Thanks, Mike. Hi, this is Fat. I am a software developer from platform team Hedgehog I'll do a little bit of demo of the working part of the matrix whatever we have worked so far. So I'll just share my screen Can everyone see my screen? Okay, it's presenting. Can everyone see? Yep. Awesome. Perfect. All right so first demo, I'll be showing you a little bit of some workflow of a teacher some of the somehow happens for your students stuff like that and also how A teacher goes through and creates and sets of their communication instance stuff like that So this is the first user. I'm gonna show you so this is Leah Baker who is actually a teacher So let's say Leah has a Has an existing course which is winter semester So I go into the course and I can see there is a there is a there is a communication instance already because I can see See the icon there. So I go to participants and I can see yes There should be two what one of one teacher and he says manager, but he's already a student So there were two students and one teacher. So if I go to Element chat and you can see I have the winter semester already created I will show you how it gets created. But yeah, you can see people are already chatting there But yeah, I can see some communication and maybe I don't like how Olivia talks and she's a little bit of sarcastic So I maybe to inactive her later They are before I do that if I quickly go to Olivia's profile. So she's a student And if I come to my co-sister, she already has a couple of courses, but I can go to winter semester She's a student here and then she clicks there She gets into the straightaway into the matrix again and she can see the course So she can see what what's happening inside his communication channels and stuff like that. So as a teacher as So I'm Leah. So as a teacher, I think okay I'm not gonna Continue, Olivia Olivia to continue with her sarcastic comments and stuff like that So I decide to maybe suspend her for now. So I do that and then in the background. I'm actually running the schedule task very quickly and If I go there, okay, my task is still running But yeah, you can see I have done this some of this before that.  So for example, I have I have all these courses here So for example, I have fall semester Which actually doesn't doesn't really have any communication partner, right? So if I come to edit this and I have you can see I have none so I have nothing selected So if I select matrix So the good thing is you can leave it empty and it will pick up the course name by default so if I if I can say that pause for Fall and maybe the room check topic something to explain here So if I click that and save changes, you will straight away see that your check room will be ready soon So things happen asynchronously. So when things are happening It will give you those kind of notification that okay Your chat room is ready or not ready and when the schedule task is finally finished running It will show you a message saying your chat room is ready. I'm sorry about that Am I still running maybe because I've created a lot of data But yeah, that's that's pretty much it and that's pretty much the workflow for teacher and students And of course admins will have pretty much the same thing for them They will be able to access the room and stuff like that as long as they're they're part of the course and stuff like that And also whatever you do inside for example, you disable and run a method and do anything action They're actually aligned with the communication API So if you disable something delete user disable course those kind of things actually triggers the API and removes user from the room And stuff like that That's pretty much it I believe does anyone have any questions Is it a pluggable system can there be integration with a different chat system instead of matrix? Yes, they can you can so it's a communication API. So it's a provider plug-in type so people can actually Create different types of plugins. So we build metrics as a part of our first part of our proof of Concept so you can actually build some something else if there's any comment So it's these are all plugins and this is the icon. So as you can see this blue icon from the course So for example, I am Olivia. So I'm in my course winter semester and this is my course here I just continue So I go to my courses. Oh, I just got an unenrolled. So yeah, so for example, if I come here and Let's say participants And I just re-enable Olivia very quickly And I see Olivia here So yeah, so I can see that I can see that icon and straight away I click that icon and I'll go here and I will see all the misages and stuff like that And also whatever actions to be done is pretty much aligned with metrics API. Anyways and Safa Chinese actually the admin user from matrix who which access token we're using and yes if admin user Is actually so whoever enrolled into the course should have access to that Should have access to the matrix and by default when we create a course it actually add so for example, if I'm an admin user I create a new course I Automatically gets get enrolled and I will be automatically added here So as I can see my she do does just finished running and I removed Olivia So there are two types. So I removed Olivia once and then I added him added half So all this actually finished happening and you can see all those notifications here So sorry, thank you. Sorry another question from workplace team perspective. How does it work? If a course in a forced separate group mode That doesn't create one group one chat for one group or does it? No, everybody together. No, they will put everybody together So at the moment the implementation is entirely course level. So you have enrollment in course You will get users in that match of communication room But the good news is we have built the API in a way that you can actually use in the group level And we had this kind of conversation inside our chat like hedgehog team chat that how we do this if it's in group level How we do this if it's an activity level and stuff like that Thank you. It's just in the workplace. We separate all tenants very strictly. So it's important for us Okay, thank you. No problem Did I miss any questions? Actually, I think I did Yes, yes, Martin, sorry, the question the other question. Sorry first I Think yes, Mari. Yes. Yes Anyone want to get into get into metrics. They will need to be enrolled So that's how it happens instance instance courses and instance when they install instance is added to matrix That's a room and whoever is actually enrolled or added or as a member of this instance inside model They're added to the matrix from matrix have limited information about what's happening inside model So it will just do whatever we tell them to do But yeah, if there is a requirement at some point to add admins that we can do that. It's 100% doable Can it be used for group chats? Also, as I said, yes. Yes, the API can be API is reusable Of course for this phase. Yes. Yeah, I think I answered questions there What happens if you add someone manually to the chat? Assume you still can on the matrix side, but I just ignored When Moodle comes and goes Yeah Sorry, it's a fat, but yeah, so matrix is still matrix Yep So if you want to manage your rooms and manage your room admins and do all your admin stuff in matrix It's still you still get all of that.  I want to ask is the The internal chat Coexists does it Yeah, so so the this functionality in the beginning is in parallel with everything that's in Moodle We haven't dropped everything else But if I was using this in practice, I would turn messaging off and more chat off for example, but you can this is also Because of mainly things like not having group support This is behind an experimental feature flag in 4.2 as well Which means we can land things quickly and test and get feedback and not bet the farm and turn it on for everybody Cool last question is um, can we have a prototype site for the company to play in? It's on my list. Okay. Thanks. I'm getting it to the top


