Integrating ADHD with Cameron Gott

Here's what happens the moment you decide to make a change or commit to a ten week program of any kind: they show up. The inner critic. The judge. The avoider, the victim, the pleaser, the hyper-achiever. Every internal character who has ever told you you've tried this before, "fat chance, buddy!" — they're coming. So this week, instead of waiting for the jump scare, Cameron throws them a party. Saboteur Homecoming! Doing so, we actually integrate these unhelpful characters into the change we want to create. Drawing on the Positive Intelligence framework and Tamara Rozier's work on malicious motivators, Cameron unpacks the nine saboteur types, how ADHD amplifies each one by quietly removing limits and intensifying their message, and why wrestling with them is exactly what they want. The goal isn't to defeat them — it's to see them coming, tag them, and start listening to what they're actually trying to tell you. Because buried inside every saboteur message is data that can be turned into intention. Cameron also shares his own saboteur trifecta in action — including a pang of test anxiety he hadn't felt in years — and why Matthew McConaughey's "persist, pivot, or concede" is easier said than done when your hyper-achiever has never once considered conceding as an option. They're coming anyway. Might as well open the door.

Some weeks the HMS Defiance isn't sailing alone. This week it's joined by HMS Despair, HMS Discouragement, and HMS Discourse — and Cameron is honest about feeling like a wood chip that's been in the mulch grinder a little too long. The uncertainty in the world is real. The forces reshaping ADHD coaching from the inside and out are real. A major professional pivot that arrived without warning is real. And the quiet grief of a first Mother's Day without his mom is real. But this episode isn't about staying in the grinder. It's a pivot. A deliberate one. Cameron introduces a 10-week integration reset — a coaching journey to unravel the things that have gotten woven together in unhelpful ways, look at them clearly, and put them back together with intention. Not to fix everything. To take back a sense of agency in a world that keeps moving the ground beneath us. He shares what he's working on personally — a mindset shift, a physical health intention, and an honest look at his own wood-chip moment — and lays out a simple structure to join him: one hour, two friends, three intentions. The sharpened wood chip looks like a diamond. Let's go.

In this episode, ADHD leader coach Cameron Gott explores what it means to face dismissal, discounting, and rejection from others while living with ADHD — and why that experience cuts so deep. Building on last week's discussion of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), Cameron shifts focus to real external pushback: the subtle and not-so-subtle ways people discount, diminish, and exclude those who are changing or simply trying to survive. Cameron identifies the toughest spot of all — facing pushback while standing still, stuck in pure survival mode, with no sense of forward momentum. Rather than waiting for the pushback to stop (it won't), he invites listeners to redirect that energy toward even the smallest vision of change. He explores why ADHD makes this so hard — from the gap between awareness and action, to the disorientation of not knowing "which way is up" — and offers practical anchors: articulating your experience and needs, setting healthier boundaries, leaning into your islands of competence, and daring to imagine a more supportive community. The central message: if pushback is inevitable, don't face it standing still.

For ADHD brains, the edge isn't just a danger zone — it's where we activate. It's where things get defined, where focus finally shows up, where we can feel most alive. The problem is that living permanently on the edge of our cognitive and emotional limits is also the fastest route to burnout. This week Cameron explores why ADHD makes us so vulnerable to burnout — and so drawn to the very conditions that cause it. He pulls in the research of burnout specialist Nick Petrie, whose work reveals something counterintuitive: rest alone doesn't break the burnout cycle. The people who truly recover don't just change how long they rest. They change how they work, who they are, and what they believe about themselves. Cameron also introduces David Rock's SCARF model — status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, fairness — as a quiet checklist for what's eroding when stress starts climbing, and why role clarity might be one of the most underrated tools for keeping burnout at bay. Plus: the difference between feeling alive and feeling stimulated, why they're not the same thing, and why that distinction matters more than it sounds.

