Introducing The Unpacking List

A brain dump about ADHD stigma, neurodiversity, parenting, and meal planning

Welcome to ADHD Unpacked! I’m Taylor Allbright, a former professor turned mental health writer and ADHD coach. This newsletter is where I unpack all things ADHD research, mental health, and executive functioning.

This post is the first in a monthly-ish series that I’m calling “The Unpacking List.” You may remember that my other series about quick, do-able strategies is called “The Fanny Pack.” Yes, all of my series have cute titles that play around with the “ADHD Unpacked” title, and yes, I’m having way too much fun with this. 😄)

In the “Unpacking List,” I’m sharing a list of, well, anything. Thoughts, resources, ideas-in-progress, recs, or whatever else is on my mind. This is a way for me to share some of my short-but-still-potentially-interesting thoughts that don’t fit into a longer essay.

Of course, I will also keep writing my signature research deep dives (like this one on ADHD and relationships) as well as personal essays about my own messy mental health and executive functioning journeys (like this one on ketamine therapy). 

As always, let me know if there is anything in particular you want me to unpack for you!

-T

On the Unpacking List this week:

1. Experiences of ADHD stigma

2. Readings on the neurodiversity movement

3. Child-directed play

4. My favorite recipe and meal planning app

Let the brain dump begin!

1. ADHD stigma

I’m tentatively planning my next research deep dive on the impact of ADHD stigma.¹ One study found that 89% of ADHD adults anticipated that they would face ADHD-related discrimination in daily life situations. The most common situations were at work, in school, or while dating. The impact of this shouldn’t be underestimated. Anticipating bias from others is an enormous psychological stressor that takes a major toll on well-being.

2. Readings on the neurodiversity movement

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the neurodiversity movement lately. Here are some of the pieces I’ve found to be especially thought-provoking (all are open access and free to read!):

• Nick Walker’s essay “Throw Away the Master’s Tools: Liberating Ourselves from the Pathology Paradigm” 

• Morénike Giwa Onaiwu’s article “I, Too, Sing Neurodiversity”

• Patrick Dwyer’s article “The Neurodiversity Approach(es): What Are They and What Do They Mean for Researchers?”

3. Child-directed play

I’ve been trying child-directed play² with my three-year-old, and it’s been kinda great.

In this approach, the child leads playtime activities, and the parent follows. There are some specific suggestions for what the parent can do, like narrating what the child is doing and doing the same thing as them (“Oh, I’m going to color too!”).

When I first read about this, my initial reaction was, “Well, I already do all of those things.” Which was sort of true, but I’d never really been intentional about it…and I could definitely do the “letting the child lead” part more often. 

I’ve been making an effort recently to use this approach, and it’s been a ton of fun for both of us. The last time we did it, my child had us play a very elaborate variation of hopscotch that involved a lot of bear-crawling, twirling, and shimmying up and down the hopscotch grid. It was, honestly, a blast.

4. A recipe and meal-planning app

I take the lead on meal planning and cooking for our family, and it’s HARD. 😫

This year I started using the app Mela for cooking and meal planning for my family, and it has made my life much easier. Don’t get me wrong, meal planning is still the absolute worst, but it’s more doable than it was before.

The app automatically imports recipes and removes all of the ads and extra text, just leaving the recipe’s ingredients and steps. I use it to pick out my recipes for the week, add them to my calendar, and generate a grocery list. When I’m actually cooking, it generates a really clean and easy-to-read display that is pleasant to look at on my phone or tablet. (It’s only for iOS, unfortunately; let me know if you know a good Android option!)

Thanks for joining me for The Unpacking List this week! Do you have any thoughts about today’s list? I’d love to hear what’s on your own mental list right now. Feel free to brain dump in the comments!

Stay curious,

Dr. Taylor Allbright

Would you like compassionate, knowledgeable support to accomplish your goals and improve your quality of life?

I offer 1:1 coaching to adults with diagnosed ADHD, as well as anyone looking for support with productivity and well-being.

Some of the issues I work on with clients include burnout, relationships, career, graduate school, dissertations, household tasks, stress management, and self-compassion.

You can get more information here or click the button below to apply now.

1. I’d really like to write a piece on this, but there’s not a ton of published empirical work (that I’ve found so far anyway) about how stigma impacts ADHDers. Most of what’s out there is about whether or not stigma exists (short answer: yes, it does). I’m thinking of expanding my searches to include research about the effects of mental health stigma in general. If you know of any good sources, please send them my way; I’d be super grateful!

2. This is based on the child-directed interaction phase of parent-child interaction therapy.