OLP 033: ADHD's Declassified Long Covid Survival Guide

In this episode of Or, Learn Parkour: Lex has another announcement, and Jordan went full science on us to discuss just a few of the common overlapping symptoms between ADHD and Long Covid. Tune in to hear about futon cinematography, sexually-charged weighted blankets, and Jordan's bird son!

Thanks for listening!

CW/TW: Mental health, ADHD, discussion and spoilers of the film Midsommar (including cults and human sacrifice), covid-19

Sources:

Post-Covid Conditions | CDC
Guidance on "Long COVID" as a Disability Under the ADA, Section  504, and Section 1557
What is COVID-19 brain fog- and how can you clear it? | Harvard Health Blog 

Credits:

Cover art by: Krizia Perito

Theme: There Is A Dark Place

Wholehearted Production Co.

Socials:

Twitter

Instagram

Ko-Fi

Mental Health Resources:

openpathcollective.org

thelovelandfoundation.org

opencounseling.com

Start your own podcast and help us keep making ours!
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!  

Users who sign up for a paid plan through this link receive an Amazon gift card with their signup, and Buzzsprout sends a little cash our way. Win win!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

There is a dark place, but I'm not going no, no, no, no. My way there is a dark place, but I'm not going. No, no, no. My way.

Speaker 2 0:28

Hi, I'm Jordan and I'm it. I'm Lex. And this is or learn parkour. This is a podcast about ADHD done by two people who definitely do have ADHD also. Uh, yeah, just real quick announce. Hopefully we can just, uh, ride on past a couple of months that I went by Sylvie. It just felt a little too fem for me. Fair enough. And so I'm just like, again, it's fine. Like we'll, you know, maybe I can reclaim the power from the, the stinky man, the stinky rich man rhymes with Smith. Okay. But, but holes those okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That one. Yeah. Um, so yeah, you know, if you call me Sylvie, that's fine too. I just didn't didn't quite fit. Right. So just gonna take it back to square one, thanks for sticking with us team. But this week, uh, well, well it's a it's you know? Okay. So here's the thing. It's March of 2022. So it has been almost two years to the day, uh, when they started talking about doing lockdowns in Chicago and you know, the pandemic is still going on. Uh, yeah. I've been seeing a lot of tweets lately of like two years ago today. I said, see you next week to my coworkers. And I sure didn't so whatever you're feeling about this time of year is valid, but yeah. We're uh, here we are. Here we are. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough cuz, so my birthday is March 19th, which is the day they decided to actually start lockdown in Chicago, go. So that's like on the one hand, yay. My birthday's coming up, but like, uh, man, we should have done a birthday episode for you. I feel like we did that last year. You got to pick the topic and I don't remember, I didn't remember that this year let's let's compare me to like a global pandemic, you know, I much prefer are you that's same, but like I'm just saying like, you know, I can share that's fair. Maybe there's a lot of important that's happened to people cuz of this. So that's fair. Maybe next episode. Yeah, sure. Anyways. Yeah. So on that note though, this week we are gonna be talking, uh, a little bit about how people have been seeing a lot of overlap in symptoms between ADHD and uh, long COVID. Yeah. Um, and so, and Jordo sounded like you kind of went bill ni and you're you got some, some science ready for us, like what's going provided

Speaker 3 3:01

Here. I sure do. I read amazing so many papers and I understood so few of them, but what I do understand is ADHD.

Speaker 2 3:11

Yeah.

Speaker 3 3:12

So when I was reading through some of these many of these very, very long, very science papers, there were a couple things that stood out to me. Like you started to say earlier, there are some symptoms that overlap. Uh, and before I get like deep into this, I do wanna just acknowledge that there are a lot of symptoms of long COVID that we're not gonna touch on today. But if we don't talk about them, there is probably already a community within the disability community. That's been talking about it and dealing with those symptoms for way longer than COVID has even been a thing. Uh, a lot of the, you know, physical things that people go through, a lot of the like ICU and like a medical trauma related things like to get of credit where credit is due. I just wanna acknowledge that like even from the start of COVID from dealing with masking, from dealing with not being able to be in public in the same way as we're used to, like the disabled community has been sharing their knowledge to the rest of us, uh, for this entire time. So I didn't wanna hop and be like, guys, did you notice that these are kind of similar cuz that conversation's already been happening,

Speaker 2 4:25

But yeah, no. I mean we're we never do. Like we're that's not our vibe. Yeah. At all. Our vibe is a little bit more of like a that's really interesting. How about we spin it in a way that it'll make sense to a five year old?

Speaker 3 4:40

Yeah. Yes.

Speaker 2 4:41

Because that's how I need it to be explained to me. Yeah.

Speaker 3 4:44

That's uh, what I wish I had trying to go through all

Speaker 2 4:46

These papers. Yeah. We're just a bunch of Dumbos. We're not professionals, we're not counselors. We're not therapists, you know, the, all those fun little caveats.

Speaker 3 4:54

Nope. Not a doctor. And even if I was, it wouldn't be a medical doctor.

Speaker 2 4:58

Yeah. And I mean like, so here's the thing. It is tough cuz like we're like, this is a relevant episode, it's a relevant topic. There are people who are dealing with these symptoms now. Right. And it's new because they didn't have to deal with it before the past two years. Yeah. But like it's kind of tough cuz we knew going into this. Right. We're like, we're gonna do an episode about long COVID ADHD. Like that's a bummer. Yeah. You know like, but it's at the same time, there are a lot of people who maybe are unused to the brain fog unused to the distractability unused to the complete inability to like focus on something for longer than two seconds.

Speaker 3 5:43

Yeah. And that's, I mean, one of the huge things that stood out to me between processing like my ADHD diagnosis and reading the stories of a lot of people who are dealing with long COVID and trying to figure out how to live their lives is how to navigate like the societal pressure that you should be getting more done than you're capable of. That was like a huge thing. And obviously, you know, we don't have one and done answers to that of like, we fixed it. Society's better now you have all of the comedy you need.