Hello, Psych2Go viewers. I'm Michelle Rivas and I'm the host of Psychology Roundtable. Our guest for today's live stream is psychiatrist and social media personality, Dr. Sasha Hamdani. Dr. Sasha's inspirational and educational content on mental health has earned her thousands of followers and millions of views across social media accounts. It's an honor to have her here today. Welcome, Dr. Sasha. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. What an intro. Absolutely. You deserve it. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background? Yeah. So my name is Sasha Hamdani. I was born in California and I did my training right out of high school. I got into medical school and I landed in the Midwest. As I was going through medical school, I started to struggle with my own mental health in terms of ADHD and everything else that came with it, which kind of led me down the path of psychiatry. So I graduated from medical school, got into psychiatry residency and then really niched down and just subspecialized into ADHD as like a clinical interest.  And so I, you know, I got on to social media and started doing these small educational tidbits and some advocacy stuff online. And it's kind of grown and expanded since then across multiple platforms. And that led me to writing a book, Self-Care for People with ADHD, which was released through 7-8 Chuster in January and releasing an app, Focus Genie, which came out last week, came out last week. That's amazing. You can download in the Apple Store and the Google Store. Yeah. Amazing. Okay, we'll talk about that later. But so I just wanted to start out, I wanted you to define exactly what ADHD is because I feel like people are still confused about it sometimes. Like, they don't know exactly what it is and sometimes people misdiagnose. So just defining what ADHD is and how is someone diagnosed with it? Yeah, that's a good question. So ADHD is a clinical diagnosis. That's like the first and foremost thing to talk about because there are a lot of people that don't, that question the validity of that. But yes, it is. It's in the DSM. It's qualified by the CDC and NIH. And it is a diagnosable medical condition and it's a neurodevelopmental condition, which means a lot of the times it's passed down genetically from throughout your family. So you're born with it and it's categorized by three different things. And you don't necessarily have to have all three of them. It can be a different variation of all three, but it's inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsivity. So you have those three kind of main pillars that you're dealing with. And so ADHD is broken into also three big classes, which are kind of similar to that. Inattentive type, ADHD. So ADHD, inattentive type, which for a long time before the name change happened in the DSM-5, it was called ADD. So a lot of people worry, think about that distinction. So it's basically all ADHD now, but ADD is ADHD, inattentive type. And then there's ADHD hyperactive type. And then there's ADHD combined type, which is kind of a combination of the two. And sometimes people think it's all like just one thing, right? It's just ADHD. And so with that being said, what is ADHD paralysis and how does it interfere with a person's ability to complete tasks? Yeah, that's a really good question. And it's kind of, so ADHD paralysis isn't a, it's not in the DSM criteria, right? I'm saying DSM. I'm talking about that, the diagnostic criteria laid out in that statistical manual. So you can, so psychiatrist, a therapist and anybody else who's clinically diagnosing something uses that criteria to see if you meet it in order to give you that diagnosis. So ADHD process isn't in there. Basically what it is, is it's discussing when you have executive dysfunction. It's an inability to start to sustain, to complete tasks, because you are feeling tremendously anxious or stressed or fatigued. So it's a breakdown in goal directed activity. And people, why it's called paralysis is they literally feel stuck in that moment. Yeah, they feel like it's like a freeze. And so how is it different from procrastination though? Because some people would say, well, isn't it just the same as procrastinating? Yeah, I mean, that's a really good question too. Because I think procrastination, there is a component of it, a component, which can be volitional, right? Which can be like, I know this is coming up. I'm just going to ignore it. Like I'll deal with it later. And you turf that stuff and you push it off till later. And that can be due to difficulty with understanding time. It can be difficulty by being overwhelmed. It can be for a lot of different reasons, but you're conscious of that. I feel like ADHD paralysis or task paralysis or executive function breakdown, for the most part, I think can be invol- is involuntary. You get to the point where you are so oversaturated with stimuli, with being overwhelmed, with being tired, with being anxious, that your brain, literally those gears are not working. And you can't think about that next step because you're frozen. Yeah. And do you think that it kind of goes together with depression and anxiety sometimes, like comorbidly? I think it can. I know what's tricky about ADHD, like clinically, as a prescriber. And someone who diagnoses this. What's tricky about it is that a lot of the times when you have significant ADHD dysfunction, it impacts every facet of your life. So you look anxious, you look depressed, and it doesn't necessarily mean you have that underlying. It could be that that air of dysfunction is so much that it's causing symptoms that look like ADHD and depression. Although there is a high correlation, you know, a fourth of people with ADHD also have anxiety and almost as much have cross-correlation with depression. So it's just a very nuanced feel. There's a lot going on. Yeah. And like that paralysis, it can stop people from even like completing tasks like basic hygiene, right? Even things like that, like getting up and morning brushing their teeth. And so I think that sometimes it can go, you know, hand in hand with depression or exacerbate like depression and anxiety. Yeah. It's a vicious cycle. Yes. Yeah, for sure. And then in terms of like brain function, research shows that ADHD paralysis is caused by a dopamine imbalance in the brain. Could you explain how this works to our viewers? Okay, kind of. Would you disagree? Because I know it's a research and like, maybe you don't agree with it, but do you agree that it's a dopamine imbalance or? No. So here's why I'm hesitating. I think it's a complicated phenomenon because a lot of times people, when they're talking about this dopamine theory, there's a lot of things. It's easy to say, I don't have enough dopamine in my brain. And that's what's causing these problems. When really the truth is, it's not that you don't have enough dopamine. You might have perfect amounts of dopamine. It's just not in the right place or that it's being used up too quickly or that it's in, you know, it's being, you know, recirculated at a pace that's not appropriate for the situation. So