Answering Parents' Questions

In today's episode, we're back with another listener Q&A answering real questions from parents who are in the thick of ADHD at home. We dig into bedtime anxiety that's spiraled out of control, emotional meltdowns, and constant attention seeking, medication concerns, and mood changes, and even how to think about summer camps for kids with ADHD. As always, we focus on what's really driving these behaviors, where well-intentioned parenting can accidentally reinforce them, and what actually helps kids build independence while protecting your own sanity at home. Welcome to the ADHD Parenting Podcast with Mike McLeod of Grow Now ADHD and Ryan Wexelblatt of ADHD Dude. Learn about parenting kids with ADHD from a licensed clinical social worker and speech language pathologist who specializes in ADHD. No fluffy parenting advice, only practical information that will equip you to help your child with ADHD effectively. Hello, Mr. Mike. Hi, Ryan. How are you? I'm good. So somebody told Mike that we should do a little back and forth turns at the beginning of the episodes. Mike and I typically just get straight into it because I think maybe this is a male thing. I don't know about you, Mike, but when I listen to podcasts or something and I hear people talking about their kids for an hour beforehand, I just get annoyed and want them to get to the point. You know, there's 50 ads before a podcast starts, so I think that's why we kind of get into it. But yeah, if you want us to talk a little bit, we'll talk a little bit. So why don't we? Yeah. Yeah, I would say overall, you know, it's definitely a double edged sword, you know, number one. I don't think Ryan and I really like talking about ourselves. I think we kind of like being very practical to the point. And, you know, we never make this about ourselves. This is about helping people. It's not about our own lives. But also, it's, you know, it's I guess it's a little bit of a compliment that people like want to know more about us and know more about our personal sides and not just us giving advice and more about that kind of stuff. So yeah, there's definitely, you know, a positive side to it and also sort of an uncomfortable side as well. Yes, there is. So we will do that from now on. So whoever gave us that suggestion, thank you very much. All right. So for today's episode, this is going to be an answering parents questions episode, because we got a lot of good questions. So Mike, I'm just going to get into it if that's all right with you. Of course. Okay. Did we meet the quota for small talk at the beginning? Well, I thought we were going to very quickly mention something. Yes. Yes. Yes. So I am, I am excited for Mike because Mike got today the first set of copies of his upcoming book, the executive function playbook and the executive function playbook workbook, which are coming out. Mike, what's the date actually? January 13th. Yeah. So, so both the books, we have the executive functioning playbook for parents, educators and professionals really breaking down ADHD, executive functions, the most up to date research. And it's an incredibly practical book about building independence in youth with ADHD. And there's the accompanying workbook, the executive functioning playbook in action, which is I'm surprised at how thick it is. It's about 400 pages of worksheets and different different things for parents, educators and professionals to bring executive functioning into the work they do. So if you're interested, head over to grownowedht.com. You can click right on the book link and order the books yourselves and send me a message and I'll send you some freebies. And I appreciate all the support. And let's mention that the book has been the number one seller in this category on Amazon for quite a few weeks now, right? Yeah, both of them at number one and number two in this category. They've been amazing. The pre-orders have definitely exceeded expectations, which is great. Being an author is a whole new level of anxiety and fear of people reading your information, just like we just talked about. But I'm very excited about it. So the pre-orders have been out there and it's a really great book for parents, professionals, teachers, schools, and I'm excited to see it bring about some positive change. And we're going to do a whole episode actually about the book. But as I told Mike, I want to have a copy of the book and work book before we do that episode. So hopefully, yeah, hopefully, yeah, next few episodes, you'll hear that. So, all right. Anything else you want to mention, Mike, about the book? Well, anything exciting about your life, Ryan? Well, I can tell you real quick what I'm going to be working on in 2026. My big thing that I'm going to be working on is a certification program for coaches and clinicians, because I really want them to take the stuff from my membership site and run with it and work directly with families, because I realize a lot of families, that's what they want. They want to work directly with somebody, and obviously, I don't have the time for that. And I'm really fortunate that I get emails every week from a coach or clinician asking if they can use the material. And I always say, yes, absolutely. And I give them suggestions and they ask if I have any kind of training program. So that's going to be my thing, because at the end of the day, really, what I'm doing is a method. It's not about me. So it's going to be called the Confident Parents Capable Kids Method. And we're going to have the Confident Parents Capable Kids training. And that's probably going to be a year in the making. But that's going to be my big thing for this upcoming year. So that's been a long time coming. It's been years and years where people have been reaching