Speaker 2 6:18

Right.

Speaker 3 6:18

But I think of it this way, welcome to the club.

Speaker 2 6:22

Yeah, sure. You know, you're

Speaker 3 6:24

Um, not alone at the very least.

Speaker 2 6:27

Yeah. Got it. I feel like every time we try to say something like sincere in a way that's like, Hey, this isn't like we're we're goofing. But like we know this isn't a joke. Uh, but everything we say, I feel like sounds so insincere. It's so. And I feel so back and I'm like, we sound so like fake right now. I don't, at least I feel like we do. You know what I mean? I hope not. I mean like we're trying really hard not to, I just, I don't know. You know what I mean? Like it's tough. So I just like really wanna emphasize like we're trying team, but like also, you know, it's a fun, it's just, it's an interesting fun balance to a comedy talk podcast and also talk about COVID.

Speaker 3 7:04

Yeah. This is a, a topical serious thing, but there are plenty of sources in the world to be doom and gloom about it. So I don't wanna do that.

Speaker 2 7:16

No. Yeah, no, I I'm not saying well, I'm just, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I just want everyone to know, like we're not just like being blase about it. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

Speaker 3 7:25

That's a fair caveat. Yeah. Dealing with this is not fun and we're not trying to make light of it in a flippant way.

Speaker 2 7:31

Yeah.

Speaker 3 7:32

But hopefully it helps to know that like, like I said earlier, you're not alone. And if that helps or if trying to make a joke about it helps or you know, whatever you need to do to cope, that's not hurting other people. Like we're not gonna judge you for

Speaker 2 7:48

That. Yeah. For real. Are

Speaker 4 7:49

You hungry too? I'm really hungry.

Speaker 3 7:51

I'm thinking about that MC flurry.

Speaker 4 7:53

Nice. I'm thinking about pop hearts. Oh yeah. Do love pop

Speaker 3 7:57

Tarts. I mean like I'm good with my floor. That was me trying to be like, Hey Palm.

Speaker 2 8:01

No, no, no.

Speaker 4 8:02

You're good. You're welcome to, I uh, got two like specialty

Speaker 3 8:05

I noticed.

Speaker 4 8:07

So see how they taste.

Speaker 3 8:07

I'm very intrigued by the maple one

Speaker 2 8:09

Same, but I'm also really intrigued by the Boston cream donut. Yeah. Yeah. So

Speaker 3 8:13

Yeah. I'm curious how, cause I feel like the cream part is pretty easy to nail. I'm very about how donut it

Speaker 2 8:21

Is. I mean, it's probably not

Speaker 3 8:23

Gonna

Speaker 2 8:23

Be do cuz it's pop tart.

Speaker 3 8:25

I know, but I feel like there's like a dough flavor. Okay. That can be unique. I don't know. Okay. There's only one way to find out.

Speaker 2 8:34

Yeah. I mean, I guess like the thing about donuts right. Is they're usually fried. So like that's part of it I think. Yeah. Like that's part of what makes the donut flavor a donut.

Speaker 3 8:44

I don't know. We could deep fry one of them.

Speaker 2 8:46

Yeah. I'm just gonna like try it. Okay. Like a normal person. That's fair.

Speaker 3 8:51

It's also

Speaker 2 8:52

Fair. See what I think. Yeah. You know. Well, I know it's kind of like that. Like I don't pick favorite songs off of albums until I've listened to an album at least three times through all the way. Yeah. I say sounding really pretentious and weird. I don't know. My brother told me to do that and I thought it was good advice when I was in like fifth grade. And so started with Dave Matthew's bands, uh, standup in like what, 2005 and uh, never looked by. So, uh, so what are some of the similarities that people are seeing between ADHD and long COVID

Speaker 3 9:22

Yeah. Or episode

Speaker 2 9:24

Topic? Yeah, the sooner we do the episode, the

Speaker 3 9:27

Sooner we can go deep ice and pop tar,

Speaker 2 9:29

You can deep rice and pops if you want. I genuinely just want to eat a pop tart. No,

Speaker 3 9:33

That's fair. I'm also mad, hungry. So fair.

Speaker 2 9:37

I'll give

Speaker 3 9:37

Like the quick overview of what we're talking about when we say long COVID and caveat to that, it's only been around for two years. So even people who know what they're talking about still have a lot of questions. So just more now than ever, this is not a be all end, all source of all of the information

Speaker 2 9:59

Now more than ever. I feel like we say that every episode and we mean it every episode. Um, yeah. I'm I'm currently like gargoyle crouched on my chair, in the studio right now. I don't know why it just is. What's comfortable to me at this moment. Yeah. Um, I turn 20 in a week, so I'm just gonna kind of let myself do whatever I want at this point.

Speaker 3 10:20

Let yourself become a Garbo.

Speaker 2 10:22

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 10:24

I love that

Speaker 2 10:25

For you. Thank you. I love that for you. You have a Gargo as a roommate, you're like Quasimoto a hunchback of Notre Dame, but his roommates were Grego. Yeah. Yeah. Like at least in the Disney one. Yeah. Never read the book.

Speaker 3 10:37

No, maybe

Speaker 2 10:38

Neith. I think it's pretty up as an original story. I mean the

Speaker 3 10:41

Movie's pretty

Speaker 2 10:43

up

Speaker 3 10:43

And it's been ified.

Speaker 2 10:45

Yeah. No, I think that's the point. Cause isn't it the same person who wrote LA Victor,

Speaker 3 10:50

Hugo? I think so

Speaker 2 10:52

Dark. So, um, speaking of dark long. Yes. So

Speaker 3 11:01

Long COVID or there's a couple different names for it that are basically long COVID that's like long COVID syndrome or like post COVID se QA or long COVID, which is what most people call it is a name for a big constellation of things that have happened to people from the COVID 19 virus being in their body. It can be from severe cases where people are hospitalized and there are parts of long COVID that can be specifically related to being hospitalized or being in the ICU and the medical trauma from that. But you can also have long COVID symptoms after a mild or even asymptomatic case. And even those instances can attack the body in a range of ways. The research that I did had damage to the lungs, heart nervous system, kidneys, liver, other organs, as well as unresolved general pain or fatigue and mental health problems, including brain fog, depression, PTSD.

