It’s not that people with ADHD don’t want to be productive. It’s that they’re often trapped in a paradox: striving to do more, while silently blaming themselves for not doing enough. That tension—between internal ambition and external expectations—is the focus of this conversation with returning guest clinical psychologist Dr. Ari Tuckman.

In this episode, Ari joins Pete and Nikki to explore the deep psychology of productivity, the social pressure to “look busy,” and the subtle ways perfectionism becomes a form of avoidance. Along the way, they discuss the myth of the perfect planner, why your to-do list is lying to you, and what happens when you finally admit you just don’t want to do the thing. With humor, heart, and a healthy dose of hard-earned insight, Ari introduces lessons from his new book, The ADHD Productivity Manual, revealing how managing productivity starts not with apps or alarms—but with radical honesty.

Because the real challenge isn’t doing more—it’s knowing what matters enough to do at all.

Links & Notes

• The ADHD Productivity Manual by Ari Tuckman, Psy.D
• Support the Show on Patreon
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast
• (00:57) - The Productivity Trap with Ari Tuckman
• (02:06) - The ADHD Productivity Manual by Ari Tuckman
• (03:57) - Where is the ADHD Productivity Groove?
• (20:49) - Perfectionism
• (24:43) - Getting Clear
• (27:17) - "I don't wanna"

Imagine your brain as a control room. On most days, the switches flick and the dials turn just as they should. But then something small—an unanswered text, a missed deadline, a critical glance—trips the wrong lever. Suddenly, that control room is submerged. The signals blur. The system floods.

This week on Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast, Pete and Nikki sit down with two returning champions of clarity and compassion: Dr. Sharon Saline and Dr. Dodge Rea. Together, they unravel the hidden mechanics of emotional flooding—not as a character flaw, but as a neurological response shaped by fear, history, and a sometimes-overzealous amygdala.

Through stories, science, and metaphor (including rogue trains and Wile E. Coyote’s ill-fated cliff dives), they reveal what happens when the ADHD brain short-circuits under pressure—and what we can actually do about it. Along the way, you’ll learn how shame disguises itself as control, how the body signals what the mind can’t process, and why sometimes the most strategic thing you can do is… go to the bathroom.

This is a conversation about reframing of the narrative so many ADHD adults carry with them: that being overwhelmed means being broken. It doesn’t. It never did.

Links & Notes

• Learn more about Dr. Sharon Saline: drsharonsaline.com
• Learn more about Dr. Dodge Rea: dodgerea.com
• Support the Show on Patreon
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast
• (00:57) - Support the Show: Become a Patron Today https://patreon.com/theadhdpodcast
• (02:38) - Emotional Flooding with Dr. Sharon Saline and Dr. Dodge Rea
• (21:35) - The Consequences
• (25:09) - Is Emotional Flooding a sort of Trance?
• (28:51) - The Regulation and Recovery Process
• (40:19) - The Five C's
• (44:49) - The g.r.a.c.e. Sequence

There’s a moment—maybe you’ve lived it—when the email goes unanswered, the dishwasher remains unloaded, the phone rings but your hand doesn’t move. You’re not tired. You’re not lazy. You’re just… stuck.

We call it overwhelm. But what if that word is too small? What if what you’re feeling is your brain's way of saying, This system is not working for me?

In this episode of our Duos series, we bring together two people who have spent their careers listening to the quiet, misunderstood signals of ADHD: Dr. Tamara Rosier, author of Your Brain’s Not Broken and You, Me, and Our ADHD Family, and Brooke Schnittman, author of Activate Your ADHD Potential.

Tamara talks about emotional flooding—those tidal waves of feeling that hit before a single task is done. Brooke explains how to pause just long enough to choose a different direction. Together, they unpack why ADHD-related overwhelm isn’t a sign of failure, but a clue. A trailhead. A door.

Because maybe, just maybe, the problem isn’t that your brain is broken. Maybe it’s that the world was built for a different kind of mind. Maybe the first step isn’t pushing through. It’s listening.

📚 Links & Notes

• Your Brain’s Not Broken by Dr. Tamara Rosier
• You, Me, and Our ADHD Family by Dr. Tamara Rosier
• Activate Your ADHD Potential by Brooke Schnittman
• Coaching With Brooke
• ADHD Center of West Michigan
• Guided IFS Therapy Session / Exercise for Inner Healing | Dr. Richard Schwartz & Dr. Andrew Huberman
• Support the Show on Patreon
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast
• (02:03) - Introducing Brooke Schnittman and Tamara Rosier
• (04:06) - Overwhelm
• (19:44) - Techniques to Break The Pattern
• (43:29) - Learn More!