ADHD Lifestyle, Purpose & Non-Medication Paths with Dr. Asad Raffi
🌟 My new book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit, is available to preorder here 🌟
In this insightful and final episode of Ask The Psych, I’m joined by Dr. Asad Rafi to explore the evolving understanding of ADHD, from the limitations of diagnosis to building a life that supports long-term wellbeing.
We dive into how ADHD can impact health span and life span, and why recognising and working with your brain can lead to a more fulfilling, sustainable life. From navigating career choices to avoiding burnout, this episode is all about shifting from deficit thinking to a strengths-based, brain-first approach.
What You’ll Learn:
✨ The challenges of getting an ADHD diagnosis, and what to do if it isn’t accessible
✨ How to manage ADHD when medication isn’t an option
✨ The potential (and limits) of neurofeedback and brain imaging
✨ How unsupported ADHD can reduce life span — and what to do about it
✨ How understanding your brain and shaping your lifestyle to fit with it supports ADHD wellbeing and growth
✨ Finding fulfilment in your career by following strengths and passions
✨ How to ensure your self-worth isn’t tied to your job and how to prevent burnout with self-care
This episode is a powerful reminder that ADHD isn’t just something to manage, it’s something you can work with to live a longer, healthier, more meaningful life.
Timestamps:
🕒 02:55 – Can neurofeedback help with ADHD?
🕒 04:02 – The science behind neuroimaging and ADHD
🕒 08:33 – What it means to find purpose with ADHD
🕒 10:21 – Career shifts and self-understanding
🕒 11:56 – Managing ADHD through daily awareness
Whether you're newly diagnosed, waiting for assessment, or navigating ADHD without medication, this episode offers empowering, realistic advice to help you work with your brain, not against it.
Listen now to reframe your understanding of ADHD and discover how small mindset shifts can lead to big transformations.
Links & Resources:
⭐ Boosting your Self-Belief and Self-Trust after a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis Workshop available to buy now on demand. Click here to purchase.
⭐ Book on the next ADHD Wellbeing Workshop all about 'What is Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria? How do we understand and recognise it, and how do we live well with it?' on May 20th @1.30pm! Click here to book.
⭐ If you love the podcast but want more ADHD support, get a sneak peek of my brand new book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit and pre-order it here!
⭐ Launching September! Tired of ADHD support that doesn’t get you? My new compassionate, community-first membership ditches the overwhelm by providing support aligned with YOU! Join the waitlist now for an exclusive founding member offer!
Find all of Kate's popular online workshops and free resources here
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Kate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed ADHD women find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity and clarity.
Transcript
So, hi everyone.
Speaker A:Welcome back to another Wisdom episode.
Speaker A:I'm here to bring further knowledge and expertise and understanding from maybe past episodes, past guests, and also bring you some new insightful information as well.
Speaker A:And I'm delighted to welcome back the final clip, the final part of the messaging from our Ask the Psych episodes.
Speaker A:Now, I brought in Dr.
Speaker A:Asad Rafi because he is a clinical lead on ADHD.
Speaker A:He's a psychiatrist and he's working every single day trying to help and better the lives of people with adhd.
Speaker A:He is assessing, he is diagnosing, and he is at the forefront of trying to make the different connections between brain, body presentations of ADHD.
Speaker A:And the reason why I wanted to bring Dr.
Speaker A:Raffi onto the podcast is because it's so vital that we're understanding from a psychiatrist what he's seeing every single day in his clinic, but also, I guess, his reflections and how we can start making this process better, how he sees the future with regards to neurodivergence and all the different ways it shows up alongside the very typical ways of adhd.
Speaker A:So it's really fascinating to be able to bring his insights and his expertise into this.
Speaker A:I will be speaking to Dr.
Speaker A:Rafi again.
Speaker A:We've got a lot more questions.
Speaker A:We only really touch the side, but I'm glad to be able to bring his insights because I think it's so important, especially if you are waiting a diagnosis, if you've not been able to be assessed or be diagnosed, to be able to get this advice and this understanding from a top ADHD psychiatrist I think is vital.
Speaker A:So in this conversation we discuss ADHD's evolving understanding and we focus on the alternatives to medication, such as neurofeedback, which does lack the evidence, we're not getting the research, but also to understand what that is and potentially what other treatments we've got.
Speaker A:If medication isn't an option or if you are not seeking an official diagnosis, maybe you just want to be able to help yourself from a lifestyle and well being perspective.
Speaker A:And also we talk about the societal views of ADHD and encouraging this sort of acceptance that we need to see across the board in schools, but also in work, in families and relationships, and hopefully empowering more people to step into their potential with regards to careers and employment because we are seeing too many people fall through the cracks.
Speaker A:So I really hope that you enjoy this episode with Dr.
Speaker A:Asad Rafi and I will speak to you all very soon.
Speaker A:We're evolving all the time with this understanding of adhd.
