157. Building ADHD-Friendly Routines For Focus And Calm With Dr. Brittany Bell, MD

The biggest inhibitor of creativity for your team is going to be fear, and it's going to look so many different ways. But if we are not promoting a culture of psychological safety, then we cannot expect our teams to be able to be their most creative selves. Are you a woman in medicine, feeling overwhelmed and disconnected from the personal fulfillment that you desire? You're in the right place. Join doctors Joanne and Erin as they rewrite the rules for women in medicine. Let's begin.

In this episode, we are excited to welcome Dr. Brittany Bell. She is a physician, researcher, and creative leadership strategist who empowers women with ADHD in leadership to unlock their suppressed creativity as their most powerful competitive advantage. Her mantra, Creativity is the power to imagine a better future and the courage to make it a reality. Welcome to the show, Dr. Bell.

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate being here today. Yeah.

And it's. I'm so excited to get to learn more about you. And I'd like to start off with. You shared that you were diagnosed with adhd in your 30s while in academic medicine, and how did that discovery reshape the way you saw yourself both as a physician and as a leader?

Yeah, thank you for that question. So, as you can imagine, it was quite a long journey to get that diagnosis. And so it was bittersweet. I would say that there was. The bitter part was having a new diagnosis to learn to understand and be appropriately treated for and now learn to navigate. But the sweet part was actually just getting some clarity. I don't think it's any secret to people with ADHD that there's something different in what we're doing, but that different often manifests as some type of fear or some type of externalization of how we negatively view ourselves. And so as a physician, it was, I would say, more sweet than bitter because it really provided me an explanation for why I had the strengths that I had versus why I struggled with the things that I did. I would say I have a similar experience outside of my role as a physician as well, just with little things about, you know, how tasks don't. Task lists don't work for me that well, or understanding why I, you know, struggle to take my medication and just achieving that was actually very peaceful for me.

And I. We've talked before on this podcast that as I began coaching other women, I started realizing how much I think undiagnosed ADHD there are in women physicians. And I just watched a video the other day with Mel Robbins, and she shared this story where her own son was getting diagnosed. And then she's looking through the questionnaires and she's like, I have all these symptoms too. And they're like. She's like, do you think I have adhd? And like, absolutely, you're the most ADHD parent in our practice. And she's like, well, why didn't you tell me? I'm like, you're not our patient. And she was, I think, 47 when she was diagnosed. And I think that there are so many people even in medicine that have no idea because so many women, it looks so much different than us, in us, than it does for the male population.

And as a psychiatrist, of course, I see ADHD a lot in what I see, especially professional women. We know how to move forward, and if you're smart, just figure it out. And then like you said, thank you for saying it like that. Of the clarity of like, oh, this is why I. I'm different. This is why I struggle with this. And also, I love how you reframed it too. And these are my unique qualities. And this is how the fact that my brain works differently makes me unique and special. And all the things. And like, the topic that you're bringing up, also the creativity that I think sometimes medicine steals away from us as well. We talked about that in this podcast too, of the different, all the different ways that we can connect with creativity. And like you said, it's a superpower that we don't tap into. And how neat that you're saying, okay, I have this and thank you for getting help and then saying, how can I make it? How can I make it better? And also. Right. And again, it's something that I talk a lot about as a psychiatrist, and there's so many things in mental health that then it's like, hush, hush, don't say anything in this stigma. So thank you for also speaking up about it, because it's the more we know them and.

Right.

Like, we're not suffering in silence and we're getting the help that we need. So, so important.

Yeah, that's so true.

Yes. And talking about that, I wanted to ask you, so one of the things that you had shared with us is your belief that we women don't need to work harder, we just need systems. And I wanted to ask you, in, in your experience and what you've learned, what does a truly ADHD friendly system look like in this, like our world as physicians? It's a little bit harder and high pressure leadership roles.