Speaker 2 12:14

So yeah, that's it. A lot of those don't have too much to do with ADHD. I will say

Speaker 3 12:21

No that's fair.

Speaker 2 12:22

Like the, to my knowledge having ADHD does not damage my lungs.

Speaker 3 12:27

No, probably not.

Speaker 2 12:29

I do other things that probably damage my lungs, but that's

Speaker 3 12:33

Those protects you from COVID remember.

Speaker 2 12:35

Oh yeah. But that protects me from COVID. Yeah. You right. You right. I'm just a, I'm just a sleazy dude with sleazy habits. What can I say anyways? So, but yeah. I mean let's maybe hone in on those like

Speaker 3 12:53

Relevant ones. Yeah, yeah. No that's fair.

Speaker 2 12:56

Like good to know and good to like point out again, like this is so much more than just like our brains. Yeah. This is, although I guess your brain is kind of like the whole thing, but you know what I mean? You know what I mean? I

Speaker 3 13:06

Don't, but

Speaker 2 13:07

It's like I saw our whole body. Yeah. Like COVID attacks the whole body. Yeah,

Speaker 3 13:12

It does. I still don't completely have my sense of smell back. Um, and that's incredibly mild in comparison to a lot of the rest of these. Um,

Speaker 2 13:21

Can you still not eat like eggs when they're like by themselves?

Speaker 3 13:24

I haven't tried. That's really fair. I did have an egg on a sandwich the other day and it was pretty good. Nice. But it had very flavorful sausage Patty and spicy jam. So I have not tried eating eggs by themselves recently,

Speaker 2 13:39

So sad. So sorry bro.

Speaker 3 13:40

Yeah, it really kind of knocks my breakfast game off it's

Speaker 2 13:44

Rocker. I like too bad though. Cause like you're still pretty good at making like some tight breakfasts. Thanks.

Speaker 3 13:49

It's just, it's hard to get protein in like eggs feels like the easiest way to do that.

Speaker 2 13:53

Hers. Welcome to some of my protein powder. If you wanna, I add that to a smoothie. It's just vanilla like vegetarian protein powder.

Speaker 3 13:59

Thanks bro. I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 14:00

Got you bro. Thanks bro. Yeah. Appreciate you bro. Gotta get those gains bro.

Speaker 3 14:04

Gotta get Yed bro. I can't have yolks. How else am I gonna

Speaker 2 14:07

Get Yed? Oh my God. Yeah, no, you gotta get Yed and I gotta get Yed so that we can be equally broke. I'm

Speaker 3 14:13

I should have seen that coming and I didn't,

Speaker 2 14:15

It was whole episode title and everything. I know

Speaker 3 14:18

Bri.

Speaker 2 14:19

Okay.

Speaker 3 14:20

Whos tone in. Oh yeah. So sorry I was reading.

Speaker 2 14:23

Yeah.

Speaker 3 14:24

I mean

Speaker 2 14:25

That that's part of a, I'm sorry. The look with ring. Absolutely. With ring it's okay. I get it though. I want those pop cards too.

Speaker 3 14:35

Yeah, no good. So, I mean like we've mentioned before, like in talking about some of the mental health symptoms of this, like depression and anxiety are long COVID symptoms. They're also not ADHD, but often comorbid. So that can be helpful experience. But the main one that I did want to hone in on is brain fog.

Speaker 2 14:58

Yeah. I am the, the light from the computer in this little closet. It's the only thing really lighting is up. And Jordan looked directly in my eyes as the light came up from the computer screen while they said at that. And I'm a fear. Good. Okay.

Speaker 3 15:13

Because brain fog is no joke.

Speaker 2 15:15

That's true. It

Speaker 3 15:16

Is also not really well defined according to the CDC, they just define it as difficulty thinking or concentrating.

Speaker 2 15:25

Sorry. Okay.

Speaker 3 15:27

No, that's that's kinda

Speaker 2 15:29

Open ended. Okay. Okay. Some people, what the? Yeah. Like, like historically laughing. Like what? Okay. Yeah. Sorry.

Speaker 3 15:39

Yeah, no that's fair. That's fair to laugh

Speaker 2 15:41

At. Okay. The

Speaker 3 15:43

CDCs kind of got his pants down a little bit in this. Yeah. Anyways, but that's to

Speaker 2 15:47

Be fair. I think this pandemic caught a lot of us with our pants down, but you know, major government organization built specifically for this, you know? Yeah. Interesting. So what were you say?

Speaker 3 15:59

That's a great question. Oh, I was just gonna say that like there are differing definitions of brain fog that tend to overlap. But for this purpose, we're gonna start with that to difficulty thinking or concentrating. Some people define it as cognitive dysfunction, which might sound similar to our dear friend who is a frequent guest on this podcast. Executive dysfunction.

Speaker 2 16:26

Oh I was like who, what?

Speaker 3 16:30

Our friend Cogi dysfunction.

Speaker 2 16:32

Well, I was good. I was like, who's been on the show more than once. Like I was just like writing my, I was like, what? But yeah. Executive dysfunction. Yeah. That. We

Speaker 3 16:45

Know I will. Yeah. I mean cognitive dysfunction is just kind of a wider area of dysfunction within the brain. I, but it includes executive dysfunction cuz your executive function is a certain set of

Speaker 2 16:59

Yeah.

Speaker 3 16:59

Abilities.

Speaker 2 17:01

Also Your brain. Yeah. It's like if there's a circle that is cognition, then executive function is a smaller circle within that. Yeah. I think is a good way to picture that

Speaker 3 17:14

It's like cognitive function is a square and executive function is a rectangle.

Speaker 2 17:19

No, no. It's the other way around

Speaker 3 17:21

Cognitive functions. A rectangle

Speaker 2 17:23

And executive dysfunction would be the square cuz all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Yes. Thank you.