out to you asking, basically, hey, can I get trained in the ADHD dude methodology? Can I get trained in this program? So you finally realizing this is something I should do because it's so it allows your method to help more and more people, the more people you get trained in it. That's incredibly exciting. Yeah, thank you. So I'm looking forward to that. All right, so we're going to get started with some questions. All right, the first one is my almost eight year old started ADHD medication by Vans with a small lunchtime Adderall dose in September. And we saw immediate improvements in behavior and sleep. The sleep progressed. Guanticing caused an adverse reaction and was stopped. So we shifted to a behavioral approach. What began as night wakings has turned into major difficulty falling asleep despite consistent routines, exercise, minimal screen time and other sleep supports. After sleeping outside his door for a month, I tried a calm predictable check and plan we could fade out. Instead of improving things worsened, any reduction in support triggers intense meltdowns and regression. And now it looks like separation anxiety with some OCD like behaviors. I feel trapped each evening. And this isn't working for our family. I'd appreciate guidance on what may be happening and what to do next. You want to start this or you want me to start? So these behaviors began when they started medication? No, I think she was just explaining that they shifted away from medicine to more of a behavioral approach. I think the medicine piece was there because we asked people to mention that in case it has something to do with their question. Okay. So why don't you start and we'll go back and forth on this. Okay. So one, this is exhausting. And you deserve to sleep and you need some downtime yourself. And what you're doing right now, you can't have that downtime. So yes, this absolutely needs to change not just for your son, but for your well-being as well. Okay. So I want to explain that the sleeping outside his door, that's what we call a safety behavior. A safety behavior is one when a child has anxiety that we do to kind of reduce the anxiety. So obviously safety behaviors are done out of love. Okay. But what it is a safety behavior is a form of parental accommodation. So when we talk about parental accommodation, what we mean is when parents change their behavior to alleviate or avoid their child's temporary distress or in this case, anxiety. So while it's making your son feel better if you're sleeping outside his door, the thing is it's actually making things worse. Why is it making things worse? Because again, it's reinforcing to him that he cannot handle being on his own and he needs to have you sleeping outside his door in order for him to go to sleep. So he cannot learn that he can move through the anxiety and discomfort as long as there's a safety behavior in place. So what needs to happen here is unfortunately we're going to have to let him turn at these meltdowns and everything. So he understands that we're not going to accommodate your anxiety around this. Now this is a little more complicated than that because there's other pieces we have to do. We need to have kind of announced to him how we're going to be changing our behavior in response to him. So this is not a surprise. He knows what's coming. We need to do it in a supportive way so he understands that we have faith in his ability to handle sleeping on his own. And we also should do what I call enlisting supporters, so people who he respects who can offer support to him when he's having difficulty with this. And that's not to give him reassurance but to say, hey, you know what? I know what's happening and I know you can do this. And that's the role of the supporter in this particular context. So what I'm going to suggest to you is you get the book by Dr. Ellie Leibowitz called Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD. Dr. Leibowitz is a creator of space which is an evidence-based intervention to help parents learn to not accommodate their child's anxiety. If you think it would be helpful, I also think that you should work with a space train clinician. And the beautiful thing about that is they don't have to be nearby. You can do it online, you know, as long as they're licensed in your state. So I'm trained in space, you know, it's not something I have time to do but I'm a big fan of it and I actually have an interview with Dr. Leibowitz on my YouTube channel. So if you type in ADHD dude, Ellie Leibowitz, you know, it's spelled Eli, you can see it and I think that would be helpful as well. Yeah. And you really took the exact direction with this that I would have. You know, the biggest thing is you being outside the door. Number one, that's really blurring sort of the hierarchy of relationships and sort of that safety net that kids need, especially ADHD kids need to feel safe. But we have to remember with this ADHD brain, it's almost as if, you know, them knowing that you're there outside the room on the floor outside the bedroom door, it's almost too tempting for them to get out of bed and sort of mess with you or talk to you or engage with you. You know, that's like letting a kid go to bed and having, you know, an iPad a foot away, like they're going to want to go for that iPad. So knowing that you were there is going to be far too tempting for him to just lay in bed, quiet his mind, you know, shut his mind off and do those things. You know, one of the biggest things that you tend to see with ADHD is, you know, it's a directive of go in your room, turn the lights off, lay in bed, go to sleep. Sometimes these ADHD kids sort of need a little bit more time to slow things down on their own. So if the room is a controlled environment where there's no