Yeah, absolutely. I think. I don't like framing it as if we have to work harder. I think that places a lot of blame on the actions of the individual and the person who is being diagnosed. After a lifetime of placing pressure on yourself without diagnosis. So I like to reframe that. As we actually have all the skills and the intellectual capability to achieve the same goals, we may just need different help. And I, I like to say that, you know, it's okay to take a village. We always say, you know, it's okay, you know, it takes a village, it takes a village. But we often don't give ourselves permission to take that village. And our village often and quite frankly probably should include some systems. And so how I think that looks like specifically in a field like medicine and even specifically like academic medicine. I think the first thing that I would structure is leadership and how I would recommend structuring that or how I like to structure that is first with kindness. And so I think there needs to be some type of ritual before you are interacting with someone that you're leading. And I think a lot of that is because as a leader and as a woman leader, we step into roles and we hold this deep set of perfectionism and that can actually hold us back. And so I think some type of kindness, self kindness ritual, however that might look for you, is very important. The second system that I like to have important in place is our relationships. And so this is at our jobs, at our work. And so these are circle, our very close circle that knows our diagnosis and knows how to support us. So. So for instance, I really appreciate getting text messages from my mentees. I tell them all I am very sorry. I do try to stay on top of my emails. I am perfectly okay if you send me three text messages. It does not bother me. And so just being able to be frank and open in our relationships. And then the last thing is kind of how I see operationally. And earlier I discussed how task lists just don't work for me. So everyone was like, just write it down, put it on a list and you know, help you remember. And that just doesn't work for me because I don't look at the list. And then my partner would say to me, oh well, just set reminders. And I'm like, yes. But I then ignore the reminders. So I think having some type of operational system that allows you to continue to pay attention to is really helpful. So for instance, one thing that I like to do is the one touch rule. So if I touch something, that means I do not move on from that task until I have finished with that item or that task. Something as simple as, like, taking my medications so my pills go in my pocket. That means I won't take them. So I touch them and then I take them. Those are just simple ways, I think, that I like to have in place to help me get through the day.

That is so helpful. And what I hear is, figure out the system that works for you. Right. Because we are so. I don't know, like, it's like that doctor programming, and then it's like, here's the checklist, and here are the things that you're supposed to do, and here's. Here's your lane. You're a doctor. Go follow what everyone else does. And it might work for some people and not others. I. I can't live without a list. I have, like, I am so attached to my list. It's not always helpful because sometimes it gets me overwhelmed. Right. And then you're. You're saying, I don't, and that's perfect. And it's that awareness of, thank you for your idea. It doesn't work for me. And then also having the sense of responsibility and accountability to say, therefore, I need to figure out what something that works for me, what the books say don't apply to me. I need to figure it out. And getting out of that lone ranger mentality of, yes, of course, we need a tribe who said we have to do this all on our own, but somehow we have, like, that badge of honor of just work harder and, you know, you can do it better than anyone else. And it's even better if you don't need help. And it's not about the always, like, oh, like, narcissistic, arrogant, like, no one can do it like me. It's more of the. I don't. I can do it. Let me not bother anyone else. And then we. We miss out. And. And I love. I love what you said of. Have key people around you who know your strengths and know your needs and let's communicate them. Right. Like, yeah, of course. Let's get back to that. That's. That's really good. I had my. Actually, I. I had got a text just today from my secretary from my previous job, and she was so sweet. She said, I've missed you, particularly today because it's been a hard week, and I could always give you a hug when. When I didn't feel good. And we had that with each other. Right. I do miss her a lot. I know. So it made me think of that, too, of certain people I had that I could Just walk to down the hallway and be like, can we talk about shoes right now? Because I just had a very difficult patient. Anyways, thank you for, for sharing all that information. And, and I do love frameworks. We talk a lot about frameworks. So you, you gave us a really neat formula that can help so many of our listeners. Thank you.

And I just want to also say my appreciation for your willingness to talk about ADHD neurodivergency. It used to be in medicine not too many years ago, where nobody was talking about getting help, seeking help, you know, having a difference. It was just this facade, everything's okay, and just hiding it from people. And yet when we don't talk about it, then we're in isolation. And everybody else who might be struggling with ADHD or need some of the tools that you've created, then they're not going to hear about it. So I just want to share that appreciation and then also hear you talk about that, how ADHD can create more of an edge. So you say creativity is a leader's most powerful edge, especially for women with adhd. And what do traditional leadership cultures get wrong about creative minds?