Speaker 3 17:29

Thanks bro.

Speaker 2 17:29

I got you. So

Speaker 3 17:30

We know about cognitive dysfunction. Well, if that bit do didn't prove it to

Speaker 2 17:35

You. It's fine.

Speaker 3 17:37

It's

Speaker 2 17:37

Friday. It's Friday. It's Friday and it's March of 2022. So excuse us for being a little. Yeah, just a little

Speaker 3 17:49

Oh sleep problems is another overlap. A lot of people have reported sleep problems with their post COVID experiences. Sleep problems are also a biggie for the ADHD years out there I guess, because we don't really know what's causing sleep problems so far.

Speaker 2 18:07

Yeah.

Speaker 3 18:08

In on COVID it's hard to say if they're related, but there are, there's some overlap in the general practice of like making yourself comfortable and like not trying too hard to make yourself go to sleep and then you just get frustrated and it's even harder to sleep kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 18:24

Yeah. No, I, I think the, the main point here with all of this right, is like, like the reason we're doing this episode at all is because if you are, if you are a loved one, if you are, I know, sorry I started talking and then it just sort of like latent like sleeper cell activated. And I have to start saying it, but if you are somebody who is struggling with long, COVID the reason we're talking it here is because people with ADHD are dealing with this. Yeah. Of the daily.

Speaker 3 18:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:57

So

Speaker 3 18:57

You don't have to start from scratch here. Yeah. You can copy off our homework.

Speaker 2 19:02

Exactly.

Speaker 3 19:03

Got you bro. I'm not a snitch.

Speaker 2 19:04

No, that is the number one American rule bro. Snitches get stitch is

Speaker 3 19:11

Not a narc. No Nom. So yeah. Basically the plan today was that we were just gonna share our advice and the advice that we have accumulated from people who are much smarter than we are, uh, about. Yeah,

Speaker 2 19:24

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 19:25

About the parts of the long COVID ADHD, then diagram that overlap. So hit me sleep problems. We'll start there. How about that? Yeah. Do you have any advice?

Speaker 2 19:38

Oh, you're asking. Okay. Sorry. No, you're good. I thought you had a list. I didn't come prepared for this. Okay.

Speaker 3 19:44

No, no, no. I mean like I have some to share. I just didn't wanna be like, I'm gonna talk this entire episode Interrupting

Speaker 2 19:52

A lot. Nah, you go. I, I mean, so here's the thing. I keep grandma hours. And during the week I go to bed at like 10:30 PM and I get up at like 7:30 AM depending on when my cat root beer decides to scream at me in the morning and my problem isn't necessarily falling asleep. My problem is that I will often wake up in the middle of the night, uh, super restless full of like antsy energy and like I'm unable to fall asleep at that point. So what I usually do is I try to take like a warm, not too Hawks. I don't wanna dry out my skin, but like a nice warm shower. And I, I will put on like maybe a face mask or I'll like light a candle. That's like got a soothing scent. Like I know that sounds really stereotypical, but like I will genuinely try to help my body and brain, uh, recognize those cues that it's time to relax and get ready for sleep again. Yeah. You know?

Speaker 3 20:51

Yeah. That totally makes sense. It's classic for a reason.

Speaker 2 20:54

Yeah. So that would be my Nuer UNOS like a nice warm shower.

Speaker 3 20:59

Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:59

Just like, I mean, even though it's like, even though we're mammals, like we still have some of that like latent biology of like border hot water, like just feeling water on your face can actually calm your brain down a little. So, so that, that is genuinely, I think my biggest tip for sleep problems cuz that's what I deal with most these days. And that's how I deal with it.

Speaker 3 21:23

Yeah. That's super helpful. And given that it seems like there's a, a wide range of sleep problems with long COVID. Whether it's having trouble falling asleep, having trouble, staying asleep, having trouble waking up that covers a lot of bases. I know for me, what I normally struggle with is I'm just like such a night owl. It is astounding if I'm in bed both 4, 11 30.

Speaker 2 21:48

Yeah. That's fair.

Speaker 3 21:50

So true. Yeah.

Speaker 2 21:54

It's like now that you have like a job where you don't have to be up at like 5:00 AM anyways. Yeah.

Speaker 3 22:00

I'm really becoming my true self. But so the things that I have experienced dealing with are getting myself to down at night and waking up in the morning cuz I don't wanna, I know for me like part of why it's hard to go to sleep at night is just like, it's difficult for me to shut my brain off and say, we're done. We're done for the day. And I think that with some of the anxiety and trauma that can come with long, COVID it. And especially if you were not functioning at the level that you're used to and you have all of these tasks left in your head at the end of the day, going like, I should have done this. I should have done that. Why did this happen? Like whatever it is that you're thinking about. If you have a hard time getting your brain to shut off, the best thing that I have found is even if it seems like you've got so much better stuff to do, like unless somebody is dying, it almost always pays off to just set aside like 10 minutes, 15, maybe half an hour. If you can, to like, I call them thinking naps. I know I've talked about this on the show before, but just like lay down and let all of those thoughts just like run rampant, just get'em out so that they're not running. And you're at the end of the day, it's like reverse meditation.

Speaker 2 23:12

Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:12

So that's a big one for me and just hacking the system and planning stuff in the morning that you have to get up for. Yeah. Big fan of that one. Yeah. That's gonna get me outta bed quicker than any alarm or reward system or punishment is just like, you have to be somewhere and will I still be there slightly late? Yes. But that will still be up way earlier than I would without anything else to do. Yeah. We'll also extol the virtues of the weighted blankie.

Speaker 2 23:39

Oh I can't believe I forgot to say anything. I'm glad you're saying something now.

Speaker 3 23:43

Yeah, I got you. Oh, weighted blankie, waited. Blanky waited blanky. This is not a sponsored episode. There are no weighted blanket manufacturers paying us to say this. We just love our weighted blanks. Put a

Speaker 2 23:55

Few. Yeah, it could be. Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:57

You,

Speaker 2 23:57

If you're feeling Franky, If you're feeling freaky, weighted blanket companies,

Speaker 3 24:02

If you wanna get jiggy with it, weighted blanket, get going.

