Stop the Panic: Regulating Your ADHD Brain with Jenna Free
Release Date: 05/04/2026
Research Recap with Skye: Sleep Problems
Hacking Your ADHD
Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Waterson for our research recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper, dive into what the paper says, how it was conducted, and try and find any practical takeaways. In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called "Prevalence, Patterns, and Predictors of Sleep Problems and Daytime Sleepiness in Young Adolescents with ADHD." And so this is a study...
info_outline
Stop the Panic: Regulating Your ADHD Brain with Jenna Free
Hacking Your ADHD
Hey Team! Today I’m talking with Jenna Free, a Master’s-level Canadian Certified Counselor and ADHD coach, who focuses on polyvagal theory, which is to say, she helps people understand their nervous system. She works specifically with neurodivergent adults to move them out of the "fight, flight, or freeze" responses that make ADHD symptoms feel ten times heavier than they need to be. In our conversation, we’re moving past the usual "tips and tricks" to look at the biological hardware of the ADHD brain and, more specifically, on nervous system regulation. We discuss the mechanics of...
info_outline
Process Over Results: Hacking Your Consistency
Hacking Your ADHD
Hey Team! I've been thinking a lot about the idea that thinking about planning isn't the same thing as planning. When we're just thinking about planning, sure, we're imagining the steps, the obstacles, the finished results, but we often get stuck in the execution gap, where we think we know exactly what we need to do, but can't actually find a way of getting ourselves to do it. We often view planning as this rigid, formal structure, a grand design that has to be perfect or it’s not worth doing. But really, planning is just a gift for our future selves. It’s about making decisions now so...
info_outline
Optimizing Your Sleep System with Derek Hales
Hacking Your ADHD
Hey Team! So we’ve got a bit of a different kind of episode today. I am talking with Derek Hales, the founder and editor-in-chief of NapLab, a mattress review website. While that might not scream ADHD, I was interested in having this conversation because so many of us with ADHD have issues around sleep. And what really impressed me with Naplab is how they’ve really focused on turning mattress testing into actual science, moving away from just "it-feels-soft vibes" and towards using thermal cameras, accelerometers, and other gadgets to really see what's going on with each of these...
info_outline
Research Recap with Skye: Procrastination
Hacking Your ADHD
Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I’m your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I’m joined by Skye Waterson for our Research Recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper and dive into what it says, how it was conducted, and try to find any practical takeaways that we can give you. In this episode, we’re going to be discussing a paper called "Brain potentials reveal reduced attention and error processing during a monetary go/no-go task in...
info_outline
The High Cost of White-Knuckling ADHD with Katy Weber
Hacking Your ADHD
Today I’m talking with Katy Weber, a certified ADHD coach and the creator of the top-rated Women & ADHD podcast. After a career in journalism and wellness, Katy was diagnosed with ADHD at 45. Following that diagnosis, she has built a platform helping neurodivergent women move past the shame of late diagnosis and into a place of radical self-acceptance. In our conversation, we talk about the systemic stressors that often trigger a late-life ADHD "breaking point," particularly for women navigating career, parenting, and hormonal shifts. We get into the mechanics of masking, why we often...
info_outline
Midnight Motivation
Hacking Your ADHD
It’s 11:20 right now and I’m eating a brownie, but tomorrow, no more sweets - it’s zero sugar for me. And exercise, all of it. Every day. And cleaning? My house is going to be spotless. Email? Say hello to inbox zero. And no more TV or video games, only highly enriching activities for me from now on. All I have to do is follow the plan. What is the plan? That’s not important right now. I’ll figure that out tomorrow. For now, I’m going to bask in the glory of what is to come. All right, let’s get back to reality - although I really did write this at 11:20… and while those may...
info_outline
Reclaiming Your Capacity with Meredith Carder
Hacking Your ADHD
Hey Team! Today I’m talking with Meredith Carder, author of It All Makes Sense Now. Meredith is an ADHD coach and the creator behind the popular Instagram account @hummingbird_adhd, where she focuses on neuro-affirming strategies for adults. With a background in psychology and an MBA, she brings a unique perspective on how we can bridge the gap between our high-level professional goals and the executive dysfunction that often gets in the way. I got to meet Meredith at the 2025 ADHD Conference in Kansas City and then got to hang out with her again recently at NeuroDiversion in Austin. She’s...
info_outline
Research Recap with Skye: Time Perception Deficits
Hacking Your ADHD
Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Waterson for our research recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper, dive into what it says and how it was conducted, and try to find any practical takeaways. In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called "Time Perception in Adults: Findings from a Decade Review." In this paper, they analyzed a decade of research—from 2012 to...
info_outline
The Unwritten Rules of Neurodivergent Friendship with Caroline Maguire
Hacking Your ADHD
Hey Team! We’ve all had those moments where we walk away from a conversation and immediately spiral into a "self-regulation hangover," wondering if we said too much or if we were just being "tolerated" rather than included. Feeling like maybe this whole friendship thing maybe just isn’t for us. This week, I’m talking with Caroline Maguire, a veteran social skills coach and the founder of the Social Excellence training program. She holds a Master's in Social Emotional Learning and is one of the few experts who approaches social skills as a "muscle" that can be built, rather than an innate...
info_outlineHey Team!
Today I’m talking with Jenna Free, a Master’s-level Canadian Certified Counselor and ADHD coach, who focuses on polyvagal theory, which is to say, she helps people understand their nervous system. She works specifically with neurodivergent adults to move them out of the "fight, flight, or freeze" responses that make ADHD symptoms feel ten times heavier than they need to be.
In our conversation, we’re moving past the usual "tips and tricks" to look at the biological hardware of the ADHD brain and, more specifically, on nervous system regulation. We discuss the mechanics of dysregulation, why we often use anxiety as a secondary motor, and how to identify when our bodies have been stuck in survival mode for so long that we’ve forgotten what "calm" actually feels like.
Be sure to check out Jenna’s book The Simple Guide to ADHD Regulation: The Secret to Finding Balance, Getting Things Done, and Enjoying Your Life
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/292
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD
This Episode's Top Tips
-
- It’s important to recognize that dysregulation is a physical state where blood flow moves from the brain to the limbs to prepare for danger. When we are in fight, flight, or freeze, our ADHD symptoms are amplified because our brain's higher-level processing is offline in favor of survival.
- While it is easy to rely on anxiety and panic to provide the "urgency" needed to start tasks, this can create a "frantic-crash cycle" where we use future resources to survive the present. When we focus on regulation, it can allow us to find a "sweet spot" of motivation that is sustainable rather than explosive.
- People-pleasing is often a survival strategy intended to keep others regulated so that we feel safe. By recognizing that our safety doesn't actually depend on everyone else liking us, it allows us to stop over-committing and resenting our schedules.