screens, there's no Alexa, there's nothing electronic, just books and magazines or coloring or whatever there needs to be in there for quiet activities for them to do on their own, and they eventually fall asleep at their own pace instead of when you tell them to. So try to shift the focus from being asleep and getting that deep REM sleep to them being in their room and not affecting the other people in the house. And to Mike's point, I should have mentioned, I actually have a course called Better Bedtime Scaffolding where I teach exactly what Mike just mentioned, which is how to create a sequence for bedtime. So, you know, because that transition becomes easier. And I think that would also help you in terms of, you know, when you stop accommodating him, because, you know, obviously that needs to happen. Because if you don't stop this, you know, we'll get worse eventually with time, most likely. You know, more importantly, he's not going to recognize how capable he is and that he can get through this. So, all right, thank you for your question. All right, so Mike, our next question, this medication does matter in this one. So I'm going to read it. I have a 12 year old son turning 13 next month. He was diagnosed with ADHD very young and has been on medication since then. He is currently on Guam, Guamphaseen and Adderall, both XR. He has been prescribed an afternoon dose of Adderall, Fluoxetine and Clonidine, but I have not been making him take those. Just so everyone knows, Adderall is a stimulant, Fluoxetine is what people know as Prozac, that's an SSRI, and Clonidine is what's called an alpha agonist. That is a medication used for ADHD, often using conjunction with a stimulant to help reduce impulsivity, you know, or oppositional behavior. So again, I've not been making him take those. He is supposed to taking his meds because he doesn't like how they make him feel. The past two days, he was very defiant, angry, argumentative, reactive. Today, I picked him up and he was happy, funny and kind. He told me that he did not take his meds today. I was not at home this morning to watch and take them. Is it possible the meds can change his mood to be angry, or is it him coming off his meds? I agree with him that his personality comes through a lot more when he is not on the meds. However, we have tried and he cannot succeed at school without them. He's had classmates tell him that they like him better when he is not on his medication. He will actually hug me when he is not on his meds. He still has very negative days, but it's less consistent. One of my son's friends asked me about his anger issues. Another kid asked me if my son was bipolar because of his mood swings at his anger. Is this a common issue with ADHD or these meds? First thing we have to say, Mike and I are not licensed medical professionals. We cannot give medical advice, but we can share what we've seen with other families. First thing I want to mention here, that the medications that your son is on, these cannot be used like they're Tylenol, that you just take them here and there, and particularly with an SSRI, like Prozac. Prozac is not a medicine, like a stimulant that it's in and out of your system the same day. Same with guanfacing, actually. They have to build up in your system. If you just stop taking fluoxetine cold like that, you can have what's called SSRI withdrawal. It can cause problems. That's the mood swings right there. It could be. Bottom line is you cannot be treating these meds as if they're PRNs and taking it like that. Meds need to be taken consistently. The one caveat with that is that stimulants, there's more leeway with that, but this is a question to ask your prescriber. You can't just pick and choose like that and be inconsistent like this. To Mike's point, yes, I think part of his mood swings is a result of this. The other thing I want to mention is that Adderall can cause, even though it's one of the most prescribed stimulants, can cause irritability more than some of the other stimulants. I can tell you my son's psychiatrist, she rarely uses Adderall because she thinks the negative outweighs the benefits. That can be another variable here. The point I'm trying to make is that we might not be able to parse this out completely, but what we should do is we should defer to his prescriber. If he doesn't like the way they make him feel, let him talk about that with the prescriber and let them come up with something together because that's teaching himself advocacy skills. Number two, it's giving him some agency and some ownership in the process. And two, it's important that the prescriber knows what he likes and doesn't like and they can work together to come up with a solution. And of course, you should be involved in that, but it's really important to let him speak for himself rather than you speaking for him. I hear what you're saying that maybe his personality is splatting a bit when he's on them, but I think, Mike, I'll let you talk to this. I think that the fact that kids have asked about his anger issues and a kid asked if he's bipolar, that's significant. And what that is saying to me, Mike, is that his behavior makes other kids uncomfortable at times. Correct. Correct. Yeah. And that's all part of ADHD. And with ADHD, one of the common themes that Ryan and I are talking about are these power struggles with parents. And one of the worst power struggles between ADHD kids and their parents is power struggles over medication. And that tends to be the most frustrating thing where the kid feels like they had the power in their hand to manipulate the situation, take it sometimes, not take it sometimes, hug you only when you're not taking medication. A lot of these things can be manipulative behaviors as well as power struggles. Obviously, I