Speaker 2 24:05

If you wanna weigh me down. Weighted blinking companies. Uh, yeah. Weighted blinkies those, those are great. They just help you relax. Yeah. Similar to the like tapping into our basic biology as people. There's like a reason that it's pretty common to swaddle babies when they're, you know, crying a lot, cuz it will help too comfort and calm them down.

Speaker 3 24:29

Have you seen those like adult SWER, stretchy blanket things.

Speaker 2 24:33

Yeah. How do feel about that? Intrigued? I'm intrigued by them. I fear feeling a little foolish. You know, I fear feeling a little bit like Houdini or some like trying to get out. Yeah. And I will say when I've woken up in the middle of the night or in the morning and I'm like tangled up in blankets. I do not care for that at all.

Speaker 3 24:52

Yeah. I,

Speaker 2 24:53

You know

Speaker 3 24:53

What I mean? That's where I'm a little hung up on those. I'm also like a big hell of blankets, but my feet are out person.

Speaker 2 25:00

Yeah. Or like my feet are like, I can have my feet tucked under like, or I tuck the under,

Speaker 3 25:06

Under feet. Feet.

Speaker 2 25:07

Yes. But like loosely so that there's some breathing room.

Speaker 3 25:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:11

Yeah. No, I mean I, yeah, it just depends on like how cold I am, where I'm at. Like cuz I will say, you know, I have memories of like spending the night at people's houses where you know, you're at sleepover and you're like the one kind of tucked against the wall or the couch. And I will say like there's something very comforting about sleeping with your back against something or like, you know, against your body is against something

Speaker 3 25:34

Like couch maps. I think that's really what makes'em sweet.

Speaker 2 25:37

Yeah. Like you feel very safe. I feel held.

Speaker 3 25:43

I was so sincere. I'm glad that yeah.

Speaker 2 25:48

Thank, thank you. I'm just thinking about mid Somar cuz of that like, does he make you feel held guy? Who's like a holding think he's technically a murderer, but probably actually you know, a

Speaker 3 26:00

Little bit murdery

Speaker 2 26:00

Yeah. Like, I mean he's definitely like in a murder cult.

Speaker 3 26:03

I have not seen mid summar. So I can't answer this question, but what do you think? Will it happen if that character was just replaced with like a

Speaker 2 26:11

Futon? I think a lot of the movie wouldn't happen. Okay. Cause he's like a villain. Mm. Like he's an antagonist. Like he causes a lot of stuff.

Speaker 3 26:19

I see. Is there a way for the futon to still cause those things,

Speaker 2 26:22

I guess

Speaker 3 26:23

By human rules or rubber, the movie about the tire rules, have you, you not seen that movie? No. Oh my God. It's incredible. Okay. It's like a windy horror film about a sentient tire that rolls around and makes people's heads explode with tire telepathy.

Speaker 2 26:44

Okay. Does it talk or anything? So that's a big thing, right? Like the plot of the movie is that there's a, uh, fellow anthropologist grad student with the boyfriend Christian, but a fellow grad student who is from Sweden. He's the one who grew up in this cult and is from the cult and like is from Sweden and whatever. And so he's the one who invites all of them to sacrifice them. Right. So like that

Speaker 3 27:13

Message. If the

Speaker 2 27:14

Fu

Speaker 3 27:14

Transfer through a couch.

Speaker 2 27:15

Well, I mean like if the futon could figure out a way to do it yeah. I'd be entertained. Yeah. I'd be interested to see what a futon could come up with. I personally, you know, trying to get into the mind of a futon is that's beyond my improv skills besides just like laying down and being quiet. Yeah. That's like right up my alley. Yeah. So sleep problems.

Speaker 3 27:37

Right. Don't think about anything we just said, cuz that will keep you up that night. It's

Speaker 2 27:42

Fine. Sorry if I spoiled anything for you, it's just a movie that's been out for a couple years now. So

Speaker 3 27:48

Yeah. We'll put mid summar and Midsummer spoilers. Yeah. In the trigger mornings. Cool.

Speaker 2 27:53

That's smart. Yeah. Thank you. It's like, someone's gonna be mad about it.

Speaker 3 27:57

Like whether or not you want to know what happens in this movie.

Speaker 2 28:00

Yeah. I mean, but I didn't say any of the gross stuff. No, that's fair. It's it is nice. There's no, there's

Speaker 3 28:05

No part about sacrificing people to a cold. Not how I do

Speaker 2 28:08

It. No. Yeah. But that's not like gross. I don't know. It's not graphic or anything. That's just life, uh, in the world.

Speaker 3 28:14

What? Sorry. What's just life in the world.

Speaker 2 28:16

Cults killing people like that happens. Like yeah. Not that often. Like not as often as media probably modern media would us all to believe, but it does happen

Speaker 3 28:28

Anyways. Uh, number two, depression,

Speaker 2 28:33

Depression,

Speaker 3 28:34

Depression, depression. That's our number one. Tip. Just say depression in a silly voice. Do it, do it right now. We're gonna give you a second. Do it. Yeah. Yeah. Depression,

Speaker 2 28:47

Prayerful

Speaker 3 28:48

Depression,

Speaker 2 28:50

Depression,

Speaker 3 28:51

Depression, depression.

Speaker 2 28:57

Yeah. Oh my gosh. That new album that I've been like vibing to. Yeah. Uh, the album kids by Noga are as like, is literally just been like in my speakers nonstop this week. It's just Bob after Bob after. But like one of the first tracks is like, I've been depressed and I was like, hi, that's yeah, food. I'm I'm classically vocally trained anyways. So depression. Yeah. How do we deal with depression?

Speaker 3 29:26

How do we deal with depression?

Speaker 2 29:27

Medication?

Speaker 3 29:29

Yeah. That's a good one.

