Apr 13, 2020
On this episode, I interview Stacia Momburg - a transformational coach and writer. On the podcast, Stacia talks about her recent diagnosis of ADHD and how she works with the good and bad aspects of ADHD. We discuss her career and working from home with COVID 19 and ADHD.
To connect with Stacia, please follow her on LinkedIn (Stacia Momburg) and check out her coaching services with special rates for COVID19 at https://planetnd.market/
Go to our website www.forallabilities.com for information on our software that enables employers to support their employees with ADHD, Dyslexia, Learning Differences and Autism.
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Betsy
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Full Transcription from Otter.ai
Betsy Furler 0:17
Hi everybody. Thank you so much for tuning into the for all abilities the podcast today. Again we are talking to somebody who is going to talk about neuro diversity and our strengths and our differences and how we all have our brains are so important and valuable in this world and how we can use our unique brain to live our best life. So today I have Stacia Momburg as our special guest and she is going to correct me if I misspelled or mispronounced her name and tell us all about herself. So hi, how are you today?
Stacia Momburg 1:11
By my psychologist
Betsy Furler 1:15
start over because I missed a hole, though, too. Hi, how are you today? Okay.
Stacia Momburg 1:23
Hey, Betsy. Thank you.
Betsy Furler 1:25
Hi, how are you today?
Stacia Momburg 1:26
Hi, Betsy. Good to be here. Thank you for having me. My name is stasia mom Berg. I am a transformational coach, a communicator by trade, a writer, and a neurodiversity advocate. I was diagnosed with ADHD just last year by my psychologist during a very interesting conversation. And I live in California with my son, my dog, my two cats and a ball python named trouser
Unknown Speaker 2:00
Wow. See,
Betsy Furler 2:04
as we record this, we're in the middle of the Coronavirus COVID-19 crisis. So I guess we're you're probably sheltered more than sheltered in place more than we are. I'm in Houston, Texas, and we are currently able to move around the city but almost everything's closed and we're probably going to shelter in place soon. So, anyway, kind of a crazy time. But thank you so much for being willing to be on my podcast today.
Stacia Momburg 2:33
And I'm absolutely thrilled. Thank you.
Betsy Furler 2:35
Yeah, so I can't wait to hear more about what you what you're about your work. But first, tell us what you were like when you were a little
Stacia Momburg 2:42
girl. When I was a little girl, I had bouts of anxiety. I didn't know it at the time.
I remember being fearless doing a lot of things. I like to go fast on bicycles. And I like to jump bicycles off of curbs and ride big wheels down the street as fast as I could. And I think at that time not knowing that I had it anything for a dopamine uptake, if you will. So I was pretty fearless when it came to doing stuff. And in school. Up until about sixth grade, I was getting, you know, close to straight A's. I think for me, school was kind of a respite from my home life only because we had a lot of people in my house. My grandmother died when she was 50. And so my mom took on raising her two younger, much younger siblings, and they lived with us for quite some time. So school was a way to kind of be with friends. You know, being able to hyper focus on the subjects that I loved. I was thinking about this conversation this morning, having this conversation with you and I remember a project in third grade where we use sunflower seeds, Google eyes and a stick to make an owl on a board like glue and owl to a board and I swear to God, it was the best thing ever. Because I just got to sit there and meticulously glue sunflower seeds to a board to make owl feathers.
Unknown Speaker 4:09
Wow.
Stacia Momburg 4:10
Yeah. The fact that I have that memory, right. So up until about sixth grade. And then I think, you know, kids hormones start kicking in things change. There's a lot of social interaction that changes and we moved a couple of times in my preteens early teens. So I wasn't able to keep and make friends for a couple years. And I learned how to find very close friends that I could be with because it was easier. So I did that I'm an introvert as well. So it was just easier to have very close friends that I could have deep connections with as opposed to cords of friends. And in high school, I just stuck to myself and got C's and B's because nothing was interesting anymore. So I think that's kind of a reflection of what was going on. I had some stuff going on in my home life that was difficult, took attention away. So yeah, it was just a lot going on. But you know, learn how to survive, learned how to cope and found my own mechanisms to keep myself going, I guess.