Speaker A:And I'd Be very interested to have this conversation with you hopefully and to 10 years, five years time because we're going to see such a fast evolution in this area.
Speaker A:And I wanted to ask you about what your thoughts are with neurofeedback because I'm hearing a lot about this with ADHD and I wondered, you know, if people are resistant to medication.
Speaker A:They've tried medication, it's not worked for them, they don't like the way it makes them feel.
Speaker A:They would prefer to lean into other non medication routes.
Speaker A:What's your, what is your thought on neurofeedback and are we only at the beginning of understanding this?
Speaker B:I don't necessarily think we're at the beginning of understanding neurofeedback.
Speaker B:If we boil this down to what does the evidence base look like.
Speaker B:There isn't sufficient evidence or compelling evidence to say that neurofeedback brain mapping also.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All of these elements have sufficient evidence to warrant it being a treatment or a management strategy for adhd.
Speaker B:It might be one of those things that actually give you some benefits, some of those marginal gains.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Which may well supplement the other things that we're doing as well.
Speaker B:It's going back to those basics.
Speaker B:Do the basics well.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:You know, in terms of neurofeedback.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I don't think there's sufficient evidence.
Speaker B:That doesn't mean it doesn't work.
Speaker B:I'm going to sit slightly on the fence.
Speaker B:It's something that certainly has interested me, it's fascinated me.
Speaker B:But you see people who are doing great work, who are really kind of pushing the boundaries, the early adopters, something that kind of aligns close to neurofeedback may well be some of the work that Dr.
Speaker B:Daniel Amen does over in the US using SPECT scans and looking at that, you know, functional neuroimaging, helping people to understand how their brains are working and where those challenges or difficulties may well be in certain parts of the brain and, and that's really helpful.
Speaker B:The problem is that it's not accessible, it's expensive.
Speaker B:And you know, I've, I've inquired about things like is it possible to get a SPECT scan done for this particular, particular indication.
Speaker B:And unfortunately here in the UK, not many people are aware of it or have an understanding of it.
Speaker B:And you know, I'm not going to purport to be anywhere near as good as Daniel Amon or what he does.
Speaker B:He's one of these early adopters and has certainly changed the, the face of helping people to understand adhd, which you know we can only thank him for.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Can I just say, I think with the neuroimaging it's probably bigger in the states as things always are.
Speaker A:I guess it's validating when we understand that there's a difference in our brain scans, in the way our brain makeup is and maybe not saying it's a deficiency as such, it's just a difference and we can lean into understanding the brains who are differently made up, wired and that then helps us kind of go like we've lived with this self belief or these layers of like we're wrong, we're broken, we're failed, we've got something wrong with us, like this sort of negative beliefs but also like the feedback that we've been getting from other people and we can finally say, okay, well my brain's wired like this, this is why I do those certain things.
Speaker A:I'm more impulsive, I struggle with decision making, I struggle, you know, with my working memory, all these different things.
Speaker A:And instead of it being something that we take on as like a negative or a deficiency, we can just adopt and curate a way of living that works for us.
Speaker A:Like we can choose careers.
Speaker A:Like how amazing would it be for our kids to to be able to be, feel empowered by the knowledge of their brain and go, if I go to university and study for something that's going to be a desk job, that's not going to help, you know, I'm not going to be able to move around, I'm going to be stuck behind a desk, I'm not going to be able to talk and do different things with different people.
Speaker A:Like that awareness, that knowledge will open the world up to them and help them lean into all their potential and their good and.
Speaker A:But how amazing would it be for your 14 year old daughter to say, I've got ADHD, my brain's wide like this.
Speaker A:I'm actually going to start looking at a course that helps me do this.
Speaker A:I'm going to get a job that I can thrive in.
Speaker A:I'm going to live a life that feels good to me and that's, that's just the normal way of living.
Speaker B:What we can do is determine and influence what happens moving forward because as I said before, we're now living longer.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:We also want to not just improve our lifespans, we want to improve our health span as well.
Speaker B:So we want to live longer but healthier lives and surely by understanding what this condition is and how it impacts you in terms of the decision making, in terms of your mental health, your physical health that's only going to be a good thing.
Speaker B:But if we don't manage adhd, we know that lifespan can cut short.
Speaker B:You know, life expectancy can reduce by almost eight years.
Speaker B:There's a significant impact because of choices that we make on our cardiovascular health, some of the addictive behaviors that we might engage in.
Speaker B:Obesity.
Speaker B:Type 2 diabetes is overrepresented in this population.
Speaker B:I look at certain communities, my own community, I look at the Southeast Asian community, look at the BAME community in general.
Speaker B:So the black and ethnic minority communities, rates of type 2 diabetes, obesity, a huge, huge problem.
Speaker B:And we know that, you know, there's a significant link underlying with conditions like adhd.
Speaker B:And if we could actually manage the mental weight as well as the physical weight, this may well give us some answers.