that's why it becomes a little bit different. So when you're looking at dopamine dysregulation theories, there's a lot, we don't actually know exactly what it's from. We don't know if it's because it's excessive breakdown. We don't know if it's not being synthesized appropriately or enough quantity. We don't know if it's just being expressed in the wrong area. So it's really multifaceted. I think dopamine is a big major player in this. And I can tell that because when you're looking at it's, you know, ADC's inter-correlation with like reward pathways and how people like express that in their brain. There's a high crossover there. It also makes a lot of sense when you're thinking about certain medications that work and why they're so effective. They're being, they're partially active on that norepinephrine and dopamine pathway. So I think it is involved. I can't, I don't know exactly how it is involved. Do you feel like in the future it'd be good if they could like create technology that could actually show you exactly where these imbalances are? Oh my God. I mean, I dream about that. I'm like being 100% serious. That's where my dreams go. I actually recently interviewed someone a week ago. His name is Dr. Alexander Nikolesko. And he's actually creating research and developing tests on how to like measure anxiety and depression in blood. Like how, yeah. So I think that's amazing. Maybe ADHD is next. We'll see. But we're ready. Right. We're ready for it. But then sometimes people who experience ADHD paralysis, they'll just be labeled as lazy by others. How do we fight this problematic stigma? Because it is invalidating.  And, you know, that's not fair. So not fair. Because I feel like, um, I don't know, I'm probably biased in this, but as someone who has ADHD, man, I feel like I work hard all the time. Right. I don't feel lazy.  And so I think that it is a, like, I think if we could somehow de-stigmatize this enough so that people understand that it's, your brain is uniquely wired. So it's not necessarily that you are lazy. It's that you have dysregulation happening. So the way you attend to attention and emotion is different than what I think a neurotypical person deals with. So when you're expected to perform along the same metrics, it's easy to compare those two things, but they're totally different brains. And so it's, I think that as we're beginning to progress a little bit more and understand more and learn how to accommodate different forms of neurodivergence, I think people are more ready to have these conversations. But I think that that it's like this, this live stream, I think is fabulous because right, we're getting, we're getting eyes on things and we're learning and we're exposing and talking more about, about this as a phenomenon. So that more and more people recognize this as like, Hey, we should be talking about this. We should be, we should be opening up ways to accommodate and change our structure so that we can get the best possible work out of these people. Instead of just immediately labeling them as lazy. Absolutely. And how do you feel like the same people who make the argument about people with maybe ADHD being lazy or procrastinating, you know, procrastinating. They would say that a lot of people, or I guess they would have that same argument that they don't take accountability for their actions that they just want to blame the ADHD. And like, what do you have to say about that argument because I also feel like that's a validating. I would agree with you. Um, if there's a lot around that right because a lot of people they think that people are using ADHD as an excuse and I think it's really important to understand that it's not an excuse it's an explanation right. I'm trying to explain to you how my brain is working. And I'm, you know, for example, if we had something where I'll give you a random example I turn in something late right. And then I'm like, God, I'm sorry, I, I have ADHD it just, you know, maybe that's not like a solid explanation. But if I'm saying, I was trying to turn it in. And I, at the last second, the last like three minutes before it was due, I got distracted by something else and I was unable to pull my attention away, but I had this full intention of doing that and I have been ready this entire time. There's an explanation there like, okay, you got distracted and it's harder to turn your attention away from things that are highly stimulating. And so like, you know, it gives a little bit more grace and understanding because there's there is a lot to be said when you're just looking at people who are not ready to hear that right they're not ready to hear about ADHD because they think that this was a purposeful admission or that, you know, there was the intent of being late or that you didn't prioritize this task. When really you might have been prioritizing at the whole time and this like at the last second slip through your fingers. Yeah. And like, I mean, in a situation like that you can prove, well, I did the assignment, but and just because I feel like that's why teachers need to be more understanding of that. But that's why you're seeing in universities, they have like accommodations now for like mental health issues. So that's good. So I mean, I agree with that. But yeah, a lot of people would say like, oh, well, it's not holding people accountable. I guess there is a limit though, right? There is a limit to where someone can't just say, well, it's my ADHD there has to be a point where it's like, okay, well, I have to take responsibility for not doing something or completing a test. How do you feel about that? Of course. Yeah, I think I think that there is it's, I don't even think it's a fine line. I think what what needs to happen is that with ADHD, you need to understand, hey, here are my limitations. Here's what I'm not necessarily good at. And here's what I'm great at and learning how to balance those two things so that you can function in society is important. So if you're lucky enough to be in a situation where you're in it like someone is accommodating of of ADHD and of like these neurodivergent differences, utilize that and work with them to to build an architecture that you can thrive in while still being held accountable, like you got to do these things to progress in society and be right, but you want to have you want to have certain accommodations so that you're allowed to thrive, right? You can't get out of free card every time you have to you have to put in the work and find a way to thrive. Absolutely. And so for those suffering from ADHD paralysis, what coping strategies or treatment options do you recommend? I know it's different for every person, but like generally speaking. I, that's a really good question and I get it all the time. And I feel like my answer is different all the time but the one thing that's a stable is I think that the most important thing when you are trying to find ways to cope with that is to understand what your patterns are. And so if you understand your own behavior and if you're like, this is how much eating impacts me. This is how much drinking impacts me. This is how much sleeping impacts me. This is how much exercise impacts me. This is this is when I typically feel anxious is when I typically feel depressed that those data points are so helpful, especially for this ADHD paralysis, because then once you understand your patterns. Number one, you can hopefully avoid those periods of ADHD paralysis a little bit better because you're not getting so overwhelmed and sucked up in that moment. And then number two, you recognize your patterns enough to know how to climb out of it. And I think that's what's really important. So everybody has its slightly different answer. I'll tell you, in my case, I'm like, just a week ago. This is good timing. A week ago, I was in that spot where I was just absolutely overwhelmed with too many things. And I explained it like my brain is too full, like nothing is coming in, nothing is coming out, but I understand my expectations of what I'm supposed to do. I saw that video and it was so relatable and inspiring. Thank you. Thank you for that. You're welcome. But it was it was so it was like I really struggled whether or not to post that because I first of all, like, crying on the internet. I'm when your followers love you because you're honest and transparent. That's like what it is because, you know, I think that I just, I'm sorry to interject, but I think when people see you, they see this like accomplished psychiatrist as Dr. It's intimidating, right? And people can't always relate to that, but you're being human and people can relate to that and they love it. And that's why they follow you.   