Betsy Furler 5:17
What about after school? Did you go on to college? Or did you go into the workplace? What did you do after high school?
Stacia Momburg 5:24
After high school I floated around. My mom was pretty strict, in terms of like, having high expectations of what not to do socially. So straight out of high school, I went to a junior college that was near the coast, away from where I lived, and I partied and I found alcohol, which, for some of us, neuro divergence, it's a great self medicator. When that internal hyper activity gets going, it helps settle that down a bit. It's not the healthy way but I didn't know that at the time and I you know, I partied for a little bit and grew out of that I wasn't a huge party or after like 20 I think, you know, just a couple years. And when I went into the workforce was a tax preparer office manager bank teller, didn't know if I wanted to go to college finally decided to get into junior college and hit the ground running and it was in college that I was able to determine what I wanted to study. And so I got really good grades in college. I wound up studying history, I didn't focus on any specific time. I just loved learning about all the connections and I had some really great teachers moved to South Carolina to finish my undergrad finished that at 27. went back into the workforce. I've never used history and launched my career shortly after college.
Betsy Furler 6:51
It sounds like you're a person who does really well when you can hyper focus.
Stacia Momburg 6:56
I love hyper focus. It's my favorite
Betsy Furler 6:59
thing. That's your superpower.
Stacia Momburg 7:01
It is. It absolutely is. Yeah. I mean, when you're a history major and you're doing research, that's all you do. Right? Right. And when you're doing all of that research and you're hyper focused and interested in that subject, you're going to test well on that subject. I can't guarantee that I always tested well in other subjects that I did. You know, I did my best. So yeah, I was able to choose what was interesting, you know, Mm hmm.
Betsy Furler 7:23
Yeah. And the little the fact about the self medicating with alcohol is really interesting. And I think a common a common issue, especially for kids when they go off to college. And then and alcohol is so available, and I'm assuming it still is today. Like it was back when I was in college. Very available and very inexpensive. And at that time, where it's so you know, you're kind of trying to find yourself and trying to figure out how you can, you know, survive without your parents. I think that is something that that a lot of a lot of people kind of start leaning on instead of maybe, you know, regular medication or other coping strategies.
Stacia Momburg 8:11
Well, yeah, and when you're undiagnosed, and you're doing that, you're also dealing at that time. And I think, with ADHD as well, sometimes relationships can be like creating relationships can be awkward, because we don't have the same kind of Governor's on what's appropriate and what's not. And so, alcohol is kind of a social lubricant as well. And if someone else is drinking with you, a lot of excuse me, a lot of behaviors are more allowable. So it's a way to kind of inject yourself in a safe space, you know, in a safe way, you kind of learn that and you go, Okay, well, I'll just have a couple drinks and I'll relax and then they'll relax and it'll be fine. So you know, but then you learn other coping mechanisms as well. So
Betsy Furler 8:57
awesome. So when you so after you grow from college and you started working, what what was your career? What did you start doing?
Stacia Momburg 9:05
Like when I went when I finished college, I went back to the tax preparation person that I knew. And I was working briefly with her. And then I got a couple of other jobs, but I fell backwards kind of into a an associate member Association for cancer doctors. And I was hired as an office assistant. And my boss saw a lot of potential because one of the things we're really good at when we are able to hyper focus is when we're given a task, we complete the task immediately, very quickly, very efficiently. Yeah. And so she hired me on very, very quickly and I became a communications assistant. And I stayed with that organization for four years, and wound up doing some things really well. And they still use some of those things today, which I'm really proud of. But you know, at 20 Seven I was organizing newsrooms for 300 national and international reporters when in a time of fax machines and telephones, email was just coming online. So that was that was fun too. But I was also creating, you know, spreadsheets with how we were going to do press conferences based on when plenary sessions were and you know, all these cool things and pulling together an art installation as my final kind of farewell gift to them and they've done the art installation ever since. And now they make a calendar out of it every year and it was based on patient art. So it was I was able to learn and do a lot of things as this organization grew its membership. And then I got pregnant and I moved home to California, and wound up getting a job at the local university. I eventually became the crisis and issues manager for all crisis and issues on campus, again, able to hyper focus. You know, I think too with ADHD, our personalities are kind of unaffected by extremes. We're not really well for me anyways, my, my particular brain doesn't react one way or another to an extreme situation. It's like, Oh, it's an extreme situation, how do we fix it like problem solving? Right?