don't know you guys individually, but it's typically best practice to follow the prescription by the doctor in terms of what was prescribed of this medication, this dosage, this many times a day, follow that until, as Ryan stated, you're able to have a conversation with the provider. And your child should be a major part of that conversation. So follow the licensed physicians directives until you are able to have another meeting to maybe change the game or change things up. But the last thing you want is a power struggle where there are certain behaviors here, certain behaviors there, the fact that the other boys are coming up to you saying these things. It sounds like there are some pretty significant needs here. And it's not just him taking his meds and doing better in school. ADHD is not just a school based problem, it's a quality of life issue. And clearly, based on what these other boys are saying, it's affecting him socially. And the last thing we want is for him to receive some sort of negative reputation. That's Ryan and I talk about it all the time. This is the true heartbreak of ADHD is the lack of friendships and relationships when they truly want to be loved and cared for and have friends. But it's hard for them to do it, especially when there's mood swings and anger. Nothing is going to destroy an ADHD friendship more, especially with boys, when that individual is getting angry all the time towards their peers and develops a little bit of a mean streak here. So, you know, don't focus on grades, don't focus on paying attention in class. This is a quality of life issue. Yeah, exactly. And Mike, one last thing I want to say about this. Let's remember what Dr. Barkley says that, you know, other kids will forgive you if you are spacey, if your executive functioning is not great, if you're disorganized. What other kids will not forgive is your abrasiveness, is you're lashing out at them, because that's offensive to other people. And these other boys wouldn't be coming up to you and asking this if it weren't bothering them. So I think that's important to keep in mind. And he also describes, Dr. Barkley also describes ADHD as the diabetes of psychiatry, because it needs that just like with diabetes, you need insulin every single day. And to Ryan's point earlier, you need those medications every single day. You can't take your insulin sometimes, or it's not going to work. So this whole regimen you're on right now of taking it sometimes, not taking the other, it's not working to its full effect. Yeah. All right, our next question, this is from the mom of a six year old. She said, Hi, Mike and Ryan, my daughter is six and on 20 milligrams Ritalin, I'm looking for guidance on how to handle a situation with my daughter. When she becomes dysregulated, she makes constant noise, follows me from room to room and insists on having me right next to her. I've started responding with I will not respond to this behavior. And I try not to engage, but she will continue for an hour or more. I've considered having her stay in her room lock, but when I've tried this in the past, it escalated into loud banging and a more intense meltdown. Should I continue ignoring and calmly restating my boundary or is there a more effective strategy for situations like this? You want to start? Sure. This is a big one. This is a big one. And this is what we always talk about. So the number one area where ADHD tends to be at its worst, and executive dysfunction tends to be at worse is the home. So piggybacking off of the last question where everyone thinks ADHD and executive functioning is all about school and paying attention in grades. It's actually in the home towards parents where the vast majority of behaviors are seen. And I always talk about how the ADHD brain is a negative attention seeking, instant gratification brain. So it's either seeking out screens or conflict. So in this situation, if the daughter is chasing around the mom, I'm going to safely assume there's little to no screens in the environment. So number one, good job, mom. Then number two, she's literally chasing you around asking for you to be next to her. So and that's all the proof you need to know that your attention is a drug. And that's one of the most important messages that parents can get from listening to this episode is recognize your attention is the drug. And that's the biggest thing, just like a screen being a negative influence on their brain and dysregulating them. So is your attention. And the fact that they're willing to chase you around the house is all the proof you need to know that your attention is a negative drug for them. So one of the things that we do in our parent training is we coach the parents to use very specific and very basic language. So let's say this girl's name is, you know, Veronica, okay, so there's ready Veronica and not ready Veronica, I am able to tell by seeing you, not by you telling me you're ready or telling me you're not ready. I can tell by looking at you when you are ready and you are not ready. When you're ready, you look like this, and you say these things. When you're not ready, you look like this, and you say these things. When you're not ready, it is my job as a parent to give you space, not talk to you and allow you to calm down and self regulate and figure things out yourself. That's my job as a parent to give you space so you can learn to self regulate, self soothe, self calm, whatever basic language you have to use for a young person. And then when you're ready, I'm here for you. I can listen to you, I can talk to you, I can help you, we can have a conversation. But the second I see that you're not ready again, it is my responsibility to leave and give you space. So you need to keep that boundary or this is