Some days you go to pull out the big hauler — the engine that moves your best work forward — and the barn door won't budge. Not because you're lazy. Not because you don't care. The energy just isn't there. This week Cameron gets honest about a Monday that didn't go according to plan, and what he's learned — over years of practice — about the difference between fighting your brain and adjusting your expectations. That distinction matters more than it might sound. Fighting the brain keeps you locked in cognitive rigidity, and the story that follows is rarely a kind one. Adjusting expectations is something else entirely — it's a skill, a practice, and on some days, an act of genuine resilience. Cameron also revisits the Sisyphus problem: what happens to your 'boulders' when you set them down, and why having a trustworthy landing place to put them is so important. Finally, Cam shares research on happiness and the benefits of movement and positive psychological practices, a central element of his Equanimity class just for women later this spring. The men's class will be in the fall.

When Cameron was teaching high school math, his students ran a quiet game: get Cam talking about something interesting, and the lesson never happens. It worked more often than he'd like to admit — until he was three quarters through the year with half a syllabus to show for it. Challenge accepted. He learned, the hard way, how to define what done looked like before the class got away from him. That's what this episode is about. Knowing when you're done. Giving a task a shape, a boundary, an ending — and actually stopping there. Cameron walks through the final two C's of his Six C's of Completion: Completion (what is good enough, right now?) and Celebration (the pause, the reflection, the self-hug you probably skip). Plus the cube model for planning your day with transition time actually built in. For anyone who pushes until they collapse — and wonders why done never feels done. Equanimity Group Coaching Class

What if the restlessness, risk-taking, and novelty-seeking that comes with ADHD isn't a character flaw — but an unmet need? In this episode, Cameron introduces the concept of the "sixth need": stimulation. Drawing on the five need models of Maslow's hierarchy and Glasser's Choice Theory, Cam makes a case that conventional needs models are missing something essential for the ADHD brain. With characteristic candor (and some wonderfully ill-advised stories from his early 20s involving small sailboats and ceiling fans), Cam explores how an unrecognized need for stimulation can quietly hijack your week — sending you chasing shiny objects or avoiding anything that might add more noise to an already overloaded system. The good news? There's a three-step path forward: awareness, embracing the need, and integration. Because the goal isn't to suppress your need for stimulation — it's to channel it into the meaningful, high-impact work you actually want to be doing. Part of the ongoing series on using the week as a unit of time. Cam's Hierarchy of ADHD Needs Cam's Group Coaching Offering Equanimity

In this episode of Integrating ADHD, Cameron Gott explores what it means to move beyond time blindness by reframing the week as a powerful unit of time. Instead of obsessing over perfect mornings or hyper-optimized daily routines, Cam invites listeners to zoom out and design a week they can actually trust. For ADHD brains wired for urgency and reaction, the week offers a larger container—one that disrupts the “now / not now” trap and creates space for meaningful, generative work. Cam shares a flexible framework built around four key areas: high-value work, administrative support, deep creative work, and addressing personal and communal needs. He speaks candidly about avoidance, shiny-object distractions, and the tendency to let creative work fall off when urgency takes over. Through metaphors of boats, islands, and “Instagram Island,” he encourages listeners to notice where their time really goes, design around their natural energy patterns, and build reliable practices through weekly review and adjustment. This episode is a practical and compassionate guide to creating a week that supports meaningful impact—without stuffing it like a burrito.

In this episode of Integrating ADHD, Cameron Gott explores the powerful role beliefs play in how we make decisions, navigate resistance, and imagine what’s possible. For adults with ADHD, beliefs can become rigid and limiting, completely unconscious, or frustratingly fluid—shifting with stress, mood, and environment. Cameron unpacks how ADHD impacts belief formation through things like confirmation bias, hyper-sampling, emotional state, and working memory, and why this can leave us doubting ourselves even when we know better. Using vivid metaphors and real-world reflection, this episode invites listeners to examine whether their beliefs are up to date—or overdue for a “2.0” upgrade. Cameron shares practical ways to pause, reflect, and build more stable, flexible beliefs that support impact, meaning, and connection rather than fear and self-doubt. If you’ve ever felt your confidence or clarity evaporate under pressure, this episode offers a grounded, hopeful framework for recalibrating your internal compass and moving forward with intention.