Betsy Furler 11:25
Right. Right.
Stacia Momburg 11:27
So I became the campus crisis and issues manager dealing with all manner of situations on campus suicides, births, students, birthing babies and bathrooms. People, you know, a place trying to kill each other with machetes. Yeah, it was it there were some wild times in their infrastructure failure, email threats, you name it, but it was it was like my thing. You know, it was my go to and, and I was good at it. And it wasn't. I always said it wasn't difficult for me. It was something I knew how to do. It was never Uh oh, that's such a big job. It's like No, not really. Right?
Betsy Furler 12:05
Did you have trouble getting? Or? And do you have trouble getting places on time and anything like that? Are you uh, are you a punctual person?
Stacia Momburg 12:14
You know, it's funny I, I laugh about this. My mom was diagnosed with ADHD when she was 71. And my mom is notorious for being late for everything like up to an hour and a half late. I was like crazy. And so it kind of it was always something that was hard for me to watch. So I try to be on time and for things that I deem I deem important. I like job interviews, or this podcast, for example, I'll be watching the clock and be early to something but if it's a mundane thing, like work, I'm usually you know, anywhere from three to 10 minutes late. Every day. I mean, every day, my boss like you have to show up on time and I'm like, yeah, I'm only three to 10 minutes late. It's hard to deal. I work through lunch, come on,
Betsy Furler 12:56
you know, so that's my idea on time. I'm I'm a, I'm a neuro typical person, like, like, pretty, like so much that sometimes it's a problem. But I'm a, like, get there by the skin of my teeth kind of on, you know, like it's, I mean, I consider anything between at the moment I'm supposed to be there. Seven minutes late to be on time.
Stacia Momburg 13:23
But same
Betsy Furler 13:26
but my husband has ADHD, and he is a 15 to 20 minutes early, or he's late, like he thinks he's late if he's not 15 to 20 minutes early, and I find it so interesting because a lot of especially employers will, one of the accommodations will always be something about getting to meetings on time and it's like, so many people with ADHD don't need that. Right. Like to stop wasting so much time being everyplace early. My theory about it. But I'm like, if I bet if I have to be at the airport for a flight? Yeah, not a gift. I mean, I want to be there a good at least hour and a half before the flight. Right? So it's a bit like super important to me, then I will like, be early, but it's really interesting to me. I love hearing different people because kind of one of my things is that everyone's brain works differently. And just because you have a diagnosis of ADHD doesn't mean you need the hundred and 50 accommodations that someone has deemed work for people with ADHD.
Stacia Momburg 14:35
It's, it's so funny because I it's so true. I just read a study that was published in 2017. About a group of doctors I believe it was out of Philadelphia. I just wrote about it in my blog on Planet neurodivergent. marketplace. It's where I have a regular blog posting once a month to talk about my diagnosis. But I just read this study. Where these doctors got together 117 people who were diagnosed with ADHD and they put them up against 134, neurotypical people, and one of the things they found, or they not that they found, but they verified is that every person with ADHD has a very different brain. So when you have a diagnosis, it's a myriad of symptoms that will present differently in each individual person, right. So, in this study as well, what they found based on some of the testing that they did, were potentially three new subgroups. And you can read more about it a little bit in my blog, but these subgroups just verified that there was even more difficulty understanding and learning about the ADHD diagnosis and they confirmed on MRI that no part of the brain lit up the same It all lit up differently. Yeah, it's fascinating. So is like I was just diagnosed last August and I've been having, I've been having difficulty getting a formal diagnosis. And then to learn that just a few years ago, we're still trying to figure out this diagnosis is just, it's fascinating to me. And it's like, this is why I want to advocate for not so much for accommodation, but just better understanding of different thinking, you know,
Betsy Furler 16:30
well, and I think it's even compounded for women, because men can frequently women with ADHD, dyslexia, autism, everything that's considered neuro diversity. And women tend to be able to socially kind of fit in a little bit better than men with the same condition, which is good in some ways, but then it really leads to a problem with diagnosis. Exactly. Oh, As girls and then also as adults, and I've seen that so many times, both in my career I was a I'm a speech pathologist by training, and so many times in my career and then as well, as I've started doing this podcast and everything else, I really see that as an issue and diagnosis.
