a text through the show notes if you need to. That's easiest for you. And we'll be right back. Okay, y'all. POV. You find a diary exposing forbidden magic,

Self‑Advocacy With Providers

Caitlin Kindred 32:42

and the hot museum caretaker's life depends on you burning it. Roots and Inc., the debut novel by Ariella Monti, is the fantasy romance for rebels. Use promo code CK and GK to get 20% off your copy at ariellamonte.com. Again, that's all caps at C K A N D G K for 20% off on Ariellamonti.com. Get your copy for 20% off today. I'm a professional. I'm a professional podcaster. I did so good. I'm tooting my own horn here.

Ariella Monti 33:27

I think I have been see having an IUD, I don't I have yet to actually dig into how having a hormonal IUD plays into everything.

Caitlin Kindred 33:40

It's hard for me too because I I've tried tracking my cycle with my hormonal IUD and I can't because there's no I don't have the same symptoms. So I really I really have to look into those other less obvious symptoms uh to kind of figure out what to do.

Ariella Monti 34:01

I I think because I had the four months with a copper IUD and had and had a few months of like a pretty solid menstrual cycle, now I I have I usually get something very light. And that I have been able to track and it does it does tend to come on a like a 28-day cycle. So I use the Apple Health and it has some like perimenopause symptoms in there, but it doesn't have all of them. No, and it doesn't have a place to like extra write notes. Yeah, you can't add anything and like it's good to know. Um hesitant to like to get another app because at least Apple tends to be pretty good with privacy privacy.

Caitlin Kindred 35:09

Yeah. It could be as simple as do you use Notion at all?

Ariella Monti 35:16

No.

Caitlin Kindred 35:17

I'm sure you can look it up, but you don't need to download it or anything. I'm just thinking, like, if you are someone who does use Notion, there are like templates that you can use. Maybe just look up a template for one that you could just like create an online or like a Google Doc, some sort of something like that where it's like a calendar and you just you just write it down, right? Like maybe and it's like multi-select, you can select certain things.

Ariella Monti 35:42

Yeah, I have I have a Notion account because I was I was looking into it instead of using Trello. Um but I didn't I didn't like it for that purpose. But yeah, I can I can look and I can look it up.

Caitlin Kindred 35:57

I can see if I use Notion for a lot of the show planning and I use it to track my dog's seizures and her behavior like during her off periods, because she has several of those. Because I and then I can just download the entire file and share that with my provider as I need to with her. Um, so she can kind of see what's going on. But there's I mean, it might be worth looking, and even if you just looked at the tracker that you could just like look up notion template, you know, yeah, perimenopause and see what comes up, and then you could just like copy it and do what you you know, replicate it for yourself. It's easier to have the template because most of them are free or a lot of them are free, and then you could just use it. Um, but you can make that way you can make it work for you too, you know. So something to think about. There are lots of ways you could track all of these things. You don't have to use an app. You can, you know, I some people I've seen like they just download like a paper calendar. Like I said, and they color code, here's where I am in my cycle. Especially if you're one of the people who's extremely concerned about privacy, it might be that that's how you do it. It works for you. Or you put it in your, you know, you whatever put it in your journal. I don't know how you want to do it, but like it's just something to put it in your journal. Dear diary, flow heavy, cramps severe, brain fog through the roof. What Jeremy looked at me in class today. It's October 3rd.

Validation, Self‑Compassion, Next Steps

Caitlin Kindred 37:36

That's a little shout-out to all my mean girlfriends and um fans out there. Uh yeah, so this has been an interesting series, and uh we're getting close to wrapping up our ADHD content for those of you who want something else. We're close. But in the meantime, I hope this has been enjoyable for you. I do have a whole ADHD content playlist for those of you who are interested in kind of having this all in one place, and I've put that in the blog post for all of these ADHD episodes, but I'll I'll link it in the show notes at some point too, if I remember. So if I remember, because I don't because why? ADHD. Because I have all these good ideas that I write on sticky notes and then I cover up the sticky notes and can't find the ideas anymore. Right. That's pretty much the story of my life. So this is why we have multi-level symptoms that are redundant, and I need to start following my own advice. Right? Yes. Okay. Well, as Jenny would say, make good choices. We love you, mean it. Thanks for listening. Subscribe, follow, find us on Insta. Bye. Bye.