Unknown 0:01
Hey, welcome to driving with Jeff. So excited you can join me for this show. I have a very special guest today. So I happen to be driving around Monmouth University because Dr. David Sitt is an author of a magnificent book. We're going to talk about that a little bit here. The book is ADHD Refocused, and he happens to be a professor quickly about him before I pick him up. He's the author of this new book. He's a tenured professor at Baruch College, where he exposes students to psychological cutting edge research and the mysteries of the brain. As a clinician, he specializes in treating adults with ADHD, anxiety and mood disorders. As a consultant and executive coach, Dr. Sitt advises thought leaders, corporations educational institution, and has been featured on vice media, The Howard Stern Show and The New York Times. Also Driving with Jeff show, so I'm gonna go pick them up. Hope you enjoy the conversation. Be very informative, fun, and wonderful. Can't wait to pick them up. Let's get them. And darkness coming down. Oh, boy. All right. Exciting. Yes. Oh, all right. All right. Dr. Dave, welcome. Hello.

Unknown 1:45
Jeff, good to see you. Let me get my coffee situated. My sunglasses.

Unknown 1:53
Yeah, you're so comfortable. So welcome to the driving with Jeff. Show. And just so people know, sense of our history. Our grandpa was grandpa Salim and Grandpa Maurice. We're brothers. We're gonna cruise. So we have a doctor in the family. That's right. Mom, I got a doctor in the family that we did it. So we're here to talk about you. And your beautiful book, by the way, as everybody knows the cameras on ADHD refocused. So let's get a little personal here. Okay. And so when? And what was the pivotal point in your life? That you know, as far as driving through life, you hit a roadblock or some kind of detour or something when you were hit with the serious, possible pothole that well, you have ADHD? Yeah. And Phil, listen, what happened? What When did it happen? What happened? And yeah, blindness for a couple of years. Yeah,

Unknown 2:57
it's, you know, I think it's important to talk about where, what it's kind of what contributes to your, to your storytelling to your narrative. And for me, I was at a point in my life, it was kind of end of college, where I was studying at Baruch College, shout out to Baruch College, where I've also been a professor for the past 23 years or so. And so I was interested to Professor Professor tenure, and I was at Baruch as a senior, and I was doing well, but I was struggling, just meeting deadlines and was handing in papers, I would pull all nighters, I would really literally stay up all night, start at the very maybe 10 o'clock at night, I would start a project and I would stay up all night I would hand it in the next day, sometimes on time, sometimes I'd missed the deadline. And it was happening a lot. So So then the next year or a year or two later I'm in graduate school my first year and the same thing starts to happen. I again in order to get my work in I'm late I'm waited last minute procrastinating I'm disorganized. All these things are going on. And I actually had a professor that said, if you hand the paper in late in my class, you fail it's no flexibility here.

Unknown 4:20
There was a there was a moment

Unknown 4:23
there was a moment there was this moment where and you know I the paper that we had to deal with was like a 50 page paper now I'm no joke, no joke. I started by in that my in school, but this was this was a big project and I tried to get it done in the last minute and I didn't I handed it in you know an hour too late. Professor handed the paper back. I got an A on it. But then it turned to the back and then there was an F on it. That's what you wrote. You were late. You fail. What a moment and it wasn't only that as in sort of a wasn't only that, but when you fail his class, you risk getting kicked out of the program. So he calls me to his office devastated David, I'm sorry, but you're gonna fail out of the program like is your life that you're committing to? And he said, except I'm gonna give you one out. I think you have ADHD. I think you've been suffering from this. And you know, everything that I see about you. It seems to be ADHD. And I said, What are you talking about? I'm 28 years old. I was 22. At the time. I'm not a kid, kids have ADHD. I'm not a kid. Right? I want you to go get assessed. Long story short, I went, I got assessed, and it turns out a totally checked off all the boxes, I learned that have ADHD. And that was like,

Unknown 5:42
so you drove through. So you actually actually chose to, it's fantastic. So so let's get to this magnificent book, which is really I advise everybody to get it. So what drove you driving with Jeff, so we're driving, we're driving? We're driving through this? What drove you to write this book? And what do you hope for the reader to to get from because I see it's not like clinicals, like made for guys like me, right? You know, who don't know much and but you tell me, what's the intention for this book? What do you hope to be right? I

Unknown 6:15
lost focus. What were you talking about? What was that I got distracted by a nice house. And my goal was to get a book out that explained the ADHD from the insider's perspective from someone who has someone that goes through the challenge first person, right from the first person my experiences integrated, that's expressed an experience but also integrated with my professional work as a psychologist, I conduct therapy and coaching for people with ADHD. And so I wove together my own personal experience with my clients. Stories of living with ADHD, and, and to make it accessible, basically, like the cousin of ADT, with cousins, right. So, so what's the cousin of ADHD, I really feel strongly and I've talked about this for a long time, that technology really mimics what those of us with bonafide ADHD have, can be mimicked to anybody, when we're constantly checking our phone, and we're constantly being distracted and feeling pulled away from what our focus should be, we should be with our kids, but in my mind is checking my phone, I'm bouncing around between this thing and that thing, I can't, you know, pay attention for a long time, because I'm in this rapid cycling of TiC tock videos that are every, you know, 3060 seconds. So we're in a place in society where all of us are struggling with what seems to be ADHD, whether it is bonafide from from developmental history or just, you got you're overwhelmed with

Unknown 7:53
it educate us on a very granular level in terms of understanding it from the first person. And also this techno ad, which I'm hearing this a lot more and more and more. I mean, we see it, we talked about the phones, we point to it, tell the kids not to do it. But there's some stuff coming down the pike with kids that have grown up with this stuff. And

