One Year Sober: A Mom's Perspective on Weed and ADHD with Natalie Chien

I Have ADHD Podcast

Kristen Carder

Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Education, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We have a unique episode this week, covering a topic I’ve honestly never known how to approach here: cannabis use for adults with ADHD. First things first, you need to know that this episode will be only one perspective on a subject I’d never pretend to be an expert in.

Joining me is a very special guest, Natalie Chien, @Natalie.C.ADHD who is not only a member of my group coaching program FOCUSED, but she’s also completed my ADHD coaching program! Natalie was formerly addicted to recreational marijuana and is now celebrating one year of sobriety after smoking for almost two decades.

Like many everyday marijuana users, Natalie started smoking with friends at a young age, but by the time she reached college, she had developed a serious dependency and failed to learn real and beneficial coping mechanisms to deal with things like stress and family issues.

On top of that, Natalie had an underlying suspicion that she had ADHD, but it went undiagnosed and largely untreated until her thirties. Today she can look back and recognize that the marijuana numbed her of any and all real feelings, and emotional regulation was never even on her radar until she joined FOCUSED. She missed out on significant life experiences and self-development by being tied down to a plant with temporary benefits.

The biggest message both Natalie and I want to leave our listeners with in this episode is that those of us with ADHD are more susceptible to substance use and addiction. When our ADHD is left undiagnosed, unmedicated, or untreated, we will inevitably find some way or something to help us feel better. For Natalie, starting therapy, ADHD medication and joining FOCUSED opened her up mentally and physically to start making serious life changes and motivated her to step away from cannabis use entirely.

See below for an insightful article on ADHD and cannabis as well as where you can connect with Natalie. For those of you who have never tried ADHD coaching before, I invite you to come join us in FOCUSED.

Resources:
ADHD and Marijuana; What's the Attraction?

Come hang out with me on Instagram HERE!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the I Have ADHD podcast, where it's all about education, encouragement, and coaching for adults with ADHD.
0:14.0	I'm your host, Kristen Carter, and I have ADHD.
0:18.0	Let's chat about the frustrations, humor, and challenges of adulting relationships working and achieving with this neurodevelopmental disorder.
0:27.0	I'll help you understand your unique brain, unlock your potential, and move from point A to point B.
0:37.0	Hey, what's up? This is Kristen Carter, and you are listening to the I Have ADHD podcast.
0:42.0	I am medicated, I am caffeinated, I am regulated, and I am ready to roll.
0:48.0	We are going to chat about a much requested topic today, ADHD, and pot use.
0:54.0	Oh my goodness. So many people have reached out for me to talk about this topic, and I have zero, and I mean zero knowledge on it.
1:03.0	And so I have not, I haven't done anything with it.
1:06.0	My guest today was a regular pot smoker, and it was just recreational for a while until it just wasn't.
1:14.0	And she overcame an addiction, and then became a coach, and now she helps other ADHDers navigate through this process.
1:24.0	Now, pot is often used recreationally by ADHDers to self-medicate, and Natalie, my guest, and I have zero judgment, zero thoughts.
1:35.0	All we're bringing you today is our experience, some facts, some research, and really interestingly, I want to highlight the fact that people with mental health issues, ADHD, especially included here, obviously, that's what we're talking about.
1:54.0	We're going to self-medicate somehow. If we are not properly diagnosed and medicated, we will find a way to feel better.
2:05.0	This is just what humans are going to do. We are going to find a way to feel better.
2:10.0	I found an amazing article from the Chad website, Chad.org, and I'm going to link it in the show notes, but I want to read some of it as an intro here, because I think it's really poignant.
2:21.0	So this is from that article. I'm going to link it in the show notes. It says marijuana is one of the most widely used psychoactive substances worldwide after tobacco and alcohol.
2:31.0	Higher rates of all substance use disorders are well documented among adults with ADHD.
2:38.0	Compared to people who do not have ADHD, those with ADHD are at increased risk for early initiation of cannabis use, for heavy use, and for developing a cannabis use disorder.
2:51.0	The National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions in the United States determined that ADHD adults use cannabis two to three times more than adults without ADHD.
3:04.0	That is fascinating. Some research suggests that over their lifetime, people with ADHD are almost eight times as likely to use cannabis compared to those who do not have ADHD.
3:17.0	Cannabis use disorder is also more common in adults with ADHD and studies show that they are more than twice as likely to meet the criteria than adults without ADHD.
	...

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