So yeah. Come on. But the video itself, I think it came from a place of just like, I mean, just getting smoked on every front. And so I just, I mean, really, Michelle, it took me three days to come out of that. Like three solid days where I was out and I felt like that was a time where I had all that pressure to do all these things. My app was launching. I had a lot of family stuff going on. Work was like a lot. I have a lot of patients in a small amount of time. And so it was so, it was so difficult for me in that three days to kind of figure out because I'm like, I need to be functional right now. And everybody was like, no, thank you. So I think it's just a matter of like when, when I got into that spot, I recognize like, okay, I know that my, my needs are this, and I don't have much to give. What, what do I need to prioritize? So this will be over in the fastest way possible. And what I needed to prioritize is I needed to get calories in. I needed to get adequate sleep. And I needed to like exercise off the table. No way. It's like, I know it's probably good for me, but that and my body was just like, I can't like, no, and then I needed to hydrate. I mean, I was like, I hadn't I was like running 1000 miles an hour. I had like, I didn't have a sip of water in like three days because I was just like all over the place. Oh my God, see self care is important.   And so, like, that's what I prioritize. And one of the things that's on that focus genie app, which literally was created because this is because I was in one of those holes at the time is they have a focus tracker where you can track like so much water. It drags this how much I ate this how much I slept this how impulsive I was this what my mood was. So you can like realize it. Yeah. Yeah. So I went back and I didn't. I didn't think about the water thing until I went back and I was looking and I they had like I attract my thing and I was like, I really haven't been drinking water. So it was nice to be able to go back and be like, okay, well, at least I can I can better identify my patterns this way. Absolutely. And I'm like, was it therapeutic to talk about it on camera, like a release? Yeah. I mean, to some degree, I think I think I was so there's some posts, there's some posts where I'm like really excited to see what people would say. And there's some posts where I'm like too fragile of a spot to like really pick up a process and I think I was in that spot where I'm like I can't even so like I filmed it. I made the decision to post it. I was like, I'll come back in an hour if I want to take it down. So I didn't really like think about it or look at it for actually and then I waited a little bit longer because I forgot about it. Yeah. Then later I saw those messages and they were so wonderful and supportive and kind. Yeah. But I don't know. No trolls. I mean, maybe one or two. I haven't seen it. Okay, no, I mean, that's good though, because there are a lot of internet trolls, I get why you'd be kind of hesitant, like, I don't know. Oh my God, my channel is so nice. Everybody on literally everybody on there. It's like a support group. They're so wonderful. Like I'm getting to the spot where I'm getting to recognize names on there. And it feels very, I don't know, very inclusive and great and sometimes like even when I need reminders of stuff, I'll go back through the comments section. I'm like, that's a good idea. What does that remind me of our audience here at Psych2Go? A supportive, amazing and lovely. Just a thank you to you guys. Yeah. So that brings me to our audience segment where we answer your viewer questions. I'm super excited about this. Are you ready, Sasha? Of course. Awesome. Before we get to that, I just wanted to say guys, we have our new book out at Bards and Nobles and Amazon, The Psychology of People by Thomas Tang. You guys can see it. You guys can get it now. It came out on the 19th. It's one of Amazon's top releases. Please support us. There's a link in the description. We also have our Bards and Nobles book and coffee event coming up. So just look out for that link in the description. So let's get started, Sasha. Dr. Sasha. I respond to anything. Awesome. So let's see. We have a lot of people in here. So let's see what they're saying. So let's see. Okay. Teresa asks, how do I tell my parents that I think I have ADHD? I'm 25 years old, but I'm afraid that they'll ostracize me for my mental health issues. Yeah. I mean, that's a good question. Thank you, Teresa. That's a really good question. And it's a tricky thing, whether it's ADHD or anything else, right? Anything else in that mental health sphere. It's always tricky to know the right way to disclose that. And a lot of the time, it really depends on who your family is and what your dynamics are and things like that. What I've found personally, and I mean, I think this is just from being both a provider and a patient, I've found that from a personal perspective, if I keep things as clinical as possible, it really takes away the emotional component of it, which I think people when they talk about mental health, it's hard to separate those two. But if you're saying things like, you know, I went through and I was talking to the therapist and I looked into, you know, and we were talking a lot about how difficult it was for me to focus and name certain things and the emotional side of things and you really get into like clinical data, maybe people would be more receptive to that and there'd be less of that air of judgment. You can also like have your parents go in with you to like a therapy or a diagnostic session and have the therapist do that for you, therapist or psychiatrist or somebody. Dr. Sasha, you mentioned that you have ADHD. How did your parents like embrace it? My story was weird. So I got diagnosed in fourth grade and it got picked up. It wasn't really talked about at the time, but it got picked up because I presented as really hyperactive. So I was like wreaking havoc in my classroom. And so like when they got, you know, when my teachers talked to them and they got kind of pushed along, pediatrician and things like that, at that point, they were like, okay, I get it. I see it. And so they, I started on medication, but we didn't really talk about it because it wasn't talked about a lot. And then I didn't, I was on medication and I didn't actually realize I had ADHD or that I was taking medication for ADHD specifically. I thought it