going to snowball into a bigger thing. And chances are this young girl is not following around her teacher all day at school saying sit next to me, sit next to me, or hopefully she doesn't have an aide saying giving her lots of one to one attention and alienating her amongst her peers. But your attention is a drug and you need to keep that boundary or this will get worse. And what I'm going to start off with is saying, saying I will not respond to this behavior, I think that's a little of abstract language for a six year old. So what we want to do, number one, we want to give her context for understanding what's happening. She's behaving like this likely because she's stuck because she's not getting her way. So we want to give her language at an age developmentally appropriate level she can understand. So what I teach parents in my parent behavior training program for this age group is we can say, your brain's getting stuck right now and I see that you're getting upset. So what needs to happen is you need to take a brain break. So your brain can calm down and then we can come back together when you're ready. So what we're saying is we're not punishing you, but you need to take a break so your brain can calm down, your brain can get unstuck, whatever it is, really similar to what Mike was just saying. And if she doesn't do it, then okay. So we say, okay, well then mommy's going to take a brain break because I'm getting a little frustrated right now. So I'm going to take a brain break and then I'll come back when I'm ready. And if she follows you, that's fine, whatever. You don't want to lock her in a room. That's not a good idea. What you want to do is not give attention to the specific behavior. That doesn't mean ignoring her means not giving attention to the behavior. So if she's screaming, whatever, she's trying to get an emotional reaction out of you because she's upset, she's not getting her way. If you reinforce those behaviors with attention, they will continue. So that's why I'm saying do not give attention to the behavior when she, if she takes a brain break, she comes down, say, I really appreciate you calming down. You know what? And that shows me that when you feel like it, you can help your brain calm down or you can help get your brain unstuck. And that's really good that you can do that. So we want to give a lot of, you know, what I call purpose for recognition and praise. Before all this, the one thing we want to do is we want to tell her, you know, at a time when everything is calm, what you're going to be changing in response to her behavior, because we don't want to spring this on her, we're going to say, so, you know, sometimes when your brain gets stuck, you start getting upset and yelling, whatever, that, you know, this happens and, you know, I start getting frustrated. So I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do differently from now on. And then we explain what I just said. All right. So that way she knows what's going to happen. The other thing we can do is we can enlist supporters to somebody who she respects when she's behaving this way to reach out to her and say, you know, hey Veronica, I heard you're having a hard time right now. What can I do to help you? So a supporter's only role is to offer their support. And much to Mike's point about, you know, kids be, you know, behaving differently at home than at school. The reason we have supporters reach out is because often children don't want people who they respect knowing about these behaviors at home. They want it to be kept a secret. When they know that other people who they respect are going to know about them, they often subside or stop completely. And again, the role of supporter is not shaming, not lecturing, just I heard you're having a hard time. What can I do to support you? And that's it. Exactly. And I would just add, never underestimate the power of a very basic gesture instead of words. So I've worked a lot of parents that have had a lot of success of instead of talking and saying all this, you know, all those words about, you know, brains and this and that, you know, put two hands up and do a little bit of an up and down motion. Like everyone on YouTube can see it, but I'm basically holding two palms up like almost like a traffic person would to like slow down or stop and kind of just like pump the brakes a little bit, just move your hands up and down, say nothing. And like that little gesture sort of sends the signal without any words, just, you know, reset a little bit, take five minutes, reset and come back. And, you know, doing things like that, a lot of the information on social media is, you know, you're going to traumatize them. You're not co-regulating all this nonsense. You know, that is really honestly, when you really think about it, you're empowering the child. You're empowering them to take some time to themselves to self-sude, self-regulate, be more aware of how you're treating others, be more aware of how you're acting, how you look. You know, you're giving them, you're really empowering them to be more understanding of their emotions and how to treat others and how to get what you want from others. So you're helping them get a really good life skill when so much of what parents are taught is to stay there, get on their level, co-regulate with them. And with ADHD, a lot of that advice just makes things worse. Absolutely. All right, Mike, our last question for today is from a parent asking about a summer camp. So she said, I need advice and clarification on the following. And I think she heard me talk about this before, just to give everyone some context. You said that it's best to have them in a consistent camp all summer long. However, it's hard to find summer camps that are equipped to handle