Speaker 2 29:31

At least in this house. Yeah. That is pretty primary for me anyways.

Speaker 3 29:34

Yeah. No for sure. There are many tasks and things to try to help manage depression. I couldn't do any of those things if I did not have my friend Wellbutrin to help me every day.

Speaker 2 29:47

Yeah. If my sweet, sweet Zoloft didn't sing me awake every morning with a sweet little swallow, you know? I don't know bra. Yeah. I mean we do know there have been times where I have not been able to afford my, my meds in the past and stuff where like we all know it. Ain't

Speaker 3 30:03

Good. It's not a fun time.

Speaker 2 30:05

It's

Speaker 3 30:05

Bad. Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:06

So that would be one. Yeah. Get that arsenal of really cute animal videos. Find people you care about who you can be around. Yeah. Uh, or talk to

Speaker 3 30:18

That's like a number one, one it's like

Speaker 2 30:21

Loneliness and it's yeah.

Speaker 3 30:23

Yeah. You are not a burden. No matter what you're going through right now, there are, you know, not only friends and family, but like doctors to help you. And there are support systems, even if they're not always the most accessible, which is a whole other episode. But like, yeah, you're not alone in, this is not necessarily going to be the rest of your life. You know, there's still so much that we don't know. So yeah. I think that that one is sorry to jump in and just go hard on that one. But I think that that's really crucial is like yeah. A support system.

Speaker 2 30:56

Yeah. Okay. Here's the thing, you know, we like to goof, but when a serious we'll be serious. Yeah. And like court systems and community and taking care of yourself and each other, that's like, that's big for us. Yeah. In this

Speaker 3 31:09

House. Yeah. For

Speaker 2 31:11

Sure. How's next,

Speaker 3 31:12

Next is gonna be the big buoy that we talked about at the top of this and said that there's not a great definition of, so we'll find out what we're about to talk about brain fall.

Speaker 2 31:23

Yeah.

Speaker 3 31:24

Um,

Speaker 2 31:24

The good old head mist cranium drizzle.

Speaker 3 31:28

Oh that one's good. Yeah. The good old mental Marine layer.

Speaker 2 31:31

Skull swamp.

Speaker 3 31:32

Oh. You're killing these. Thank

Speaker 2 31:35

You. Nice bro. I'm really sorry that I'm making really direct eye contact with you. Like very intensely while I come up with these two, like it's just, I'm just focused. I'm sorry. I, I feel like I look like Jim Carey when I get focused, like my eyes just sort of bug out and I'm sorry

Speaker 3 31:48

If it makes you feel better. I have literally never once thought that you look like Jim Carey in any way. Well. I'm sorry. Did you want to

Speaker 2 31:56

Nah,

Speaker 3 31:56

Well, no, no shades a Jim Carey. That's not meant to be an insult, but like,

Speaker 2 32:01

No, we just don't look that's you know who I do you look like besides Lily from the princess diaries. I know, I know

Speaker 3 32:08

You say that other actress from like shred or whatever that show

Speaker 2 32:11

Was called. No, I feel like I look a little bit like Tony Hawk is my

Speaker 3 32:14

Dad. Oh my God. I see it.

Speaker 2 32:16

Yeah, I know. Right. You know, Tony Hawk kind of looks a little bit like my actual dad, so I part of it, but we must have similar jeans. I don't know.

Speaker 3 32:27

Just like that fly under the radar sort

Speaker 2 32:29

Of big nose, chill, heavy litted eyes. Like

Speaker 3 32:33

No one recognizes you in

Speaker 2 32:34

Public long-ish face, you know, I don't know, like sort of vaguely they're, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 3 32:41

I dunno. What were you talking

Speaker 2 32:42

About? Brain fog. Mm.

Speaker 3 32:44

I wish that was a

Speaker 2 32:45

Bit I, yeah, no, uh, that's tough cuz like, I mean, so brain fog, like to me, I feel like it just sounds to me like when my brain gets really fuzzy and like staticy and like everything just kind of like goes a little blank or soft or fuzzy where it's just like, I don't know what I'm doing or where I'm going. And it's not like to the extent of like, I don't know who I am. I don't know what X, Y, Z thing is for. Right. But it's like, I pick up my keys and I look down at the keys and I'm not like, I don't know what these are. I'm like, why did I get my keys? You know what I mean? Does that make

Speaker 3 33:22

Sense? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think a lot of the things that I have to share are kind of overlaps from specifically executive dysfunction, but Hey, if it helps your mileage may vary there. Did you have anything you wanted to share before I start reading off of a list?

Speaker 2 33:36

No, go for it. Okay. List

Speaker 3 33:38

Away. So a lot of these are a little bit capitalistic and I will acknowledge that because like, number one, if you can't do stuff like don't do it rest. If your brain is saying, don't do it, don't beat yourself up because you can't. But in terms of like living a life that does unfortunately demand a lot of you and tying into number two of your and others expectations of what you're capable of, whether those are realistic or not. Some of this is directly related to mitigating that, which is why they're a little capital D. Yeah, no, I just wanted to apologize for that.

Speaker 2 34:13

It it's the, it is interesting the way we focus so much on what people can do and what people can produce, you know, cuz like when you get down to the bare bones of it, there is nothing ethically or morally wrong with just having brain fog. Yeah. But the way society reacts would make you think otherwise.

Speaker 3 34:34

Yeah. And too, obviously this can't be completely extricated from that situation, but it can be frustrat and it's preventing you from doing things that you genuinely want to do. Yes. And care about.

Speaker 2 34:46

Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 3 34:46

And that's valid too. So yeah. Yeah. I mean one would be a lot of the things we touched on in our ADHD tax

Speaker 2 34:56

Episode,

Speaker 3 34:56

We shared some low and no cost options to invest in your life a little to make it easier. That whole concept of like buy the bagged broccoli it's okay. And good to not make yourself do tasks that you don't need to do. I can't think of a better way to say that for

Speaker 2 35:13

It's okay. To be efficient. And it's okay to plan ahead to the extent that like yeah. Maybe the freezer bag of broccoli, isn't as good as the like fresh head of broccoli that you could chop up fresh from the market, but it's still broccoli. It's still nourishment. And if that's easier for you to do, then that's what you should do. Yeah.

