Rethinking Resilience with Alex Bellitter: Burnout, Rest & the ADHD Brain

Hacking Your ADHD

William Curb

Mental Health, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 702 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hey Team!

Today I'm joined by Alex Bellitter, Senior Manager of Coaching at Shimmer, an ADHD coaching platform that's guided over 75,000 sessions. If this sounds a bit familiar, I also did an interview with Shimmer's CEO, Chris Wang, last year - but of course in this episode, we're covering a lot more and while Shimmer is mentioned it certainly isn't the focus of what we're talking about here.

But back to who we're talking with today. Alex holds a Master's in Psychology and is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. She's passionate about building a neuroinclusive approach to coaching and helping people redefine what success looks like for their unique brains.

We get into what burnout really looks like for ADHD brains and how the "grind it out" mindset backfires every time. Alex shares how resilience isn't about powering through and we also unpack the ideas of capacity, how we burn through future energy, and why rest, play, and flexibility are actually key parts of productivity. Plus, we get into ADHD inertia, smart scaffolding, and that tricky process of rediscovering your strengths when your brain insists you don't have any.

If you're struggling with OCD or unrelenting intrusive thoughts, NOCD can help. Book a free 15 minute call to get started: https://learn.nocd.com/HackingYourADHD

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/251

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD

This Episode's Top Tips

1. We often overfill their schedules, not just with work, but with everything, because when we see "blank space," it can look like laziness or wasted time. But leaving unscheduled blocks gives us breathing room and time for the unexpected. This means it's important that we're making sure keep at least some white space on our calendars.
2. We can fall into the trap of treating rest like a reward for finishing everything, but rest is part of the system that keeps us going. Taking time to rest isn't laziness; it's maintenance that we sorely need.
3. External structure, such as reminders, alarms, notes, and accountability partners, can often help ADHD brains thrive, but a lot of us carry shame around using these supports. We're not "cheating" the system by building one that works for us. These scaffoldings allow us to grow stronger over time without collapsing under pressure by giving us the support we need.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this
0:09.3	podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain.
0:15.0	Hey team, today I'm joined by Alex Belleteer, senior manager of coaching at Shimmer, an ADHD coaching
0:20.4	platform that's guided over 75,000 sessions. If this sounds a bit familiar, I also did an interview with Shimmer's CEO Chris Wang last year, but of course, this is a completely different episode, and we're governed a lot more. And while Shimmer has mentioned, it certainly isn't the focus of what we're talking about today. Alex holds a master's in psychology and as a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. She's passionate about building a neuroinclusive
0:41.2	approach to coaching and helping people redefine what success looks like for their unique brains.
0:45.8	We get into what burnout really looks like for ADHD brains and how the grinded-out mindset
0:50.9	backfires pretty much every time. Alex shares how resilience isn't about powering
0:55.1	through, and we also unpack the ideas of capacity, how we burn through future energy,
0:59.4	and why rest, play, and flexibility are actually key parts of productivity. Plus, we get into
1:04.7	ADHD, inertia, smart scaffolding, and that tricky process of rediscovering your strengths
1:09.1	when your brain insists that you don't have any.
1:12.3	If you'd like to follow along on the show notes page,
1:14.1	you can find that at hacking your ADHD.com slash 215.
1:19.0	All right, keep on listening to find out how to stop using exhaustion as a warning light
1:23.2	and actually start making space for yourself.
1:34.1	All right.
1:36.1	Well, it's so much fun to get to talk to you.
1:41.2	I was just wondering if we could start off with a little bit about what you do and a little bit about Shimmer and stuff.
1:42.5	Yeah, absolutely.
1:45.1	So I am the senior manager of coaching at Shimmer. So Schimmer is an ADHD management platform. So the bread and butter of what we do is
1:51.0	expert ADHD coaching, where you get to work one on one with an ADHD coach who helps you
1:56.2	achieve your goals, that better version that you'd like to achieve a partner with you each
	...

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