Stacia Momburg 17:19
Now I hundred percent agree, I have to wonder, you know, as little girls, we're taught to be compliant and empathetic and you know, go with the flow and don't speak up. I mean, not recently, but certainly for my generation. I'm, you know, I'm in right at the tail. Yeah, Generation X. We're the product of the baby boomers. So we're very, you know, is very patriarchal society, and we're still very patriarchal, but we're trying to move into more equity right, slowly but surely. But I have to wonder if learning those social skills as a result, kind of, you know, as kids as girls with ADHD, you hyper focus and if you're empathic, On top of that, and you're taught to have empathy, you learn to read people to fit in. Yeah, I think without even knowing it, you know what I mean? Because I've always considered myself a chameleon. I can fit in with any group at any time. Because I read, I read the room, and I don't like the room, I have a drink, I stay an hour and I leave.
Betsy Furler 18:20
Well, and that's a good point that as because as girls as, especially as Gen X girls, I would say, I know, a lot of what made me a very successful child and college student, which was doing what other people wanted me to do. being pretty quiet for the most part, although I'm an extreme extrovert and always have been, but you know, well behaved. You know, I spoke when I was spoken to like all of those things like the dream, little girl, right? Yep. Yep. Well, then as a business owner, I've completely how too and as a really, as a software startup founder, it's even gone further. why I've really had to unlearn a lot of that. Mm hmm. That I was, you know, really good at doing as a child like it does. It hasn't necessarily served me as an adult as a leader. But it certainly made me a very easy child to have in a classroom. And, and I think girls with ADHD frequently can, like you were saying, can kind of start picking up all on all of that. And in you know, maybe not be disruptive, like the boys with ADHD are like swinging from the chandelier. There's obviously something different about they, how they interact. And so I think that I think it really is a diagnostic issue. So speaking of that, so how did you ended up pursuing a diagnosis
Stacia Momburg 19:58
and I was actually Okay, so it's a little bit I'm gonna go around my ass to get to my elbow, but there's a reason. So, I was laid off in 2016 when a donor for a grant program I was working for pulled three quarters of a million dollars. So the the institute couldn't afford to keep me anymore. And I searched hard for a job for six months, and I didn't land anything. I like I did not land anything. And so I had to go to work at a restaurant to keep my family afloat. And I was I did an eBay business which I started myself and I made pretty successful in order you know, I, I did well, well enough to have cash. Because I was able to hyper focus on it right and do it really well. And so I did that and I would look for jobs intermittently because I'd be so good. busy with my eBay business and then I'd be working at the restaurant, I was exhausted. And then I'd only have two days off a week and I was still working eBay. And so I finally got a job working as a secretary for our high school principal here where I live, and it was regular hours regular pay, you know, I had health insurance at the restaurant is actually better than the school but I have health insurance in retirement. And I started applying for jobs again. And so it was, you know, over the course of trying to figure out, like, how to keep the family afloat. I barely have enough money and applying for jobs that I was like, You know what, I am just so done, and I was at rock bottom. I was literally at rock bottom was like, This is ridiculous. I work at a place that I'm overqualified. I'm making no money. I barely have enough money to get by I just hit Like, I hit low. And I was so depressed for so long that I jumped back into therapy. And I went to my therapist who does acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which is Stephen Hayes's therapy, which I don't know if you're familiar, but it's about mindfulness and reframing how we look at ideas and thoughts as just ideas and thoughts. And kind of taking control of our mind that because our mind can be a really dangerous place if left, you know, unchecked, so to speak. It's it's a fabulous therapy. So I went back to see my therapist and I was talking with her and you know, crying and I'm a mess and she goes, Okay, everything's really painful right now as I'm I was also dealing with the loss of my son, which hasn't happened yet because he's getting ready to go off to college, but being at age, being an ADHD, I'm like, I'm gonna have empty nest right now a year and a half. gotta prepare