Unknown 8:14
there's a lot there's a lot to become aware of, in terms of what to do about it. And that's my again, I talk not just about what is but what do we do about it, I'm really a solution, centered therapist and coach,

Unknown 8:27
and in talking about, let's say, your experience, you know, with our community, Sephardic Jewish community, what would you say our ratio of ADHD is compared to the regular population? We have less? Yeah, more, we have none of it. What do you what's your

Unknown 8:46
great question? I have always felt that in our community, we have a higher ratio of the ADHD gene. And, and I say that because actually, because a lot of the upside of ADHD that people talk about, we see a lot of in the community do not think we're very distracted, we actually can process and track a lot

Unknown 9:10
of my guys. Unbelievable. So

Unknown 9:13
so in the community, I find that there's a lot of the creative thinkers, there are a lot of people who can work under pressure. There's a lot of people who find the shortcuts to things how to how to think outside of the box, in business settings, or even in the way people run their homes.

Unknown 9:31
So there isn't good. So there is a good point or good it can be used as a

Unknown 9:39
string. Yes, there are as a channeled properly channeled property. There's a lot about ADHD that people like and are proud of, which is unique because a lot of other mental health challenges don't necessarily have

Unknown 9:49
that. Beautiful. Wow.

Unknown 9:53
So that's that's kind of for sure. I think we have a high rate of how quickly we'd speak and intensity All

Unknown 10:00
right. Today we're on the phone with making a deal with doing this or doing that. I see that. Yeah. So to help our listeners, how can they if they think that they have a distraction, she was calling, right, some DDG or something there? What can they do to easily get themselves assessed assess, diagnose. And with that being said, if someone does have a distraction issue, he told them in the book about some phenomenal techniques of mindful techniques that can you benefit someone? And why don't you give us something simple that folks can take away? To help them? deals we focus, we focus exactly to go to

Unknown 10:49
the moon from from chaos to clarity, right? That's from chaos, to

Unknown 10:53
clarity. So how do we get any clarity and then clear out clear on minds,

Unknown 10:59
in terms of assessment, it's important to be able to find a professional, who knows, ADHD, a lot of people will say, I'll go to my primary care physician, and they'll diagnose me, not really the type of

Unknown 11:14
professional tests and they're there. There's,

Unknown 11:16
there's, there are tests, but it's more so about the individual who's conducting the evaluation. So, you know, I'm a clinical psychologist, trained extensively in mental health areas, I haven't specialized in ADHD. So that's in terms of assessment is making sure you work with someone knowledgeable in ADHD, and who can differentiate because it might not be ADHD, it might be due to other variables like anxiety, or difficulties, even with sleep can mimic ADHD if not treated well. So that's assessment, go to someone who knows, okay, not just on an online test, that's not sufficient. Okay. Then in terms of what kind of techniques I teach people, I integrate, first of all, a lot of what we call executive function coaching. So I teach people about time management and task management. I run them through in my book I talk a lot about let me see if I can find it here, the three tier task management system, which is something that I have found to be incredibly helpful, it's all about getting things out of your head, you can't hold on to your list in your mind, or even just write down on

Unknown 12:22
the I call it a calculus just carry on.

Unknown 12:25
I want to go further. And that is a system that kind of helped me bring down my global sense of what has to get done in a week and then figure out today, what do I need to get done today? So even on my website, Dr. sitt.com, I have my three tier system available, you can just download it, and it's free.

Unknown 12:46
And obviously.com.com. Let's download that, folks. Yes,

Unknown 12:50
get to that page. And you'll find the book and the content for this organization says this is great. I also teach people about mindfulness. Because what are we talking about ADHD, a difficulty focusing your awareness, directing your awareness, and my meditation and mindfulness can help you to strengthen the capacity to move your mind and your focus. So that's a muscle that needs strengthening for all of us. But certainly those with ADHD,

Unknown 13:17
especially with people that are high functioning, or whatever, just with this add running that to take a moment, hit the pause button and get into a practice of conscious breathing meditation for what you will is you think it's central essential. And you guys essentially, you hear that, and gals. I mean, don't people to breathe for a long time, Jeff

Unknown 13:39
knows, the doctor says, This is important. We know we know it because we've been through it. And we've learned and not to say that I have to do it perfectly every day, right? It's in the same time. That's not easy to do. But be integrated somehow. Whether in your in your daily prayers, take that moment. And that one part of the prayer to be aware of yourself doing it or when you're crossing the street, if you're walking in benign, you know, just be aware as you're walking in what's going on around you. Fantastic. Right.

Unknown 14:07
Dr. Dave? Unbelievable. With that we have some unbelievable

Unknown 14:11
talk on and on. But attention span is driving a Jeff we're driving along. So

Unknown 14:19
thanks, Dr. Day for taking the time to do this. Fantastic. It's like oh my god. So question. Yes, sir, to get the book. Where do I go?

Unknown 14:31
So the book can be purchased very similar to Amazon. Right? That that small little cycle that we have hardcover books have softcover books, we have the ebook, and we're even working on and audio books. For those of us who can't actually get through a book, which is most of my clientele, and I'm a big yes, just check it out. It'll be there. If you want to reach out to me, just head to my website and I'm there. All right. Thank you guys. Jeff. This was incredible. Thank you Doc Let's drive with Jeff key Jeff for a lot of great drives a lot of great times he's got a lot of great guests on to share their wisdom with Jeff and and be able to help all of us elevate our game Thank you and good luck with the book and everything love youSitt