Yeah, I think that traditionally we have morphed the definition of creativity to be almost synonymous with productivity. It becomes about what can we give, what can we make? And I think that completely detracts and almost devalues the process, especially the individual process that we bring to the table. I think creativity is such an advantage because it does allow you, as I said, as you said earlier, that it allows you to create a future, envision that future, and then it actually gives you the courage to go make it a reality. And I think having that kind of power means that no matter what comes along in life, you'll have the power to be able to pivot, to be able to seek the help that's needed, to be able to navigate through those and to still come out your most authentic and valuable self. I think as a leader, it's so important to embody creativity because it also embracing our own creativity. We then give our, the people we're leaving leading permission to use theirs as well. And when we're all maximizing the utilization of our creativity, we ultimately can create better workplaces, better, you know, cultural relations, and obviously a better world for ourselves and our patients. And so I guess the whole reason that I started leaning into the creative aspect of ADHD was after my diagnosis, just, I really wanted to understand my brain. I wanted an explanation for why I did some of the things. And I also didn't want to focus on my weaknesses. I know my weaknesses because we've become so familiar with them over years of not getting diagnosed. And so I wanted to know, okay, but what do I do well, and. And why do I do that well? And that led me to the ADHD inclination to dwell in divergent thinking and to an ideation, and that's kind of where that all evolved from. And I just felt very passionate about making sure others knew that you have a strength and not just live in a world of weaknesses.

Thank you for. For saying all of that. And you're right. We are so good at paying attention to what's missing and the lack and what's wrong, and we learn to pay attention to those things, and it's good to know where there's room for improvement. But we can't miss out on leveraging our strengths and then saying, I'm really good at this. What else can I do with this and do less with this other part or ask for help or delegate? So that's a message that we definitely need to hear more. Because again, I think it's the resilience. I always say there's the resiliency that can go against us because we know we can do so much, but then we're not always tapping into where our energy should go. So that's really good. And then talking about that, something else that. That comes to mind is because we are smart. And sometimes, again, our discretivity, the neurodivergence, using our brain in a different way, and even the sense of I need to make up for. For what's missing, we end up in that whirlwind of working, working, working, and we end up in burnout. And we don't always even realize it. Like, we're. It's like when it's. We feel it when it's like burning already. And how would you say then you. We can use all these skills in the creativity, actually the other side of the coin, to use it more for our healing.

Yeah, I love that you brought that up. That has been a really big part of my journey. And so early I, earlier I talked a little bit about rituals, and I have started building something called a creative ritual. I think the burnout and the perfectionism you're talking about can lead to a lot of masking, and you end up wearing that mask all day long. And sometimes there's different masks. Right? So sometimes we wear one as. As women in medicine or as minorities in medicine. And with adhd, you're just adding on layers so much so that your creativity kind of gets buried and you don't know how you forget how it feels to exercise that muscle, and it's atrophied. And I think having a ritual is an intentional practice that makes sure that I tap into that on a regular basis, and it moves me from a routine, which is just a set of things that happen, into something that's a very intentional practice. And so for specifically using it for healing, I realized that I do very well in multisensory experiences, and not in a distracting way, but in something that is engaging me intentionally on multiple levels. So, for instance, I have become very curious into how each of the senses work at each stage of the creative process for me. So one thing that I have done was ask myself how I'm feeling and if I am okay with feeling that way and what I need to move to make that bridge. So, for instance, you mentioned after having a really hard day with patients and needing to talk about shoes, I love that. For me, sometimes it's okay. I've had a really hard day. I'm overly stimulated, and I actually can't process anything. But if I see the color lavender or if I listen to binaural beats, or if I am smelling peppermint or cinnamon, those different multisensory experiences and being intentional about placing myself in that ritual have been very helpful for me. I think it's. It's interesting because there's so many layers to that, and I could talk about that forever. And I think it should be a very personalized ritual, but it gives you back some control to your external environment, which, for me, I think is very healing and allows me to reset my nervous system and give myself grace and slow my brain down enough to actually dissect what's happening in the moment rather than just. Rather than just blowing through it.

And what I heard, too, is that if you make it your own formula and your own rituals, once you've practiced it, especially. Especially if you're really intentional about what it's doing to your nervous system, it becomes an anchor, right? So I pronounce that word anchor. Then, like, maybe after a while, you don't have to think about it that much. You smell your peppermint, and then you're immediately relax, because we've practiced it. And that's one of the magical things about rituals that then it immediately puts us in that state that we need to be, that we want to be. And. Yes, thank you. Because, you know, like, when we're coaching, I come up with, like, all this. I call it my cheesy things. And I say, I know it's cheesy because we're this highly successful, intelligent, give me the 27 step formula. That's the harder the better. That's what I want. And I say let's take deep breaths and let's do something sensorial attached to it so that either one can take you to that place. And I always say it's cheesy, but it works. And this the accumulation of those small steps that we cannot take for granted that create big impact and. And it rew. You said it. It rewires our brain. That's how we get better and we get out of this tunnel vision that we sometimes are in. How cool. I love it. I could talk about this as well all day long. It's so good.