for this shit. ever thinking? Yeah, way overthinking. So I'm like, Okay, let's rein this in. So she looks at me and she goes, Okay, then let's just pretend that we're pulling all of that out. And I'm like, okay, so visualize pulling it up, and we pull it out into the center of the room, right? we visualize this and she's like, what do you see them? Like, it's just this black wall of just disgusting, gross, slimy, gross mess. And she thought, okay, let's identify what it is. So we did the whole deal. And we identified what it was and what the feelings were. And she says, basically, with your son leaving, you've lost your purpose because you've been hyper focused on raising this great kid. So for 16 years, I've been a single mom his entire life. I've provided a home for him food for him, everything he's ever needed, driven him everywhere. He's on track to go to college. He's a great athlete, volleyball player. You know, we're, we've got it. We're on it like I'm doing driving the bus and dustless she paid to write. So she gets you're driving the bus down the road. And you're so focused on getting where you need to be. And you have all that old pain in various seats in the back of the bus. And every time one of them tries to pop up and remind you of the pain, you turn around like a mean Buster and go just sit down and shut up. And you keep driving, and she goes, but now there's nowhere left to drive to so you kind of pulled the bus over at the side of the road and you don't know what to do. And all the pains coming up and I'm like, I looked at her. I said Ramona, the bus is on its side, in a ditch full of muddy water. It's going nowhere. Uh huh. And she's like, yeah, pretty much and I'm like, okay, she goes, now how are you going to take that pain because we all carry pain with us and we'll carry it forever. We never get rid of pain. And that's really hard for a lot of people to accept. And but we have to carry it and we have to look at it in a very
very kind in mindful way. Like Yeah, that happened and it's kind of shaped who I am. But it doesn't necessarily have to be my story. And she was, well, how are you going to carry it? So I'm putting it in a backpack. I'm gonna carry it in my backpack. And I got a picture of Denzel Washington in the book of Eli with the machete in the back, and I'm like, that's me. I'm gonna walk my new road for purpose looking right with my machete in my backpack of pain. And I tell you what, for me, going through that kind of catharsis helped me focus on finding a new path. And so at the next
appointment I had with her.
I said, She goes, how's it going? I'm like, Oh, my God, it's great. I feel so much better the pains in that that's how we're moving along, trying to figure out what I want to do. And she saw Wow, that usually takes like three appointments, to work through stuff. And I'm like, Well, I got it. We're good. And she goes, Okay. And as she's talking to me about something I tuned out and attentive. And I'm looking at the corner of the room thinking to myself, how come I can't keep a damn relationship? And she goes, where'd you go? And I said, Well, I was just thinking, I was just thinking, and she was like, What are you thinking? I said, I was thinking about how, you know, I have friends and I lose them because they're not loyal. And I really need loyalty, and honesty, and some, you know, and I just go through friends, and I can't I only keep really good friends. And I've had friends for 20 years, but then I try and get in a relationship with a guy. And it doesn't last more than two years because I get bored. If they're not smart and constantly up on something and making me laughs I get bored. Tell me a little bit more about that. I'm like, well, for example, blah, blah, blah. And she goes, I think you have ADHD. I said one
Betsy Furler 26:47
idea before, like, that's what
Stacia Momburg 26:51
this was, I had no idea
Unknown Speaker 26:53
and dread
Stacia Momburg 26:54
zero because I'd coped my entire life and I've had, you know, a relatively successful career and have raised a great kid. And after a roof over my head, my house is clean. I don't know. Right? And she and I said, What do you mean? I, I don't have trouble focusing on everything. And she goes, No, no. That's not how it works. And she proceeded to explain some things to me. And I said, Okay, okay. And she goes, Alright, so here's, here's some things that people do. And she goes, you know, it's funny, I should have seen it. She does that every time I gave you a test to do, you would just go do it, and we would move through it. And she said, and that should have been an indication that you were just so good at it. Uh huh. I just thought we were doing a good job together. And I'm like, okay, hyper focus. Um, and so she said, I think you have that and