Speaker B:And as far as talking about courses and ultimately finding your purpose in life, people ask me that question once they've been through that process, what should I do?
Speaker B:You know, what should I do for a career?
Speaker B:And my simple response to them is the following.
Speaker B:Find something that you're good at.
Speaker B:Find something that you're interested in, and find something that you're passionate about.
Speaker B:Not everyone finds it, and not everyone's going to find it at the age of 20 or 30.
Speaker B:I didn't find it until maybe, you know, 10 years ago.
Speaker B:You know, my true calling in life.
Speaker B:Didn't find it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:You know, been through various jobs, various disciplines within psychiatry and mental health.
Speaker B:Loved what I did.
Speaker B:It just didn't sustain me, you know, And I'm sure from what I understand about your journey in marketing and PR now, being where you are today, you would never have thought that you would have ended up where you are today, 20, 30, 40 years ago.
Speaker A:No, no, I mean, it's totally that.
Speaker A:And, you know, unfortunately, we do go through.
Speaker A:I mean, listen, it's on the flip side, it is part of the learning process of life, isn't it, to have all these different incarnations.
Speaker A:And we're learning as we grow.
Speaker A:And I think if, you know, at the age of 18, you find the thing that you love and you do for the rest of your life, it's very, very rare.
Speaker A:And we do learn from kind of having to do a bit of a deep dive or those sort of dark nights of the soul.
Speaker A:And as difficult as it is to go through these challenges, it does build our resistance.
Speaker A:And we get through.
Speaker A:When we get to, hopefully we get stronger from it.
Speaker A:Not everybody, but, you know, and I think what you just said then for, you know, just to hone in on a Career perspective.
Speaker A:It's really helpful and I think is very validating for people if they're in a career right now that doesn't feel like they fit.
Speaker A:And I had someone in one of my group sessions not that long ago who was in her 60s and she was ready, she was ready to start a whole new career.
Speaker A:She wanted to be a travel journalist, she wanted to write blogs about traveling in the 60s on her own type thing.
Speaker A:I was like, that's amazing.
Speaker A:Do it.
Speaker A:And then she, she started like leaning into all these things.
Speaker A:She loved playing piano.
Speaker A:She's like, you know what I'm going to go and do?
Speaker A:Play piano in the care homes.
Speaker A:That really fulfills me.
Speaker A:And so it's just kind of saying, like, do I want to conform to what things are meant to look like or shall I just take a bit of a risk and do the things that light me up?
Speaker A:Because I think like you say with adhd, we need that.
Speaker A:We need it.
Speaker A:On the flip side, we've also got to look at the.
Speaker A:Are we overworking?
Speaker A:Are we becoming overproductive?
Speaker A:Are we putting every, all sense of self into our career?
Speaker A:And that kind of, that dopamine that we get from, from constantly working, I struggle with it as well.
Speaker A:Asad, I really have to pull back from working.
Speaker A:I work at the weekends because I'm trying to catch up, you know, as a mom and everything.
Speaker A:But I actually enjoy it.
Speaker A:And so I go into my office for a couple of hours.
Speaker A:I get time away from the kids, away from the house.
Speaker A:I do what I love.
Speaker A:It fulfills me.
Speaker A:But I have to really watch out for burnout.
Speaker A:I have to watch out for being depleted.
Speaker A:And you know, after this, you know, we're recording for a while, I'm going to go and take the dog and walk because if I don't, I know that the rest of my day will just be.
Speaker A:I'll be broken by the end of the day.
Speaker A:So we have to put these little things in place.
Speaker A:And I always see understanding our ADHD is constantly tweaking and changing and being dynamic with our days, with our plans, looking at our diaries.
Speaker A:And unfortunately for us, we can't drop the ball.
Speaker A:Because when we drop the ball, like you say, our eating goes out the window.
Speaker A:We realize we've not exercised all week.
Speaker A:Our mood, our dysregulation, our anger, irritability, like everything is impacted by whether we have looked after ourselves.
Speaker A:And I do feel that us as a community, it is an extra weight on us, isn't it?
Speaker A:Like some people, you know, mostly neurotic, neurotypical people, they can just like, operate and just get through life.
Speaker A:And things just don't really impact them.
Speaker A:And they just, you know, whereas us, we've got sensitive nervous systems.
Speaker A:We have got to constantly, you know, even hydrating.
Speaker A:I've always got a glass of water in front of me because I know if I don't hydrate, something happens.
Speaker A:Like I just, just something in my brain just switches off.
Speaker A:So these little things.
Speaker A:So I hope you enjoyed listening to this shorter episode of the ADHD Women's Wellbeing podcast.
Speaker A:I've called it the ADHD Women's well Being Wisdom, because I believe there's so much wisdom in the guests that I have on and their insights.
Speaker A:So sometimes we just need that little bit of a reminder.
Speaker A:And I hope that has helped you today and look forward to seeing you back on the brand new episode on Thursday.
Speaker A:Have a good rest of your week.