children with ADHD. Absolutely true. Especially if the ADHD manifests itself in explosive behavior. We have been kicked out of multiple preschools and summer camps since the age of three for this reason, and feel like it's done harm to a self-confidence. Last summer, we did multiple week-long camps in order to keep him occupied while not giving it the opportunity to extend long enough for his explosive behavior to take hold. He tends to monitor his behavior more around new people than people he's been with for a long time. However, the weeks we don't have anything during breaks makes it extremely difficult for us to work since we have no outside support with family. Just wanted to get your reaction to this. So, Mike, let me just explain real quick. What I tell people is, ideally, I prefer to see kids in camps where they can stay for a longer period of time than these week-long camps. The reason being is, because for a lot of kids with ADHD, they need that consistency of being in the same place, getting to know the people there, having that routine. Because every time they go to a new camp, that's another transition for them. It's another set of new people to get used to. Now, I also feel like a hypocrite saying this because my camp that I started, well, that was my camp, that I started still running, trip camp, is for a week. Now, granted, that's for kids who are a little older. But what I would say to this pair, in this case, Mike, is if this is what's working for him, then by all means, keep doing what you're doing. That advice I have is just kind of general. But if this works better for him yet, then you're doing the right thing and I would just keep doing that. Correct. Yeah. And Ryan and I have very similar camp methods. And most of these camps are where they go and they're able to stay on the campus and a cabin, whatever it may be. Ryan and I have a very high demand for trip camp, EF camp. And it tends to be more of that get transportation and have them travel around. And it needs to be a week by week thing. But if you have the opportunity to send them to a camp where they are living on a general campus area and they're swimming, canoeing, archery, doing all sorts of outdoor play, totally screen free camp, which it always fascinates me how camps now market themselves as your child's only screen free experience they'll ever have, which is actually quite genius. And it's working for them. But it's so incredibly sad that that's true. But that's really it. You know, if you have the opportunity to send them there long term, not only is that incredibly beneficial to them to have those experiences away from mom and dad, away from their comfort zone, it's also very beneficial to you as the parents to have a summer to yourself to not have to worry all the time about your child being bored and in driving them places and having to deal with screen time fights every day, waking them up and going to sleep. Parents today need that peace of mind. And summer camp is one of the best ways to do that. And it's always my advice is if you send them to a screen time camp, a screen free camp, send them home. And when they get back to your house, there should be a lot less screens there. There's no better time to eliminate screens than when they return back from a screen free camp. And they come home and they're detoxed from it. You might as well cancel the phone plan then also. But camps are one of the most wonderful things for ADHD kids and teens, especially with the way schools are now with ed tech and all the issues with school and all of that. But if you have an opportunity to do it, do it. There's ways for the individual individuals of the camp to speak to other professionals and educate them on ADHD, collaborate with them. You know, don't worry so much about ADHD this or that if you have an opportunity to send them to a camp you know is reputable and you know is screen free and you know is excellent. Do it as much as you possibly can. All right, everyone. So that is our episode for today. If you have a question you would like us to answer in a future episode, you can send an email with your question to the ADHD parenting podcast at gmail.com. Well, we ask an exchange for answering your question. If you would be so generous as to leave us a review on Spotify or on Apple podcasts, we would really appreciate that. Just take a screenshot of it, send it along with your question. And the other thing with questions, please keep them brief. You know, I'm pretty concise because obviously as you see, we read them on the air and typically like what I've been finding is people write us whole books and I have to write them back and say we need you to condense this a bit. So just keep that in mind as well. All right, thanks for the great questions today and we will speak to you soon. Take care, everyone. Take care. Thanks for listening. To learn more about Mike's practice, grow now ADHD. Please visit his website, grownowadhd.com. To learn about the services Ryan provides, please visit adhddude.com. You can find Mike on Instagram at grownowadhd and Ryan on the ADHD Dude YouTube channel. We'd love to hear your feedback or questions, so feel free to contact us at the ADHD Parenting Podcast at gmail.com. The ADHD Parenting Podcast and content posted by Grow Now ADHD or ADHD Dude are presented solely for general information and educational purposes. Our goal is to provide valuable insights and knowledge, not to replace professional services. Mike and Ryan cannot provide clinical consultation or free advice through social media or other forms of communication. The information on this podcast is not a substitute for professional advice. If you or your child have any medical or mental health concerns, please consult your healthcare professionals.