we explored that for a few sessions and my world cracked wide open and I was thrilled like I called all my really good friends. I'm like, Oh my god, I have ADHD. That's the best thing I've ever heard. I totally understand you. How did that make you feel? Good or bad. It was so fantastic. It was great. I mean, I finally understood like, it came full circle like I finally got it. You know what I mean? Like my whole life became in focus for the first time whereas before it was more like a vignette, everything was kind of out of focus and fuzzy on the edges. Now, it was like a panoramic, clear picture of why I am the way I am and who I am. I understood that I'm actually much prettier than I ever thought I was. I'm way smarter than I ever gave myself credit for. I'm probably smarter than most people in the room. Most of the time. Meetings are an hour long meeting should take 10 minutes I was never wrong about right.
I mean, it's like good lord.
Betsy Furler 28:45
Like, wait, this is really boring.
Stacia Momburg 28:48
I don't even know how it took me this long to get to this conclusion. I said it 10 minutes ago, and you're just now saying, Oh, yeah, you might be like, come on.
Betsy Furler 28:58
Now that kind of like Understanding of yourself and how you process things can suddenly just hit you. I had something the other day where I was thinking I've been very happily married for 25 years. I have a wonderful husband. But I was thinking about the people that I dated prior to him. And I was thinking, yeah, they Yeah, I started thinking through all of them. I was like, how they really had a problem with commitment. Yeah, this one really had a problem with a commit with commitment. This one didn't. I was like, wait a minute. There's, there's one commonality and all this and it's not
Unknown Speaker 29:32
them.
Betsy Furler 29:37
Like, you know, I guess I just wasn't ready for a serious relationship.
Unknown Speaker 29:41
Yeah,
Betsy Furler 29:43
yeah. But it is weird how that things like that can just hit you where all of a sudden, like parts of your life just are crystal clear. And you understand how you how you work in a certain way, and how freeing that can be and how, you know what actually What I've discovered from the people I've interviewed for the podcast is that when this happens and you're finally diagnosed or your diagnosis is accepted by either yourself or other people or a combination of that, then all of a sudden, it's not. It's more of a superpower and less of a burden.
Stacia Momburg 30:19
It's it's so true. It's so true. Like, I, when I figured this out, and as I've been, as I started on this journey, and this journey is evolving, I, I have wanted to do nothing, nothing but advocate for the neurodiverse because being, you know, hemmed in by a neurotypical world and have been myself having managed neurodiverse people and understanding how insanely smart they are, even though they're kind of weird, like and I say that because I'm weird to like pee. I'm a lot for people and I get that like, I'm a lot. I used to say I'm an acquired Before I knew HD, like I'm gonna acquire data, but the things that people with autism, ADHD, OCD, even Tourette's, like I have a friend with Tourette's, brilliant people, like brilliant, like the ideas that come from them and their way of finding end arounds or efficiencies and the creativity, the creativity is through the roof like crazy and not just like creativity pen to paper or, you know, art create, like, we talked about creativity when I want to talk about art creativity, when talk about creative ways of fine solving, problem solving, right?
Betsy Furler 31:41
Yes.
Stacia Momburg 31:42
Yeah, like so crazy good. And so all I want to do now is advocate for, you know, finding neurodiversity for your workplace because you need that diversity to kind of have a successful business and if you're able to lead neurodiverse people You are going to be so much more wildly successful than you ever imagined. Absolutely, in my opinion, because I've worked with them and I was just to give you an example. I worked for an athletics department at an NCAA Division One mid major college here where I live. I was one marketing communications person. I hired interns to help me with the job. Several of them were neurodiverse several of them were neuro typical. I was able to run a marketing department that post that did you know, 11,000 seat football game sold out, selling out all of our men's basketball games, you know, marketing all 21 sports, essentially plus fundraising, and doing all the communications and film for like all the communications for fell abroad. fundraising sorry. When I left, they replaced me with three people and they got rid of the internship program. Wow,
Betsy Furler 33:01
yeah, yeah, you can get a lot done.