was like just a vitamin that's going to help me until I got to med school. And then that's when we really had conversations about it. Wow. And how did, and they embraced it though or were they cut? They didn't know like, you know, what it was at first? I think they, I think they knew what it was. They just didn't know how to broach it with me being in fourth grade. And we've talked about it since then. And I think they would have done things differently now. But when, when I was in medical school and trying to figure it out, I think they handled it really well because they gave me a safe place to explore it on my own. Because initially I was like, there's no way. And I rebelled against the diagnosis that I fell behind in school and it was just really difficult for me. And then they were like, just come home and let's instead of focusing on school, just focus on ADHD, really get into it. And so we were going into the library. We were going and researching on our own. We were talking amongst each other and trying to make a game plan and understand the brain a little bit better. And that, that's safe. But that week long exploration into ADHD and having that safe place to answer questions and to explore this, I think was really wonderful. Absolutely. You know, sometimes people just need to be educated on these things. It's not that they're, you know, a lot of people sometimes they don't, they're not trying to be cruel or rude about mental health issues. They just don't know. And so it's good to educate people. That's what we're trying to do at Psych2Go. That's what Dr. Sasha's doing. And so next question is by Stile Fairy. Hopefully I'm not butchering your name. So Dr. Sasha, how does ADHD link to social anxiety in general? That's a good question. I think that like we talked about earlier in this live, some of it is that you get some anxiety from ADHD when ADHD isn't properly managed. And some of it is you can have anxiety as a completely separate problem. And, you know, anxiety can sometimes cause focus issues that look like ADHD. So it can be that this is anxiety with focus issues. It can be focus issues that cause anxiety or it could be a combination of both. Really, one of the biggest questions I asked patients when we're trying to figure that out is, do you feel like you're, we'll do it, we'll do it from the anxiety perspective. Do you feel like your anxiety is caused by your inability to focus? Or do you feel like your inability, do you feel like your anxiety is caused by, I have to do it the other way around because I'm talking about focus usually. So when I'm talking about ADHD and trying to figure out if it's from anxiety, is your lack of focus causing anxiety, or is your anxiety causing a lack of focus. So that way you can kind of figure out and if it's like, I don't know, man, it's entirely possible that it could be both. So it could be, yeah, it could be one or the other, but it's just crazy how like, sometimes people don't even realize they actually have anxiety and depression and ADHD and so they're not getting the help that they need sometimes. Totally. Yeah.  How do I deal with this? And how do I explain to him that I'm not doing it on purpose? Sounds kind of toxic, Selena. I don't like him. Here's the deal. I think that if we're being as judgment neutral, because like when that falls on my ears, I hate it. But I think if I'm being as neutral as possible, it really boils down to the fact of like ADHD is something that most of the time you're born with and like you work to cope with and handle on a regular basis. This is going to be an ongoing thing that you support and manage. And so with finding a partner or partners or finding people that you allow into your life, you want to find people that are going to support and cherish you throughout this process, because it's a long process of trying to figure out all those variables. So I think explaining it to him and explaining it clinically and how this isn't a failure. It's not a moral failure. It's not something that you're purposefully doing. This is just your brain works a little bit differently. That can go two ways. One, it could be like, totally understand where you're coming from. I can't believe I didn't think about it this way. How can I support you? Primo, that's a good response. If you get, I don't really believe that. I don't know if that's true. I think you're just lazy. Yeah, that's unsupportive. It's not that it's unsupportive.  If you're not getting like at least a listening ear or willing to kind of explore this together, that might not change. And I think that paying attention to language is important because using the words laziness, procrastination, it's not approaching the situation with empathy or compassion. And so if someone's just going to throw out like mean words, you know, then that's definitely not going to help the situation. So I'm sorry about that, Selena. Turn off. Come on, Selena. You're not a turn off. I'll introduce you to someone else. It'll be fine. Right. And then I love this next question because it kind of goes with the last one. Allison Romero asks how, or in what way can you support your partner who has ADHD? I love that. Thank you, Allison. Love that question. Hi. So number one is first understanding how your partner's brain works, asking questions coming from a neutral and non-judgmental place, like providing them a safe place that they can talk to you about it and you can work on solutions together. I mean, I will tell you from personal experience, this is what I think my partner does really well because I think he, I know he does not have ADHD. His brain works like just very analytically and like we just think completely differently. And there are things that I know probably just irritate him to no end in the way that my brain works and vice versa. But the way that we have managed or have figured out how to get past that is through communication. Like we have just kind of figured out how to communicate those things to each other lovingly without. I mean, it took us a second, but like without confrontation or without it being offensive to the other person. So once you kind of figure out how to talk to your partner and once you guys are both coming from a place where it's supportive and you're working to build together, I think that's really powerful and wonderful. And you know, opening that dialogue communication is everything, right? Totally. Yeah. And then let's see. Oh, and just so that you can clarify this again because you did mention this but some people maybe came to the live late lollipop the robot asked is ADHD paralysis a part or a part of ADHD or is it a different diagnosis. It's not actually part of the formal diagnostic criteria. So it's something that we kind of colloquially talk about and it's, it's, it's something that we just, it's like a conversational term for discussing executive dysfunction. Like, this is a problem. We need to address this a little bit more carefully because I feel very frozen and stuck. But that's what that ADHD paralysis side of things is, but it's not part of that diagnostic criteria.  