In this milestone Episode 20 of Integrating ADHD, Cameron reflects on what it takes to keep showing up, doing the work, and creating meaningful change—especially when rejection and approval quietly become the engines driving our behavior. Drawing from recent teaching, coaching conversations, and his own lived experience, Cam explores why rejection sensitivity and the need for approval, while deeply understandable in ADHD, can become unreliable and costly drive mechanisms over time. The episode weaves together insights from neurodiversity research, including rejection sensitive dysphoria, hostile attribution bias, and emerging language around autonomy and motivation, alongside Glasser’s Choice Theory and Barkley's four circuits framework. Through client stories and personal reflection, Cam invites listeners to consider what happens when fear of rejection pulls us away from risk, while the desire for approval pulls us toward people-pleasing, over-functioning, and consensus-seeking. Ultimately, this conversation is about integration—learning how to plug back into who you are and why you’re doing the work, so rejection and approval no longer run the show as you move toward impact, meaning, and purpose.

As we step into 2026, Cam invites listeners to look backward—gently, intentionally, and without getting stuck there. Inspired by conversations about “spending time more intentionally,” this episode explores how regret shows up for ADHD brains, why it can quietly consume so much of our emotional bandwidth, and how learning to titrate regret can give us time and energy to focus in more fruitful ways. Rather than eliminating regret, Cam reframes it as a learning partner. A little sadness and disappointment can be useful—but too much quickly turns into rumination, shame, and paralysis. Using the metaphor of emotional titration, Cam walks through how to dial regret up just enough to extract the learning, then dial it back down so one can move forward into action. Along the way, he shares personal stories, reflections on time and aging, and practical ways to interrupt rumination before it steals your future. This episode is about recalibrating your relationship with regret so it no longer crowds out hope, trust, fun, and meaningful change. If you’ve ever found yourself overthinking the past and under-living the present, this conversation offers a grounded, compassionate way forward. In this episode, we explore: Why ADHD brains are especially vulnerable to rumination and emotional intensity The difference between healthy regret and unhelpful remorse How “emotional titration” helps regulate sadness and disappointment Turning regret into learning instead of self-punishment Reclaiming time, hope, and agency as you move into the new year

In this episode, Cam zooms way out to talk about what it really takes to create meaningful impact and sustainable change with ADHD—and then zooms all the way in to introduce one of his earliest and most enduring productivity frameworks: REBEL. Cam explores six essential conditions for making change that sticks: not going it alone, not fighting with your own brain, accessing positive emotions, meeting personal needs, developing reliable practices, and reshaping your relationship with time. From that foundation, he walks listeners through the REBEL model—a suite of practices designed specifically for ADHD brains. You’ll learn how to Remember to remind the brain, Expand the mind, create a Balanced attack, practice Exposure, and Limit scope so you can take meaningful action without burning out or getting spread too thin. Cam also shares personal examples, client insights, and real-life applications of REBEL—from 'messy action' and morning sensory resets to embracing cognitive flexibility and noticing how time actually moves for you. He closes with an invitation to work with him in his upcoming group coaching program, Equanimity with Cam, for ADHD adults wanting to build mental fitness, shift old patterns, and develop practices they can trust. Whether you’re looking for a concrete tool, a mindset reset, or a reminder that impact takes time, this episode has something you can walk away with today.

In this episode of Integrating ADHD, Cam explores what it really means to become a student of change—how we move from awareness to action to learning, and why that journey is often the hardest part for ADHD brains. Cam shares stories from three clients whose passions—golf, triathlon training and 3D printing—become unexpected laboratories for practicing and understanding change. These interests aren’t escapes; they’re low-stakes playgrounds for noticing patterns, navigating the three barriers of ADHD, and pulling that learning back into meaningful work and life decisions. Then Cam turns the mirror on himself, sharing a very real, very human “three-barriers face-plant” involving a stove, time-blindness, and a Thanksgiving deadline. What starts as a warm story about wanting a new oven becomes a slow-motion reveal of avoidance, emotional waves, problem solving, and eventually—growth. He unpacks how awareness unfolds, how stories we tell ourselves (“Crisis averted!”) can block learning, and how self-compassion and curiosity help us move from shame to insight. This episode is rich with relatable moments, practical language around the change process, and gentle reminders that none of us—coach or client—is immune to ADHD’s pull. Cam highlights the gold in reflection, the importance of closing loops, and the value of asking: What am I not seeing? What would help me move one step closer to the change I want? A thoughtful, funny, and deeply human conversation about learning, integration, and the everyday practice of navigating ADHD. Prochaska Change Model