Stacia Momburg 33:06
Well, I could get a lot done with the help and it didn't cost them as much, which was confounding to me. But you know, it's what they wanted to do. And so, you know, good on you go for it, get it. But that's the kind of stuff I want to help people understand is you don't have to accommodate us. You just have to let us tell you what we're really good at. And then give us everything we like we can do with those things we're good at and we're going to exceed any expectation you have. Don't be afraid of us.
Betsy Furler 33:36
Right. Right. And having people who think differently is so important.
Stacia Momburg 33:41
Oh my god. Yeah. It's what makes the world go round. Absolutely. So I
Betsy Furler 33:45
have a quick question for you about Coronavirus. And I want you to tell my listeners, kind of what you're doing now how they can get in touch with you and all of that. So, right. Correct. My question about Coronavirus is You know, we're all coping with being cooped up in our houses in different ways. So how do you think ADHD has affected your quarantine or shelter? I guess I think you're sheltering in place, right?
Stacia Momburg 34:13
I yeah, all of California has shelter in place. And all of our stores except for essentials are closed at this point. So I can tell you how with ADHD, I'm coping, but I have to tell you that I also have co more comorbidity so I have body focused repetitive behavior. So I have excoriation disorder. Okay. I also have, I'm also a massive introvert. And so, I also love extreme things, as I think I mentioned before, so being a huge person who loves extreme things. I've watched a lot of horror and survival movies. And I have to tell you, I'm dealing extraordinarily well with this because I feel like I've learned Paired my entire life for it. And
Betsy Furler 35:03
I know you don't get the energy from other people as much so I do not. It's probably not too bad for me it's, it's excruciating,
Stacia Momburg 35:13
I can imagine. Yeah, I can't even imagine what that's like I I feel like my life hasn't really changed because I'm an extreme introvert and I don't have a significant other. That's a whole nother podcast talking about ADHD and relationships. Which I would love to do. I'd love to talk to anybody about that. But you know, I hyper focused on getting survivalists things like batteries and baseball bats and sharpening knives and you know, getting gas in my car. But for my to kind of help with my internal hyperactivity, I've been doing a lot of cooking and baking, which are my favorite hobbies I found out because I just love to do it.
Betsy Furler 35:54
Yeah. And I have more time
Stacia Momburg 35:57
to do that. I have a ton of time I'm working from home. Which is great because I don't have to deal with all of the people at work. And so I'm just kind of managing it. And even though we're in shelter in place, we can go out and walk, you know, with social distancing, or we can hike or whatever. grocery stores are hard because some people don't understand the six foot rule, which can be annoying for me because it's like, I want to hit people that aren't smart.
Betsy Furler 36:22
I mean, you can't hit them because that's making you
Stacia Momburg 36:25
know that exactly. Maybe if I just wave a bat around, I don't. I I tend to be a little extreme in my ideologies. But yeah, I'm managing well enough. And my son is managing, he's doing homeschooling. Everything's online now. The dog is absolutely in absolute heaven. You know, she's just so happy. Yeah, yeah. So it's okay. I feel sorry for extroverts.
Betsy Furler 36:52
It's, I have been on so many zoom calls. I say. I say I'm talking on the phone like it's 1985 All my colleagues, all my girlfriends and just because I just need and I don't need just some people around me I need 150 people around me at all time. Yeah, yeah, it's it's been interesting but I'm, I'm also trying to get on exercising a lot and actually exercising much more than I know. And I'm really appreciating the fact that I have so much extra time because I'm not spending so much time driving around in traffic. You know, I had kind of underestimated how much time I was because my commute is not bad. But But then when you drive someplace, you know, when you're like, let's go out to dinner and it takes 2025 minutes to get there and 20 to 25 minutes to get back. That's almost an hour of time and now that we're not doing that, it's like, oh, I can watch movies. I've like I said these phone calls where I really miss being able to drag that phone with the cord. You know, yeah, yeah, it's those kind of it's those kind of phone calls where like we're looking through photos together.