So I think there's a lot of room for improvement. So maybe it will be, I don't know. They said that if you don't get, I've heard this before that if you don't get diagnosed as a child with ADHD that you can't get diagnosed as an adult is that true or how does it work. So no, that's not true. I mean, you can get diagnosed kind of at any time. But what I would say is that you would have had to show symptoms as a child. So even if you weren't dying because there are a lot of people that didn't have access to care or were running around untreated or their parents didn't want to go and get them evaluated. And they didn't carry that diagnosis, but they had symptoms. So I think it would have had to present before age 12, but you don't necessarily have had to have had a diagnosis. That's crazy. Yeah, no, that's insane. Because what's the difference between ADHD and ADD? So there is none. So ADHD is what they call all of it now. ADD is kind of an outdated term and it's more most akin to ADHD in a tentative type. Okay, that's that's interesting. I didn't even know that. Thank you for clarifying that. And then this last question, and I think it's just interesting because sometimes people don't know what the causes are behind ADHD. But Rachel Miranda asked, what is the root cause of ADHD? Obviously, there's not just one but No, there isn't just one. I mean, fundamentally, this is neurodevelopmental. It gets passed on through families. It's a genetic thing. There is a lot of other things that they're looking at like perimatal factors and and other things. Some people have seen an association with head trauma. But for the most part, that's one of the biggest components. There is some, you know, there's an entirely separate school of thought where they're looking at like trauma focus and how that's related to ADHD, but it's still theoretical and not proven. I mean, the trauma definitely doesn't help ADC. Does it cause ADHD? I think it's a separate thing. Thank you for that, Dr. Sasha. And that concludes our audience section. Thank you so much for that. Appreciate it. So now we're going to move over to the last segment of our interview. And I just wanted to talk about Focus Genie. Could you explain that to our viewers? It's an app that you can download on Apple, the Google Store available on iPhone, Android, correct? Yeah, perfect. And it gives people like the tools, people with ADHD the tools to sort of like understand their behavior and to also help them navigate what they're struggling with. It's so much better than that. It's so much better. So Focus Genie is something that I worked on. I've been working on it for about two and a half years. And it is basically the place to start. Like if you think you have ADHD or if you have a loved one with ADHD, because it's got two parts. It's got an educational side and it's got a functional productivity side. So the educational side is like these little, it's like social media swipers and it's broken down by like areas. So there's like relationship stuff. There's professional stuff. There's physical stuff. There's fundamentals and there are little tiny educational modules that you with key points and polls. And so it's engaging that you can learn from and every month or new ones being added. And then on the other side, there's productivity tools. So there's things that you can break down your tasks. There's to-do lists that you can break down by category.  All of that stuff gets tracked and it's visually kind of depicted into insight. So you see your patterns over time. You can body double with people if you feel like you need someone to help you. There's ADHD focused audio. There's a journaling section. So all of those things together working to kind of help support the person. And then on top of all of that, it's gamified. So it's engaging, you're earning coins, you're motivated to keep going. So I just felt like this was, I was trying to think about like what is something that I really would have used in medical school when I was struggling. And it to keep me on track to get me through schooling so I could understand my own brain from like a neutral spot because with the pandemic I understood how difficult care was to access. And with social media and things like that, I love it because I can give information, but it's so disorganized. It's hard to like give you like, you know, if someone wants to look for something, it's hard to find all of this information about that. It's just scattered and you're kind of at the will of the algorithm. But this is just nice that it's all in one spot. So it's like a go-to for, it's not just for ADHD, right, though, but like for anyone dealing with like mental health struggles. So it's the educational parts talk about ADHD pretty specifically, but I think the productivity tools can be used for anything. And as we're getting more and more feedback, we've had patients that are not even, they're not even formal patients, but we've had people that are suffering from anxiety and struggling from depression that have really benefited from all of it. So it was just a nice asset. So it's like a go-to kind of like a tool that you can use when you're struggling. I have it right here. This is what it looks like guys, if you can see it right here. It's available for download on like what you said on the Apple Store, in the Apple Store, Android, it's free, like you said, and it's super easy. Like it's free to download. It's free to download. There's a subscription, there's a three-day free trial. There's a subscription model after that, but it's at the, if you wanted to pay for per year, it's four bucks per month. And then by month, it's six bucks a month because I wanted to make it less than a cup of coffee per month. Well, try out that free trial. It's worth a try, right? Yeah, if you hate it, stop it. Okay, well, thank you so much for joining us today. Dr. Sasha, it was amazing and thank you for all you're doing, you know, expanding education around mental health. We really appreciate you and thank you to our amazing viewers for participating today. And remember to pick up our new book, Psychology of People on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles, link in the description. Have a great day guys. Bye.


We sit on mountains and mountains of information, but being able to take that, translate that, be able to federate it and condense that and then curate that so that we understand what's actually going on in our students' lives, in our institution's lives, in our department's lives, in our college, in our lives. We can understand and do more to be able to make life better and are learning more effective for our institutions and for our students. Technology is the great disruptor of professional domains. Think of medicine, think of healthcare, think of other sectors in society, in business transactions. Think of the last time you purchased a movie or purchased a refrigerator or an appliance, how that occurred, the intermediary has changed, the professorial role will have to change as well. I believe that you'll see specializations of professors that are more specialized in research, professors that are more specialized in teaching, and professors that are somewhere in between with roles that we don't understand in terms of social engagement, in terms of moving ideas along, in terms of engaging in service with the community. There is a lot of misplaced faith in technology to solve problems. First they think it's going to be panacea, that the technology is going to solve the problem. The technology is still just a tool. It's the human processes that surround it, the cultures, the adaptation, and the implementation of that that makes all the difference. There are hidden costs, there are maintenance costs, and there are humans that need to be using those tools. So don't think of the tool itself, a tool is just a hammer, right? Technology is just a hammer. You have to have someone that knows what they're doing with it, otherwise you're going to get a lot of bruised thumbs and bad craftsmanship.


