Welcome back to OK Boomer, the only place where a man can forget what airplane he flew and still be trusted behind a microphone. This week’s episode took me down a bit of a rabbit hole, or maybe it was more of a spiral… hard to say these days. Either way, we got into something I didn’t even have a name for until about five minutes ago in the grand scheme of my life.

We’re talking ADHD, or as I would’ve called it back then, “Trying to find your keys while you’re holding them in your hand.”

Sit tight, this one might explain a few things.

Funny enough, this week’s conversation lines up pretty closely with our partner for this issue. Things like rejection sensitivity or working memory aren’t fancy medical jargon, but rather the experiences a lot of folks have been navigating for years without a clear explanation.

If any of that sounds familiar, this is one of those rare ads that’s actually worth a click. Not only might you learn something useful about how your brain works, but every click adds a solid $1.68 to my coffee fund (which at the rate prices are skyrocketing, I’ll be able to afford a decent cup of coffee by 2047!)

Without further ado, Inflow!

For many with ADHD, a simple "no" can feel like a world-ending nightmare. This is Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), and it makes navigating daily life painfully hard.

Developed by clinical psychologists, Inflow helps you understand and navigate RSD triggers using science-backed strategies.

In just 5 minutes a day, you can learn to prevent unhelpful thoughts and build deep emotional resilience. Stop spiraling and start reframing your thinking with a custom learning plan designed for your brain.

Take the free assessment today

Back in my day, there was no such thing as ADHD (AKA Attention Hyper Deficit Disorder). If your brain moved a little faster or wandered off course, you were just told to shut up, sit still, and try harder.

I spent a good stretch of my early years thinking I just didn’t have it figured out, bouncing from academic probation as a self-proclaimed “dumbass radio and TV major” to eventually finding my footing and making the dean’s list at Southern Illinois University (go Salukis!).

Turns out, I just hadn’t found the right environment to thrive in yet, which just happened to be chaos.

Of course, it came with its moments. I still remember being 18, flying solo, landing for a test, and then walking back out to realize I had no idea which airplane I’d flown. Took a security guard and a row of identical Cessnas to jog my memory.

I just chalked it up that I was scatterbrained the entirety of my life, and didn’t get an official diagnosis until recently at 70, which means I spent most of my life piloting something I didn’t even have a name for.

Looking back now, it’s a little clearer that ADHD was just something no one thought to explain to a young whippersnapper like myself.

That brings me to this week’s conversation, where a lot of things started to click in a way they never quite had before. I sat down with Sandra and Aleazia, two folks coming at this from very different angles than my own but speaking the same language.

Sandra comes from a psychology background — a magna cum laude out of Louisville — and a deep interest in how the mind and body actually work together. She’s done speaking work around mental health, has a creative streak a mile wide, and carries her own lived experience with CPTSD, which shapes how she sees all of this.

Aleazia, on the other hand, is 23, grew up with an ADHD diagnosis from a young age, and talks about it less like a limitation and more like something you learn to work with, and even lean into as an advantage. He’s spent time in mental health groups, has family ties to a variety of neurodivergent experiences, and brings a perspective that’s honest and grounded.

I’ll tell you what caught me off guard: hearing ADHD talked about less like a problem that needed to be dealt with and more like something you can actually work with (go figure).

As most mental health and medical professionals see it now, Sandra and Aleazia also framed it in a way I hadn’t really considered before, not as a disorder, but as a different kind of wiring. Aleazia even called it a “super secret superpower,” and as much as I hate to admit it, I see where he’s coming from. When I look back at my own career, that constant mental juggling act was the whole reason I could keep up.

At the same time, it helped explain a few things that never quite made sense to me over the years, like the idea that a lot of my struggles didn’t come from the way I thought, but from trying to operate in systems built for a completely different kind of personality that didn’t fit the mold for myself. I’ve lived that firsthand, doing the job well but still running into walls because I didn’t approach things the way others expected. Hearing it laid out like that made me realize it’s not about who’s right or wrong, but a different shade of thinking entirely.

I gotta say, I picked up a few practical tricks along the way too:

It took me about 70 years to get there, but there’s always room to teach an old dog new tricks. 😉