Speaker 3 35:32

The broccoli you're gonna eat is the best kind of broccoli hands

Speaker 2 35:36

Down. It's okay to take shortcuts. Yeah,

Speaker 3 35:38

Yeah,

Speaker 2 35:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3 35:39

Works smarter. Not harder. Right.

Speaker 2 35:41

Exactly. So

Speaker 3 35:42

Yeah, that general concept, as I said earlier, a one way to think about that has already been pioneered by the disability community who has been thinking about this and figuring this out for a very long time. Now's a great time to get familiar with spoon theory. Just a of thinking about how much energy and capability you have to do things. If you're not familiar with it before, it can be a really helpful way to be realistic with yourself about what you can do, which helps. Cuz I think it takes away a lot of the time of going like, can I do this? Can I not like thinking about how to do a task, Getting overwhelmed by

Speaker 2 36:18

It? Yeah. Well in spoon theory to clarify is the whole like, do you have enough spoons today to do X, Y, Z thing in case you don't know what spoon theory is? It is genuinely just a way to measure how much energy you have for tasks.

Speaker 3 36:33

Yes. We'll share some things that explain that a little bit better, but thank you for yeah.

Speaker 2 36:38

Touching.

Speaker 3 36:39

Yeah. Like thank you for explaining it at all. Cuz I didn't. Yeah. Yeah. The last thing that I had on the list is focusing on what you can do. And if you do like need to be productive for some reason when you're going through this, if there's a time when you have some more clarity, you can use that to like make a list of no brain tasks. Keep that handy, say, okay, I can't do this thing that I was gonna try and do because I've got all of this fog in my brain. Like you don't have to like sit down and feel defeated about it. If rest is on that list of things to do, that's incredibly valid. But I know for me it can be nice to kind of have a fallback. Like I know how to start this. It's not gonna take any brain power task to fall back on. Like for me, I feel like it makes my mental capacity worse to sit around and feel like I can't do anything I'm too frustrated to rest. So just having like a list of little fallback things and especially like break it down and say like, here are the steps to do those things, to save yourself that effort too. That can be helpful. And I've heard from other people who go through this that has been recommended a few times.

Speaker 2 37:55

Yeah. Different levels of

Speaker 3 37:56

Lists. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's kind of what this podcast flow down to whenever I give advice.

Speaker 2 38:01

Yeah. It's not bad. Not bad advice. You said there was one more thing. Yes. That like ADHD and the overlap.

Speaker 3 38:11

Yeah. And this is less a like medical symptom and more an overlap and experience is dealing with the difference, your capability with ADHD or with long COVID versus the expectation of, or self like of your past self or other people like family or employers or something or society as a whole of like what you can do. Yeah. I know that that's, it's a huge thing with ADHD is this expectation of like, you are incredibly bright and you think really fast and like you have, or had all of this capability, why can't you work like that all the time? Why can't you meet those high standards? Or even like, why can't you focus, meet the standards or performance of everybody else all of the time. Just like dealing with that can get really frustrating because

Speaker 2 39:03

Yeah, I, I should say.

Speaker 3 39:04

Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. You know this. No,

Speaker 2 39:07

I know. I'm just the way you explained it. If someone was like that doesn't sound frustrating. Hello? Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah,

Speaker 3 39:14

It's up?

Speaker 2 39:15

Yeah. I mean I think like I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna take the ship. Yeah.

Speaker 3 39:19

Real

Speaker 2 39:20

Quick. So cool. Steer. I got you. I got you. So like here's the thing that I will say. And I feel like it's a good sort of like wrap up point for this episode. The thing that I've been kind of falling back on saying and believing pretty concretely is that like, everything is so bananas right now. Like everything, everything is really wild and wonky and not necessarily in new ways, you know, maybe new to specific places and everything or new to, uh, the way that it's being covered in the news and what we have us to and what kind of information that is hitting us all all the time. But like everybody is like, we are all the little dog and the room on fire. Okay. Like really what it comes down to when I think about like managing expectations for myself and for other people is like, do not expect much from yourself or other people right now. Why are you expecting a lot? Are you kidding? You know what I mean? Like, so I know it's kind of like not super constructive, but really genuinely like please take the time to care about yourself and care about other people and take a beat and recognize that we are all going through it. Maybe varying levels differences and like how exactly we're going through it. But like that's, that's like the best you can do is just like give yourself and others the space to just like be really messy right now. Honestly, I think that's kind of all we can do, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 3 40:52

Yeah.

Speaker 2 40:53

So like that said, whether you have ADHD or on COVID like, hopefully this was helpful to at least maybe not feel as alone or, you know, maybe you can just make fun of us for the fact that we clearly are just pop tarts. I want pop art so bad

Speaker 3 41:07

Or this is our time to be messy. Oh, the one I do wanna say this, it is important. The one last technical important thing that I want people to know. Okay. Is that I think as of this July long COVID is a protected disability under the Americans with disabilities act. Okay. Which means that you are legally entitled to accommodations from your workplace or your school. Take them, please take them. Yeah. They are legally yours.

Speaker 2 41:33

Yeah. Hell

Speaker 3 41:34

Yeah. And I will leave it there. So I don't just go on another like ADA workplace. Right,

Speaker 2 41:39

Right. That

Speaker 3 41:40

Will be very long. We need to go to pop tarts. Yeah.

Speaker 2 41:42

We do not need that. I love you so much.

Speaker 3 41:44

That's why I'm holding it back. Yeah. Let's do our DTS.

Speaker 2 41:47

Yeah. Uh, so each episode we try to do our DTS, our dopamine tram. We go to a, uh, mythical little trampoline hop on on it and talk about what has given us dopamine or used to give us, or is currently giving us or you know, any of that kind of stuff. I'll go first. If you don't

Speaker 3 42:03

Mind. Yeah. Knock yourself out.