Hey guys, welcome to another Monday with deco art We are here with part 3 and I think what's going to be the final part of the Van Gogh inspired by Van Gogh canvas That we've started on our canvas that was painted black Very originally did it evidently in 2011 All right, so we're gonna continue working on our painting This first coat has been dry for a couple of days. I've got a small Smallish filbert brush here. This is a number eight filbert by Simply Simmons I've got my inspiration photos here off to the side I've and I've got my deco art traditions paint right here, so I'm going to now refine my painting this layer is just all about refining my marks making and Firming up the shapes and colors and making sure I have the right things in the right places The first thing I'm going to do is set up my palette With all of my different colors. I'm going to start with the blues Y'all know I like blues. I've got a lot of blue So I've got aquamarine Ultramarine blue phthalo blue And Prussian blue. There'll be a list in the description below I've got some Peroni orange. That's that name. I still don't know it pronounced anyway. It's orange But the name in the description below. I have no idea how to say it. I've got medium red rose I've got Alizarin crimson I'm not putting a lot out because I don't think we need a lot out. I have sap green And again, you don't have to take notes the list of these should be in the description below blue green light yellow green light yellow oxide yellow It's like a yellow ochre color Hands a yellow and then in the center where I'm going to put my neutrals. I have raw umber and I have burnt umber Two different shades of brown One more grayer and one more red I have black and white No, white is the one I'm going to put the most out on because I think that for this painting we need that All right, so now I'm going to Compare what I've painted here with my inspiration photo And I'm going to start refining and touching up um my colors and firming up You know any marks Blending in some cases like right here blending my paint right on the canvas And you know I have Baby wipes they're close by And you're going to come You're going to work on this and you're going to come to a point where you're going to do something Like I just didn't put that on there and I'm looking at that thinking. Hmm. I don't like that The background is dry. So look It just comes right off That wasn't so crazy about that All right, so let's try that again Okay, everybody as I was saying as you're working on this second layer of paint If you end up doing something to your painting that you don't like make sure you have those baby wipes handy And you can just wipe it back Wipe it off Smudge it a bit Change it around Do what you need to The second layer is all about refining your marks and adjusting your colors if needed and Firming up the shapes in your painting Um at the same time don't be too precious about Some of your prior marks like those lines that I had there in the upper right You can always bring them back later Um if it means that I'm going to get a better series of marks in the background than what I had Then I'm okay with that And it turns out with the finished painting that that's exactly what happened. I really liked that You can see I'm blending some of the paint and the marks with my baby wipe Wiping some back moving it around.  I've used all of those things in my paintings to make marks in the paint on the canvas Whatever works for you to get the marks that you want Um that you're inspired to make By your inspiration photo that you're using And I like here where I decided that you know dawned on me You know, maybe I should add some of that white into the sky But you know, I don't know maybe use kind of a dry brush instead of one That's just completely loaded with white that turned out much better And I always focus on my backgrounds first instead of starting off with right away um Working with the focal points or the foreground Because that way if I get the background right then I can do whatever I need to with the other images on the painting And I don't have to worry about going back later and touching up the background And I hear with the tree and and all the suggestions of foliage. I'm just layering colors and marks, you know On top of each other. I'm using the same brush. I'm just I'm using a dabbing motion And there there I put the lines back and they're in a slightly different spot But I'm okay with that because I actually like where they ended up better than the first time I decided to do a voice over on this and speed the video up a bit. Otherwise it was a very long video over an hour and with lots of dead time because I kind of forgot the camera was on it at a few points and um Stopped talking because I was too busy into the painting and bringing the painting to life the way I wanted it to be I am using the inspiration photo for reference for colors where the colors were in the original I'm not sticking to it completely, but I'm using it for a suggestion of where they should be And where the light's coming from And overall I love the way the painting turned out. It's in my dining room. I've got to Make room for it. I think it hang it on the wall in there I used a lot of sap green In the painting and a couple of the blues And uh white of course This is that um Well, that's one of the greens, but then I've also I also used a lot of the deco art aquamarine Traditions artist acrylic and aquamarine in this painting. It's turning out to be one of my favorite colors of their paint in that line I yes, you saw me add some blue to the trees in the foliage because I'm realizing in the inspiration photo as I'm refining My colors and my marks and my shapes that there's some blue showing through the trees and the leaves and the bushes Some probably what was originally in the original photo probably blue sky, but Um or reflections, but I'm just moving around refining my shapes refining my colors that little tree right there What that I was just painting gives me fits And right up until the end I have trouble with that little tree You see me continually going back to it And this is the color that in the original video footage before I took the sound out. I kept calling it yellow ochre It's not yellow ochre It's yellow deep or it reminds me of um Nicolazo gold, but it's called yellow deep and the other one is I don't remember where the other one is But those are I love those two colors It's in the description below Now I'm working on the church Refining the shapes shapes and the Um suggestion of windows and different um suggestions of architecture in the in the In the church. I've switched to a small round brush From the small filbert brush And I'm not really cleaning my brush too much. I do have a rag that's slightly off camera that I'm Um continually wiping the brush off on and or rinsing it and wiping it off on and that's That's helping me, but I'm not really being super clean about the brush I don't mind the colors mixing on the painting or mixing on the brush It just adds in my mind more interest to the painting I have troubles with that little doorway. I kept I keep playing with a little doorway and right up until the end But overall I really like the way this uh Painting turned out. I really it turned out really great See right there. I keep playing with that just right up until the end. It wasn't quite right Then when it finally does come out right um it was like, ah, yeah, I got it So I want you guys to just keep playing and trying you can start out of course with something much simpler and um Less busy less complicated um But the point is