It's a very valuable tool.

We've talked so much about there being an absence of ritual in especially in medicine in our busy lives and this perfectionistic overcomplicating path that we often take in medicine. And you're just saying I can smell a scent, I can listen to a certain sound and get into a calm place. And so I love that it's not overcomplicated, something that anyone could try low cost. And what I also love is that it's choosing with intention a healthy self soothing. And we've talked on here, there are so many unhealthy self soothings, whether it's, you know, for some online shopping or whether it's, you know, watching Netflix, eating unhealthy foods, craving sugar, whatever those are. And so when we can substitute something that is so much more healthy, I say it's good for you in the moment now and it's good for future you. And when we rewire the brain and then that becomes our automatic go to instead of maybe what our old habits used to be self criticism or again an unhealthy habit. So I love the simplicity and beauty of creating your own personal ritual for healthy, for being healthy and healing. I would love to dig a little bit more into the leadership structures around neurodivergent brilliance. And rather than neurotypical expectations and wonder what would workplaces of the future look like if they were structured around neurodivergent brilliance.

Yeah, I obviously love this question as well. In my framework that I like to use one of the pillars or one of the subcategories of creative leaks as I like to cause call it is environment. And so I think obviously there's various levels to that environment. So that's our physical environment. I think our physical environment actually plays a huge role in how neurodivergent individuals function in the workplace. So most people will hone in on like, oh yes, you know, you need something where it's not a lot of distractions, which is true. But I also think distractions look different from different neurodivergent individuals. Some people cannot function in a coffee shop or in people walking by their office. And I actually do fantastic in coffee shops because I like a buzz around me and I can tune it out. And so I think the first thing that I would do would be to try to personalize spaces like physical spaces more and giving people more autonomy in creating those spaces. The next environment that I would work on would be the digital environment. And I could talk about optimizing the digital environment forever. But I think we live in a world where there's so many stimulatory, there's stimulation coming from all over. And when we are in high stakes environment such as medicine and we need to be able to not miss some of those stimulations and tune certain ones out. We really need to prioritize what we're stimulating people with as leaders. And so I think, you know, we have certain cultures where emails are viewed as text messages or I know some places will use slack or teams or things like that. And so I think it would be, as a leader, something that I would prioritize to allow people to set those boundaries. So whether that is a note on your office, office door in your physical environment, translating to something on your digital environment, something like this is my focus time. I will address any urgent needs after this focus time or minimizing emails that we send out, things like that I think are super helpful. And then the last environment I like to talk about is cultural. And so as a leader, I think something that the biggest inhibitor of creativity for your team is going to be fear. And it's going to look so many different ways. But if we are not promoting a culture of psychological safety, then we cannot expect our teams to be able to be their most creative selves and therefore our outcomes will not be what we want them to be. And so I think there are many ways in which we can provide psychologic safety. Whether it's encouraging team members to speak up, followed by actually not punishing them for any answer that comes to the table. Whether it is rearranging the conference room so that everyone can speak up. There's a beautiful story. I love that. I think he was in charge of Pixar and he talks about rearranging the physical space actually translated to rearranging culture and how just the length and the size and the shape of the table changed their meeting culture for the negative. And so I think little things like that have really big impact. And like you said, they're low cost, anyone can do them. And those would be the things that I would focus on to optimize in our work environments.

That resonates so true. I was speaking with a client earlier this week and their work environment is so interruptive, they can't find a calm space and everybody has shared offices. And I just think, you know, with teaching people productivity and every interruption puts you behind potentially almost half an hour. And yet the ability to share this isn't working for me. Or if the leader says, well this is working fine for me and not realizing it may be not working for anyone else, so critical. And then somebody's criticizing themselves, why can't I get my work done? Why can't I just. And it's like, well, because as you said, your unique needs for the environment may be very different from others. And can we be better about not making it all cookie cutter and same answer for everyone. Because there are big reasons that can affect productivity, which is so key these days in medicine. There's so much work to do in so little time.