Stacia Momburg 38:07
Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that.
Betsy Furler 38:10
That's been great but it I have had to like constantly thing but it's interesting to me how all our different brains work differently in this crisis too. And, and I and I am a prepare to like I'd like to plan and I like to know what I have yesterday I am completely reorganized all of our food and, and did a complete inventory. So I know exactly what we have.
Unknown Speaker 38:34
And I know my God,
Betsy Furler 38:36
I informed my children and my husband that we would now be having to track like what we consume because I'm not going to the grocery store every other day. We need to like be mindful. Exactly.
Stacia Momburg 38:49
Yeah. Make a list outside of the cabinets. When you use something. This is what we use every day,
Betsy Furler 38:56
like listed by what shelf it goes on and everything and you know That's how I cope with with
Stacia Momburg 39:02
crisis. That's fantastic. I actually cope. I've been going out probably once a day to the stores just because it feels like The Twilight Zone to me and being an introvert is it's heaven. Shopping is heavy. Yeah, and I in you know, we don't have to worry about supply chain in the US. I mean, we're going to have access to food, we're going to have electricity, we're going to have gas, I mean, all of our essentials are going to be in place. We just have to manage the social distancing. You know, and people freak out, and that's okay. I mean, and that's one thing I am available to talk to people about their anxiety, and any ADHD stuff that comes up or triggers I have. I want to put this out here for you guys. I do have a certificate in as a neuro linguistic practitioner. And I've done years of work with acceptance and Commitment Therapy. So I'm really good at kind of bringing people into the presence and kind of Facing what's going on my son had generalized anxiety disorder. He was diagnosed when he was nine. And I had to go through practicing that training of helping him with that anxiety and now he doesn't suffer from it as a result of this work.
Betsy Furler 40:16
If people are interested in getting in touch with you either to work with you or to follow you online, Mm hmm. I do that.
Stacia Momburg 40:24
So I am my main platform that I love is Instagram and you can follow me at PlayStation PL a y sta CIA. It's my own personal Instagram but I post stuff about ADHD I post stuff about mindfulness. I post horrible memes. It's a place to kind of go and let your freak flag fly if you will. And then my website to work with me formally is Coach stasia calm and for the month of May And while we're doing pandemic for anybody who's interested, I will do a 30 to 60 minute session for free. Oh, wow, that's
Betsy Furler 41:09
Yes.
Stacia Momburg 41:10
Yeah. Just I mean, of course, I have to limit it to one and then I'm considering doing. There's some discounted hourly stuff on planet, Andy dot market, which is where I do hourly coaching at 125 an hour or hourly help. Which is, yeah, it's, it's deeply discounted. It's also on my website, you can click through on my website, but it's deeply discounted for neuro divergence, because my fees are pretty high for coaching. Because you know, I need to make a living.
Betsy Furler 41:46
We all do as well. Yeah. And our families are not nonprofit.
Stacia Momburg 41:52
That's right. And you can also you can always find me on LinkedIn at Stacia Momburg. I'm on there. I think that's how you and I Sound each other?
Betsy Furler 42:01
Yes. And I will put all of that in the show notes. Great. So it has been a pleasure having you on the podcast today. Thank you so much. And oh my gosh, it's been so fun. Betsy, thank you for having me now, and I think my audience is going to really benefit from this. So thank you for being willing to be on and being so open. I truly appreciate it. And to my audience, please subscribe to my podcast rate, my podcast, review the podcast on whatever podcast platform you're on. And you can always contact me on LinkedIn at Betsy Furler. And if you want to find out more about my software and my company, it's for all abilities calm. So thank you so much for tuning in today. I will talk to you all soon.