Speaker 2 42:04

Yeah. The things been given me, dopamine is so bad for audio and I'm sorry. Uh, but I got my eyebrow pierced. Like I got my eyebrow Pierce like last week and it is still just like, I look in the mirror every day and I'm like, this is the coolest thing I've ever done. Like I will never be, or look as cool as I do with an eyebrow pie saying I just got two, like just one little gold barbell. So just two little gold balls on my face. I can. And I love it.

Speaker 3 42:35

It looks incredible. They'll share a picture on

Speaker 2 42:39

The gram. You know, I love my

Speaker 3 42:41

Selfies. Yeah. You, you have a bizarre selfie talent. Thank

Speaker 2 42:46

You. Like

Speaker 3 42:47

It's, it's like the light moves for you. I don't know what it is. Yeah. Looks to.

Speaker 2 42:53

Thanks. That's mine. I know that's bad audio, but like I got my eyebrow here and it, but it's on it's given me life. Yeah. Yeah. What

Speaker 3 43:00

About you? My dopamine trampoline is an app that I've been enjoying that was actually recommended by one of our audience members. So thank you. K. Shout out. Appreciate you. Recommending fi is the name of the app. It is like a self-reflection journaling app, but the way that they encourage you to do it is by taking care of like a little cartoon baby bird. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And like they give you little prompts. You can make like a to-do list and cross things off the to-do list. But like for every prompt that you do or what have you, your little bird gets like energy to go explore FIY for

Speaker 2 43:43

Shut up. Stop. That's

Speaker 3 43:44

So cute. It's so cute. My little bird is a toddler now. And his name is Bernard Bernard.

Speaker 2 43:50

The bird.

Speaker 3 43:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2 43:52

Wow. I

Speaker 3 43:52

Love him. I love him too. Like

Speaker 2 43:54

I've never, even, this is the first one I've hearing of him and I would die for him.

Speaker 3 43:58

Yeah. And like you get little push notifications during the day that are like, you're important. I love you. Wow. My day was great. How was yours?

Speaker 2 44:07

This sounds like the ideal app for you. Yeah. I'm really glad you found this app

Speaker 3 44:11

And you like, so once you get like a certain yeah, thank you. Can, once you get a certain number of points or to go give your bird energy, they go and explore. And then they come back with like a little story about like something that they saw on the forest shut up and you can like pick an answer to them. Cuz they usually have like a question about the world, cuz they're going to explore and their little babies. Yeah. Like one of'em was what's that big thing in the sky she was following the whole time. You can be like, that's the moon. She loves you. Or like many cultures have a different beliefs about the moon. Wow. She's in space, you know? Wow. And then you can earn like gems. Yeah. I'm like connecting with your bird. Oh. And you can use it to buy them little clothes

Speaker 2 44:55

Shut up. Like

Speaker 3 44:56

Right now my bird has a little like blue sweater and a pink scar

Speaker 2 45:00

Stop. Right.

Speaker 3 45:01

That's and you can also like if you tap on the screen yeah. You can pet your bird, stop little hearts, pop up from their head.

Speaker 2 45:09

Stop

Speaker 3 45:09

It. It's great. My God, it's very wholesome. And it's like little bite size prompts. So they're really easy to do. It's not like sitting down and journaling a ton.

Speaker 2 45:17

Yeah. I got you.

Speaker 3 45:18

It is kind of funny though, because sometimes it'll pick up things that you type, like if it notices that it's a proper noun or something like that, and then it will ask you like prompt questions about it. Yeah. And one time, one of the questions that I was initially asked was like, what was something that went well in your day? And I'd said something about work a coworker and I figuring something out, which made me feel good. Yeah. And then later it picked up on my coworker's name and then one of the next prompt questions was just what was so and so hilariously bad at. And I was like, wait to dunk on my coworkers that you don't even know. Wow. I love this bird so much. What

Speaker 2 45:58

A good bird.

Speaker 3 45:59

All right. Yeah. That was my DT. So

Speaker 2 46:01

Amazing.

Speaker 3 46:02

Uh, anything else we wanna say before we sign this one off?

Speaker 2 46:05

Nah, take care of yourself. Take care of each other. Yep. You know? Yep. Uh, whether it's a little baby bird on an app or

Speaker 3 46:14

A nice scandal.

Speaker 2 46:15

Yeah. Just something. Yeah. Something.

Speaker 3 46:18

All right. I'll sign this one out. This has been or learn parkour from wholehearted production company.

Speaker 2 46:24

You can find us on Spotify, apple podcasts, uh, pretty much anywhere that cool people find their podcasts

Speaker 3 46:30

Special. Thanks to CRE ship PARRI for our cover art sign. You can find her at pet hop. That's P E T a L H O P on Instagram and Etsy and Twitter.

Speaker 2 46:40

Thank you also to Tom Rosenthall for our theme song, there is a dark place off of the album. Keep a private room behind the shop.

Speaker 3 46:47

You can follow us on the SOC me we are at or learn parkour on Twitter at, we are w P see on Instagram and on our shiny new website@wearewpc.com.

Speaker 2 46:59

You can find links in the episode, description to sources, transcripts, music, and social media.

Speaker 3 47:05

And if you enjoy this podcast and would like to hear more, uh, there's a couple ways you can support us. You can subscribe, follow, download, you know, whole situation. You can also click the link in our bio to start your own podcast. We're a buzz sprout affiliate. So works out great for both of us. And you can also get 30% off a subscription to our friend Bline reader link to that is in the bio as well.

Speaker 2 47:33

Yeah. You could also support the show by word of mouth, share it with a friend enemy coworker. What have you, you could also leave us a review or if you're feeling so led, you could donate to our COFI. You can find a link to that, uh, in our Ry on our Twitter, uh, website and Instagram, you, you

Speaker 3 47:48

Sure can. I'm Jordan.

Speaker 2 47:50

Good. I'm L

Speaker 3 47:51

And this has been oil and parkour. We'll see you in two weeks.