This is such an important conversation because it's easy to externalize the problem and say it's the system, it's medicine, it's a change. And all the things, and we're not negating that there are things that might not be in our favor or that might go against us or that we just don't like. And what I'm hearing you say in such detail and with great examples is that there are things that we can do, there are things that we can control. We need that self awareness to know what we need, how we need to communicate it. And those shifts and how cool of a conversation, those shifts in the environment that can make a big difference. While we're working on the bigger, more systemic societal problems, these are the conversations that we need to have because we can't be in that learned helplessness and then be like, oh whatever, nothing's going to change. It is this types of accountability, like I, I, I say over and over of, of what we can do. So thank you for all that you've learned and that you're sharing. And we like to ask our guests, as you know our, the name of our podcast is Create Meaning in Medicine. Rewriting the Rules as Women physicians. And we love to hear how you Are rewriting the rules?

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. So there's three rules that I want to rewrite. The first rule is that everything is urgent. I think releasing ourselves from timelines, or at least questioning the urgency of timelines, really provides a new sense of freedom. I think more timelines are subjective than we realize, but because there's such external pressure, we often feel like we have to live on those timelines. The second rule that I want to rewrite is uniqueness being disguised as conformity. And I think that in medicine, we pride ourselves on inviting unique individuals. Right? That's how we make these advantage. But then we can't have environments that actually translate to little tiny boxes of conformity. And we have cookie cutter CVs that we want people to use for promotion criteria. And instead, we should really rewrite that rule and question whether or not it translates to the outcome that we have. The last rule that I take dear to heart is that you need to earn more. You need to be more. And I think in medicine specifically and in life actually, we often believe, like, we need one more degree or one more publication or I need to see one more patient and get one more rvu. And it can be quite exhausting and draining on our nervous system and our physical, emotional, and mental health, and it really devalues us. And so I want us to rewrite that rule and be able to authentically show up as our creative, confident selves, because our patients deserve that, our colleagues deserve that, and we deserve that as well.

So beautifully said. And I would love to hear. Is there one more piece of advice or piece of wisdom that you would like to share with our listener?

Yeah, I would say it's okay to pivot. I think it can be very scary to explore a new line of work or a new role, and sometimes that path that you're afraid to walk down actually is going to be the one that changes your life. And so I would say to whoever's listening, and you have an idea stuck in your head, stuck in your notes app, stuck with your partner to have the courage to pursue that. And I want every woman who has that to be able to make the impact that she wants to make in this world.

Brittany, you've been speaking to my heart with all of this. Like, I. I hope that so many women in medicine and other women professionals can get to listen to this podcast, because you've. You've shared a lot of what you're. You've experienced, and then also you're giving us permission to. To think about it. Differently and, and to seek out what, what we really need and to give kind of like some highlights of some of the things that, that you said. I love that formula you gave us of the self kindness ritual. Yes, let's listen to that. What's that self kindness ritual. I love that. And the relationships in the communication to really have the key people around us that can, we can talk to freely and then say, hey, I'm struggling with this or I need this. I'm the same way. Text me if it's important, text me. I don't mind it. I'm probably not going to read the email until maybe three weeks later or maybe I'll read it and then I'm going to forget to answer. So just text me. And getting the operational system that works for you, not the one that everyone else does. And what a beautiful conversation about creativity as an advantage. And again, I would love to hear all the examples and then making it also having that creative ritual and yes to all the things that we need to change in that programming, if not having that sense of urgency, it feels like such a foreign concept. Like I say that and I listen to you, I'm like, wait, what? No, a different timeline. Oh, yes, yes, that's the message. Thank you. And paying attention to are we saying one thing but still letting our brain work it that will not give us the outcome that, that we really want. And showing up as our creative confident self again. I, I, I don't want to repeat everything you said because I have for those looking, seeing us through YouTube, I have like this gigantic piece of paper with a lot of little notes all over the place. So I thank you so much. And Brittany, if our audience would like to get in contact with you or just hear more from you, where can they get to see you?

Absolutely. So I'm on LinkedIn as Brittany Bell, MD. You can also find me on Instagram @HerCreative Advantage. It's her creative advantage. And on either of those you'll be able to book a call to talk with me more, which I'd love to do.

So good. And we'll make sure that to put those links in our show notes for easy access to our listeners. And again, thank you. What an amazing conversation and I hope this was as helpful to our listeners and that they get to share. And with this, thank you and stay tuned because our next episode is coming right up.

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