ADHD WEEK with KAYLA ITSINES: "My Life with ADHD - And Why I Finally Want to Talk About It"

Here the world clearly, with story glass. Fitness guru, Kaila, it's Sinus. Kaila, it's Sinus. Kaila, it's Sinus. Hi, I'm Kaila It's Sinus and this is Sweat Daily. Here at Sweat Daily, we release a new episode every weekday to keep you on track with your health and wellbeing goals. Now, have a listen, join our amazing community of like-minded people and take this time to put yourself first. This week on Sweat Daily, I feel guilty sometimes for the things that I struggle with. I get panic constantly. I fear that my kids can see that in me. I get overwhelmed and I snap, but through therapy and learning like my North Star has always been to try to love myself. I don't know if I'm fully there, but I would say I'm closer. It's a careful topic to navigate if it's a superpower, if it's a disorder. Yes, it's a serious condition and I think that all of us have superpowers within us if we unlock it. And Kaila, you found something that is your passion and you hyper-focused on it and you made it this huge success. When is the last time you just sat there doing nothing else other than thinking? I drove to the gym, parked at the front, closed every window of the car which was tinted. I was listening to that and isolated all my thoughts with that music. That's how I can isolate thoughts, just a little insight into my brain. Emma Watson, Channing Tatum, Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber, Abby Chapfield, Jim Carey, Lily Allen, why am I listing off a bunch of random names? Well, these are all celebrities who have been outspoken about being diagnosed with ADHD. Now who else feels like ADHD is everywhere right now. It's on TikTok. There's a hashtag ADHD and this has been viewed over 11 billion times, 11 billion times. Everywhere I turn, I feel like there's a news segment about a new celeb with ADHD and online article about whether the pandemic gave you ADHD. There's a TikToker telling us about the ADHD epidemic that's happened because our attention spans are getting shorter, the more high-tech our fines get. There's an Instagram reel of symptoms of ADHD and how to self-diagnose yourself. It is everywhere, but I think that if you look up things enough, they get served to you. So I have to be honest here. That list of names that I read out, I am going to add myself to it because I was diagnosed by a doctor not the internet with ADHD a couple of years ago and I feel like despite how much it's in the news and how much it's on TikTok and my own diagnosis, I don't really understand it. In fact, I had no idea that I even had it. My sister highly recommended to me to go to therapy for no particular reason other than the fact that she went to therapy and she found it so beneficial and she said, "Kaila, I know you have your family, I know you have us and your friends and you talk very openly about your life and it's very different when you speak to someone who doesn't know you." I said to my sister, "I have nothing to talk about. What do you want me to go in there and say it?" And she goes, "Don't worry. Honestly, you'll find things to talk about." So I went in and I saw this lovely lady, I sat down and I was there for a couple of sessions and I really genuinely enjoyed them, but I didn't really know what I was talking about. I just started like rambling, I guess, and the lady started laughing at one point. She had stopped me so many times because I had either got up and tried to fix her wallpaper or I was asking her where her plant was facing the wrong way or she had some characters next to her bookcase that were like in the wrong order and she said, "Listen, I don't think that you need this sort of therapy. I think you have ADHD." She goes, "Now I can't diagnose you with ADHD. I need to send you to someone, I need you to fill out this form." And basically, it was tick boxes that's like 1 to 10, all mine were on the 10. So she's like, "Look, everything that you've ticked shows very clear signs that you have ADHD and need you to go get checked again by a psychiatrist." So she sent me off and sure enough, I had my diagnosis, I do have ADHD. So the first person that I told was my mum and it was not the reaction that I wanted. So I went up to my mum and I was like, "Mum, I got diagnosed with ADHD." And she said, "You do not have ADHD." That was the first thing she said. And I thought, "Excuse me, it's hereditary. You have ADHD." That's what I said, as a joke. We haven't, my mum has not been confirmed yet, but she was honestly like adamant that I did not have ADHD. And her reasoning was pretty strong. She said, "I've worked with so many kids in school because that was literally her job. She worked with kids with ADHD, with autism, with the kids that needed that extra help. My mum would look after them." She's like, "I've worked with so many kids from school with ADHD and you don't have it." I said, "Who?" And she started naming boys Daniel and Ryan. And I said, "That's all boys." And then I thought, "Is it different in women than it is men?" So the public perception is often people with ADHD are the bad kids, they're hyperactive, they're running around everywhere, they're making a mess, they don't listen. My husband, Jay, was that typical boy in school. He was the naughty boy, cheeky boy, couldn't stay in school. After school cared, didn't want him, boarding school, didn't want him. He wasn't bad. He was just a very, very cheeky kid who had a big problem with listening, authority and all the typical boy things that come with ADHD. That's not me. So for me, I'm going to explain my ADHD as an adult being diagnosed and what it looks like because it's not getting kicked out of classrooms or getting kicked out of workplaces. It's not not paying attention or being constantly disruptive is none of that stuff. This is what my ADHD looks like as a female adult. I am someone who is very good at reading people's body language. So when I walk into a room, I feel like I know what everyone's thinking, I can read a room very fast. I'm someone who gets super passionate and super focused very quickly so I can channel that hyper focus into something for hours. I become a perfectionist at everything that I do, but I'm also the kind of person who has 40 tabs open in my brain and I can never close any of them. I always feel like I have constant running things of things to do. I'm terrible, terrible at leaving things around the house. I completely forget that I've left them there. I cannot remember anything unless I write it down. I will obsessively clean things. My shower routine, my nighttime routines, they have to be perfect, but that's just not what you think of when you think of ADHD and that is not what my mum thought of. You think of that person who's house is messy. They can't keep their life together there in a job that are like, so that made me think what are the actual symptoms of ADHD? What is ADHD in our brain? What are the medications that you can take if you should be taking them? How will they affect you? Why are so many people being diagnosed with ADHD and how can I know if I or somebody that I love has ADHD? And finally, is it different in men than it is in women just like I think it is. I don't know about to find out this week. This is what I think about ADHD. I think ADHD is actually a superpower. I think without having it, I wouldn't have been able to build swear. I wouldn't have found my amazing community. I wouldn't have been able to help millions of women on their fitness journey, knowing that I have ADHD has only helped me to become a better, happier person. I feel like self-knowledge, knowing the different parts of you and how they shape you is how you build the life that you want. And here on Sweat Daily, we always strive towards self-knowledge, so you can be the best version of yourself too. Now, we have a loaded week ahead. Tomorrow, I'm going to be sitting down and talking with Tam and Sursok about her experience with ADHD. And then on Wednesday, I'm going to speak to an ADHD expert about the symptoms of ADHD and how it shows up differently in women, specifically. On Thursday, Shona is going to lead you through a moving meditation that will help you focus your energy, and I definitely need that. On Friday, I'm going to chat with my best friend, Lani Bell, about what it's like to live with someone with ADHD, because not only is she living with me, there has ADHD. She's living with Jay and Jay's best friend, Alex, who also has ADHD, and she's loving it, I think we'll find out. So thank you for digging deep with me today, and guess what? You are one episode closer to reaching your health and well-being goals, so thank you for taking the time today to prioritize yourself and your health. And remember, we only get one body, so let's treat it with the love and respect it deserves. ADHD, let's go.