don't be afraid to try and maybe you do your painting and it takes A lot more than just two layers of paint Uh to get the it to look the way you want. That's totally okay I've done paintings where I have six or more layers on them before I Get it to the point where I'm happy with it and I'm okay with stopping And the the nice thing about doing this kind of painting is that You know, this is inspired by an inspiration photo. That's completely wonky completely unrealistic With the suggestions of different shapes, but You know, there's no straight lines. There's absolutely no realism in this painting There's a suggestion of the environment without any realism and That takes off a lot of pressure. You're not you know painting an exact You know, perfect realistic landscape or cityscape or church scape in this case So, you know, I want you to experiment with that and be free about it and just give it a try The program I used to originally alter the photograph and Most of the photographs on my website is called auto painter hd Um, they do have a pc or desktop version called dynamic auto painter Um, although I do believe it's a little bit different Than the app and I have the app on both my smartphone and my ipad um, so wherever I'm at I take photos, um What, you know, if I'm in the car or whatever I can sit and alter some of my photos and then save them I do wish they had a version Of altering in the app that was one for Picasso because that would be totally cool Right there. I'm realizing there's a problem at the bottom of that tree at some point I put some more white underneath that tree because I realized that blue spot underneath this tree Is not quite right and that there should it should be more white because the church actually goes back behind the tree So you see me put some white in there towards the end And there I'm giving a suggestion of tree trunks I want you guys to just really Give it a try and be brave if you screw it up. That's what they make jessa for And you can just jesso over it and try again, but I encourage you not to do that and to Just keep adding more adding more layers of painted marks in it and just refining your shapes and your um Positioning of your marks until you get something that you really like right there You see me adding some white highlights in that i'm noticing are in the inspiration photo just a real big pop you of course could use Instead of white you could use lemon yellow or something bright that suggests sunlight I wanted to pull in some white from The building of the church into a couple other places on the painting So that that Color is in a few other places now. I'm just adding some brush stroke marks to the church Um similar to what I see in the inspiration photo. I'm not blending them I'm you know leaving them in straight marks and horizontal lines because it gives it interest in the suggestion of architecture without actually painting the Exact realistic, you know building and I just I love that. It's just great And I'm just I'm just using the white. There's other colors on there. They're wet They're blending a little bit with the white and creating a new color and I'm okay with that the blue which is My shadow color is showing through the white. I'm okay with that Now I've decided to work on the area in front of the church Which actually was a street with some bushes because remember when I said when I took this picture I literally had my phone hanging out the car window And it is st. Michael's catholic church in livermore, california in case I forgot to say because I don't remember That little spot gives me fits. I keep going back to it. Yep. See wiping it blending it adding colors to it I get it. I get it where I'm happy with it at the end, but it's All paintings have ugly duckling stages or points where you're not exactly sure Or All of it or part of it is headed in the right direction. Don't be afraid to just you know The beauty of acrylic paint is you just can keep painting over it You know, let it dry paint over it's more and add more marks to it The more you do that the more interesting it gets so Be brave and just give it a shot And there you see how I smudged that right hand spot there a little bit I love the way that looked I decided to leave it At least for the moment You know I make things a little bit too light and so then I bring in some dark and instead of putting in black I use some of my darkest blue There And then wiped it back a bit with a baby wipe and that gave me a really good effect I don't know what this was in the original photo down at the bottom I think it must have been bushes or grass or something But when I put it through the app it created these swirls of color green and yellow and white So I decided to replicate that in the painting because I thought that was interesting And again, I'm bringing in the pops of white which give the Photo some life and they gave the original photo that I altered some life also Now I'm just double checking it Don't forget to like share and subscribe and if you have any questions comments or concerns my Contact information is in the description below So don't be afraid to use it and You can comment on the video I do respond usually within a day or two to all my comments and questions and If you want to send me some happy mail or you've got a product you want me to try and to review you can Send it to me at my po box, which is also in the description below You see me here adding some of the lemony yellow To just it just helps you indicate sunlight and warmth Yeah, it just it really helps you Suggest sunlight. I'm adding it to Um all areas of the canvas where I think the sun would be shining And some cases I'm blending it a bit in some cases. I'm not And right there where I'm pointing that's the blue spot that I think needs to be white and I keep looking at it and thinking Yeah, that's not quite right But as soon as I carefully put some white in there and I don't Cover up all of the blue. I cover up some of it and I wipe it back And that's perfect and that Really solved the problem I had with this painting I knew there was a problem right there. I just wasn't sure what it was right away I lost my little red spot And then I bring in some more of that red into other parts of the painting like I did with the white At some point you need to put the photo aside and you need to Um work on what's right for the painting and not stop trying to match the photo um And that helps bring your painting to life and adding this red to my painting was one of those instances I hope you guys like this painting tutorial. And if you do, please let me know and we'll see if we can do some more of them Right there that little tree just gives me fits. I kept playing with the little tree. It was another like problem spot for me I think I should have left it well enough alone. I do get it to where I'm okay with it at the end But it was kind of an issue Stupid little tree So if you're interested in any of these products that we've used on this painting, please go to decoart.com their website is in the description below and um, you can Look there where to buy or they do have an online store. I really like their gesso. It's thicker like Um more like a gel um than the gessoes I usually use and I really like that about it and it covered actually really well especially the black So um, that would be one thing I'd suggest maybe you want to give you want to try But I do like their traditions paint also. I'm enjoying that and their media fluid acrylics So that's it right now. Don't forget to go out and have a great day Do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you later